Before she broke up with Jaden, near the end of their relationship, Strelitzia told him about the job offer at Devilsmore High School. "Oh I know somebody who moved to Pleasant Valley," he said, with a degree of interest that surprised Strelitzia. If she had been honest with herself in the situation, it was the first time he sounded engaged in what she was saying for months. "Yeah, lovely girl." He continued. It sounded like he might say something like beautiful, but he saw the look on Strelitzia's face and stopped."

"Anycase, she is a girl who stands strong in what she believes. She wants a firm guy who will lead her and I think that is great". These words stung Strelitzia at the time because she knew that Jaden was implying that he thought that she did not want that and that was a problem. "I think that she is a teacher as well. Helena is her name."

So, after the staff meeting, Strelitzia was curious whether or not Jaden had made as big an impression on Helena as she had obviously made on him. She brought it up in one of her earliest conversations with Helena.

"Oh yes." Helena's eyes immediately up on hearing Jaden's name. Strelitzia didn't mention that Jaden was her ex-boyfriend but was otherwise very open with Helena. "Yes, I used to go to art camp with him. Great guy."

But after saying that line, Helena kept changing the subject when Strelitzia tried to find out more about Helena's opinion of Jaden.

Another person who sang Helena's praise was Mr van Vuuren. He told Strelitzia that he was proud of the principled manner in which Helena conducted herself. He was glad to talk about her integrity and honesty and her good old-fashioned family values.

The phrase good old-fashioned values felt like a throwback to Strelitzia to back when she was doing the interview and was still dating Jaden. It was a comfort to her then. But now that she was a single woman on her own who had to fight her own corner. She wondered if there was a place for her in the good old-fashioned family.

And Strelitzia found their words about Helena to be true. She was extremely helpful to Strelitzia. She showed Strelitzia where the bathrooms were and gave Strelitzia her opinion on what the best supermarket in town was. She invited Strelitzia over to sit during break with a male teacher named Henry during breaks. Henry was a sweet-tempered man who wore a small goatee on his face. He was a little bit taller than average and was muscular in an understated sort of way.

"Did you know that the one time Henry went to one of those Health shops in Cape Town and when he saw all the vegan options for milk, he decided to buy almond milk." Helena loved to tell Strelitzia all about him when he wasn't around. She loved to tell her stories about the things that Henry did.

"And so what did he think about almond milk" came Strelitzia's response.

"He didn't like it, he much prefers cow's milk." Strelitzia didn't blame him. She too much prefers cow's milk.

"Have you ever had almond milk?" she asked Helena.

"Oh no, I don't want to try all that weird stuff. I just keep to my traditional food that I grew up with."

"And what kind of food is that?" Strelitzia was always keen to try something new so she was intrigued to find out what Helena would consider to be traditional food.

"Why bangers and mash of course," said Helena without a moment's hesitation.

"Oh I love that too," said Strelitzia "Especially with sweet chilli sauce."

Helena pulled a face and then went on to explain that she never ate spicy food. Strelitzia tried to agree to disagree while keeping the tone of the conversation light. It was after all only about food and nobody was making anybody anything to eat.