Chapter 2
FORREST COULD hardly believe it was only the second week of school and blood had already been drawn.
The kids were at recess, and he was outside the principal’s office with Billy Harper and Lizzie Langdon.
He had seen Billy pull Lizzie’s hair, and he also saw her turn and punch Billy right in the nose. She really let him have it.
“What’s with the fisticuffs?” Harlon Brown asked when Forrest went into his office. “I understand that you have a bloody nose on your hands.”
“Yes, we do,” he began as a knock sounded on the door. Then it cracked open.
“Mr. Langdon is here,” his assistant said.
“Send him in,” Harlon told her, and Conrad came in, dressed in tan pants and a lavender polo shirt. “We seem to have a problem,” Harlon began.
“Yes, you do,” Conrad said, glaring at Harlon as though he were ready to take his head off. “Lizzie had told me twice about Billy pulling her hair in class. I sent Mr. Scoville a note about it.”
“And I took Billy aside for it. He even said sorry to Lizzie. But as I was about to say before you arrived, I saw Billy do it again today, and I saw Lizzie whale on him.” He couldn’t help smiling. “Harlon, he deserved it, and she was only defending herself.”
Conrad crossed his arms over his chest. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“According to the rules, they both should be suspended for three days.”
“Right,” Conrad said as he approached the desk, like he was a prowling lion and Harlon was a damned gazelle.
“So she gets attacked, repeatedly, and finally defends herself, and she gets in trouble?” He drew even closer.
“So what are you going to do if I decide to punch you in the face? Sit there and take it or defend yourself? That is what she was doing.”
Harlon put his hands up. “There is no need to resort to that. I get your point. Billy will not be suspended either, but I will be talking to his parents. And when they see their son, I suspect I’m going to get an earful from them too.”
“Probably. But Mr. Scoville saw what happened, so it’s pretty clear.
” He smiled at Forrest. “Lizzie told me last weekend that she was afraid to stand up for herself because she didn’t want her teacher to be mad at her.
” Forrest realized that Conrad was standing up for him.
“I appreciate that you both have a tough job, but kids have to be able to stand up for themselves and to the bullies. And I’ll talk to Lizzie to make sure she uses her words before her hands. But she will defend herself.”
Forrest smiled. “Thank you.” He checked the time. “I need to get back to the class. The kids will be in from recess really soon.”
“Of course. But I wanted to say that whatever you’ve done with Lizzie, it’s a miracle.
” Forrest stopped, his hand on the knob.
“She lost her mother a year ago, and she’s been very quiet and shy ever since.
But you seem to have brought her out of her shell, and I’m very grateful.
” He held out his hand, and Forrest shook it, trying to ignore the zing of attraction that rocked him like a thunderbolt. Damn.
“You’re welcome.” He hurried out of the office down to his room and sat behind his desk.
Lizzie returned at the tail end of the kids.
Billy came in a little later. His face had been cleaned up and he was no longer bleeding.
But his nose was puffy, and Forrest had no doubt he would be facing his parents as soon as the office could get hold of them.
Still, as he got the class seated and began story time, he noticed that Billy sat as far away from Lizzie as he could. Kids often had a way of working things out for themselves, and he had little doubt that the kids would be nice to Lizzie going forward.
“Let’s start where we left off yesterday,” Forrest said and began reading from Winnie the Pooh. Not the Disney version, thank you very much. He loved this time of the day. The kids were run out, and they sat enthralled as they listened.
Forrest truly enjoyed teaching. This was his second year, and he was finding it easier this time around.
He knew what he wanted, and his classes were organized and orderly.
The kids were good, and they seemed to enjoy themselves.
That was one of the things that warmed his heart.
At this age, for the most part they were without guile.
They smiled when they were happy and cried when they were sad.
He liked that. There was no duplicity, and he had experienced more than enough of that in his life already.
He could do without as much of it as possible.
Forrest finished the story, and the kids clapped and smiled as he closed the book.
