Wood Sprites(58)
“I don’t know anything about that equipment. You should ask Mr. Kessler for help. He’s in the room right now.”
“He picks on us.” Louise was glad she could be truthful about it. “I don’t know why, but he doesn’t like us. He teases us in front of the whole class.”
Mr. Howe’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Let’s go see Mr. Kessler.”
She couldn’t read his tone. Aware that he towered above her, she led the way to the annex. Did Mr. Howe believe her? Did he think she was making it up? Was she going to be able to use Mr. Howe to counter Mr. Kessler or were the men going to join together to create an adult wall of stupidity?
Mr. Kessler sat at his desk. He looked up sharply as Louise entered. “This equipment is for big kids, shrimp, shoo.”
Louise took a deep breath and clung tight to her courage. “I need to use the 3D printer in here.”
“There’s one in the art room for you squirts.” He focused on closing up the windows on his desktop.
“I need the advanced model for our joint class play. The art room one only prints at a hundred micron resolution.”
“No.” He glanced up and visibly flinched at Mr. Howe at her back. “Bill? Oh, I didn’t see you. Look, my stuff is not toys. I won’t let the ninth grade kids touch my printer because they don’t have the programming skills yet.”
“It’s not your printer, Mr. Kessler; it’s the school’s printer.”
“I know how to program it.” Louise held her tablet tight to her chest, afraid he’d try to take it and erase her work. “I made sure to run my job on a simulator to double-check my work.”
Mr. Kessler stood up and paced a moment behind his desk. “Okay. Fine.” He stormed to the 3D printer. “It’s mine in that I have to deal with all the hassles of getting it replaced if it’s broken.”
“It’s a printer for a high school. If it’s that delicate, it shouldn’t be here.” Mr. Howe said. “And if it’s here, my kids have a right to it.”
Louise linked her tablet to the printer. She had really hoped that she could print the magic generator but not with both men focused so intently on her. She carefully loaded the program to print the holographic projectors. After double-checking she had everything set up, she started the machine. The printer hummed and the scent of chemicals tainted the air. Otherwise, it barely seemed like the machine was working.
As she fled the room, she heard Mr. Howe growl softly. “You seem to have lost sight that these are little kids, Kevin. You are here to teach, not to casually insult them, and you don’t make them a target by singling them out. If I hear about you picking on any of the kids in my grade, or the school for that matter, I will do my best to see to it you no longer work here. I may even feel it necessary to give you a more personal understanding of the effects of being bullied. Hands-on, so to speak. I trust my position in this matter is clear.”
* * *
Louise was not sure if Mr. Howe had been serious, but Mr. Kessler seemed to think he was. He avoided her and Mr. Howe for the next few days. She wasn’t sure if that meant he’d peacefully allow them access to the printers. Half expecting him to sabotage the print runs, she did the two hologram projectors first. Only when they finished successfully did she feel confident on attempting to print the magic generator.
While everyone was working attaching the leaves to the first umbrella trees, she slipped away to the technical annex and programmed in the last job.
“This is the last one?” Iggy made her jump by suddenly showing up beside her.
She nodded, not trusting her voice to answer. She focused on making sure everything was set correctly before pressing the start button.
Iggy perched on the edge of the nearest art table. “You don’t like people paying attention to you, do you?”
“No.” She glanced toward the art room and discovered that all the teachers were focused on the rest of the class dueling with the newly made swords. It was the first time she’d ever been alone with a boy and it made her vaguely uncomfortable even though Iggy had been acting like they were friends.
“Most people actually don’t like being in the spotlight.” Iggy swung his legs back and forth, probably unaware that it made him look very much a little boy. He was, though, the oldest kid in both fifth grade classes. “Sometimes they find ways to keep people from noticing them. Little things. Like not smiling so much, not looking people in the eye. It’s so little that they don’t always realize they’re doing it.”
Was he implying that she wasn’t meeting people’s gaze? Certainly, considering everything she’d been doing lately, she had been trying not to draw attention to herself. Had he just caught her at stealing printer time? He probably didn’t understand the programming, as it was years above what they were doing in class. She closed the window just in case.