Chapter Six:
Career Paths
Norah was incredibly edgy. And Greg wasn't helping. He called her about twenty times the night before from work to wish her luck on her first day of actually working by herself.
A "veteran sixth grade teacher," as the principal of the school put it, was to watch over her as something of a mentor. He was more like a hawk eyeing his prey. He made her very nervous because of how much he watched her. He always had something to say about her, too. From blocking the chalkboard to making her a's wrong.
She showered and blow-dried her hair. She chose a purple dark V-neck shirt with black pants and wore her glasses instead of her contacts because she thought she looked more sophisticated.
She walked into the kitchen and made some toast, even though she wasn't hungry. Plus, she thought her knotted stomach might force it back up if she tried to eat it, so she just set it on the counter.
She took a couple of deep breaths to untangle her stomach and started out the door. She slid into the driver's seat of her red Jetta and started it up. She glanced up at the rearview mirror to see a familiar face in a car behind hers.
"God, not again," she whispered at Owen strutted up to her car. He knocked on the window lightly. She rolled it down a smidgen. "Leave me alone. I have to get to work. Just -- leave me alone."
"Can we talk?"
Norah shook her head. "Your chance is over. It's over. I AM engaged now. To --"
"Oh, I know," he told her. "I know all about him."
She looked at him with confusion. "What?"
"No, no. It's nothing like that." He chuckled.
She looked at her car clock. "Look, I'm freaked out and I have to get to work."
"Can we talk? Please?" He asked. "I think you deserve an apology."
She looked at him skeptically. "Are you serious?"
He nodded.
"What are you getting from this?" Norah asked.
"A clear conscience."
"Fine," she sighed.
He smiled. "I'll call you about the details."
"I'm sure you will."
Owen walked back to his fancy car and unboxed Norah's car. She shook her head and pulled out of the apartment complex's parking lot and onto the street.
A few minutes passed before her cell phone rang. She pressed the biggest button on the phone. "Hello?" She smiled at the voice on the other end. "Greg, you've only been off work for, what? Two hours? Night shifts suck like that. Get some sleep."
"I can't. I'm so just so happy for you."
She laughed. "It's not a big deal. Now go to sleep!"
"Okay, but only if you come to lunch with me today."
"Fine." She took the bribe, thinking of all the things she had to talk about with him about Owen anyway.
"Luck."
She beamed. "Thanks. Bye." She hung up and parked into a parking spot not too far from the school. She started getting nauseous with every step she took toward the building. She picked up some attendance sheets from her make-shift mailbox, which was really a thin plastic bin with 'MS. STOKES' typed across the top, lined up with all the other teacher's.
She tried to sneak out of the main office of the establishment without being acknowledged about being late. She wasn't fast enough, though.
"Ms. Stokes, I presume," Mr. Carpenter, the principal, bellowed from his door.
Norah gave a weak smile as she spun around quickly to look at him. "Good morning, Mr. Carpenter." She glanced quickly at the clock above his head to discover that it was 5 minutes after school started.
"Mrs. Concord unlocked your door for your students."
"I'm sorry, there was a lot of traffic," Norah lied.
Mr. Carpenter squinted at her. "I'm sure," he noted dryly.
Norah bounced on her heels a bit. "Well, thank you. Bye." She dashed out of the main office like she was on fire and panic was setting in quickly. She rushed up the stairs and quickly ducked into her room to find a young man sitting in her desk and all the kids quietly and mischievously looking at him. Norah could almost see the horns poking out of their tiny heads. "I'm so sorry." Norah wondered why they would call a substitute in if she hadn't called in. The sub looked up at her. "I'm Ms. Strokes...this is my class." She gave a warm smile.
The man just stared at her with scared eyes, barely blinking. The kids giggled a bit. She looked at each child searching for answers.
He ran out of the room without saying anything.
Norah cocked an eyebrow and looked in the direction the rest of the class was looking -- at the class clown, Ethan. A wide grin was spread across his face. "Ethan, can you tell me what happened here?"
He shook his head.
"Can any of you?"
Madison raised her hand sheepishly. Madison was a bit left out by the other students, mainly because she tattled on them constantly. She was probably Norah's favorite, or so all the others thought.
"Yes, Madison?" Norah called on her.
