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Mrs. Samantha Clocksworth couldn’t help being a bit annoyed by all the commotion when she entered the teachers’ lounge on Monday morning.
All the teachers were buzzing when the newest hire, a stunning young kindergarten teacher named Nami, strolled into the room with a huge diamond ring glistening on her finger.
Nami had only started a few months ago. She was a last minute addition, joining right as September began. However, the swiftness of her arrival didn’t derail her in the slightest.
Nami seemed to thrive at their school. She arrived every morning fashionably dressed, perky, bright, and so easy to adore. She had a winning smile and adorably freckled face. Her hair fell just past her collarbones in waves that the sunlight seemed to dance off of. She was radiant.
The kids loved her, always adorably calling her “Miss Nami”, and the other teachers found her sweet. Even beyond the school, it seemed she was popular as she hung up picture after picture of friends with wide grins.
Nami was the kind of person Samantha usually resented, but she was so sincere that no one could truly hate her. Or at least, not for long.
Despite her friendliness, the engagement ring was a rude awakening to everyone that they didn’t actually know Nami all that well. Maybe it was because of her younger age or her busy schedule, but she remained a bit of an enigma.
So, after a long weekend passed by and Nami arrived at work with a ring putting Samantha’s own wedding band to shame, the gasps did feel a bit justified.
The ring on her finger was massive. A large diamond nestled in a bed of teal jewels. It was impressive, almost gaudy in its blatant display of luxury.
One of the third grade teachers–Mrs. Higgins–was the first to comment on it.
“Wow,” she managed after taking a sip of scalding coffee. Samantha winced in sympathy. “Is your finger strong enough to hold up that heavy ring?”
Tension crackled in the room, everyone waiting for the shock but after an excruciating few moments, Nami just laughed.
“It is a bit much, isn’t it?” she held her hand out in front of her and splayed her fingers, surveying the ring. “It may be cliche, but I love fancy rings like this.”
“It’s definitely fancy!” Mrs. Higgins agreed.
Mrs. Higgins was one of the oldest teachers there and her seal of approval was worth a lot. In fact, at her words the whole room seemed to relax a bit. Nami was especially touched by her kindness and began to hum a little as she reached for the coffee pot.
Mr. Smith, sitting somewhat forgotten by the edge of the room, cleared his throat. His face was rather pink as he looked at Nami. It often was. Samantha suspected that Nami’s outfit–a mini skirt and tight sweater–had something to do with it.
Along with the addition of the enormous shining rock.
“I wasn’t aware you were dating anyone,” he admitted, almost accusingly.
Samantha raised an eyebrow but Nami just pushed aside his comment while she busied herself with choosing a mug from their large collection in the cupboard.
Her fingers danced around a rainbow mug before wrapping around its handle. “It’s been a journey for sure…long distance is no joke. But we did it.”
Long distance. Samantha mulled the answer over in her head a few times and she was sure her colleagues did the same.
Nami beamed one more time before turning on her heel and heading towards the door with her steaming cup of coffee.
“Have a good day everyone!”
Samantha counted to twenty before her fellow teachers burst out into hushed whispers, all centering around Nami and her mysterious rich lover.
Kennedy–Samantha’s friend and the unofficial lead teacher of the fifth grade–was head of the pack of hungry wolves. She leaned forward in her seat and soaked up the attention of her hypnotized audience.
“It has to be that green haired guy…Roronoa I think his name is.”
Mrs. Higgins cooed. “He looked very strong. I can definitely imagine him buying his woman a big rock like that.”
Samantha bit the inside of her cheek. “He did look like he could be the possessive type.”
Kennedy clicked her tongue. “What a brute.”
Samantha crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat. She took a sip of her coffee for added effect, but the effect was probably dulled when she made a face at the bitter taste.
Her husband always teased her about her excessive use of creamer and sugar (‘ do you even have coffee in that cup anymore?’) , but Samantha reached for another sugar packet off the coffee table anyway, hiding a fond smile as she stirred.
