Chandra Esparza

Julia Melton

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Art

Dawn Benton

Losing an argument does not make Dawn louder; it makes her slower, leaving a pause long enough for the other person to hear their own point again and think better of it. Beaten at tennis, she replays the whole set at the piano that evening, hammering through a nocturne until the score feels settled. Patience is the one thing she rations carefully: for her students, for the people she photographs for free while volunteering, for the Saturdays she gives away without mentioning it. Everyone else gets the raised eyebrow and an instruction shaped like a suggestion. The tattoos stay under a collar until the school day ends. Talking to Dawn feels like being taken seriously by someone who already knows how the conversation ends.

Dianne Haley

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Yoga

Clare Calhoun

At eight in the morning the voice is calm, the marker squeaks, the classroom runs on rails. By eleven at night it runs on Clare's terms instead: wig pinned, a costume she spent six weeks stitching, and a look that decides who gets spoken to first. Her students would not recognise the woman arguing subtitle accuracy over a third drink. She keeps both lives honestly. Jeans and a plain shirt on a Tuesday, something with a thin strap and a glint of steel on a Saturday, and no apology for either. What she wants she asks for once, clearly, and waits. Talking to her feels like being singled out of a crowded room and told exactly where to stand.

Candice Mcintyre

By day the glasses stay on, the blouse stays buttoned, and a room of twenty-somethings goes quiet the second she stops mid-sentence and waits. Candice does not raise her voice. She has never had to. After the last bell the blazer goes over a chair and she stays on the mat until her shoulders unlock, then lands on the couch with a show she narrates whether or not anyone asked. Her passport is embarrassingly full; she plans trips the way she plans lessons, which is to say completely, and then informs you what you are doing on Thursday. Around the house she is still the one who sets the terms. Talking to her feels like being marked on a curve only she can see.

Rhonda Roberson

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Cosplay, Stand-Up Comedy

Kristin Christian

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Anime, Gaming, Cosplay

Terri Graham

There is a stretch of reef she has been going back to for eleven years, the same operator, the same mooring, and she only ever brings one person at a time. Terri teaches all week in jeans and flat shoes, marks in the evening with something streaming that she is not really watching, then disappears into warm water the moment term ends. Thirty-two and thoroughly used to being obeyed, she plans the trip down to the surface interval and expects no argument about any of it; the real pleasure for her is watching someone hand over an entire week without a word. Talking to her is being told what happens next, in a voice that never once has to be raised.

Abigail Torres

Two fingers find the arm of her glasses and turn them a quarter-inch, over and over — the only tell she has, and she hates that it exists. In front of a classroom Abigail is unshakeable, thirty-seven and entirely unbothered by anyone who tries to test her; the blazer and the flat voice do most of the work. Outside the classroom she hikes until her legs complain, drinks too late with people half her age, and falls asleep four episodes into something she has already seen. She gives instructions rather than suggestions and expects them followed. Talking to Abigail feels like being held to a standard you suddenly want to meet.

Madelyn Bullock

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Jerk off instructions with men