PTA
“I won’t be able to join you for pickup.”?
I looked up to see Aegis walking grimly up to my desk.
“Aw,” Jade said, frowning. “You want me to take your car? You’ve got Lucy’s booster seat, right?”
“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair. He was covered in oil stains, and had the distinct, very strong smell of cars on him. “Lawrence’s car has some weird stuff going on under the hood. I’m thinking he’s tried to do some home repairs, but all he’s done is made a mess.”
I exchanged a look with Jade. “He won’t like hearing that.”
“Tell me about it. I’ve got to find a political method for telling him that more was wrong with his car than he came in for.”
“Maybe find a way to get him to figure it out?” I said hopefully.
Aegis groaned, rubbing his temples. “Most likely, yes. I’ll have to spend some time guiding him through the correct problems, so he doesn’t feel like I’m babying him.”
I frowned. There had to be a way to resolve this issue once and for all… but as an outsider with only the bare minimum knowledge, I was poorly equipped to do much of anything.
Jade and I made our way out to the car quickly, and I turned to watch Aegis heading back into the garage. Paul was waiting for him, and I could see the big guy happily chattering away, even at this distance.
“I always thought Ivy would get with Paul,” I commented. “She had a big thing for him back in High School.”
Jade snorted. “For that to happen, Paul would have to notice something other than his monster trucks for once. He’s absolutely garbage at anything like that… and I’m not really sure if Ivy still likes him that way.” She looked pensive. “Since Marcus’s death, Ivy’s kind of put all that stuff to the side. She’s really been focusing on her career.”
“Yeah.” I sighed, sliding into the passenger seat of Aegis’s car. “I wish I’d been there.”
“Everyone’s got something they’re not sharing,” Jade mused. She glanced at me. “Including you, if I guess right.”
I shrugged, but said nothing.
“For starters…”
I tensed up, wondering if she was going to seriously try to make me spill everything right here about that night-
“Aegis came home looking incredibly pleased last night.”
I choked on my own spit. “I- what?” I wheezed.
“Did anything happen between you two?”
I gave her a stricken look. “Are you insane? Aegis isn’t interested in me.”
“Oh, be serious,” Jade scoffed. “You have to be joking.”
“No! I’m not!”
“If he’s not madly in love with you, then you’re not madly in love with him!”
“I am not madly in love with him!”
“Oh, right, yeah, and Ivy’s an English teacher.”
I threw my hands up, exasperated. “I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. You guys are all meddlers, I swear. I’ve been there, done that with the dating scene. I don’t need to go through that heartbreak again.”
Jade snorted. “You really think Aegis is the type to leave you high and dry? You realize he’s never dated anyone, right? Like, ever?”
I stared at her in disbelief. “That’s a flat lie.”
“Nope. Aegis is very careful about his actions and his decisions. He thinks everything through.”
“He was never interested in me before,” I argued. “And I’ve been gone for ten years, Jade. He’s seen me for less than four days. That’s not enough time for anyone to fall for someone.”
A small smile appeared on her face, but there was a tinge of sadness. “You didn’t see your almost-funeral. Remember, we all thought you were dead. Before Agent Rodriguez got there to clear things up, people were giving eulogies for you. Your actions for everyone were laid bare before the entire town.”
That was mortifying. “I never did anything for any kind of accolades,” I said, defensive.
“I know.” Jade shrugged her shoulders. “I was one of those people sharing stories, Sylvie. But we all thought you were dead. No one knew where you’d gone otherwise, or why you’d just… take off. Rudy had a hard time getting everyone to believe otherwise. I mean, why would you miss the funeral?”
I felt myself pale. The distant echo of screams sounded at the back of my mind, where the memories were the dustiest… and yet, the most persistent. “I had reasons.”
Jade glanced at me, frowning slightly. “I know that. We all do. But that’s not the point- the point is, Aegis has had ten years to discover exactly what kind of person you were.”
“I’m not that person anymore. He’s setting himself up for disappointment.”
“You haven’t changed as much as you think you have,” Jade said.
By now, we’d arrived at the school, and we stepped breezily out into the chill fall air. The leaves were turning that beautiful golden color, and I relished it for a moment. The smell in the air was crisp and clear and clean, and I tried to release all of the stress I’d built up over the years.
