Tutti Italia: A Novel Read online

  Chapter 10

  Rachel woke up on Saturday, wondering what she was going to do to entertain herself for the next two days. She had books, but she didn’t know if she wanted to spend the whole time in her room. She had money, but she didn’t want to spend any on just a shopping trip, because she still hadn’t opened a bank account here that her paycheck could go in to. She decided she would go for a walk to see if she could find anything else around her dorm that she might want to go to sometime. It was a sunny day, and she didn’t need a sweater. Making sure to tuck her card key into the back pocket of her jeans, she headed out. Across the street was the mall, she knew that already. So she decided to take off in the other direction. As she walked, she saw other buildings that were probably important to the base, but held no interest for her whatsoever. As she continued on, she noticed a big building off to her left that caught her attention. There was a group of people outside playing soccer, and being as she loved the sport, it caught her attention. She checked for traffic, looking both ways, before she crossed the street. There were bleachers surrounding a soccer field, and she eased herself down on one of them.

  It was hard trying to figure out from the stands who was on what team, but apparently, they knew who was who because there were no interruptions in the game. She watched for about twenty minutes, then she decided to look in the building that was only a few yards away. She would bet that it was a gym, but it wouldn’t hurt her to take a quick look. She’d been right. It was a gym. There were basketball courts on one side, with a few machines and racquetball courts leading up to them. Directly in front of her was a juice bar, and a little area with chairs and high tables to sit down. The layout of the gym was like an X. There were two entrances, then two arms of the gym. The other side had a spin room, the locker rooms, and the weights and other machines that a typical gym would have. She liked the layout, and she stopped by the front desk to pick up a spin class schedule. This really wasn’t a bad place. Everything looked brand new, even though she knew it wasn’t. Once she got herself some more workout clothes, she would definitely be coming here. She had to face reality, there was really nothing else that she could do unless she started to order things to read and do from Amazon.com. She loved shopping there. They had everything, and with her prime account, she got free expedited shipping, plus some discounts. That would be something that she could spend some of her money on that she could justify to herself. She checked the time and saw that she’d been gone from her room for about forty-five minutes. She decided she might as well head back. She’d taken her walk and found a gym, so she didn’t consider it a total loss. She thought about what she had in her suitcases that she could do to pass the time with. Oh, crap. She hadn’t even unpacked her suitcases yet.

  She made it back to her room, and dragged one of her overstuffed suitcases up on to her bed. She opened the closet in the corner to see if there were any hangers in there, but she was sadly disappointed. She made a mental note to go to the store tomorrow and pick some up. She laid everything on her bed that needed to be hung up, then started putting her folded clothes in the drawers that were under the bed. Once all of those were put away, she packed up everything that needed to get hung up again so it was out of her way until she was ready to put them in the closet. The other suitcase, she remembered, had few clothes in it because it held all of the things she’d packed for entertainment that she couldn’t take in her carryon luggage. She made short work of the few clothes that there were, then unpacked the few other books she’d brought, the craft project she’d started and never finished, and a few movies that she had. There were more on her laptop, of course, but these ones were special to her. They were her favorites. Once she got her bank account opened, she’d be able to beef up her room a little. It just seemed bland to her without any decorations.

  She popped one of the movies into her laptop and pulled out her cross stitch picture that she’d started so long ago that she couldn’t even remember exactly when. That would keep her busy for the rest of the day, and when she got bored with it or overly tired, she could just go to bed early. There was nothing wrong with that. She clicked on play before she settled herself up against her pillows and headboard, and started to follow the pattern on her paper. The hours whiled away as she laughed and stitched. She changed out movies twice, and she could see that the light coming in from her window was now nonexistent. She sat up and stretched, her muscles complaining since she hadn’t used them in a while. She put her things on the desk and got in the shower. By the time she got out, she was tired enough to fall asleep standing up. She hurriedly toweled her hair somewhat dry, then put on her pajamas, turned off the light and curled up under the blankets. She was in the process of drifting off to sleep when the person that lived on the other side of her room started to blare their music, making the wall shake. She really was getting annoyed. Three hours had gone by, and the music hadn’t stopped. Rachel was fed up. She pulled out her cell phone from the cubby she left it in to charge, and called the base police.

  “Law enforcement desk, SSgt Matthews, how may I help you, sir or ma’am?” That was a shock to her. She wasn’t used to having people call her ma’am.

  “Yes, sir. I live in the dorms and there’s someone right next to me that’s blaring their music so I can’t sleep. Would you be able to send someone over to just have them turn it down?” She felt guilty, but she wanted to sleep. She was tired and couldn’t ignore the ruckus coming through the wall.

