Page 85 of Sneak Attack

Considering it was six fifteen in the morning and she was still in her scrubs, dark circles beneath her eyes telling me she’d worked all night, I wasn’t all that concerned about another drunk episode, so I let him go, with a kiss and a reminder to call me if he needed anything.

She did the same thing yesterday, and I was trying to be thankful she was at least staying in her car instead of pouting on my porch or banging on my front door.

But dammit. I wanted to walk my kid into kindergarten. I hadn’t been able to be at the meet the teacher night last week due to a late night of film watching. I wanted to see the room, see his teacher, get Jasper excited about school, and check to see if he already knew any kids. My parents had always walked us boys in on the first day of school, at least the first couple of years.

Why Selma had to be difficult about everything was mind-boggling. And exhausting.

I really needed to call that lawyer.

* * *

The classroom was a blur of activity as we entered. Next to me, Selma’s pinched expression stayed stamped on her face, only smoothing out when Jasper spoke to her. She’d been like this since she walked up to Jasper and me outside the school, while we took his picture in front of the Marysville Elementary school sign. She’d tapped her foot impatiently when a handful of parents asked for my autograph and sighed heavily when I took Jasper’s hand, smiling all while ignoring her plays for attention and took him inside. The classroom he was in was bright with posters about treating others with kindness and the alphabet in various fonts strung along the wall near the ceiling in primary colors. More primary colors were everywhere from the cubbies along one wall, the bins with their names already on them.

“There’s your teacher.” I bent down close to Jasper and helped him with his backpack and had him hang it up in his cubby area. “Do you want to take me to her so I can meet her?”

“Met her last week. She smells funny.”

“Perhaps we don’t say that out loud in the classroom, okay?”

“Why? It’s true.”

“Because it might hurt her feelings and we don’t want to do that, do we?”

His nose wrinkled as he thought about it, and he took my hand like he was hanging on for dear life. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t run into school, excited to see friends. Jasper was usually more adventurous, but while we toured the rooms and found his name on a name card at a round table where five kids would sit, he didn’t seem the least bit curious about any of it.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked while we were finally in line to meet Mrs. Griffith. She was older, nearing retirement age, and had been teaching here since I went to school there, so I didn’t need to meet her, but it’d been a long time since I’d seen her.

“I don’t like school,” he mumbled, and his little chin quivered.

“Why not? You liked your last school, remember?”

“It was smaller. And quieter.”

Ahhh. So that was his worry. “Want to know something, kiddo?”

“Not really.”

I chuckled and pressed my lips together. He was funny, but I didn’t want him thinking I was making fun of him. “I get scared sometimes when I step onto football fields and it’s really big and noisy.”

“You do?”

Not in a while, but that first year, absolutely. “Yeah. It’s all new and scary, and sometimes I’m afraid of getting lost, but you know what?”

“What?”

“There are always a ton of people who can help me find my way. There are other players, workers, security guards and my own teammates. We all help each other.”

“I don’t have teammates.”

“No, but you have Mrs. Griffith, and she’s been teaching since your mom and I went to school here. She’d never lose you, and I bet she’s used to kids being scared, too, so she’ll know how to help you.”

He kicked his foot against the rug and dug the toe of his new white Nikes into the yellow circle. “Maybe.”

“Want to know something else?”

I glanced up and caught Mrs. Griffith’s smile as she waited for us, next in line.

“What?”

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