Page 17 of Ancient History

“You’re faster than I remember,” I said with a laugh, willing the concern to fade from his face. “I’m not used to running in dress shoes.”

“Coach Hawkins, there you are!” Principal Aguilar slapped me on the back with jolly force. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t lost. There’s a few more forms we need you to fill out. A W-something or other.”

“Sure thing.” I prayed to every god across every religion that my knee would be cool so Amos wouldn’t have to see me limp.

“I see Mr. Bright is helping you find your way around.”

Amos’s cheeks blushed.

“No, he was—I could find my way around just fine. Not much has changed at South Rock.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.” I wish I had Aguilar’s positive attitude. Would he be so sunshiney if he was face-to-face with his ex?

“Good. All good,” I said.

Aguilar pointed to me, then to Amos, then back and forth one more time. “I don’t think I ever got an answer from you guys the other day, but did you two know each other as students?”

A heavy silence hung between us. It was a game of chicken. Who would answer first? Amos was frozen, so I spoke up.

“Yeah, we were friends.”

Amos’s eyes bulged at me, two big, green ABORT buttons.

“No, we weren’t friends,” I said.

He made another panicked, yet inscrutable face at me. We were playing telepathic charades. I sucked at regular charades.

“We were kind of friends. Friendly. We had a class together where we passed notes.”

ABORT ABORT said his eyes.

“Uh, we didn’t pass notes. I copied off his test once without his knowledge.” That was true. Amos and Aguilar were equally shocked. I had to stop myself before more secrets came out. “We knew of each other. Saw each other around here and there.”NAKED.WE SAW EACH OTHER NAKED.A LOT.“Not friends. But we knew each other existed.”

I lost the ability to speak proper English. All I thought about was how good Amos looked naked.

“You know, I heard that professional soccer can be a rough contact sport,” Aguilar said, head cocked in concern. “Did you ever get checked out for anything?”

Great. I was going to lose this job for supposed brain damage. “I’m fine. I promise. Just a little nervous about my first day of work at school.”

“Nothing to be nervous about, Coach Hawkins! I’ll leave you two to chat about old South Rock memories. Make sure to get down to the front office sometime this morning.” Aguilar walked backwards, his voice booming to stay with us. “Oh, and I’m working on scheduling you for cafeteria duty shifts.”

“What’s cafeteria duty?” That was new since I’d been gone.

He jogged back and leaned in for a whisper so surrounding students couldn’t hear. “We assign teachers to eat lunch in the cafeteria and keep an eye on students. We say that it helps teachers strengthen bonds with the students. But really, it’s because there was a conflict that escalated into a messy food fight last year. Our janitorial staff almost quit in protest during cleanup.”

Thank goodness I wasn’t a teacher then, though no lie, it would’ve been fun to participate as a student.

“Sounds good! Keep me posted.” I gave him a thumbs up. He returned the gesture, then disappeared into the crush of students.

It was back to Amos and me.

And a thick layer of awkwardness that I’d specifically tried to avoid.

“So, I…” Before I could think of what to say, Aguilar was back, jolly as ever.

“I had a great idea. Why don’t you and Amos team up for caf duty?” His face lit up with so much excitement you’d think he screamed “Eureka” in the bathtub. “Amos’s old partner just went on maternity leave. You can shadow him, and it’ll give you both time to catch up and reminisce about old South Rock memories.”

Aguilar had a master’s degree in Not Reading the Room. Judging by Amos’s whitening face, he’d rather eat glass.

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