It didn’t work, but it was a nice effort.
As we approached the school, I had some small apprehension that something else might be brewing for us, but thankfully it was the opposite. Dylan and Collin were waiting near the front and talking animatedly with Annie. Her brother was nowhere in sight.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Brittani.
“Without your guard dog, I see.”
I whipped my head around in disbelief, because I hadn’t seen her anywhere. When did I just lose all sorts of situational awareness?! I thought, exasperated.
Brittani was striding toward us in her best dressed apparel. Behind her were a few familiar faces: possibly her old posse from back in High School, when she’d ruled through fear alone.
“Ah,” Jade said, coming to stand beside me. “The PTA.”
Oh, it so figured that she was in the PTA.
“President of the PTA,” Brittani corrected, smiling at us frostily. “Heard Lawrence had to take his car in. He’s got a lot of work to do, or he’d fix it himself.”
I assumed a poker face. “Of course. Anything to help out a member of the pack.”
Jade elbowed me slightly, and that poker face nearly collapsed.
“Look,” Brittani said, shifting her weight. “I don’t know if anyone’s told you, but you’ve come at a very eventful period of time. The school is hosting the Fall Festival on Friday, and students from all over town- even from other packs- are allowed to visit.”
I exchanged a look with Jade, and she shrugged, looking uncertain. “I didn’t know about that,” I said, turning back.
“Your kids didn’t let you know?” Brittani asked, giving a pointedly disparaging look toward Dylan and Collin.
Both of them flushed- or Collin looked like he did, anyway. “We were busy,” Dylan said hotly. “We’ve only been here four days. It slipped our minds.”
“Mom,” Annie said softly, and I saw Brittani screw up her face before turning back to me and forcing a smile.
“Anyway,” she said, trying to affect a friendly tone and failing miserably, “I was wondering if you wanted to try to… assist… the PTA in preparing for the event.”
I raised my eyebrows, suspicious but cautiously interested. “Of course. We’re apart of the town, too, any way we can help.”
Her smile widened, making her look a little creepy. “Great. Look, we are still missing some items for the buffet table, so if you could get all of this done by Friday and bring it in fresh by 5:00pm, that would be just great.”
She popped a packet of papers from a folder she kept in the crook of her arm and proffered them toward me.
My heart was already sinking as I accepted it. The top pages of the packet were outlining the general flow of the event, complete with a timetable and a section that further explained who was running which event at which location on school grounds.
“It’ll be held here at the Middle School this year,” Brittani explained, flipping her hair off of her shoulder. “We’ve got a larger parking lot we can use to set up the tables.”
I flipped to the last page, and there was a section already highlighted for me in yellow with my name written across the top. She knew I would accept, I thought, but as I stared at the page, that slipped from my mind as disbelief settled in.
“Brittani,” I said, looking up at her, “this is a lot of food. Like- the whole desert menu is on me?”
“I’m handling one half of the vegan table,” one of the other ladies said sweetly.
“There are like six different pies in here, at least three different kinds of cookies, and you want me to bring four different cakes?” I looked the page over.
“What, too much?” Brittani said, eyebrows raising. “I handle that every year.”
Your parents are filthy rich, I thought, trying to reign in my panic. “I don’t have time to get all of this done,” I said, staring at her. “I work, you know. I only have one oven.”
“Wow. Everyone keeps talking about what a great mother you are,” one of Brittani’s friends said. “If only they new how fast you gave up on them.”
“That’s low,” Jade cut in, nearly growling. She looked more angry than I had ever seen her.
“You’ve got no control over me,” Brittani said, examining her nails. “Your blackmail’s long run out.”
I gave Jade a confused look, but she didn’t elaborate.
“Bring the items on the list, or don’t.” Brittani adjusted her purse and gave me one of those saccharine smiles. “It’s up to you what you get done, but you’re not the only mom who works around here.”
I bit my tongue to avoid pointing out that I was also a single mother, but then again, I probably wasn’t the only one of those, either.
“Come on, Annie baby,” Brittani said, turning toward her daughter. I was at least relieved to see that her general nastiness apparently didn’t stretch to include her children, because she gave her the most genuinely soft expression I’d ever seen her wear. “We’ve got some finishing touches to do on our workload.”
