Gemotions

Rain lashed against the car windows as Mark pulled into the elementary school parking lot. He gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white. He had promised his daughter, Lily, he'd be there for the Meet the Teacher night, but this felt like a penance. He dreaded it. His old nemesis, Mr. Henderson, still taught 5th grade. The same man who’d once given him detention for an offense Mark couldn't even recall.

He sighed, the sound lost in the drumming rain. As he walked toward the school, a feeling of unease settled in his chest. The fluorescent lights of the hallway only amplified the familiar anxiety. He could practically smell the stale milk and freshly-waxed floors of his youth.

Entering Lily's classroom, he plastered a smile on his face, though inside, he felt a simmering resentment. The room was decorated with the same tired construction paper cutouts, the air thick with the scent of crayons. And there, standing by the chalkboard, the man himself, a slightly balder, but otherwise unchanged, Mr. Henderson. Mark's smile faltered, replaced by a forced, neutral expression.