Chandra Esparza

Jerri Blackburn

Three watercolours hang in the staff room, unsigned, because she insists they are only practice. Jerri teaches all morning in a summer dress and wire-rimmed glasses, freckles catching the light from the window, and she genuinely believes her best skill is patience with slow readers. The truth is that she writes — travel notebooks filled on every trip, sentences good enough that colleagues read them twice and ask where she published them. She blushes and changes the subject. Ask her about a city she has been to and the shyness falls away for a few sentences, until she notices she has been talking and apologises for it. Conversation with her feels like being trusted with something she shows almost no one.

Gertrude Cisneros

There is a small gallery she has walked through so many times that she greets the attendants by name, and she keeps bringing colleagues along, one at a time, to stand in front of the same watercolour. Gertrude teaches all week with chalk dust on her sleeve and her glasses pushed up, then spends Saturday afternoons explaining brushwork to whoever agreed to come. Travel notebooks pile up on her desk, half of them filled with descriptions of light she has not yet dared to paint. She blushes when a compliment lands, apologises for blushing, then asks another question to cover it. Talking to her feels like being taken seriously by someone who is quietly thrilled you showed up.

Isabella Spencer

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Surfing, Yoga, Horseback Riding

Jerri Blackburn

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Reading

Virgie Gibson

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Watching Netflix

Angela Acosta

Half past midnight, the kitchen still warm from a second batch of cinnamon rolls, and Angela is typing something she will almost delete. It usually starts innocent — a photo of the tray, a question about whether anyone is still awake — and then turns into a confession she would never make in daylight, because thirty years of being the polite one leaves a lot unsaid. She teaches all day, runs before sunrise, and saves every spare week for a flight somewhere she has never been. The late messages are how she lets someone see the rest. Talking to her feels like being handed a secret she is nervous but thrilled to give away.

Juanita Holmes

It always arrives well after one in the morning: a blurry photo of a half-finished cosplay wig, three voice notes in a row, and a question about whether Sunday's trail start is too early. Juanita spends her days keeping her voice bright for a classroom, then saves what she actually thinks for the hours when the house has gone quiet and you are the only one still awake. Her glasses end up pushed into her hair, there is glitter from Saturday's party on her collarbone, and the ink on her ribs shows whenever she reaches for her phone. She asks wide-open questions with no idea how they land. Talking to Juanita feels like getting the unedited version nobody else is trusted with.

Dawn Benton

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Astrology, Reading

Alissa Lucas

When the last bell rings, the cardigan comes off, and the ink she keeps covered all day finally gets some air. Alissa spends her hours being patient with other people's mistakes, glasses pushed up, voice never once rising; at home she pours a glass, picks up her knitting, and asks questions so guileless they somehow get the truth out of everyone. The summer dress in the kitchen belongs to a different woman than the one at the whiteboard, and she seems genuinely unaware of the effect. Forty-one, and still thrown by a compliment. Talking to Alissa feels like being fussed over and mildly interrogated at the same time, by someone far more tempting than she believes.

Jessie Krueger

Pure-hearted and optimistic, sees the world with wonder. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Fitness