  “Not a problem. Which dorm are you in?” Rachel told him, mentioning that it was the second floor, and the nice man told her that it would be handled in a little while. She thanked him, and lied back down, waiting for silence. About fifteen minutes or so later, she could hear someone walking by her window, then knocking on the door next to hers. She couldn’t make out the conversation, even though the walls were paper thin, but the music was turned down, and that was all she’d really wanted. She closed her eyes and went to sleep. She felt that she’d had a nice day, today, and tomorrow was going to be just as good. Sleep claimed her easily.

  Sunday rolled around, and she slept in a little later than she had the day before. When she woke up, she got dressed and walked over to the mini mall. She wanted to get one workout outfit before she had to wait for more to arrive from Amazon.com. She wanted to make it to the spin class at noon before she relaxed for the rest of the day. Spinning would take the edge off her nerves. She was going to start work tomorrow, and she was nervous. She pushed that thought out of her head for now, and lost herself in the ladies active wear section.

  Smiling to herself, Rachel went home and changed into her new leggings and t-shirt. She double knotted her sneakers, and set out for the gym. When she got there, the spinning room was already almost three quarters of the way full. She decided she’d have to start leaving earlier if she wanted to get a good bike in the front. The instructor was already there, setting up the music selection. From what Rachel could hear, it was going to be a good set. It had a lot of salsa music in it, and that was something she enjoyed very much, even though she couldn’t dance to it. She put her bottle of water in the cubby hole in the front of the bike she’d chosen, and got on. The warm up that the instructor was showing everyone was pretty easy, and she had a good feeling about the rest of the class. Noon rolled around and the instructor cut the music.

  “Alright, now comes the actual workout. I hope everyone is limber and loose.” She cut the music on again, and began to dictate her moves to the class. At first it was simple enough for Rachel to do the moves without breaking a sweat, but about halfway through the class, it got decidedly more challenging. She smiled as the music got faster and she made her movements match it. By the time the one hour class was finished, Rachel was a little sore, but it was worth it. She made her way back to her room, hopped in the shower, and made herself something quick to eat. A quick nap sounded like a good idea to her after her workout, so she stretched her muscles before lying down, and set her alarm for an hour. Power na
ps were supposed to be good for you, but they couldn’t be longer than an hour. She lay down and was out in a few minutes.

  When her alarm went off, an hour later, she woke up refreshed, but she didn’t want to leave her room. She’d been adventurous enough for one day, so she decided to finish her day the way she had yesterday. She’d put some movies on and work on her cross stitch. It was something she did to relax herself, and she was getting more and more nervous about her first day of work the later in the evening that it got.

  Monday morning dawned, and Rachel was awake long before her alarm went off. Nerves wouldn’t let her sleep in. She changed her outfit three different times before she was satisfied with it, and sat at her desk, waiting for her sponsor to come and pick her up. She jumped when her cell phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s me. I’m waiting downstairs, just come on down when you’re ready and we can get going.”

  “Ok, I’m on my way down. I’m ready to go.” Rachel hung up the phone, and looked around her room one last time to make sure that she hadn’t left anything behind that she needed. She took a deep breath, and grabbed her purse on the way out. She made her way down the stairs of the dorm, and over to the parking lot. There was the same car that she’d ridden in on her way back from the airport, so she made a beeline right for it. She greeted her friend as she climbed in the car.

  “Hey, did you have a good weekend?”

  “Yeah, it was alright. I went to the gym, but mostly I just stayed in my room. I still don’t know anyone around here, so I just stuck to myself.”

  “I’m sorry. Don’t worry, you’ll get to know people the longer you’re here.”

  “I wanted to ask you something. Would you be willing to take me to the bank so I could set up an account?”

  “Sure, we’ll go during lunch.”

  Chapter 11

  Elena was turning out to be a friend, Rachel thought. If she was willing to take her places that must mean that she liked Rachel, right? And if you liked someone, you would want to be friends, right? That was her thinking as she watched the small town fly by outside her window. She was trying to memorize the way so she could walk it if she needed to. The other parts of the base were maybe a ten minute drive, but since Rachel didn’t have a car, walking was her only option. They arrived at the gate, and Rachel dug in her purse to find her driver’s license. Her school ID would be made today, so she would be able to come and go as she pleased without having to have an escort with her all the time. She gave it to Elena to hand to the guard, and her jaw dropped as the guard bent over to take them. It was Jason. So much for thinking that she was never going to see him again. A brilliant red blush crept up the back of her neck and to her cheeks. What was he going to do? Would he recognize her? Would he pretend like they didn’t know each other? She didn’t want to draw any attention to herself, but as he looked at the license, his face changed, and he bent down further than he had been before to get a good look at the passenger side of the car. She gave a half smile and a little wave. He was going to pretend he didn’t know her. She knew it.

  “Well, good morning, Rachel. I didn’t think I’d see you again.” He handed the ID’s back to Elena, since traffic was starting to back up behind them.

  “Likewise.” She didn’t know what to say.

  “If you get a chance, come by and see me sometime. I’ll be here until six tonight.” Was that an invitation? Would he really want her to hang around with him at his job? She nodded to him, and Elena drove off.