Samantha set aside the spoon and took a sip of her sugary coffee. Much better.
“There’s nothing wrong with a man wanting to spoil his girlfriend,” she defended.
She liked Roronoa. She had met him very briefly during the first week of school.
Samantha had been rearranging a few things in her classroom at the end of the day–hanging up a few forgotten posters and refilling pencil cups. She had been so focused that she was a bit startled by the sudden appearance of a tall man standing in the center of the room.
He looked ridiculous next to the tiny desks, especially when he scratched his head with a look of complete confusion.
“Can I help you?” Samantha managed to ask.
“Oh. Sorry,” Roronoa said immediately. He looked around again and asked, “Where’s Nami?”
It took a moment for Samantha to remember who Nami even was. For one terrifying moment she thought the man was a student’s father that lost his kid, but then he spoke again.
“I’m Roronoa Zoro. I’m friends with Nami.”
He said the words with such confidence, like that was supposed to mean something to her, and finally it clicked.
“Oh, Nami!” Samantha carefully set down the pencil box she’d been holding and wrung her hands a bit nervously. “Uh, I’m afraid you’re on the wrong floor.”
The man–Roronoa–looked at her in disbelief and said nothing.
“She teaches kindergarten, right?” Samantha asked rhetorically, ignoring his small shrug. “That’s on the ground floor. This is floor three.”
Roronoa blinked again and glanced around the room as if seeing it for the first time.
“This isn’t the first floor?” he asked no one in particular. His question lingered in the empty air, the desks and whiteboards providing no advice.
Samantha had begun to run out of patience, but years of working with children had prepared her for tiresome situations. “Don’t you recall going up two flights of stairs?”
Before he could reply, Samantha shook her head. “Just…just go back down. It’s one of the first doors after the main entrance. You can’t miss it…” she frowned, “or, I guess you can’t miss it again.”
Roronoa had simply grinned and hurried out with a “thanks!” and “she’s going to be so mad that I’m late!”.
Samantha rolled her eyes at the memory. She dipped her spoon into her coffee and stirred again, watching a few bubbles swirl in the center. She looked up after watching them dissolve and met Kennedy’s eyes in a sudden staredown.
“What?” Samantha asked. “He seemed nice.”
Kennedy raised her hands in mock surrender and with that, the wolf pack retreated.
“I never met him, so I’ll take your word for it.” She stood and brushed off her pants, gesturing towards the clock before giving a halfhearted wave.
It was almost time for the kids to arrive.
Samantha drained the rest of her coffee and sent a silent prayer out to Nami, who in a few short minutes would surely be bombarded with questions from her kindergarten class about the new jewelry sported on her hand.
…
Bits of information about Nami’s fiancé slipped into conversation as the weeks went by. Nami mentioned that her partner was a bit clumsy sometimes, she said that they made pancakes together as a Sunday morning treat, and had sheepishly explained that they bought matching royal costumes which led to Nami arriving in a ballgown on Halloween day.
Samantha already felt like she knew the man a bit better the next time she saw Roronoa Zoro, when he was once again standing on the third floor after school with a confused look on his face.
This time he lingered near the water fountains, clearly waiting for someone.
Samantha smiled to herself and headed over towards him. “Looking for Nami again?” she asked in lieu of a formal greeting.
Roronoa squinted at her. “We’re going out to dinner. I’m supposed to meet her in the classroom.”
“Third floor,” Samantha reminded him, before adding, “I hope you enjoy your date night!”
At this, Roronoa’s eyebrows shot up in surprise–the most emotion she’d witnessed him express so far.
“Date night?” He sounded a bit dumbfounded. “We aren’t a couple. She’s…”
Before he could finish his sentence, a whirlwind of blond came storming by, snagging his arm and dragging him along without pause.
The other man grumbled, voice scratchy as he ranted. “I knew you’d get us lost. I shouldn’t have listened to you. The janitor told me it’s on the first floor, you idiot. Precious Nami is waiting and you made us come all the way up here…”
Roronoa scoffed in outrage. “That’s rich coming from you, Mr. Prince of the Idiot Kingdom .”
