Page 6 of Friends with Benefits

“I just wanted to share a proposal I put together for a class trip to the Griffith Observatory.”

Her brow furrows. “You know the fourth graders go to Kidspace.”

Kidspace is a rite of passage for a Pasadena kid—be it via a field trip, a birthday party, or a weekend activity. It’s not a terrible place for a kid to spend a day, with its three and a half acres of indoor and outdoor tactile exhibits. It’s just, well,basic, as Annabelle would (and did!) say. While the museum is technically for the under-tens, Theo’s kids feel too old, toobeen there, done that, for it to be the fourth-grade field trip. He remembers that feeling, once a Foothill fourth grader himself. So every year, he proposes an alternative field trip for his kids.

Theo clears his throat. “I know. But with the focus on earth science and space in the curriculum, we believe that the observatory would be a more educationally enriching experience for the students.”

It’s a more eloquent response thanBut Kidspace is basic.

“We?”

“The fourth-grade teachers all agree Kidspace is a bit, um, basic.”

Theo swallows.

Shit.

Ms. Connors—Veronica—sighs. “I’m sorry, Theo. Kidspace gives us a generous discount for our annual field trip and we just do not have room in the budget for anything extra this year, with the third graders going to the zoo.”

“What?”

“Juniper made a compelling case. If we cannot educate the kids on the problematic truths of the Gold Rush without parents up my ass… then we may as well just take them to the zoo.”

Theo is stunned. The annual third-grade field trip is to a historical reenactment of the Gold Rush. It’s a complex witharchitecture that emulates 1800s Americana, where the kids have a blast digging for gold nuggets, completely oblivious to the brutal displacement of Indigenous people during this period. The historical center vaguely glosses over its ugly truths. How American of it. Theo isn’t upset that the third graders of Foothill Elementary will no longer be exposed to history that’s ignorant at best and racist at worst.

But.

He pitched the zoo last year.

“Juniper’s husband is a veterinarian for the LA Zoo, you know. He’s going to take the kids on a behind-the-scenes tour and let them feed giraffes. Really make them feel special.”

He knows.

Last year, Theo asked Juniper if Joey, her then-fiancé, would be down to give his kids a tour of the zoo if his proposal was approved. He shared his pitch with her. Theo always shares his pitches with Juniper. As the only twentysomething teachers at Foothill, he believed they had aligning interests.

He believed they were friends.

Theo gives Ms. Connors a terse nod.

“I’m sorry,” Ms. Connors says, apathy in her voice. “Maybe next year?”

It’s her annual refrain.

It’s also Theo’s cue to get out. He pushes his chair back and stands, exiting Ms. Connors’s office with ten minutes of his prep period remaining. Theo has two options. He can knock on Juniper’s door and ask,What the hell?He doesn’t begrudge this win for her kids, but allies aren’t supposed to backstab each other. Now he has to figure out how to explain to his kids that an afternoon at Kidspace is just as cool asfeeding fucking giraffes.

There’s no way to explain that.

He already sees Annabelle’s eye roll.

As the mere concept of confrontation makes Theo want to melt into the floor and disappear Wicked Witch of the West–style, he goes with the second option. Doing nothing.

Soft.

Theo hears Jacob Cohen’s voice in response to his inaction, but his dad’s brand of toxic masculinity is a particular trauma that he unpacks with Brian, his therapist, every Tuesday at four. So he pushes that voice, that word, away and Clorox wipes the desks, the smartboard, the pencil sharpener, before he returns to the gym to retrieve his kids. After gym, it’s snack and silent reading time. Theo has a basket of single-serving prepackaged snacks at his desk so that no kid will be snack-less. He makes sure to have gluten-free options for Kaia and Tyler. Over his desktop, he watches his kids silently snacking and reading books selected from the class library. Currently, they’re drawn to the classics—the Percy Jackson series andDiary of a Wimpy Kid. Also anything by Kelly Yang or Jason Reynolds. Theo’s classroom library is curated, like his snack collection, with his own funds. He can do snacks and books.

He can’t self-fund a whole field trip.

Theo observes his kids reading and snacking on carrot sticks and Goldfish and can’t believe that this is his life—still living in his hometown, now teaching at the elementary school he attended.

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