“Nervous about the assembly, Gilly?” he asked, his tone softer than normal. Like he was the wolf trying to be nice to the lamb to trick them. He wasn’t fooling me though.
I puffed out my chest and pursed my lips. “Not really. It’ll be nice to finally win this thing and be done with you. I’ve spent far too much time ensuring I don’t spend adime.”
His lips quirked up on one side, but the smile faded when Samantha came out of Marisa’s room and headed toward his. She wore a skintight blue body suit and a yellow dress over it. It was tacky and not that appropriate for a school setting, and I had no doubt Larissa would roll her eyes and mumble something under her breath about it. While her outfit made me cringe, her presence didn’t. Seeing her caused relief and my anxiety to spike. It was a horrible combination. But if she was here at the school, she wasn’t with Fritz.
“Christopher, hey you.” She swayed her hips when she went up to him and ran her fingers over his forearms. “You didn’t call me back last night.”
He has her number. Go figure.
He chose not to call me after our one-night stand but had already exchanged numbers with Samantha. Disappointment weighed me down. God, this sucked. I hated how I cared when there were a million reasons why I shouldn’t. He was rude and awful to me. So why did his opinion matter at all?
I walked into my room to escape their exchange and was thankful to see Timmy frowning at his backpack. I needed to stay distracted from the unwanted thoughts plaguing my mind. “What’s wrong, little man?”
“It’s stuck.” He tried pulling it apart again and groaned. “My big brother said I’m weak and small and stupid.”
“Oh, Timmy. You are none of those things.” I got on one knee and showed him how some of the material got stuck in the zipper. “When this happens, you kinda have to pull the material out so it’s free. See?” I pulled, got it free from the metal zipper, and smiled. “I have a big brother, too, and he used to call me mean names.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I was so mad, but I told him it hurt my feelings and that I loved him.”
“Was he nice?”
“We’re best friends now.”
He smiled for a second before looking at the ground again.
“Hey, Timmy, you are going to grow and get stronger and bigger every day, so he might be bigger now, but that doesn’t mean you’re weak or stupid, okay?”
He nodded a few times and sniffed, and without warning, he jumped to give me a hug. I patted his back just as Christopher poked his head into my room, and I swore, for one second, his gaze softened at me.
“Ms. Carter, can I have a word?”
“Sure.” I let go of Timmy and took hesitant steps toward my enemy. “What is it?”
“Clarissa is having a really hard time today because her dog died last night. She’s in my room crying right now. Can she just stay with me until the assembly?”
Oh, my heart broke. “Yes, of course.” I put a hand on my chest and frowned. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I’ll let you know.” He ran a hand over his jaw and held my gaze for one, two, three seconds. He opened his mouth, closed it, and finally said, “She likes me because her older brother is named Cal, and my name reminds her of him. It makes no sense, but that’s why she’s in my room. It’s not anything more than that.”
“No, I’m glad she has you to help. I won’t mark her absent. Let me know if we need to call her parents or the counselor.”
“Right.” His lips curved up on one side of his mouth for half a second before he left, and the rapid pace of my heart had nothing to do with the competition or our past or the assembly and everything to do with the fact he wassucha good teacher. He didn’t have the budget I did or the pretty walls or colorful posters. He cared, and his students knew that after one week.
I turned my attention back to the littles in my room and clapped my hands.
“Okay, let’s review our anchor chart for rules and get ready for the assembly!”
Cheers echoed around my room, and I threw myself into the lesson, ignoring Samantha and my brother and the fact Christopher was a good teacher who just hated me.
“Let’s hear a howl!”APD hollered into the microphone so loud, there was an awkward feedback sound over the speaker system. Hundreds of kids put their hands over their ears and winced. “Sorry! Let’s try that again. On three, I want you all to howl for our first assembly of the year!”
“One, two, three!”
Howls and screams carried over the gym and seemed to bounce off the walls as students got excited. Dave was a tough, mean-looking guy, but he had the biggest heart and loved making school a fun place for everyone. He was decked out in a bright-blue suit with a yellow tie and shoes, and anyone else would’ve looked ridiculous, but he pulled it off. “Good morning, Mountain Elementary! We are so excited to have you help us select our staff winners for the SPIRITS competition!”
There were cheers, and Larissa winked at me from three rows down. I wiggled my brows at her and searched for Christopher just to send him a mean look. He sat on the opposite end of the same bleacher section, and his gaze wasonme. It was unnerving and almost too intense—bringing me back to that night at the bar when he looked at me like I was special.
