Page 33 of Always Been Yours

I decide to not entertain her and turn my focus back to Knox, who is also smirking. “How many children do you have?” I ask.

“My husband Lucas and I adopted two boys about four years ago now.”

“That’s amazing. How old are they?”

Knox and I’ll be spending a lot of time together, and I hope to build a friendship with him. The fact that he has a family gives us some common ground.

“Jake is in fourth grade. He turned nine while we were in Hawaii. Our youngest Matty’s in kindergarten.”

“My youngest is in kindergarten. Who is his teacher?” There are only two teachers for each of the elementary grade levels.

“Mrs. Verma.”

“Oh, okay. Daisy’s in Mrs. Waymier’s class. Stella’s in third grade.”

“You should bring them over for dinner sometime. Matty’s been nervous about making friends.”

“That’d be great. I think Daisy’s been feeling the same way.”

We talk for a while after that, eating menudo and getting to know basic things about each other. Knox and his husband moved to Amada Beach about a year and a half ago. Lucas is a lawyer at the local family practice and originally from here, but he was a few grades ahead of me, so I don’t think we’ve ever met. I know his dad Stanley, the owner of the hardware store and construction company. Both are small but handle almost everything in our small community. His mom is the owner of the law office Lucas works at and will be taking over one day according to Knox.

We don’t talk too much about baseball, but we make plans to have lunch next week to start discussing our plans and coaching styles. Any lingering anxieties are melting away though.

After some time, my mom heads back to the library but Knoxand I apparently have the same afternoon prep hour. A small group of coaches walk in as I’m packing my things up, including Derek Harper. None of them pay us much attention but I can’t fight my curiosity anymore.

I ask Knox if he wants to prep in my classroom today, wanting to ask him some questions about the politics at this school. Normally I don’t like to get involved with such things but implementing a new sports team and helping Vivi with the fair puts different pressures on me.

When we get to my classroom, I take a seat at one of the students’ desks and Knox follows.

He doesn’t waste any time getting to the point. “So, I assume you want to understand that clique better.” He lets out a dry laugh and I immediately know for certain that I hate Derek Harper.

“Yeah, pretty much. Mostly Harper, I guess. He seems to be the ringleader of sorts.”

“Yeah, he is. He’s also Gable’s favorite faculty member.” He takes a second, thinking through his words. “She only cares about sports. Which is good for us, in some ways. She’s willing to put quite a bit of the budget into sports and has the rest of the committee wrapped around her finger on that. She isn’t all bad, but her priorities are not aligned to most of the teachers here anymore.”

I nod, remembering my mom mentioning something similar more than a few times.

Knox continues, “Harper took over the football department three or so years before I started working here, so I don’t know much about his time before then. What I do know now is that he’s an arrogant prick. He doesn’t care about education—he barely cares about his P.E. courses if I’m being honest. He thinks he’s some sort of God because the football team has won multiple state championships since he started working here. Most of theother coaches fear him because of Gable’s favoritism but some of them—like Kramer and Hayes, the cheerleading and boys’ basketball coaches—do agree with him.

“Truthfully, it’s the way that he bullies everyone that’s a problem. If you’re a man, you either kiss his ass and he sees you as inferior or you keep your distance, and he sees you as a threat.”

“And women?” My blood runs a little cold at the tense grimace that takes over Knox’s features.

“And women… well… there isn’t any good way to put this so I’m just going to say it. There are three options with women. He either finds them attractive, meaning they become a conquest that he feels entitled to. Or they also fall into theass kissinggroup, and he uses her as sway, like the men. Or he doesn’t find them attractive or useful, so he pretends that they don’t exist.“ My eyebrows pinch together in disgust, Knox catching it. He nods in acknowledgment. “I’ve seen him flat-out ignore more than a few of the teachers here while harassing others at every turn.”

I can’t help but wonder which of those categories Vivi falls into. I know she doesn’t kiss his ass, mostly because that’s not her style. I don’t know which of the two options I hate more, though. Vivi either being treated like a piece of meat to be eaten at his own leisure or not being treated like a human at all.

I decide it’s better not to have this conversation with Knox and add it to the long list of things I hope I get the chance to talk about with her one day.

Toward the end of our prep hour, I throw caution to the wind.

“Hey, do you and Lucas have plans tonight?”

Knox thinks it over a second, putting his weekly course plans into a divided folder. “No, we don’t. Why?”

“My… friend,” I stumble, using it for lack of a better word, “invited me to Spotlight tonight. I’m not really one for karaoke butI was thinking I could go for a drink. You and Lucas should come.”

“Yeah, sure,” he starts walking toward the door. “Thanks for the invitation. By chance, do I know this friend?” He stops at the door with a smirk on his face.

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