Should I REALLY be panicking about NEXT school year?!?!

Michelle Ormond came into my room today during my prep hour.

"I have a question for you, Haylee," she smiled.

"Okay," I said, seemingly ready to answer any question that might come my way. Usually her questions are like, "How do you run the spectrophotometer?" or "Where are the vials we ordered?"

"Now, don't freak out. The question is just hypothetical."

I inhaled sharply and gulped. Great. Now I wasn't so sure if I could answer a question.

"Would you be willing to teach a couple of periods of chemistry next year?"

The following thoughts ran through my head it approximately 1.47632 seconds:

• Teach chemistry? What the?
• I'm not endorsed to teach chemistry!
• Say yes. You want a job next year. Just say yes.
• Times all the work you're doing this year by 5 and that will be how much work it will be teaching chemistry.
• You can do it. You're a smart girl.
• You've got Bastian. Just con stuff off of him.
• What does the state chemistry core even say?
• I'd have to take three more chemistry classes to get my endorsement. When in the h#** are you going to do that?!?!
• Say yes. You want a job next year. Just say yes.

"Well, I'm not endorsed," I said cautiously, "but I suppose I could get there."

We talked for a bit, discussing all of the options, how she thought I'd be well suited to teach it, how I could still keep my zoo/bot and some biology classes. So, odds are, I will add "Chemistry Teacher" to my resume next year. What does this mean? Not getting the second job I wanted to this summer and taking summer classes instead. It also means rehashing chemistry. We actually should start placing bets as to whether I really will teach it or not. Right now, I'd say it's 1 to 1, but we'll soon see. The class schedule needs to be decided before Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!