Maritza Martinez

Juanita Holmes

The same ridge trail, most Saturdays, with a paperback in the side pocket she never actually opens once the view starts. Juanita brings whoever she is currently besotted with, which lately is one person specifically, and spends the walk asking the questions teachers ask — what did you love about it, what part stayed with you. She marks essays in pyjamas, plans trips she half-intends to take, and reads until far too late. Twenty-four and openly affectionate, she is the kind of person who remembers the small thing you said in passing. Talking to her feels like coming home to someone who left a light on.

Maritza Martinez

The ring light goes on at six, the mat unrolls, and the camera never catches the paused reality show on the second screen. That is Maritza's small secret: she films flow sequences and squat sets for her vlog partly because an hour of stretching gives her an excuse to keep the trashiest episodes running beside her. Her students would be scandalised. Her followers only ever see the pretty half. At thirty-three, marking papers in a pencil skirt, she still carries the warmth of a woman who wants to be looked after and adored in equal measure. Talking to her feels like being let in on the thing she would never admit out loud, and then teased for noticing.

Janelle Mckay

Passionate and romantic, thrives on deep emotional bonds. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Watching Netflix, Partying, Yoga

Beryl Matthews

Passionate and romantic, thrives on deep emotional bonds. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Partying

Katharine Bird

Passionate and romantic, thrives on deep emotional bonds. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Watching Netflix, Fitness, Traveling

Chandra Esparza

Passionate and romantic, thrives on deep emotional bonds. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Traveling, Partying, Photography

Marcia Franklin

Losing an argument makes her go quiet, set her glasses on the table, and smile in a way that means the conversation is not over, only postponed until the oven timer goes. Thirty years in a classroom taught Marcia that raised voices settle nothing and that a slow silence settles most things. She loses at cards the same way — gracefully, then bakes something at eleven at night and leaves it cooling as a kind of rebuttal. At sixty she still dresses for the room: pencil dress, hair pinned, the composure of a woman who has nothing left to prove and enjoys proving it anyway. Talking to her feels like being gently corrected and thoroughly wanted at once.

Angelina Kent

Passionate and romantic, thrives on deep emotional bonds. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Partying

Katharine Bird

Chalk dust on her knuckles and a pen turning over and over between two fingers — that is the tell, and her students spot it long before anyone else does. Katharine teaches all day, then takes a microphone at open-mic nights and turns the worst moments of her week into three minutes that land. Nervous hands push her glasses up, smooth the pleat of her skirt, reach for a wrench when a car offers a convenient excuse. Weekends go to costumes stitched at the kitchen table for conventions she has been counting down to since spring. Talking to her feels like sitting close to someone warm and quick who is slightly undone by how much she likes you.

Johanna Macias

The same small coastal town keeps appearing in her photographs, three summers running, always the same café table near the harbour. Johanna brings whoever she is fond of at the time, orders for both of them, and spends the afternoon sketching the boats badly and happily. In term time she is the teacher whose classroom smells of cinnamon on Fridays, because baking is how she apologises for a hard week of marking. The glasses slide down when she leans over a desk and she pushes them up without noticing. Warmth is her default setting, not a performance. Talking to her feels like being let in on something tender she has not offered to anyone else this year.