Annie gave me a tight smile, and I tried to give her a reassuring one. Just because your mother and I are old enemies, doesn’t mean I blame you, I wanted to tell her… but I couldn’t tell if she got the message.
Brittani led the charge, turning on her heel with a dramatic flair of her hair and marched off toward her car. Annie turned to wave goodbye to the twins, before racing off after her mother.
“Man,” Dylan said, frowning. “Was she always like that?”
“Worse,” Jade muttered. “Come on. Everyone, to the car.”
“What did she mean by blackmail?” I asked, frowning at her.
“It’s not important.”
I could tell Jade was bothered by what Brittani had said, and I wanted to know. The memory of Brittani’s cruelty back in 11th grade was bad enough, but it suddenly struck me that my senior year had been suspiciously quiet, and that she’d mostly left me alone. The cobwebs were clearing, albeit slowly.
“Did you do something to Brittani, back in the day?” I asked, when we’d all slid into the car and began heading off toward Lucy’s school.
“Well…” Jade became embarrassed. “Sort of.”
“Whoa.” Dylan leaned forward. “Secret lore. This is so cool!”
“Shut up, dude,” Collin hissed, dragging him back.
“I just… you know.” Jade drummed her fingers on the wheel. “You stuck your neck out for me all that time ago. You took the heat off of me. In return, I got you turned into a laughing stock at school.”
“What?” The twins said, immediately looking at me. “What happened?”
“Brittani found my diary,” I said, picking and choosing what to share from that horrible event. “She read it out loud over the speakers to the entire school.”
“It was horrific,” Jade muttered. “Your mom gave up a lot for me. A lot. She would have been a laughing stock for her senior year if Brittani had her way.”
“But?” I prompted staring at her.
“I, uh…” She stared straight ahead. “I found Brittani at the store… and she had a pregnancy stick in her hand.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“This was way before anyone knew she was really with Lawrence,” Jade explained. “Like, during the summer just before our Senior year. I managed to get a picture of her with it, and she swore to leave you alone if I promised not to show the entire town that she was being… uh. Risky. Only reason it worked was because her parents were so conservative. She was terrified at thw thought of them finding out.”
“Whoa,” Dylan whispered.
I stared. “I… I never thought you capable of something like that.”
“You were having a really hard time, and Brittani was clearly never going to let it go,” Jade said quickly. “It was our senior year. No way I wanted to let her get away with ruining our last year of high school, so you know, I… yeah.”
I was stunned. The Jade I remembered from High School, even at this time in the story, was so far from this Jade that I could scarcely believe it. Jade blackmailing anyone, even now, seemed like the ultimate stretch, but… no wonder she didn’t get along with Brittani.
“Did mom really help you that much?” Collin asked, voice quiet.
Jade glanced into the rear-view mirror. “I wish I could explain to you just how much Britt and her crew of sycophants tortured me. I was the very last werewolf to shift, and the very last werewolf to get form mastery. They never let me forget it.”
“They were like, 90% of the problem,” I muttered.
“Yeah, that too.”
“Wait, how?” Collin leaned forward in his seat, looking suddenly interested.
“Stress is known to delay shifting,” I explained. “The more relaxed you are, the more likely your body will acclimate.”
“Stress releases chemicals that can block and even aggravate the werewolf genes that are just starting to integrate themselves,” Jade added. “I was… very stressed. Your mom came in like a guardian angel. She and Ivy used to make Brittani mad all the time.”
“Yeah, but I heard mom had a thing for Aegis,” Collin said, scoffing.
“Hey!”
“That’s not why she did it,” Jade said, smiling slightly. “She never told him what he did for me. He didn’t really find out about her part in my life until we all thought Sylvia was dead.”
That made Collin go silent. I glanced at him, and I saw conflicting emotions on his face. I had to wonder what he was thinking, what he was struggling with… but when he saw me looking his way, he regained control of his expression and immediately turned toward Dylan.
My heart squeezed. I’ve managed to help everyone except my own kids, who I’ve failed, I thought, miserable.
Being a mother really wasn’t for the weak of heart.