She pulled her hand down and took a deep breath. "Ethan told Mr. Peterson you were dead." She nodded.
Norah tried not to laugh. These kids were smarter than they looked; she found that out the hard way. On her first day the pulled meaner pranks than all the senior classes in her old high school put together. But they said sorry the next day, she forgave them right away. She had to, how can you teach people who you dislike? Those huge missing-tooth smiles factored in, too, though. "That's so mean guy." She shook her head, holding back her grin.
They hung their heads. "Sorry," they said in unison.
Emily spoke up. "We just KNEW you were coming in today and it seemed like the best prank of the millenium!"
Norah smirked. She changed the subject, "Well, guys, as you can see we don't have Mr. Cobble with us any more," she said referring to the "experienced sixth grade teacher." "It's just me and you. I want to get to know you guys the best I can. I made up a print-off with twenty questions on it. Find a partner and ask that person the questions and then fill the sheet out. This way we'll all learn something new about someone."
Once the word 'partner' was said everyone got antsy. They glanced around frantically at their best friends silently asking if they wanted to be their partner.
"Okay, go for it. Lindsey, want to be my partner -- since there's an odd number?"
Lindsey nodded. Catherine transferred Lindsey into Norah's class after a week of school. Lindsey wasn't happy there, except for when Norah talked to her. She was basically friendless, but she didn't complain since her best friend wasn't in her other class anyway.
Erin pulled her blue-seated chair over to Madison's desk. Ethan and Autumn were apparently the newest, cutest couple in the sixth grade. Autumn instructed Ethan firmly to turn down Justin's request to work together. Justin didn't mind though, he just worked with his other best friend, Adam. Emily turned her desk around to face her best friend Cassy. Jimmy was disappointed at his buds for leaving him out and joined his friend Gabriel, although he'd probably have to dodge the comments of his decision from the members of his buddies for the rest of the day. Devin and Chris sat against a wall by the door, pens and papers in hand. Zoë and her sidekick Bethany sat in another corner giggling.
Lindsey looked at her fourteen classmates and frowned before looking at Norah, who had rolled her chair over to Lindsey's desk. She forced a smile. "Okay, question number one. What's your full name?"
"Norah Elizabeth Stokes."
"Soon to be Sanders," Lindsey grinned. She felt a bit better, even though the wishes for acceptance were still fresh in her mind.
Norah couldn't stop the smile on her face from forming either.
Once the class was done they returned to their seats.
"Okay, who wants to present their information about their partner first?" Norah asked, standing in the front of the room. Zoë's hand shot up first. "Okay, Zoë. Would you like to stand in the front of the room?"
She nodded and walked up to the front of the room. "My partner was Bethany." She smiled at Bethany. "Her full name is Bethany Audrey Kipper. Her birthday's January 9th. Her favorite subject is social studies and she likes to watch television. The funniest word is llama and her dad is a construction worker and her mom is a paleontologist. Oh, and her best friend is me." Zoë beamed as if to tell the others 'and you're not.' She slowly took her seat, squeezing out every bit of attention from her classmates she could get.
The other interview results were pretty much congruent to Zoë's.
Norah stood up in front of everyone again. "My partner was Lindsey. Her full name is Lindsey Marie Willows and her birthday is May 16th. Her favorite subject is English. She likes to listen to music and hang out with her friends. The funniest word she knows is hankie." Norah paused while the boys laughed. Autumn nudged Ethan to get him to stop as the other girls also scoured. "Her best friend's Brianna Booth. And her mother's a forensic scientist."
"What does a forensic scientist do?" Cassy asked coyly from the back row.
"A person who uses science and technology to investigate and establish facts in courts of law," Chris answered from the front row.
Norah blinked. She sometimes wondered how she got in the front of the class. Chris was one of the smartest children in the state, let alone their 15-student class -- the smallest in the school.
The whole class gave a few awkward 'oh's, pretending they actually understood him.
"Like a lawyer?" One timid voice ventured into the Land of Embarrassment.
Norah looked back at Cassy. "No, no...but they gather and process the evidence the lawyer's use to put the criminals in jail."
Cassy nodded and gave a more solid smile.
"How come you know so much about it?" Devin asked.
"Well, my uncle and my fiancé work with Lindsey's mom."
"So, this has to do with science?" Gabriel asked, trying to get everything totally cleared up. Her little nose was scrunched up with confusion.
Norah nodded. "Yep."
"I want to be a forensic scientist when I grow up!" Justin shouted, hardly being able to contain his excitement.
Norah grinned. She looked up at the clock on the east wall of the classroom. Their interview took a little longer than she expected it would. "Guys, guys. It's time for lunch." She tried to shush the enthusiastic children surrounding Lindsey, penetrating her with questions from all directions.
They all lined up at the door, pulling an overwhelmed Lindsey all over the place.
"Sit with me, Linds!" Autumn shouted.
Zoë glared at Autumn. "She already said yes to me!"
"You can Chinese cut me, Lindsey -- if you want." Adam grinned.
"Well, actually, I promised my best friend - Brianna - I'd sit with her." Lindsey said and pushed her way to her rightful spot in the back of the line.
Zoë, the most popular girl in the sixth grade class - and probably the most conniving, followed her. "You AND Brianna can sit with me."
Bethany looked back at her best friend. "What? What about me? There's not enough room at our table for four people." She shook her head.
Zoë shrugged this off as just another one of Bethany's pleas for attention.
Norah turned off the light to show the kids she meant business. They quietly stood at attention, everyone looking at Norah, who opened the door to reveal Greg. She turned quickly and ran into him. The kids giggled. "Sorry," she smiled. "I just have to take them down to the cafeteria."
"Okay." Greg grinned back. "Can I come with you guys?"
"Yeah." Norah swiveled back around to face her class. "Okay, guys. This is Greg, my fiancé."
"You guys are getting married?" Ethan asked.
"The forensic scientist?" Justin blurted out.
Norah watched Lindsey wave to Greg from the back of the line. "He's a chemist, yes. And yes, we are getting married," She answered all the questions as fast as possible, to get the kids down to lunch just as fast. She swiftly turned again and led the class down the hall, like a family of ducks taking a trip to a pond. Norah and Greg left the children at their normal tables in the cafeteria and headed out toward the front of the school.
"Ms. Stokes," a voice stopped the couple in their tacks.
"Yes, Mr. Carpenter?"
"Your cousin, Abigail Stokes, got in trouble and the primary school can't reach her parents." He continued after a second's pause. "I'll give you the rest of the day off, if you need it."
"Thank you, sir." Norah walked out the door and down the fifteen feet of parking lot to Greg's car.
"So, that's your boss?" Greg asked, a step behind Norah. "He seems nice."
"That's because you don't work with him." Norah said, traces of bitterness fresh on her tongue.
Greg shook his head and laughed a little bit. He unlocked the passenger side for Norah and then walked around the front of the blue car to the driver side. "What do you think she got in trouble for this time?"
"Maybe she explained sex to the kids again," Norah suggested.
"Lydia's going to be mad." Greg chuckled, "And Nick will probably be proud."
Norah laughed, too. "Probably. They're totally different from each other, it's kind of weird."
"I guess opposites DO attract." Greg pulled into the parking lot. After parking the car, the two walked into the school. Norah opened the glass door to reveal a pouting girl in a stained, pink sundress in her father's comforting arms, her embarrassed mother shouted, although no one was listening.
"What happened?" Norah asked no one in particular.
Abby burst out the story before anyone else could, making sure to add her opinion on this whole catastrophe. "Matthew the Bonehead made fun of my dress because it's prettier than him and I told him he was jealous - and he is! And he threw his cupcake that I made on my dress! So I punched him in his big, fat tummy."
Greg squinted. "Why did you guys have cupcakes?"
"For Abby's birthday," Lydia answered.
"You would think that people would remember the most important day of the whole year!" Abby rolled her eyes and threw her tiny hands into the air.
"I knew that, Baby Abby. I just wanted to see if you remembered." Greg tried to save himself.
Abby shook her head. "Sure, Mister Hair Man."
"Abby, don't you think your story was kind of biased?"
Abby stuck out her tongue. "No way! It's the truth." She nodded matter-of- factly.
Greg wondered silently if she really knew the meaning of 'biased,' not even sure that he did.
Just then, two more parents walked into the main office. The woman had sandy-colored hair and brown, almost black eyes. The man they assumed to be either her husband or her lawyer had a black suit on and his hair was neatly parted. A little boy with the same expression that Abby had on his face tagged along. He, too, wore cupcake stained clothes.
Abby tightened her facial expression into a glare. She whispered the words "Matthew the Bonehead" in the little boy's direction.
The little boy mouthed "Abby the Whining Monkey Butt."
The four parents sat down at some chairs, while Norah and Greg waited outside a window looking into the office. As their conversation grew into a full-out brawl, Norah noticed that the two kindergartners had drifted away from their parents. They were talking, without names and glaring. Norah smiled and nudged Greg as she saw the two kids sneak a quick kiss. She thought she was he only one spying on them, until Nick jumped out of his seat.
"Abby?"
Abby looked at her father innocently. "Yes, daddy?"
"Why were you kissing that boy?" Nick asked.
"Daddy," Abby filled her tiny lungs with air and then let it out. "Me and Matthew are enraged." Matthew whispered something into her ear and she shook her head. "I mean, engaged."
Lydia's expression softened as Nick's grew harder.
"What? How can you be engaged? He's barely old enough to buy his own damn bellybutton lint, let alone an engagement ring."
Now Lydia had jumped up. "Nicholas Stokes! Watch your mouth!" She pulled her husband and her daughter out of the office. She said 'sorry' to Matthew's parents and walked past Norah and Greg. After getting the little girl buckled in she got herself settled into the front seat. "Aren't you happy? Our daughter's in love, Nick."
"She's four-years-old, she doesn't know what love is." Nick scowled.
Abby was too busy singing the Spider Song to care what her parents were talking about.
Lydia shook her head. "It's not like they're REALLY going to get married. Isn't it just cute they like each other?"
Nick sighed and started to think. He finally whispered, "I don't think I can handle loosing my baby."
"You're not loosing a daughter, just gaining a son." Lydia smirked.
Nick shook his head. "I don't think I can handle a cupcake-throwing son-in- law. Can you imagine the food fights at Thanksgiving?"
Lydia laughed for the first time in a long time.
Career Paths
Norah was incredibly edgy. And Greg wasn't helping. He called her about twenty times the night before from work to wish her luck on her first day of actually working by herself.
A "veteran sixth grade teacher," as the principal of the school put it, was to watch over her as something of a mentor. He was more like a hawk eyeing his prey. He made her very nervous because of how much he watched her. He always had something to say about her, too. From blocking the chalkboard to making her a's wrong.
She showered and blow-dried her hair. She chose a purple dark V-neck shirt with black pants and wore her glasses instead of her contacts because she thought she looked more sophisticated.
She walked into the kitchen and made some toast, even though she wasn't hungry. Plus, she thought her knotted stomach might force it back up if she tried to eat it, so she just set it on the counter.
She took a couple of deep breaths to untangle her stomach and started out the door. She slid into the driver's seat of her red Jetta and started it up. She glanced up at the rearview mirror to see a familiar face in a car behind hers.
"God, not again," she whispered at Owen strutted up to her car. He knocked on the window lightly. She rolled it down a smidgen. "Leave me alone. I have to get to work. Just -- leave me alone."
"Can we talk?"
Norah shook her head. "Your chance is over. It's over. I AM engaged now. To --"
"Oh, I know," he told her. "I know all about him."
She looked at him with confusion. "What?"
"No, no. It's nothing like that." He chuckled.
She looked at her car clock. "Look, I'm freaked out and I have to get to work."
"Can we talk? Please?" He asked. "I think you deserve an apology."
She looked at him skeptically. "Are you serious?"
He nodded.
"What are you getting from this?" Norah asked.
"A clear conscience."
"Fine," she sighed.
He smiled. "I'll call you about the details."
"I'm sure you will."
Owen walked back to his fancy car and unboxed Norah's car. She shook her head and pulled out of the apartment complex's parking lot and onto the street.
A few minutes passed before her cell phone rang. She pressed the biggest button on the phone. "Hello?" She smiled at the voice on the other end. "Greg, you've only been off work for, what? Two hours? Night shifts suck like that. Get some sleep."
"I can't. I'm so just so happy for you."
