Chapter 8
Levi thought giving Haddie her space for a day would be enough.
Two max. He figured he needed as much time to get over seeing those three dots appear and disappear in response to his late-night texts.
What was he thinking? He’d obviously messed up, so why did he think bombarding her with texts would make it better when she probably just wanted to get some sleep?
When he ambled out of his room on Friday morning, the official first day of school, he figured they could finally call a truce.
But Haddie was already walking out the door.
“Ms. Martin is in a meeting that ran long, so I’m covering for her until she gets back. Should I tell her you stopped by?”
“Who are you?” a tiny but powerful voice inquired from somewhere much closer to the floor. Before he could answer Darlene, the owner of the voice began tugging at his pant leg. “Hey, mister! I asked you a question,” she continued.
Levi dipped his head until his eyes met those of a first-grade girl who couldn’t have even been three feet tall. Even with her high ponytail of wispy blond hair, she still barely reached his knee.
He dropped to a squat in front of her and grinned.
“I’m Coach Rourke,” he told her. “I’m a friend of your teacher’s. What’s your name?”
The girl narrowed her eyes, assessing him.
“I’m Piper. And if you’re one of Ms. Martin’s friends, why didn’t she put anything about you in her favorite things on her All About Me poster?
” She pointed toward the back wall of the classroom.
Below the row of windows that looked out onto the main entrance of the elementary wing of the Summertown district were posters with stick figure self-portraits and drawings of favorite things like flowers or pets.
Levi wasn’t sure, but it looked like one student either had a pet dinosaur, really loved dinosaurs, or possibly was aiming to draw a hairless cat.
In the middle of all the first-grade creations, he found Haddie’s poster.
Her own self-portrait was also a stick figure, which, of course, Levi found ridiculously adorable.
Then surrounding her portrait were what Levi guessed were the favorite things that told all about Haddie.
A soccer ball.
A pair of running shoes.
A Toblerone.
Two other stick figures, who were clearly Emma and Matteo.
And then rows of much smaller stick figures along with slightly taller ones. Her first grade students and her team.
Piper was right. Levi’s brother made the poster, but no mention of Levi himself. Ouch.
He cleared his throat. “Um, Piper… Did Ms. Martin say anything to the class about whether or not she was going to the home-opener football game tonight?”
The young girl crossed her arms. “She said she was going but only to give…” Her brows drew together. “What did she say again? Only to give someone a piece…a piece of her head?”
Levi laughed softly. “A piece of her mind?”
Piper’s eyes widened. “YES! That’s it! A piece of her mind. Does it hurt to do that?”
Levi shook his head. “It won’t hurt Ms. Martin, but whoever is on the receiving end is probably in for a world of hurt.” That person was either Coach Crawford, himself, or both. “It was nice to meet you, Piper,” he added. Levi’s knee began to throb, so he pushed himself back to his full height.
The young girl looked up at him with eyes narrowed. “I know,” she replied. “I’m delightful.”
Levi laughed, but he was interrupted before he could form a response to Piper’s very true statement.
“Okay, everyone!” Darlene called to the class. “Time to line up! If you’re taking the bus, please stand behind the yellow star. If you’re being picked up in a car, please stand behind the blue star. And if you’re being picked up to walk, please stand behind the red star.”
She pointed to three large star cutouts taped to the floor in front of the classroom door.
As little bodies milled about and settled into place, Levi finally got a full bird’s-eye view of the room.
Alphabet cards with upper- and lowercase versions of each letter lined the perimeter of the room just below the ceiling.
A colorful rug with bright flowers and a train carrying all sorts of woodland animals was framed with yet another alphabet.
And then surrounding the rug were five pods of three desks each, a decorative, laminated nameplate taped to each one.
All he had to do was look at the work she’d done in her room to know how much Haddie cared about a school where she’d only taught for one day so far.
Levi’s prep for his high school health classroom had been nothing more than counting the desks and making sure the number he got matched the number of students listed on his roster.
“If you could tell her I stopped by, Ms. Darlene, I’d really appreciate it. Though you might want to tell her after the students are dismissed, just in case she has any colorful words to say about my visit.”