Ignoring their distant bickering, Samantha merely hummed. Mr. Prince…
Samantha reported her findings to her coworkers the very morning, but was met with a less than enthusiastic response from everyone in the teachers’ lounge.
“You think Nami’s with that blond guy?” Kennedy asked hesitantly. She twisted a dark ringlet around her finger. “He was flirting with me like crazy.”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “You always think people are flirting with you.”
Kennedy gave her a flat look. “He pointed at my wedding ring and said that he ‘adored me but the fates of love had smiled down upon another man’.”
Mr. Smith was busy rinsing his mug at the small sink, but managed to ask in disbelief, “How do you even remember that?”
“How wouldn’t I remember that?” Kennedy countered.
“So he’s a romantic,” Samantha tried again. She shrugged halfheartedly. “I heard him call Nami precious.”
Mr. Smith once again scoffed. “Like Gollum and the ring?” he grumbled.
“Nami is precious,” the art teacher, Ms. Jane announced as she entered the room. “She just gave me a whole bag of orange peels to use for an art project with the kids. It’s going to be Orange Week!”
Samantha just smiled politely at her excitement, still trying to remember what Nami’s blond boyfriend looked like.
…
Samantha’s husband knew that she loved a good mystery, which was probably the only reason why he didn’t rightfully call her out for acting a bit creepy whenever she debriefed any information about the blond man.
She spotted a selfie of Nami and the man in a pink frame on Nami’s desk. It was a delightful picture of Nami playfully pushing him away as he attempted to give her an exaggerated smooch, and it stayed always in sight by her computer. As if Nami needed it for encouragement when a day was rough.
She once wore a red button up looking eerily similar to the one that the man wore when Samantha had first caught a quick glimpse of him. Samantha wondered if Nami wore it and thought of him; if Nami could pick up the faint scent of cologne left behind on the collar.
And the most damning evidence–while walking out to her car one day, Samantha had seen the man confidently stride into the building with a dozen red roses.
She was all but certain that this man was Nami’s soon to be husband.
But then she met Luffy.
The kids had off school that day, but the teachers were stuck in long meetings all day. After Samantha’s final one–a grueling lecture about their new slightly altered grading system–she ducked into the teachers’ lounge to grab her lunchbox and finally go home.
Instead of her lunchbox, Samantha found a dark haired gremlin eating the remains of her tuna sandwich. Surrounding him were four other lunchboxes, also rummaged through as if by a nosey dog or hungry bear.
He looked up, apparently unaware of the speck of tuna on his nose. “Hey!” he said casually.
He opened the small lid of Samantha’s salad dressing container and licked the inside clean, scrounging up the last pits of vinaigrette. He even tapped on the bottom of it to shake out every last drop. He ate like he was starved, but the empty boxes around him told Samantha that was anything but true.
“Uh.”
It was all Samantha could manage to say as she took in the scene.
The man smacked his lips and dropped the container back onto the table. “Nami’s taking forever!” he said, as if explaining something obvious. “I was getting so hungry!”
Samantha gnawed on her lip. “Okay. You know Nami. Uh…why are you eating my lunchbox?”
The man glanced down at the table and frowned. “Nami said there were snacks here.”
Samantha cleared her throat and pointed to the box above the fridge. “There’s crackers…and I think some gummy bears?”
The man jumped up excitedly. “Oh! That makes way more sense! I was wondering why all the snacks sucked…”
Samantha took a step closer while the man worked on rummaging through the actual snack bin. She ignored the rustle of wrappers opening as she stuffed her containers back into the bag.
Something red waved in front of her eyes.
“Gummy bear?” the man offered helpfully. “Sorry I ate your stuff.”
Samantha took it gingerly and nodded. She was tired–it had been a long day and she didn’t know the social protocol for finding someone licking away the last bits of your salad; gnawing scraps previously intended for the trash.
“So…you’re Nami’s…?” she trailed off, unable to answer her own unspoken question. This man seemed very comfortable, as if he belonged in the teachers’ lounge too.
