New Leaves

Dec. 29th, 2011 04:43 pm
intheheart: Teryl Rothery with her hair up in a high-collared shirt, side-eyeing to her left. (in the heart : gail : teryl rothery)
[personal profile] intheheart
Title: New Leaves
Rating: PG.
Summary: Margery makes a change.
Date: Fall 1992
Notes: We'll never see Margery again.


Monday morning came far too early for Margery Hyneman, but she got up and went to work anyway.

Seriously, she thought, waiting in line in the teachers' lounge for coffee. To hell with Mondays. The weekend was always too long in coming and never long enough, but still, somehow, nothing interesting ever happened, and every Monday she stood in the same line with the same people, waiting for the same terrible coffee, staring at the same awful vomit-green walls.

Why did they always paint elementary schools the same bone-white and vomit-green? It had never been conducive to Margery's learning, and they hadn't changed since then.

Just ahead of her in line, Freddie Coltrane yawned and rubbed his eyes, then turned and gave her a sleepy smile. "Good weekend?" he asked Margery.

She shrugged. "Had better. You?"

His smile took on just a hint of smugness. "Had worse. Date with Esperanza Friday. Didn't end until Sunday."

"How splendid for you," Margery said, a little sourly. "Going to see her again?"

"Planning on it," Freddie said happily, and then, "Oh, Lord."

"What?" Margery twisted around, following his eyes, then said, "Oh."

Gail Hirschfeld had just walked in, and the woman was practically glowing. She'd dressed up just a little, slacks and a nice silk blouse that Margery immediately coveted, and was wearing two new accessories: one of those frail gold-plated leaf necklaces, and a ring. On her left hand. On the ring finger.

"Hey, Gail!" Freddie shouted. "Finally going to make an honest man of your boyfriend?"

Gail beamed at Freddie. "Yes, yes I am."

"Awesome," he said. "Bring your hand over here and let me see that ring."

Margery leaned over his shoulder as he bent over Gail's hand. The ring was very simple, a silver band with pretty Celtic-knotwork pattern surrounding a single, oval-cut sapphire. It couldn't have been that expensive, she reassured herself, and tried not to feel jealous.

Freddie pronounced it "gorgeous" and released her hand. "So how did he propose? Or did you do it?"

Gail laughed. "Neither, actually. Ivy asked him if he was going to marry me and it sort of followed on from that." She touched the leaf at her throat. "He gave this to me when he gave me the ring."

"I like it," Margery said, surprising herself. "It's... unique."

Gail glanced at her, looking faintly surprised, and then smiled. "Thank you. We were in the park." She touched the leaf again, tracing the delicate veins frozen in gold. "It's a reminder of that."

Which was sweet, really. And made Margery even more jealous, if it was possible. She retreated from Freddie's shoulder and waited for her coffee in sullen silence.

She was just so goddamn jealous. Not that Margery really wanted Gail's boyfriend-- she didn't even know the man, for God's sake. But Gail had a daughter and now a fiancé, a life totally outside of her work. Even Freddie had a girlfriend, as bizarre as that seemed, and Margery had nothing and no one, just a crappy job and a crappy cup of coffee and vomit-green walls.

She took her crappy cup of coffee and sat down on the dirt-brown couch to sulk.

A few minutes later, the couch dipped, and Margery looked up to see Gail. "Are you all right?" she asked. "You look a little unhappy."

Margery almost snapped at her, but that wasn't fair. It wasn't Gail's fault that her life sucked. "Just had an epiphany, that's all."

"Not a very happy one?" Gail asked, still watching her.

"Not really." She lifted her coffee to her mouth, then put it down and reached for her lesson plans instead. "My life is empty and meaningless. That's it. Happens to everyone, I'm sure."

Gail looked as if she had no idea what to say to that, and eventually she settled for "Ah."

"How do you manage it?" Margery asked. "The boyfriend, the kid, how do you manage all of that and work and still feel... like yourself? I can't even manage work."

Gail sat back against the back of the couch, and her hand rose to touch the leaf again. "I... well, Nathan makes things easier. Just by being who he is. Ivy..." She laughed, a little dryly. "Ivy is my joy and my heart, but she makes everything more difficult, just by being who she is. It helps that I like my job." She gave Margery a shrewd look. "I think you don't?"

Margery shrugged. "It was fun at the beginning," she said. "Now it's just... more of the same."

"So get out," Gail said, and Margery laughed, with no humor in the sound.

"With what money? With what resources? I need this job just to survive."

"And you probably shouldn't quit in the middle of the school year," Gail said, nodding. "Still, the market isn't bad right now. Look for something you like, and get the hell out of this. No job is worth feeling like shit."

Spoken like someone who'd never had to worry too much about money, but... still, she had a point. "And then what?" Margery asked. "Get trapped in the same loop?"

"Margery," Gail said, sounding patient, "you're a grown woman, not one of my kindergartners. Figure it out yourself."

"Oh, yes," Margery said, slapping her lesson plans against her lap. "Because I've done such a bang-up job of it so far."

Gail looked at her for a moment, then said, "You know, when I was pregnant with Ivy, a lot of people told me I was making a mistake. And sometimes it felt like one. Who was I to think I could raise a child by myself? But it worked out for the best, and if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't change a thing." She rose, then. "Sometimes you just have to trust yourself."

She nodded to Margery, then picked up her things and went out the door, presumably heading to her classroom.

Trust yourself. Oh, sure. Easy for Gail, who as far as Margery knew hadn't ever felt like this. But when was the last time she'd ever made a good decision? Everything she'd done had led her here, to this ugly lounge and a life so stagnant she could taste brackish water in the back of her throat.

She looked down at her lesson plans. Today's science lesson was on top; she'd be talking about trees, and how they worked, and how sometimes you had to burn a forest to the ground before it could grow again. A picture of a charred oak tree with a sprinkling of leaves on its branches.

Well, fine, then.

Margery could take a hint.

She gathered up her lesson plans and headed for her classroom, already planning how she'd start her job search.

Profile

intheheart: A picture of Neko Case in a green sweater and white shirt, looking at the camera, hair loose. (Default)
intheheart

December 2022

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 7th, 2025 11:53 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios