AN: My apologies on the lateness of this chapter. I have few remolding projects going on that's been taking up my time. Hope you're still reading and doing well. :)
"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." -Colin Powell
Jon was in the kitchen early Tuesday morning, suspiciously inspecting the coffee machine for traces of dirt before starting it up. As the machine began to percolate, Jon fell into his morning routine, making sure everything was in place for Audrey when she got up and that he had everything he needed for work.
Work.
The superintendent gave heavy sigh at the thought of having to go into the office. He would have much preferred to take at least half a day off, but he couldn't. His wife would need him at the end of the school year and he couldn't afford to give up those days now. He couldn't help but cringe at the thought of the baby. Audrey had a doctor's appointment next week and as much as he hated to admit it, he did not want to go. He had considered making up an excuse not to and asking Shawn to take her instead. Jon sighed again. Ultimately, there was no way he could do that to her. It wasn't fair to her and she'd been more than tolerant with him and this job that left her the sole caretaker of house and kids. He owed it to her to be there, regardless of his feelings about this baby.
As the aroma of hot Colombian roast filled the room, Jon tried to pull himself away from the guilt-ridden dread that the thought of this new child filled him with. In all honesty, he missed his wife. They had very little time together and the time they did have was tense due to the stress they were under or they were too tired to even talk. He missed the early morning hours before the kids were awake and Audrey would join him in the kitchen. But ever since her second trimester started she'd had trouble sleeping and often had trouble getting up in time to get Grayson and Jamie to school. He felt guilty about that too.
If there was any bright spot in the last month it was certainly Shawn who had proven to be a great benefit to Audrey. Yesterday with him had been an unexpected and pleasant change to the typical drudgery Jon endured day in and day out. Not only was Shawn a tremendous help, he also served as a buffer between himself and Katherine.
A chill ran up his spine and he shook his shoulders trying to rid himself of it. For all the help Katherine offered, she fulfilled very few of his requests choosing instead to linger around him, wanting to be involved in things that were not her responsibility. He honestly thought she'd be much happier in the classroom or as a principal herself as those were the things she seemed interested in. Clerical work she was most certainly not interested in and he really need someone who was. At least he had Shawn with him for the rest of the week; he really ought to make the most of it.
When his oldest two children entered the kitchen and greeted him, Jon immediately knew something was up. Actually, he had known something was been up for quite some time now. Aside from yesterday morning's teasing, Shawn and Julia had gone from strangers to best friends forever in a blink of an eye. If they argued at all, he never heard it. Of the two, it was Julia's sudden shift in behavior that concerned him the most.
His daughter was stubborn and sarcastic (traits she'd unfortunately inherited from him) and fiercely jealous of anyone who tried to get close him, particularly other kids. She had always been this way. She had no competition for his or Audrey's attention for the first five years of her life but from the time she was about six months old she would not tolerate anyone getting close to him. At eight months old, she had once smacked Joshua Matthews, who had two years on her, so hard he fell and cracked his head on the kitchen floor all because he had been playing with Josh while Julia was supposed to be napping. When his daughter woke up to see this great offense, she wailed until he picked her up. However, her attention was not focused on him, but on Josh and she angrily glared at him wherever he went. Foolishly thinking eight-month-old's did not hold grudges, Jon put her down next to Josh after holding her for ten minutes. He looked away for just a second and Josh was immediately down on the floor and wailing. Thankfully, she was not quite so bad when Grayson was born. She did not particularly want him nor did she like him, but she never tried to harm him. Julia only asked constantly when Nana (Amy) and Papa (Alan) were going to get him and take him home. Eventually, she got used to other children being permanent members of the household and mellowed significantly when she finally got a sister in Bella. She did not, however, grow accustom to other kids- his students especially- taking a liking to him and was always very quick to point out that he was her dad and not theirs. She wasn't always very nice about the way she informed them of this either. This was probably her biggest weakness and Shawn's sudden arrival put this weakness on full display.