“I’m Luffy!” he grinned.
“You’re…her Luffy?” she repeated distantly.
The man, Luffy, nodded decisively.
The door blew open with a loud bang before he could say any more, revealing Nami in all of her intense anger.
“Luffy!” she hissed. “I told you to get a snack and come right back!”
Luffy winced as her volume grew, but still reached for another bag of gummy bears. Nami was at his side in an instant to smack the bag away from him.
“It’s bad enough I’ve had Zoro getting lost here and Sanji skipping around flirting with the principal–the last thing I needed was you scaring off my new teacher friends!”
Pushing aside the obvious rage behind the words, Samantha was touched to be considered one of Nami’s teacher friends. She watched the scene with a sudden fondness, and the sight of Luffy’s bright eyes lowered in apology was reminiscent of the way her students acted after making a dumb mistake.
“It’s okay,” Samantha said quickly, cutting off Nami mid-rant. “There’s no harm done. I was just going to throw that stuff out.”
Luffy whooped in victory, as if he couldn’t feel Nami’s glare boring into the side of his head. Her expression turned a bit pitiful the moment it turned towards Samantha.
“I’m so sorry. This idiot just doesn't seem to understand boundaries,” she gestured wildly towards Luffy.
“Ah, but you love me,” he said with a delightful grin.
Nami clenched her teeth. “Unfortunately,” she grumbled.
“It’s seriously fine,” Samantha repeated. She grabbed her lunchbox off of the table, ignoring her fellow coworkers’ bags still strewn across the table. Although she did manage to stuff one container she recognized as Kennedy’s into its respective bag. “I was just heading home. I’ll just…leave you guys to it.”
Samantha pretended she couldn’t hear Nami still delivering a hushed scolding behind the now closed door. She knew Nami wouldn’t stay mad at Luffy for long. The whole exchange reminded Samantha of her husband, back when they had first met in college.
He was the kind of person to plan absurdly stupid pranks, only to be surprised when his venture of filling her pillowcase and duvet with whipped cream was met with the silent treatment instead of its intended laughter.
She rolled her eyes with affection. She supposed it made sense for Nami to have such a big engagement ring, if it was Luffy’s way of apologizing for whatever shenanigans he was sure to get up to throughout their marriage.
She didn’t even bother asking why Luffy was there in the first place, supposedly waiting in Nami’s classroom all day while she attended meetings.
It must simply be due to the perils of young love.
…
After the lunch fiasco, Samantha and the other teachers didn’t see any of Nami’s friends around for a while. Winter break came and went, and Samantha had already told everyone the lunch box story enough times that even she was getting bored of it.
She couldn’t blame them for their curiosity. Nami was a superstar in her own right, and for her to marry a man so…chaotic…well, it made sense in a strange way.
Samantha was distracted by something else though, something actually related to her job this time.
The science fair was always a big event for the third, fourth, and fifth graders, and Samantha could humbly admit she was one of the reasons it always went so well.
She and the fourth grade teacher Olivia were the hosts of the science fair. They handed out stickers for all participants and ribbons to the top three winners. They walked around the fair with clipboards and lab coats as they examined poster boards. The students always found joy in their exaggerated acting, pretending there were serious scientists judging their work.
With it being Nami’s first year and her teaching much younger kids, Samantha wasn’t sure how Nami found out all of the details about the science fair. She certainly hadn’t been the one to tell her about it, but she was thankful someone did.
The sight of Nami’s proud smile as she listened to various presentations was a welcome presence in the crowd of parents and other teachers. She was a fellow educator there in support of both the students and the teachers running things.
Samantha eventually found a spare moment to set down her clipboard and thank Nami for coming, and consequently found herself meeting another new man.
He stood very close to Nami, almost protective of her in the crowd of people. His dark curly hair was held back with a bandana and goggles, causing Samantha to self-consciously adjust her own nerdy scientist goggles sitting atop her head as part of her costume.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce you!” Nami said, smacking her palm against her head. “This is Usopp. And Usopp, this is my friend Mrs. Clocksworth.”
