Come on, Georgia. I’m sorry. Please talk to me.
Nothing.
At school the next morning, I’m dying to go upstairs, especially after faxing over that fucking letter to Daniels, but it would be highly illogical for me to go up there, especially now.
So I carry on with my day, a regular school day, attending meetings and doing classroom observations and calling this person and that person regarding this thing and that thing. Cleaning and reorganizing my office. Checking things off my to-do list. I’m distracted and restless in my office when my dad calls me.
“Hey, Dad.” I put the phone on speaker and lay it on my desk.
“Hi Ollie. How are you? How’s Georgia?”
I sigh. “At what point did it become a check in for the two of us?”
“When you brought her home for Christmas to meet your entire extended family, Ollie,” my dad says matter-of-factly.
I scrub my face. “Right.”
“Well? How are you two?”
“I thought we were okay, but we’re… in a weird place right now. We’re still sneaking around, and I had to write her up yesterday.” I quickly explain what’s been going on with Max’s fucking father and Superintendent Daniels and the complaints to his office.
“So you gave Georgia her third letter? In front of Daniels?” he asks.
“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal,” I remind him. “The older two will be scrubbed from her record this April. And this one will expire after another year.”
“I don’t know, Ollie. I seem to remember a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule about letters to file.”
“Right, if you have three letters to file, I can start the process to fire her. But it’s its own separate entity. Not an automatic three strikes and you’re out. But obviously I’m not going to do anything,” I explain to him.
He hums. “Probably still a shitty feeling for her. To have her boss embarrass her like that in front of her even bigger boss.”
I also think about how hard she’s been working to avoid a third letter. I sigh. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Did you talk to her before making that choice? What did she want to do?”
“No… Remember, it all happened in like, five minutes. Daniels didn’t give me any time.”
He hums again.
“It’ll be fine by April,” I tell him impatiently.
“All right, Ollie. Be careful—” There is a noise as someone yells in the background. “Your mother wants to speak with you.”
“Hala, Ollie, you really messed up!” Ma says over the phone.
I run my hands through my hair. “I know, Ma,” I tell her, chastened, and feeling like I’m ten years old again.
“How are you going to fix this? We need a new Mrs. Flores around here,” she demands.
“I’m going to have a conversation with her, Ma, and explain everything.”As soon as I find her.“And it’s a little too early to be calling her Mrs. Flores, Ma. I’ve known her for, like, four months?—”
“And also, cook her favorite food,” she continues, ignoring me. “Do you want me to cook it? What’s her favorite food, Ollie?”
“Don’t cook for her Ma, it’s fine?—”
There is a knock on my door, and Lina walks into my office.
“I’m going to cook for her, Ollie; just tell me what her favorite food is?—”