He got them all back in their seats and started a lesson on reading and writing.
Most of the kids already knew their ABCs and could write them, but he needed all of them to practice before he could move the class on to other topics.
So he gave them an assignment and the time to get it finished.
AT THE end of the day, Forrest said good-bye to his kids as they hurried out the door for their buses or to where their parents waited for them.
He kept an eye out, making sure they all got to where they were supposed to be.
He waved as Lizzie turned before getting in the car with her grandmother, waving to him with a wide smile.
That little girl was a ray of sunshine, with a fast jab.
He sighed and closed the door, returning to his desk to get his planning done for the following day.
“Any more incidents?” Harlon asked after knocking on the doorframe.
“No. Billy stays away from Lizzie like she has the plague, and I think that’s good.
He had to swallow a healthy dose of respect today.
It seems Billy has been misbehaving to all the girls and they closed ranks to shut him out.
” He set down his pen where he’d been making notes before updating his plans on the classroom system.
“Did you get in touch with Billy’s caregiver? ”
“No. We left a message and didn’t get a call back or anything. We’ll try again tomorrow.” Harlon leaned on the desk. “Conrad Langdon sure came on strong.”
“Well, I’d rather have a room full of people like him than the absent ones.
He knew what was going on and stood up for his daughter.
I can’t blame him for that. And he’s going to be a room parent for my class.
So he’s willing to get involved.” He still didn’t quite understand the fear he’d seen in his eyes when they met at the grocery store or the way he seemed about ready to run away at any second when they spoke that one morning before class.
In Harlon’s office he had been a lion protecting his cub, though, and he didn’t hold back.
Still, at the end it seemed like he was forcing himself to shake hands before getting out of there as quickly as he could.
“I have to agree with you there. I’d rather have involved parents than absent ones. Keep an eye on Billy, and I’ll keep trying to get in touch with his family.” He looked around the room and smiled. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Excuse me,” Forrest said. “Do what?”
“I don’t know why the kids aren’t scared of you.
I mean, I was when I first saw you.” Forrest seemed confused.
“You have this real biker vibe about you. I see that a lot of the parents are standoffish at first. I even had a few requests not to put their child in your class. But the kids love you. All of them. I mean, the older ones gravitate around you when you have playground duty. And then there’s this classroom. ”
“Well, I wanted it to be a place that would be fun for them to learn,” Forrest explained.
“And I didn’t use characters the kids were familiar with.
I created my own.” It had taken him a lot of hours, but he’d created an alphabet of animals, with each carrying one of the letters.
But he didn’t use the normal ones. Instead of C for cat, he did C for condor, and F was for ferret.
Some of the letters were hard, but he figured it out, like Z was for zokor, a burrowing furry rodent.
“And I wanted the kids to think and ask questions.”
Harlon left the room, and Forrest settled back into his work. He had a few hours of things to do before he could leave, and he had more to do before he got home.
So once he was done, he found himself back at the grocery store to pick up the juice he forgot the last time.
Then he rushed home to his apartment above a bakery downtown.
He loved the scent of the building. After dropping off his groceries, he grabbed his gym bag and hurried over to the Y where, after changing, he managed to snag the last treadmill for his warm-up.
He walked for twenty minutes to get his heart rate up before hitting the weights.
It was chest day, which meant a lot of weight.
By the time he had completed his routine, he was ready for the steam room and sauna to relax and let his muscles unwind.
He wished there was a hot tub, but the sauna was good enough.
The room was empty when he pulled open the door, and Forrest went inside and sat back, closing his eyes, letting the heat seep into his aching muscles.
He paid little attention to what was around him, so when the door opened and closed, he cracked his eyes open and then shut them again.
What he wanted more than anything was quiet, so when music began through the other guy’s ear buds, he opened his eyes, glaring for a few seconds. The man turned down the volume, and Forrest returned to his quiet contemplation until he left and someone else came in.