“Samantha is fine,” she said with a soft laugh.
Usopp eyed her curiously for a moment before a devious grin stretched across his face. “Wait,” he paused for dramatic effect. “Is she the one who’s lunch Luffy ate?”
Nami groaned and smacked her head again, but Samantha just laughed. “That’s me!” she exclaimed.
Usopp joined in on the laughter while Nami sulked.
“Typical Luffy,” Usopp snorted. He expertly dodged her attempt to smack his arm.
Samantha waved her hand back and forth in dismissal. “Ah, don’t be embarrassed, Nami. It reminded me of myself and my husband.”
Usopp’s eyes widened. “Oh my god. Can you imagine? Marrying Luffy?”
Nami squawked, shoving her hand over Usopp’s mouth while he worked himself into a laughing frenzy.
“The food bill alone…, ” Usopp managed to mumble under her palm.
Nami’s whole face scrunched up with irritation. “Shut up! You’re being so loud!”
“Okay, okay!” Usopp relented. He shoved her hand away, and only then did Samantha catch sight of Usopp’s own shining ring.
“That’s cute about you and your husband,” Nami said after taking a moment to straighten her shirt, which became wrinkled during all the commotion.
Usopp nodded eagerly. “Oh, yeah! I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Just…you and Luffy…” he snorted again.
Nami rolled her eyes. “It wouldn’t be that bad.” She glanced at Samantha and said in a flat tone, “Although I probably would snap and kill him.”
Samantha laughed. “Trust me, I’ve had that feeling a few times.”
“Miss Nami!” a small voice called from nearby.
A small boy, clearly one of Nami’s students, bounced over to her side. Nami’s grin grew impossibly wide and she bent down to give the boy a hug.
“What a nice surprise to see you!” she exclaimed.
He tugged on her hand, begging Nami to come with so he could show off his brother’s project.
Nami shushed him reassuringly and stood. She gave Usopp a quick pat on the cheek. “Are you okay staying here for a minute? I’ll be right back.”
Usopp gave a salute and said very seriously, “Leave it to me.”
Samantha waited until Nami was out of sight before she pointed to the ring on his finger.
“How long have you been together?”
“Huh?” Usopp asked blankly. He glanced down at his hand, letting out a small “Ah!” as he saw the ring.
“It feels like forever,” he admitted. His voice sounded somewhat dreamy, as if recalling an old favorite story.
“That’s sweet.”
Usopp nodded. “Childhood sweethearts, you know?”
Samantha didn’t know. The few facts she knew about Nami’s fiancé weren’t very informative. She knew that he was willing to partake in matching couples costumes, that he could follow a pancake recipe, and that he was devoted enough to remain long distance with her for an unspecified amount of time.
“Was the distance hard?” she asked sympathetically.
Usopp’s eyebrows creased into a frown. “Distance?” He tapped his finger on his chin a few times. “Like, during university? Yeah, I guess.”
Another pair of goggles stood out on the edge of Samantha’s vision, so she beckoned Olivia over to join.
“There’s my science partner!” Olivia said. She gestured between Usopp and Samantha. “What’s this? A Goggles group?”
“This is Usopp,” Samantha said in reply.
Usopp smiled. “I know Nami. She’s around here somewhere…”
“He was telling me about how he did long distance,” Samantha said to Olivia.
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Was it super far?” she asked curiously.
“Nah,” Usopp dismissed. He rolled his shoulders back and raised his head slightly, fixing his slouch. “We were both so busy back then, I don’t think it would have made much of a difference to be nearby anyway, if I’m being honest.”
Samantha hummed, but a loud buzzing interpreted any further thoughts.
“Shoot. Sorry!” Usopp fumbled through his pockets briefly until triumphantly holding up his phone. “Got it!”
He glanced at the screen and his eyes brightened. “That’s funny. It’s actually my wife calling now! She’s probably calling from the hospital, I should really answer…”
“Wife!?” Samantha asked, at the same time as Olivia exclaimed, “Hospital?”