  “So, who was that? Don’t tell me you have a boyfriend already?” Elena was winking at Rachel, and it made her blush harder.

  “No! He’s not my boyfriend. I just met him on the Right Start trips and we started talking. I haven’t seen or heard from him since we got back from the trip Friday night.” Rachel felt like she was in the spotlight at the police station and she just started rambling on. Elena laughed.

  “Well, to me it sounds like he wants to see you again. Maybe you just disappeared too fast for him to get your number.” Rachel thought back to Friday night. It wasn’t that. He’d had some friends of his that stopped him, and she’d slipped away unnoticed. It was something that happened often. Rachel did her best to stay under the radar, and to be unnoticeable. It was something that she was rather good at, actually. “So…are you going to go see him on lunch break?” Elena’s face was lit up like she’d found a new outfit she loved or something.

  “I don’t know. I need to get to the bank and open up an account, and I’m not even sure where it is or what time it opens or anything.” Rachel bit her lip. That sounded like a good excuse to not go see him, right?

  “I’ll make sure that you get there. Don’t worry. But I think you should go down there and see him, too—even if it’s only to give him your number. What do you have to lose?” Rachel was sure that if she was allowed to think for a few minutes, she’d be able to come up with something, but she sort of didn’t want to. She wanted to take a chance and maybe wind up with a good man for once. She laughed at herself for thinking those thoughts. It wasn’t a ‘ha ha funny’ kind of laugh, it was more of a ‘yeah you wish’ kind of laugh. She knew better. Her dating history wasn’t exactly full of star players.

  “We’ll see what happens,” she told Elena. The girl was looking at her like a dog does a bone, so she had to say something.

  “Ok, ok, I get it, you’re nervous for your first day and you don’t want to get distracted with a boy until you get settled in and get a routine. That’s understandable, even commendable, but girl, he was basically throwing himself at you, begging you to come and see him. You gotta give him something!” It was amusing to Rachel to see Elena get so worked up. She was hoping that they could be good friends. She needed someone like Elena in her life because she wanted someone to talk to and someone that would give her advice. She was such a colorful character, and she wouldn’t mind having some color in her life. Elena pulled up in front of a large brick building that had artwork strewn across the windows. It looked to be a kindergarten type of building, and you could definitely tell. Rachel smiled. She loved to be around little kids. She even considered having two or three if she ever found the right guy. She got out of the car, and stayed a few steps behind Elena. She was the shy type, and she’d found a method for being interjected into a conversation that worked for her. She would hide behind someone who was happy and confident. Then, sneak out from behind them a few minutes into the conversation with a funny remark or some little quip that would make her part of what was going on.

  The two of them made their way down a long hallway filled with little cubbies. Children’s coats were hanging in most of them, and there was some sort of a sack lunch in a few. It looked like most of the kids would be getting a hot lunch today. The office was around the corner, and Elena let her go in first. Rachel was nervous now, because she didn’t have a clue what she should say. Her hands started to shake a little. Elena came in the office after her, and the two of them stood there for a few minutes until the woman behind the desk finished her phone call.

  “Well, hello there. How can I help you?”

  “Good morning, Mrs. White. This is Rachel. She’s the new kindergarten teacher that was hired and sent over from the United States. I wanted to bring her here first so you can give her a schedule and see where she would be teaching.” The woman’s face lit up. She stuck her hand out for a handshake, and Rachel reluctantly moved forward. She preferred hiding behind Elena.

  “How was your flight? Did you already finish the Right Start class?” Mrs. White was firing questions at her at machine gun speed.

  “The flight was alright, I fell asleep for most of it. Yes, I went through the class already. The wine tasting was lovely.” She was on her best behavior and doing her best to be likeable. For some reason that Rachel had yet to discover, people just naturally didn’t like her.

  “If you come with me, I’ll show you which room you’ll be in. You’ll have a total of fifteen children,
and someone assigned as a teacher’s aide. I haven’t gotten so far as to actually give you one yet, but it won’t take me long.”

  “I’ll do it!” Elena was bouncing up and down with her hand in the air. It was quite comical, but Rachel didn’t laugh for fear of it being considered mean. Mrs. White, on the other hand, had no such thoughts, and laughed blatantly at Elena’s outburst of energy.

  “Alright, alright, I’ll assign you.” Elena did a little victory dance, then sobered up.

  “I’ll make sure I teach her the ropes.” Elena winked conspiratorially at Rachel. They arrived at a room that had no decorations on the door. Mrs. White opened the door and ushered the two younger women in.

  “This room has stood empty because we didn’t have a teacher to fill it. Luckily, now it’ll get some color to it.” With those parting words, Mrs. White left Elena and Rachel to look around the room. It was dusty, and Rachel had to guess that it had actually been more than just one year that they didn’t have a teacher for this room.