She laughed. "It's not a big deal. Now go to sleep!"
"Okay, but only if you come to lunch with me today."
"Fine." She took the bribe, thinking of all the things she had to talk about with him about Owen anyway.
"Luck."
She beamed. "Thanks. Bye." She hung up and parked into a parking spot not too far from the school. She started getting nauseous with every step she took toward the building. She picked up some attendance sheets from her make-shift mailbox, which was really a thin plastic bin with 'MS. STOKES' typed across the top, lined up with all the other teacher's.
She tried to sneak out of the main office of the establishment without being acknowledged about being late. She wasn't fast enough, though.
"Ms. Stokes, I presume," Mr. Carpenter, the principal, bellowed from his door.
Norah gave a weak smile as she spun around quickly to look at him. "Good morning, Mr. Carpenter." She glanced quickly at the clock above his head to discover that it was 5 minutes after school started.
"Mrs. Concord unlocked your door for your students."
"I'm sorry, there was a lot of traffic," Norah lied.
Mr. Carpenter squinted at her. "I'm sure," he noted dryly.
Norah bounced on her heels a bit. "Well, thank you. Bye." She dashed out of the main office like she was on fire and panic was setting in quickly. She rushed up the stairs and quickly ducked into her room to find a young man sitting in her desk and all the kids quietly and mischievously looking at him. Norah could almost see the horns poking out of their tiny heads. "I'm so sorry." Norah wondered why they would call a substitute in if she hadn't called in. The sub looked up at her. "I'm Ms. Strokes...this is my class." She gave a warm smile.
The man just stared at her with scared eyes, barely blinking. The kids giggled a bit. She looked at each child searching for answers.
He ran out of the room without saying anything.
Norah cocked an eyebrow and looked in the direction the rest of the class was looking -- at the class clown, Ethan. A wide grin was spread across his face. "Ethan, can you tell me what happened here?"
He shook his head.
"Can any of you?"
Madison raised her hand sheepishly. Madison was a bit left out by the other students, mainly because she tattled on them constantly. She was probably Norah's favorite, or so all the others thought.
"Yes, Madison?" Norah called on her.
She pulled her hand down and took a deep breath. "Ethan told Mr. Peterson you were dead." She nodded.
Norah tried not to laugh. These kids were smarter than they looked; she found that out the hard way. On her first day the pulled meaner pranks than all the senior classes in her old high school put together. But they said sorry the next day, she forgave them right away. She had to, how can you teach people who you dislike? Those huge missing-tooth smiles factored in, too, though. "That's so mean guy." She shook her head, holding back her grin.
They hung their heads. "Sorry," they said in unison.
Emily spoke up. "We just KNEW you were coming in today and it seemed like the best prank of the millenium!"
Norah smirked. She changed the subject, "Well, guys, as you can see we don't have Mr. Cobble with us any more," she said referring to the "experienced sixth grade teacher." "It's just me and you. I want to get to know you guys the best I can. I made up a print-off with twenty questions on it. Find a partner and ask that person the questions and then fill the sheet out. This way we'll all learn something new about someone."
Once the word 'partner' was said everyone got antsy. They glanced around frantically at their best friends silently asking if they wanted to be their partner.
"Okay, go for it. Lindsey, want to be my partner -- since there's an odd number?"
Lindsey nodded. Catherine transferred Lindsey into Norah's class after a week of school. Lindsey wasn't happy there, except for when Norah talked to her. She was basically friendless, but she didn't complain since her best friend wasn't in her other class anyway.
Erin pulled her blue-seated chair over to Madison's desk. Ethan and Autumn were apparently the newest, cutest couple in the sixth grade. Autumn instructed Ethan firmly to turn down Justin's request to work together. Justin didn't mind though, he just worked with his other best friend, Adam. Emily turned her desk around to face her best friend Cassy. Jimmy was disappointed at his buds for leaving him out and joined his friend Gabriel, although he'd probably have to dodge the comments of his decision from the members of his buddies for the rest of the day. Devin and Chris sat against a wall by the door, pens and papers in hand. Zoë and her sidekick Bethany sat in another corner giggling.
Lindsey looked at her fourteen classmates and frowned before looking at Norah, who had rolled her chair over to Lindsey's desk. She forced a smile. "Okay, question number one. What's your full name?"
