Page 31 of Welcome to Forever
Chapter 8
Kat stared at the group of sullen-faced kids. For once, she was glad she couldn’t read a child’s mind. If she had to guess, they were all contemplating how to make her assistant principal, Dora Burroughs, pay miserably for holding them after school.
Dora had the students writing sentences, which did nothing to help the kids see the error of their ways. It didn’t change the way they felt about themselves or allow them to give back to their community, either. Dora was an old-school administrator. She hadn’t liked Kat’s ideas of turning after-school detention into a club, but she wasn’t the head of SES. Kat was—at least for another year.
“I’ve got it from here, Mrs. Burroughs,” Kat said.
The older woman frowned at her, sending wrinkles diving from the corners of her mouth. She had white hair that still had a golden tint from the days when she’d been blond. Kat tried to imagine that Dora had gone into this job because she loved children, but Kat never saw any evidence of that. All she saw was the stern, unforgiving manner in which her assistant principal treated the kids who walked into her office. And unfortunately, Dora was the same way with the school’s employees.
Thank God, the school board hadn’t made Dora Burroughs principal at Seaside.
Dora scanned the group of six students, seated at their child-sized desks. “Have a good afternoon, children.” Then, without a word to Kat, she walked briskly out of the room.
Sucking in a breath, Kat forced a smile at the students. She’d taken them outside the other day to pick up litter on campus. Holding up six plastic trash bags now, she watched as the smiles in the room faded. “Oh, come on. It’s better than writing sentences, and a little sunshine is good for you. You can think about why you’re here as you make our school the best it can be.”
Val is right. I do sound like Pollyanna.
The students followed Kat down the hall and out onto the side of the campus, where the Seaside vandals had graced her with a new message yesterday. Stanley had taken care of that for her this morning, and hopefully the wall would stay clean this time.
Each child took a bag from her and veered in a different direction.
“Don’t stray too far!” she called, wishing Val had been able to stay later and help her. Micah was right. She did need backup, and asking Mrs. Burroughs was out of the question. So was asking Micah, who’d offered his services in exchange for something she couldn’t give him. She liked to think she was a strong woman, but when it came to her past, she felt like her heart was exposed, vulnerable to everything around her, which so often seemed to reflect the military life. Sure, she could’ve moved to a town that wasn’t so close to Camp Leon, but this was her hometown. She belonged here.
Kat jumped as one of the children screamed behind her. Turning, she saw several of them swatting at the air wildly. Then she heard a buzz speed by her ear.
Oh, no.Bees!
“It’s okay, children. Stay calm,” she said shakily, as a bee buzzed by her own head. It buzzed by again. Shehatedbees. “Keep calm,” she repeated, but her own heart rate was skyrocketing. When she was a kid, she’d once disturbed a hive and had to run for her life as they’d swarmed after her. Where had these bees come from?
All the students were screaming frantically now, even though there couldn’t have been more than a couple of bees. “Get away!” she heard several of them cry.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said again over their high-pitched terror, but she doubted they heard her. Or if they did, that they believed her. There was no doubt in her mind that they heard the next voice, though.
“Stay still and they’ll leave you alone,” a deep baritone commanded.
Kat froze. So did all the children. She was pretty sure she knew exactly who was standing behind her, and he’d just seen her doing the “bumblebee in your pants dance,” as her sister used to call it. Taking a breath, she willed her heart to slow down. Then, after a moment, she turned to see a big, strong man with ink black hair and chocolate fudge eyes standing with his arms crossed at his chest.
“You okay?” he asked.
It seemed like he was always asking her that question.
She nodded, turning to assess the children, who all stood frozen like little statues. Clearing her throat, she said “All right, guys. Looks like Mr. Peterson was right. The bees are gone.”
She watched as the students slowly relaxed, and then turned to Micah. “Thank you.” Her gaze moved to Ben who was parked beside him. “You probably would’ve known to ignore them, too, huh?” she said, her voice softening.
Ben nodded. “But if a bee was buzzing around me, I probably would’ve screamed like a girl, too, Principal Chandler.”
“She is a girl, buddy. She’s allowed to scream like that.” Micah’s smile widened as he looked back at her.
“I didn’t…we didn’t…” Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re teasing me, right? Does that mean you’re not mad at me?”
“Mad?” His dark brows lowered. “For what?”
“For going back on our agreement.” She turned to check on the students who were talking among themselves, and then faced him again.
He stood, big and tall, watching her. “I’m not mad. In fact Ben and I were just walking over to see if you were still open to letting us help. To show that there’s no hard feelings.”
Guilt curled through her stomach as she remembered their original deal.