That was what made the shift so strange. One minute she was intensely jealous of Shawn and wanted nothing to do with him and the next minute she was standing in the kitchen next him as though she was his twin. Sometimes he couldn't fully understand what they were saying to each other as it often seemed they were speaking in shorthand or their own language. Jon could not put into words how disturbing this was.
"What's with you two?" he asked, suspiciously. They had him surrounded on both sides as he tried to tend to the coffee machine.
"Daddy?" Julia leaned heavily against him. "Can I go to work with you today?"
"What?" Jon felt her arm go around his waist for a moment then drop back to her side.
"Can I go to work with you today? Shawn gets to go."
"I think you have classes today, don't you?"
"So?"
Shawn snickered. Jon shot him a look of mild irritation. Trying to get out of school for no good reason was certainly a trait these two shared.
"So, no you can't," he told her firmly.
Julia continued to whine about having to go to school. Shawn was suddenly quiet and turned his back on them, clearly engrossed in something.
Something was up definitely up.
As Jon turned to see what Shawn was doing, Julia spun him around in the opposite direction and continued her plea to go to work with him. Every time he tried to talk to Shawn, Julia pulled him in the direction opposite that Shawn moved in. This was not her typical jealous act; it was more like a calculated, choreographed routine between brother and sister. But for what reason, he couldn't fathom. Finally, he found himself backed up to the counter with Shawn on one side and Julia on the other, both looking at him expectantly. He felt Julia's arm around his waist again.
"Shouldn't you be getting that coffee to Mom?" Shawn asked as though Jon had been the one who had been delaying things.
"We don't want to be late," Julia said solemnly.
"What is with you two?" he asked again, more disturbed than before.
"Nothing," they said simultaneously.
He wasn't convinced. Taking Audrey's coffee, he slowly backed away from them. "I think I'd like it better if you were fighting. This is weird."
Shawn laughed, putting his arm around his sister. "Why would we fight?"
"Yeah," Julia chimed in. "We'd never fight."
"Right," Jon said and hurried out of the kitchen.
On his way back down the stairs, Jon noticed one of Grayson's book in the hallway outside of his room. Muttering under his breath about the lack of care taken with the book, he picked it up and turned it over. The book was a favorite of Grayson's and of his: Lemony Snicket's Horseradish. The book was well-worn and well read and fell open in Jon's hand. The passage at the top of the page caught his eye.
"Siblings that say they never fight are most definitely hiding something."
"Were you able to get it done?" Julia asked as soon as their father left the kitchen.
"Yes," Shawn said. His attention was focused on his phone. "At least I think so. I installed the app on Dad's phone like Deandre said to, but since there's no icon or anything to use to open it, I can only hope I did everything right and that it'll work. Or..."
"Or?"
"Or we'll have to get his phone again and I think he's a little suspicious of us right now."
"Yeah," Julia agreed contemplatively. "When I get to the office today I'll pick a fight with you or something. That'll make him happy."
Shawn grinned at the absurdity of the statement.
"Well," he said after a moment. "the app on my end seems to be working; it's syncing to Dad's phone."
"How long did D say it'd take to fully sync?"
"About 13 hours. He said that since it runs in stealth mode the initial setup will take longer."
"Shawn! Julia!" Startled, the siblings jumped at Jon's call. "C'mon let's go. We're going to be late."
Shawn pocketed the phone and Julia grabbed her schoolbag as they rushed down to the garage feeling more than a little guilty about the snooping they were about to do.
Shawn followed Jon into the district office about half a pace behind filming as he went. In all honesty, Shawn had given very little thought to the job he was supposed to be doing for NYC Lifestyle, choosing to film and shoot all day and sort through things at a much later date. This was, he realized, a very poor way to go about a first gig for a new job, but the blog really wasn't that important to him at the moment.
Katherine sat at her desk, busy at her computer when he walked in. Shawn refrained from making a face at her and put on a pleasant expression instead. Strangely enough, she was so engrossed in what was on her computer screen that she missed not only him, but also her boss walking into his office with a woman from payroll.
Shawn frowned, curious as to what she was studying so intently this early in the morning. Quietly, he walked behind her desk and approached her from behind.
"Hey, Miss Tompkins."
