Chapter 14
SIENNA
“She narrates everything,” Claire remarks, sipping on her second coffee in the teacher’s lounge. “How I’m walking, sitting, talking. How I’m breathing…existing. All day. My classroom sounds like a nature documentary.”
“Ah,” Minnie chimes in, covering her mouth as she chews on her sandwich. “Noah decided to correct my math today and said I was doing a good job for someone who didn’t grow up with a calculator. I’m twenty-nine.”
“Well, one of my kids decided to emotionally derail me today when she stared at our pet goldfish and asked if they could have crushes.”
My brows knit at Randy, one of the third-grade teachers. “What?”
“I know.” He’s looking across the table, but at nothing at all. “Honestly, it messed up my whole lesson. Now, I want to know.”
Claire barks out in laughter as Minnie almost chokes on her lunch.
And this makes up my mini-lunch crew/therapy session.
Talking about the little crazed psychos that are our students and the non-stop antics they do on a daily basis.
“Did you hear about Miss Howard?” Minnie mutters under her breath so the other tables don’t hear. We all shake our heads, which gets her to lean across the table conspiratorially. “Allegedly, and you didn’t hear it from me—”
“We just did,” Claire sasses back with a smirk.
“—But Mr. Daniels and Miss Howard left tutor night at the same time. Together. Again.”
“So?” Randy prompts.
“So, Mr. Daniels is married.”
Claire gives her a face. “What are you talking about?”
Minnie sighs at our lack of picking up what she’s throwing down. “She’s sixty, guys. Haven’t you heard her say she’s happy she never reproduced any spawns of Satan? That Mr. Daniels is an ass clown?”
I can’t say I have, but I’ve only been in Magnolia Ridge for a few months now, when I was offered this job.
“What makes you think this?” Claire asks. “Miss Howard hates men.”
“She does,” Randy confirms. “She calls me a waste of space all the time.”
“Oh my God,” I blurt out because, geezus, that’s rude.
“You’re too old for her,” Minnie claims. “Therefore, a waste of space.”
“Wait,” I interject. “How old is Mr Daniels?”
I honestly can’t remember, but he wasn’t sixty.
“Twenty-five.”
“No,” Claire retorts. “There’s no way he’s banging Miss Howard.”
Minnie smacks her arm lightly. “Shhh…keep your voice down. She’s loaded.”
“Oh, God, Min.” Claire brings her fingers to her forehead and begins to rub. “There’s no way.”
“Miss Howard…” Randy starts, then halts as if contemplating something. “She’s hot.”
“Ew,” all three of us women chime in unison, giving him different looks.
It’s not that Miss Howard, to me, is hideous. She actually looks really good for her age.
It’s her attitude problem that makes her unattractive to me.
“Randy, stop while you’re ahead, please,” Claire whines. “You’re being seriously disgusting, and I’m trying to eat.”
“You’ll fuck anyone, Randy,” Minnie accuses under her breath. “Aren’t you dating that one blonde?”
“Nope.” He scoffs. “Ole girl had two other boyfriends.”
“Ugh,” Claire groans. “That sucks.”
“You’ll bounce back.” Minnie slaps his bicep lightly in encouragement. “You can date anybody.”
“Not everybody.”
“Why?”
“Can’t date employees or parents.” His light brown eyes suddenly slice over to me. “It’s a damn shame.”
I stare completely frozen at him, not because he may have subtly hinted toward something, but because of what he said.
“That’s…really a rule?” I force from my lips. “Or is that a suggestion?”
“Suggestion,” Minnie replies. “But they find out, Principal Simpson is going to find a way to get rid of you.”
“Why?”
Claire clucks her tongue as if the thought is as irritating as it is for me. “Work ethic and…she doesn’t want to catch anything inappropriate in the school.”
“We’re adults.”
“She doesn’t care.”
That is ridiculous.
“That’s a lawsuit,” I convey with a scowl. “Wrongful termination.”
“In this town?” Claire’s brows lift to the ceiling. “You’ll be run out of town.”
What?
“Like the time Penny Walters sued Caesar Taylor over serving her coffee too hot.”
Minnie snaps her fingers. “Or the time Herman Lewis sued Darren Callum over allegedly copying his peach pie recipe.”
“When Tara Munoz tried to sue Michael Fender because he mowed over her grass, shaving two inches more than she does.”
“Or the park goose,” Randy chimes in the chaos. “Who chased Parker Andrews, and he threatened to sue the goose’s owner . Except…no one knows if anyone owns him.”
I’ve moved to Looney Town.
“All that to say,” Claire says matter-of-factly. “No one will serve Penny coffee. She has to pour it herself. No one will eat Darren’s pies anymore because they think he was being childish and insanely weird with the whole incident and Parker…”
“Will forever be trying to figure out the goose owner. It’ll haunt him for the rest of his life.”
“Sueing people in this small town,” Randy explains, “gets everyone involved.”
“But she’s firing people over their personal lives.”
“Yes. But if it involves the school, she’ll win. All the Karens want their children to be educated without the fear of teacher drama and something the kids could see. I would’ve dated you if not for the rule.”
My annoyed expression at this conversation drops. “What?”
“Randy, no,” Minnie chimes in. “She’s out of your league.”
My eyes clench at her. “I never said—”
“And too smart, too,” Claire tacks on because let’s take another shot at Randy’s ego while we’re at it. “Sienna is looking for a man who doesn’t still eat Fruity Pebbles for breakfast.”
“No, I’m not,” I defend because, I mean, there’s nothing wrong with Fruity Pebbles. Is it probably a bit—okay, I might look at it a little sideways maybe.
It’s cereal, who cares?
“You’re not?” Randy asks at the same time, Minnie retorts, “You are.”
I drop my head and begin rubbing my forehead because this is dumb. “It’s cereal. Unless Randy sits in SpongeBob pajama pants and watches the damn show while he’s eating Fruity Pebbles, I might need to evaluate it.”
“What about X-Men?”
I glance up at Randy, who is completely serious, by the way, and can’t help the bubble of laughter that spills from my lips.
This is one of the stupidest conversations I’ve had and, honestly, the most enlightening.
It’s exactly as I thought.
I can’t date Micah openly and publicly. And, even then, Principal Simpson might look at it weirdly since he’ll still be a parent to a student here.
This might be a pickle.
However, I think I may be willing to risk it when Heath is no longer in my classroom just to experience life underneath Luca Micah Wolfe.
Speaking of…
I pluck my cell phone from the table when Minnie prompts, “See?” She points her fork at poor Randy. “You need to grow up.”
“I am grown up,” he retorts. “Everyone has their quirks.”
“Like?”
“Because your name is Minnie, you’re obsessed with Minnie Mouse.”
I hear her scoff as I pull up my text message thread with Micah. “I am not.”
“Is that why you have a room full of memorabilia and—”
“Stop,” Minnie cuts in through Claire’s sentence. “That’s my mother. Not me.”
“Sure,” Randy drawls. “You’re a weird nerd like the rest of us.”
SIENNA: Romance in this town is hard. I’m listening to my colleagues discuss the latest affairs in town.
SIENNA: I miss you.
MICAH: I miss you, too, sweetheart.
He doesn’t add more to that sentence, but at the moment, I don’t need him to.
I believe him when he says he’s in this with me.
That he’s going to wait and make it hard.
He doesn’t have to try hard.
Every moment and second, I don’t see him makes me fall deeper into a word I dare not admit to anyone or anything.
Not yet.