He weaved through the not-quite-single-file lines of first graders to the door and pivoted back to give them all a quick smile and a wave. Then he made his way back to the high school wing to close up shop for the day and hopefully figure out his next move.
***
Levi knocked on the open classroom door even though he could see Tommy sitting at his desk, eyes trained on his laptop.
“Come in,” Tommy replied absently, still not looking up, so—being the grown man that he was—Levi grabbed a forgotten piece of notebook paper from an empty desk, crumpled it into a ball, and launched it right at his friend’s head.
It bounced off of Tommy’s temple and landed on the desk.
Tommy sighed, glanced up, and rolled his eyes.
Levi grinned and pumped both fists in the air. “Muskies!” he cried in his deepest bro voice. “Come on. Aren’t you heading out to the field for the pregame pep rally?”
Tommy sighed. “Did you not see my father’s email after the faculty meeting Wednesday night?”
Shit. He’d been so wrapped up in Haddie’s reaction to the email that he hadn’t stopped to think that Tommy might be hurting too. Man, he was out of practice when it came to this whole friendship thing.
Levi rounded the rows of desks and attempted to take a seat in the front row but then realized he was not really high-school-sized anymore and opted for leaning against the window kitty-corner to Tommy’s desk.
“I’m sorry,” Levi told him. “But are you surprised? Your dad did exactly what you expected him to do.”
Tommy leaned back and crossed his arms. “Look… I get that this job doesn’t really mean anything to you.
You’ll be in and out of here faster than I can blink.
But this is my career, man. It’s everything to me, just like…
” He blew out a defeated breath. “Like football and only football is everything to my father…and I guess you.”
Levi winced. “Ouch,” he said, this time out loud. “Tommy…” he added, but Levi wasn’t sure what to say next.
“It’s not just a reduced budget for the debate team,” Tommy continued.
“We used to partner with the middle school teachers to do a fall play and a spring musical. He dropped it down to one production a year. Speaking of music? Did you see there will no longer be a stipend for early-morning choir rehearsals at the elementary school? That means there’s either no choir, or the music teacher has to do it on a volunteer basis.
” He scrubbed a hand across his jaw. “How are you not pissed about the soccer program?”
Levi’s expression fell. “Tommy…” he said again. “I don’t know this school or these kids, not anymore. How am I supposed to react?”
Tommy shrugged. “Like you’re not another one of my father’s yes-men. That would be a start.”
Except that’s exactly who Levi was. He didn’t have a choice. Levi’s possible reinstatement hung in the balance. Any wrong move could tip the scale against him. But any argument or explanation of his sentencing right now would only make Levi look more selfish than he already felt.
“I’m sorry, Tommy,” he told his friend. “I really am. But I’m not sure what else I can do.”
Tommy pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. “Yeah. Me neither. And to your earlier question? No. I’m not heading to the pregame rally.”
Levi sighed. “I get where you’re coming from. But the kids who will be out on that field tonight? They didn’t do anything wrong by choosing to play the game. Same goes for the ones in the stands who are supporting them. Some of them are your students, right?”
Tommy responded with a resigned nod.
Levi strode to where his friend stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “Then maybe support the kids you can right now until we figure out our next move.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. “Where the hell did that little nugget of wisdom come from?” he asked with a half-hearted laugh.
Levi lifted one shoulder. “Honestly? I’m not sure. But it was pretty impressive, wasn’t it?”
This got him a genuine smile. “Yeah, Five-Oh-One. I guess it was.”
Levi blew out a relieved breath. “Good, because I wasn’t sure I could take two of my favorite people thinking I was a piece of shit.” He raised his brows. “So… See you in the bleachers?” He started backing toward the door.
Tommy shook his head ruefully. “Maybe,” he replied. “Won’t it be weird for you to watch from the stands?”
Levi stopped and smacked his palm against the doorframe. “So freaking weird,” he admitted. “But less so if my buddy’s there.”
Tommy groaned. “Fine. I’ll be out there soon.” Just as Levi was about to pivot and head back out, his friend added, “Hey…what do you mean about two of your favorite people thinking you’re a piece of shit?”
Levi held up his hands as if he had no idea what Tommy was talking about. “Later, Commissioner!” he called out and then spun on his heel and left.
Because what the hell did he mean by that?