The woman at the desk jumped, so startled that she slammed her thighs against the bottom of the drawer in the center of her desk. Shawn only got a moment to look at what was on her screen before her quick reflexes closed the browser window. All he could see was that she was reading some sort of article that did not look as though it had anything to do with education.
"Shawn!" she exclaimed, almost breaking that holographic image of congeniality. "What do you want?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry," he said as though he was truly apologetic. "I didn't mean to scare you." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jon re-enter the outer office.
"Yes, well.." Her mouth began to twist into a frown.
"Look, Miss Tompkins," he said raising his voice to make sure the superintendent could hear him. "I just wanted to apologize for my attitude at dinner the other night. I was way outta line. I'm sorry."
Katherine Tompkins looked absolutely stunned by this admission and was rendered speechless. Jonathan Turner, on the other hand, was more than a little suspicious of this acknowledgment since he was the one who told Shawn about her apology in the first place.
"Well, th-that's okay, Shawn," she finally stammered out, acutely aware that Jon was watching her response. She struggled not to grit her teeth as she choked out with less grace than she meant to, "Apology accepted." She was so stunned by this very unexpected turn of events that she completely forgot about her planned apology to Shawn in front of Jon for a split second.
Wait a minute...
Katherine's eyes narrowed as she regarded Shawn with a suspicious look. He gave her a nod and the smallest of smirks.
That wasn't a sincere apology at all! Jon must have told him that she was going to apologize to him and he simply beat her to it. Why that little jerk!
While Katherine fumed about being beat at her own game, Jon was very unhappily realizing that the office was completely empty of staples and Xerox paper. And rubber bands. And Post-it notes. And just about anything else he needed to get his day started. The superintendent gave the supply closet door a quiet slam.
"Kat."
The sound of his voice made her jump as her mind was still on Shawn's deceitfulness.
"Yes, Jo-...Mr. Turner?"
"We're out of everything. When is the supply order supposed to be in?"
"Uh. Give me just a moment to check." Quickly, she dove into her emails, pretending to try to find an email from awhile back.
"You did order supplies right?"
"Yes, I did." She gave him a smile, while internally she cringed at lying to him. She had forgotten to order supplies on time again, but with Shawn standing there scrutinizing everything she said and did, she could not confess to this. "They're just late that's all."
Jon frowned, clearly not convinced. "If that order had been in on time they should have been here by now."
It was obvious to Shawn that this was not a one time occurrence. But he said nothing. He didn't need to. Miss Tompkins was doing an excellent job at digging her own grave.
Katherine faltered in her response, stuck between Jon's irritation and Shawn's amusement. "The delivery is just behind schedule is all."
"Right," Jon huffed with a roll of his eyes and returned to his office.
This left Shawn alone with Katherine. It also left him with the perfect opportunity to one up her. Shawn sent a quick text to a friend of his that managed a major office supply store. He had met Markus in the early days of his photography career when he was using the store to print his photos and Markus was of the techs who developed his work. Although, the store did not have a delivery service Markus replied to Shawn that he'd be happy to get his list of supplies and drop them by the district office before his shift started.
After Markus dropped off Shawn's order and spent a few minutes catching up with his old friend, he was off leaving Shawn to haul in the supplies and pile them up in front of Katherine's desk.
"Shawn, you're a lifesaver!" Jon declared when he saw what Shawn had done.
"Just doin' what needed to be done," Shawn replied, with his head ducked low to avoid Katherine's hard stare.
After Jon took what he needed to get the day started, Katherine pushed her way between them and said huffily, "I'll put these away."
She may have been glaring daggers at him, but he didn't know. Shawn purposely avoided looking at her so as not react to her in any way and give her any leverage against him.
Once the doors to Jon's office were solidly shut, Shawn pulled a chair over to the desk to sit next to his father knowing full well the impact it would have if the nosy secretary should walk in and see him sitting beside her boss.
"I take it running out of supplies happens a lot," he said turning in his chair to better see Jon.
The superintendent gave an exasperated sigh. "A lot more than it should. I just don't get her some times. It's the simplest tasks that she seems to have the hardest time with."