"Norah Elizabeth Stokes."
"Soon to be Sanders," Lindsey grinned. She felt a bit better, even though the wishes for acceptance were still fresh in her mind.
Norah couldn't stop the smile on her face from forming either.
Once the class was done they returned to their seats.
"Okay, who wants to present their information about their partner first?" Norah asked, standing in the front of the room. Zoë's hand shot up first. "Okay, Zoë. Would you like to stand in the front of the room?"
She nodded and walked up to the front of the room. "My partner was Bethany." She smiled at Bethany. "Her full name is Bethany Audrey Kipper. Her birthday's January 9th. Her favorite subject is social studies and she likes to watch television. The funniest word is llama and her dad is a construction worker and her mom is a paleontologist. Oh, and her best friend is me." Zoë beamed as if to tell the others 'and you're not.' She slowly took her seat, squeezing out every bit of attention from her classmates she could get.
The other interview results were pretty much congruent to Zoë's.
Norah stood up in front of everyone again. "My partner was Lindsey. Her full name is Lindsey Marie Willows and her birthday is May 16th. Her favorite subject is English. She likes to listen to music and hang out with her friends. The funniest word she knows is hankie." Norah paused while the boys laughed. Autumn nudged Ethan to get him to stop as the other girls also scoured. "Her best friend's Brianna Booth. And her mother's a forensic scientist."
"What does a forensic scientist do?" Cassy asked coyly from the back row.
"A person who uses science and technology to investigate and establish facts in courts of law," Chris answered from the front row.
Norah blinked. She sometimes wondered how she got in the front of the class. Chris was one of the smartest children in the state, let alone their 15-student class -- the smallest in the school.
The whole class gave a few awkward 'oh's, pretending they actually understood him.
"Like a lawyer?" One timid voice ventured into the Land of Embarrassment.
Norah looked back at Cassy. "No, no...but they gather and process the evidence the lawyer's use to put the criminals in jail."
Cassy nodded and gave a more solid smile.
"How come you know so much about it?" Devin asked.
"Well, my uncle and my fiancé work with Lindsey's mom."
"So, this has to do with science?" Gabriel asked, trying to get everything totally cleared up. Her little nose was scrunched up with confusion.
Norah nodded. "Yep."
"I want to be a forensic scientist when I grow up!" Justin shouted, hardly being able to contain his excitement.
Norah grinned. She looked up at the clock on the east wall of the classroom. Their interview took a little longer than she expected it would. "Guys, guys. It's time for lunch." She tried to shush the enthusiastic children surrounding Lindsey, penetrating her with questions from all directions.
They all lined up at the door, pulling an overwhelmed Lindsey all over the place.
"Sit with me, Linds!" Autumn shouted.
Zoë glared at Autumn. "She already said yes to me!"
"You can Chinese cut me, Lindsey -- if you want." Adam grinned.
"Well, actually, I promised my best friend - Brianna - I'd sit with her." Lindsey said and pushed her way to her rightful spot in the back of the line.
Zoë, the most popular girl in the sixth grade class - and probably the most conniving, followed her. "You AND Brianna can sit with me."
Bethany looked back at her best friend. "What? What about me? There's not enough room at our table for four people." She shook her head.
Zoë shrugged this off as just another one of Bethany's pleas for attention.
Norah turned off the light to show the kids she meant business. They quietly stood at attention, everyone looking at Norah, who opened the door to reveal Greg. She turned quickly and ran into him. The kids giggled. "Sorry," she smiled. "I just have to take them down to the cafeteria."
"Okay." Greg grinned back. "Can I come with you guys?"
"Yeah." Norah swiveled back around to face her class. "Okay, guys. This is Greg, my fiancé."
"You guys are getting married?" Ethan asked.
"The forensic scientist?" Justin blurted out.
Norah watched Lindsey wave to Greg from the back of the line. "He's a chemist, yes. And yes, we are getting married," She answered all the questions as fast as possible, to get the kids down to lunch just as fast. She swiftly turned again and led the class down the hall, like a family of ducks taking a trip to a pond. Norah and Greg left the children at their normal tables in the cafeteria and headed out toward the front of the school.
