Page 82 of Class Act

“I’ll sue the school, then the district, then the state!” Meredith cried, standing up from her seat on my couch the next night . . . the very couch where I’d fallen asleep on Ford before he’d tucked me in and let himself out. “They can’t get away with this. You’re too valuable to the school.”

“She probably already has some protest posters drawn up,” Aryn said to me out the side of her mouth.

Meredith did a lap around my living room, waving her arms in the air. “I’m not kidding. The other second grade teacher is like two hundred years old. She should retire.”

“She’s forty-five,” Lizzie stated with an amused expression. “Hardly decrepit, unless you’re planning to fall apart yourself in ten years.”

“She’s got lower test scores than Hailey does.” Meredith put her hands on her hips.

“Is that true?” Aryn asked me.

I shook my head. “No.”

“We like Hailey better,” Ruby injected.

Meredith pointed at Ruby, an annoyed jab that I knew came from love and disappointment. “That. That’s the real issue.”

I smiled, warmed by the reaction of my friends to the news that I had to leave. “I’m so sad that I won’t see you every day. Washington has become my second home.”

“Hey, I’m moving in January, and I’ll be five hours away. Where was all the protesting about that?” Lizzie teased.

“You’re moving because you’re getting married to the guy you’ve been in love with since you were fifteen. Hardly the same thing,” Meredith replied. “We’re celebrating with you. We’re mourning with Hailey.”

“So I get a going away party?” Lizzie’s eyes gleamed.

“Yes. Of course.” Meredith stopped pacing and pointedly nodded my way. “Can we focus on Hailey now?”

Lizzie regally nodded and gestured in my direction, which had the rest of us cracking up.

“How are you feeling about all of this?” Aryn asked.

After my cryfest the day before, I’d been fairly unemotional and factual when I told my friends to come to my place tonight and then told them the whole spiel. The tears were near the surface, especially looking at their faces and seeing their upset as I finished my story, but I’d kept them in, not wanting to embarrass myself by totally falling apart in front of them. I’d cried enough the day before to last me several months.

“I’m disappointed. A little scared, if I’m honest. I know there are other elementary schools in the city, but I found all of you at Washington, and I’m really upset about moving.” I looked at them, and they all wore expressions that mirrored my own melancholy one. “How will I get by without Recap and Recoup?”

Suddenly they all moved toward me as one, and we were in a group hug, all leaning into a heap on my couch. There were a few sniffles, and Lizzie patted at her eyes.

“It’s unfair,” she whimpered.

“This means next year it will only be me, Meredith, and Aryn,” Ruby stated.

Everyone pulled back and looked around at each other. It was a sobering thought, that after four glorious years the group was breaking up. How could this be?

“I think the real victim here is me,” Aryn cracked. “Alone with Grumpy and Dopey.”

She pointed at Meredith and Ruby, and we all burst out laughing as the two of them picked up throw pillows to slap Aryn with. Lizzie dried her eyes, and I swallowed against my own tight throat in spite of everything. It felt like a big shift was upon us.

“Let’s make a pact,” Ruby said, putting her pillow weapon back in its place. “We will commit to monthly dinners.”

We all nodded as Lizzie moped. “I can’t commit to that. I’ll be living in Moab. Maybe you could video call me, too?”

A chorus of yeses answered her request.

“Once a month isn’t enough considering we’re used to being together every day,” Meredith said, taking a seat for the first time in a while. “What if we do twice-a-month dinners?”

“Plus any extras we want to do. Movies, working out, phone calls . . .” Aryn added.

I nodded. “Yes. That would mean the world to me. Well,” I looked around, “to all of us.”

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