Shawn ignore the temptation to offer his opinion why this was and said instead, "So what exactly is Miss Tompkins' job?"
Jon pulled a thin booklet out of his desk drawer and tossed it to Shawn.
"Job descriptions for all positions are covered in that."
Settling back into a comfortable position, Shawn found the page for Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and began to read:
This position is responsible for supporting all administrative functions for the Superintendent and provides administrative support to the Board of Education.
The Executive Assistant will:
-Determine the need of written or telephone inquiries, provides information or direction and resolves issues from knowledge of District policies and procedures, or refers to appropriate party.
-Receive visitors, ascertains the purpose of the visit, and furnishes the information or directs to proper person.
-Compose, type and prepare a variety of material such as schedules, statistical reports, handbook/manuals, reports for federal, state, or local government agencies, and prepares correspondence which may include confidential material.
-Proofread, edit, and prepare material in final form for printing, approval, and distribution.
-Initiate, contact, and transact business with outside agencies and parties.
-Develop and maintain databases appropriate to the specific area of responsibility; prepare and distribute related reports.
-Organize and facilitate the distribution and/or collection of materials for the superintendent and Board of Education activities.
-Develop systems to meet department needs that ensure the prompt retrieval and ready accessibility of information as required.
-Prepare weekly and monthly reports for the Board of Education.
-Assist in compiling and managing multiple budgets.
-Send out meeting notifications, responsible for taking the minutes, preparing agendas, compiling supporting material, and taking follow-up actions.
-Process mail, maintain supervisor's calendar of appointments, and make arrangements for registration and travel.
-Order supplies for the office, order supplies to complete day-to day operations of the department and to support special projects; prepare and process purchase orders, vouchers, and other financial materials.
-Operate standard office equipment, e.g. computer, copy machine, calculator, etc.
-Perform other duties and responsibilities as requested by supervisor.
This position serves as the District's Custodian of Record and is responsible for registering candidates for Board of Education election process. The Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and Board of Education must be available to attend evening Board of Education meetings and occasional weekend and evening District events.
When he finished reading the position requirement he looked up at Jon and frowned. "So she isn't just your secretary, she's the Board's, too?"
"You got it," Jon replied, through a stack of papers in front of him. "I don't think she does, though. I think she thinks she my personal assistant. A couple of the newer Board Members have picked up the slack but they aren't happy about it."
"So why don't you just replace her?"
"Can't. Union rules. Next year though..."
Shawn made a face, but the knowledge that Jon was not planning on extending her contract lifted his spirits. As he studied the requirements again a wicked smile broke out over his face as an idea came to mind.
"Hey, Dad, what are you doing right now?"
"Trying to answer emails. Why?"
"How long does it take you do to that?"
"Forever," Jon said, staring at his computer screen. He closed his eyes for a moment, before continuing. "I have to wade through all the ones that are asking questions that can be answered by going to the website or reading the weekly newsletter just to find the ones that actually need my answer."
"Let me do it," Shawn said seriously.
"What do you mean?"
"Let me sort through the emails. I'll flag the ones that need your attention."
Jon considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Let's try it."
Sorting emails turned out to not be as difficult as Shawn thought it might be given his lack of knowledge on how things ran. However, once he was set up on his own laptop with the District information available at his fingertips, it wasn't difficult to weed out the emails that Jon needed to respond to. Once that was done, Shawn was able to answer the other emails often just by copying and pasting information from the District website. It took almost two hours given that there were close to four hundred messages to answer and several phone call interruptions, but it did get done.
Jon sat back in his chair and gave Shawn a look of disbelief. "I'm caught up on emails."
"You sound surprised," the younger man smiled.
Jon stretched out in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "It's been eight months since I've been caught up on emails."
"Seriously?"
"Unfortunately. What time is it?"
"Almost 9:30."
"All right. I've got a bunch of conferences coming up. Wanna hang around here and help me out?"
Shawn smiled. "That's what I'm here for."
