What the ever-loving fluff?This new house was turning into a money pit. The roof, the air-conditioning, and now someone had dug up all the plants. Granted, she hadn’t planted them—they were here when she purchased the property. She hadn’t had time to landscape or even mow the lawn, farming the job out to the neighbor kid for pay. But now, as she stood on her front lawn, looking at what resembled a gopher bacchanal, she frowned, hands on her hips, and wondered if this latest disaster might not be a homecoming prank gone too far, like the vandalism at school early Monday morning.
Her phone rang. Still contemplating the destroyed flowerbeds, she didn’t look at the screen before swiping the answer button. “Elyxandre Hookstead.”
Nothing.
“Hello?”
She looked at the screen, and it showed the call was live.
“Hello?” she said again.
Nothing.
“Who’s there?”
Click.
Disregarding it as a call that somehow didn’t make a full connection, she checked the number in the call log. It was a local number, but she didn’t recognize it, and no name popped up. A glance at the time showed that she needed to head to school, so she pocketed her phone and headed for her SUV. If it was an important or necessary call, they’d call back.
On the way to work, she steeled herself for another raid. Tuesday morning, she was pleased to see that students had refrained from another night of vandalism, so she crossed her fingers that it would be the same today.
Her thoughts naturally shifted from raids to Lucas Vaughn, which then hurtled toward her evening plans of traveling to the four different class float-building sites and the dinner invitation at the Vaughn household.
She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that piece of the night. Spending close-proximity time with the principal was awkward enough. Remembering the night before, when he asked her over for dinner, it had been a casual request. Yet, when he looked her in the eye, she felt those fluttering sensations in her belly… and lower. His dark eyes focused so intensely that it often felt like he was probing into her innermost thoughts and feelings. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, necessarily, just foreign. Her ex had never looked at her like that, even in the early days of their relationship.
Was going to his home for dinner a smart idea? She waffled. On the one hand, it was just dinner. Since they were going to be in the same places tonight, they’d decided to ride together. The invitation was both expedient and kept them from going without food during a long day. But would people look at it funny? Would they read something into them spending time together? And if they did, would it cause them to get in trouble at work?
There were no rules in the teacher handbook or contract that disallowed dating. Not that it mattered to her. For starters, he hadn’t asked. Probably wasn’t even interested. She’d already convinced herself that the awkward conversation with his friend Jess was all in her imagination. And after that, her experience with her ex made her hesitant to work with a romantic partner again.
There were several married couples on staff. There were a few teachers quietly dating. However, Lucas was in a position of power in the school, and some people might see that as a conflict of interest or even a power structure issue.
Again, not that it mattered. It wasn’t like she was considering dating Lucas. Much.
She sighed. Why was she bothering to lie to herself? Of course it mattered. Of course she was interested. Who wouldn’t be?
No, she was still very much interested in the new principal.
The question was, was he interested in her?
“Gah! It doesn’t matter, you idiot. Remember—you don’t have the time, energy, or desire to get involved right now.”
A voice screamed “Liar!” in her head, and it sounded remarkably like Miracle Max’s wife inThe Princess Bride. She couldn’t help but giggle at the image, despite the conflict between her head and heart over her attraction to Lucas.
When she arrived at school, she was pleased to see that the students had not raided the high school again. Their follow-through of demonstrating what would happen had convinced them to forgo future raids, at least this year. The true test would be if it carried over into the next year.
Surprisingly, the superintendent did not overturn the punishments the principal had handed down, even though she knew Lucas was pressured to do so. After talking with several people on Monday, she discovered that he had often steppedin and superseded the previous administration’s punishment attempts, especially if Ryker was involved. Not for the first time, she puzzled over why he didn’t this time. He didn’t seem to respect Lucas very much, always projecting an air of superiority whenever they spoke, reminding her a bit of Knox’s habits with her. And as far as she was concerned, the superintendent seemed to barely tolerate her, causing her to wonder how she even got hired in the first place.
However, the day was not without its problems. Just before classes started, a massive flood occurred in the girls’ locker room of the main gym. They had to shut the water off to the entire south side of the building and move all the gym classes to the north gym for the day, and probably for the rest of the week. The only saving grace was that it was the girls’ space because if it had been the boys’, the football team would have been ousted from their space.
The issue didn’t require her investigation after she checked the cameras, and they showed no one entering the area who shouldn’t have been there. The head custodian told her the pipes were old, and they rarely got a warning when plumbing issues occurred because it was one of those things that you often didn’t know there was a problem until it broke down. Still, a skittering of unease tickled her brain. With everything else happening around school this week, was this just bad timing? Or was it more vandalism?
Luckily, repairs moved quickly and were completed by ten o’clock, but then the rest of the day dragged. Each hour that passed increased the tension inside, bringing her closer and closer to the evening with Lucas and dinner at his home. Was that because she was looking forward to tonight?
The final bell rang at three o’clock, and a sea of pink, green, purple, and blue poured out the doors to the buses and the parking lot. Each class had been assigned a color for the day, andstudents who wore their assigned color earned a point for their class. Even the teachers participated, dressed in black.
Once the buses had cleared, she ambled into the main office and down the hall to Lucas’ office. He was on the phone behind a closed door, not talking, his face stormy. Superintendent Sealy? Angry football parent of one of the suspended players? Those were her top two guesses. She made her way to her office to check emails since she had some time.
Just as she sat down, her personal phone rang. When she looked at the screen, it was once again a local number, but a couple of digits off from the one she received that morning. She swiped the answer button. “Elyxandre Hookstead.”