"Ms. Stokes," a voice stopped the couple in their tacks.
"Yes, Mr. Carpenter?"
"Your cousin, Abigail Stokes, got in trouble and the primary school can't reach her parents." He continued after a second's pause. "I'll give you the rest of the day off, if you need it."
"Thank you, sir." Norah walked out the door and down the fifteen feet of parking lot to Greg's car.
"So, that's your boss?" Greg asked, a step behind Norah. "He seems nice."
"That's because you don't work with him." Norah said, traces of bitterness fresh on her tongue.
Greg shook his head and laughed a little bit. He unlocked the passenger side for Norah and then walked around the front of the blue car to the driver side. "What do you think she got in trouble for this time?"
"Maybe she explained sex to the kids again," Norah suggested.
"Lydia's going to be mad." Greg chuckled, "And Nick will probably be proud."
Norah laughed, too. "Probably. They're totally different from each other, it's kind of weird."
"I guess opposites DO attract." Greg pulled into the parking lot. After parking the car, the two walked into the school. Norah opened the glass door to reveal a pouting girl in a stained, pink sundress in her father's comforting arms, her embarrassed mother shouted, although no one was listening.
"What happened?" Norah asked no one in particular.
Abby burst out the story before anyone else could, making sure to add her opinion on this whole catastrophe. "Matthew the Bonehead made fun of my dress because it's prettier than him and I told him he was jealous - and he is! And he threw his cupcake that I made on my dress! So I punched him in his big, fat tummy."
Greg squinted. "Why did you guys have cupcakes?"
"For Abby's birthday," Lydia answered.
"You would think that people would remember the most important day of the whole year!" Abby rolled her eyes and threw her tiny hands into the air.
"I knew that, Baby Abby. I just wanted to see if you remembered." Greg tried to save himself.
Abby shook her head. "Sure, Mister Hair Man."
"Abby, don't you think your story was kind of biased?"
Abby stuck out her tongue. "No way! It's the truth." She nodded matter-of- factly.
Greg wondered silently if she really knew the meaning of 'biased,' not even sure that he did.
Just then, two more parents walked into the main office. The woman had sandy-colored hair and brown, almost black eyes. The man they assumed to be either her husband or her lawyer had a black suit on and his hair was neatly parted. A little boy with the same expression that Abby had on his face tagged along. He, too, wore cupcake stained clothes.
Abby tightened her facial expression into a glare. She whispered the words "Matthew the Bonehead" in the little boy's direction.
The little boy mouthed "Abby the Whining Monkey Butt."
The four parents sat down at some chairs, while Norah and Greg waited outside a window looking into the office. As their conversation grew into a full-out brawl, Norah noticed that the two kindergartners had drifted away from their parents. They were talking, without names and glaring. Norah smiled and nudged Greg as she saw the two kids sneak a quick kiss. She thought she was he only one spying on them, until Nick jumped out of his seat.
"Abby?"
Abby looked at her father innocently. "Yes, daddy?"
"Why were you kissing that boy?" Nick asked.
"Daddy," Abby filled her tiny lungs with air and then let it out. "Me and Matthew are enraged." Matthew whispered something into her ear and she shook her head. "I mean, engaged."
Lydia's expression softened as Nick's grew harder.
"What? How can you be engaged? He's barely old enough to buy his own damn bellybutton lint, let alone an engagement ring."
Now Lydia had jumped up. "Nicholas Stokes! Watch your mouth!" She pulled her husband and her daughter out of the office. She said 'sorry' to Matthew's parents and walked past Norah and Greg. After getting the little girl buckled in she got herself settled into the front seat. "Aren't you happy? Our daughter's in love, Nick."
"She's four-years-old, she doesn't know what love is." Nick scowled.
Abby was too busy singing the Spider Song to care what her parents were talking about.
Lydia shook her head. "It's not like they're REALLY going to get married. Isn't it just cute they like each other?"
Nick sighed and started to think. He finally whispered, "I don't think I can handle loosing my baby."
"You're not loosing a daughter, just gaining a son." Lydia smirked.
Nick shook his head. "I don't think I can handle a cupcake-throwing son-in- law. Can you imagine the food fights at Thanksgiving?"
Lydia laughed for the first time in a long time.