Usopp’s chest puffed up in pride. “Oh yeah, she’s a doctor there. But her schedule can be kind of crazy, sorry, I really need to answer in case her shift got moved again. I’m gonna…” he gestured towards the door. “Could you guys tell Nami where I went when she comes back?”
Olivia nodded and Usopp left with a small wave, phone pressed against his ear and an endearing smile stretched across his face.
Samantha only sighed.
…
Samantha knew that she could just ask Nami about her fiancé. She knew, logically, that was the easiest solution.
But it felt like it had been too long. She’d met too many of the contenders; she’s been called Nami’s friend too many times to admit to her now that she had no idea who her supposed friend Nami was marrying.
Besides, it didn’t really matter. It wasn’t any of her business.
Yet every day that comically large diamond laughed at her. The ring hugged Nami’s finger and whispered, “you don’t know a thing.”
Samantha loved mysteries. Samantha hated mysteries.
For her own sanity, she tried to accept defeat. A whole school year had gone by, and she still never cracked the case. She was a failure of a detective and the ring knew it.
Ring be damned, Nami was one of her best friends at school now. She was the person Samantha went to with funny stories and angry rants, and someone she knew would never judge when she asked for extra sugar packets to add to her coffee—especially since Nami revealed she sometimes puts butter in her own coffee.
School was officially out for the summer but the teachers still had work to do. Specifically, packing and cleaning up their classrooms. Every poster and picture frame needed to be stuffed back into boxes where they would wait patiently until September came around again.
Samantha thought she had brought enough packing tape, but quickly discovered she had not. She could easily go down the hall to borrow from Mrs. Higgins, but her feet automatically carried her downstairs to Nami’s classroom.
It would be nice to have a quick chat with Nami as an impromptu break.
Nami’s door was open so she strolled in, a brief flicker of sadness for the bright pictures now tucked away, revealing plain white walls in their place.
Samantha was so distracted by the barren sight, that she jumped in surprise at the sound of an unfamiliar voice.
“Sorry!” the voice exclaimed. Samantha whipped her head around to the source–finding a woman sitting at Nami’s desk. “I was asking if you needed something?” she repeated.
Samantha faintly rested a hand against her chest, feeling her racing heart. “Right.”
The woman stood, taking slow measured steps towards Samantha.
“Did I scare you?” she asked. Her warm brown eyes studied Samantha closely and the sight was oddly reassuring, as if the woman’s whole aura spread calmness.
Samantha shook her head. “No, no, I’m good.”
The woman’s cheeks rounded into an adorable smile. Her hair swayed around her waist, almost impossibly long. Her nails were perfectly polished on delicate hands that reached up to tuck some of the blue strands behind her ear–and then Samantha saw it.
A huge diamond ring.
Samantha blinked and surveyed the woman more closely.
She carried herself in a way that told Samantha she was important. Not in a negative way, but rather, she was a woman with self-assured confidence. She wore a long skirt flowing just around her ankles, with a large slit up one side to keep it from being too modest. She wore heels, a bit more formal than the wedges Nami sometimes wore, and she moved in them with ease. Her shirt was a simple white button up, but a gold choker necklace pulled it all together with a touch of elegance.
The ring–matching, the extravagant gems…it had to be a wedding ring.
Nami was never engaged.
She eloped.
“Nami will be right back,” the woman said. “I’m Vivi, I’m Nami’s–”
“Wife,” Samantha finished for her. “You’re Nami’s wife.”
Vivi’s responding grin was magnificent and Samantha wondered how it was possible for someone to so clearly fit with someone else. As if two puzzle pieces clicking into place..
She hoped people felt that way when they met her and her husband.
“My husband and I must have you both over for dinner sometime,” Samantha found herself saying. Her eyes lingered on a stack of photos on Nami’s desk, a large picture of a grinning blu haired woman on the top of the pile. “I want to know everything.”
Vivi’s eyes sparkled with mirth, and Samantha knew it was the start of a lifelong friendship.