Tutti Italia: A Novel (8 page)

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 naps 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.