Those conferences varied from phone to in-person meetings. Shawn was so engrossed in getting materials Jon needed and taking notes that he forgot all about Katherine and what she might be doing. Some of the meetings were tedious, but others were interesting and eye opening to the realities of the education system. It came as quite a surprise to Shawn that what he enjoyed most was working alongside Jon. And there was a certain amount of pride that came with being introduced to each and every person who came through the door as the superintendent's son. That pride swelled when the person already knew who he was and many did.
It wasn't until Shawn had to leave the office to make copies (that should have already been made) that he remembered Katherine existed. She was sitting unhappily at her desk, staring at the computer screen and drumming her nails against her desk. He could feel her eyes follow him to the copier and back, but she said nothing. And neither did he. He was careful not to let her see what he was holding; he didn't want her to catch wind of what he was doing and try to meddle in it.
When the last of the meetings was over it was after 2. Sitting back in his chair and stretching out at much as he could, Shawn closed his eyes for just a moment when a thought came to him suddenly. Something about those meetings jarred loose a long forgotten memory of his high school days. There was one and only time he could remember someone from the District office ever paying a visit to John Adams High. At least the he knew of.
"Dad, do you remember a Mr. Bakersfield?"
"Bakersfield?" Jon frowned, trying to recall where he knew the name from. "Wow, where did you dig up that name? I haven't heard it in forever."
"I dunno. It just came to me. Who was he?"
"He was the assistant superintendent of the District 27."
That was not a position Shawn was familiar with in context of his father's co-workers. "Do you have an assistant superintendent?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"She left with the previous superintendent," Jon told him with a slightly bitter edge to his voice. "The district couldn't find any one willing to take her place. Did they tell me this before I took this position. Absolutely not."
"Would you still have taken the job if you knew there'd be no assistant superintendent?"
"I don't think I would have."
"So can't you do something about it? They left out some significant information when they offered you the job."
"You don't know the half of it," Jon snorted. "If I wanted to pursue it I could get out of the contract, but what would that accomplish? The district wouldn't have a superintendent and probably couldn't get one now, especially if word got about why I left. It would be like pulling the only solid frame out of house that's about to fall down. This district is already struggling. It doesn't need more help in that area."
"Yeah, I guess not." Shawn let his thoughts drift back to high school again. He recalled the day they found out Mr. Feeny was planning to retire because of a few jerks who didn't like his final schedule and messed up his house as a warning to him. He remembered how panicked and lost he felt when it look like his teacher was going to go through with it. As much as he could be a thorn in their side, the school needed Mr. Feeny. What would have happened if he'd gone through with his retirement plans? Would John Adams High have collapsed? Maybe. Shawn's thoughts went to Theresa Donovan and her desperate predicament. She could find no help in the people who were supposed to support her; Jon was the only hope she had of improving her situation. What would happen to her and those like her if he was to leave?
Shawn sighed. His family needed Jon. But so did everyone else. And he had no idea what to do to balance the two out. There was no time to try to figure out, however, as they were interrupted by Katherine announcing that lunch was here.
"Lunch?" Jon started to shake his head and Katherine started to protest what he was no doubt about it say. Shawn let them squabble a bit before he said, "I ordered for us all," he waved his hand to include the secretary, "lunch from Waverly Diner." He turned to Katherine and gave her a lazy smile. "Hope that's okay with you."
"You're so thoughtful, Shawn. Thank you," she said sweetly, although Shawn clearly saw the holograph flicker.
"Waverly's one of my favorite places." Jon told her. This, of course, Shawn knew.
"Is it?" Katherine asked and he nodded. "Do you have time to eat, Jon? Normally you don't."
"Normally, I'm not caught up on emails except for whatever's come in since 10."
"We can get those done later no problem," Shawn said, making sure Katherine didn't get a chance to offer assistance.
"They're not a problem with you around that's for sure."
The holograph continued to flicker as Jon praised Shawn. This time a twitch in the corner of her mouth accompanied the flicker.
Although uninvited, Katherine did join them for lunch. Shawn knew this was likely to happen and had already prepared himself for it. He didn't speak to her unless he had to and when he did he imagined her to be Topanga because he found he was more sincere in his interactions with her if he pretended she was someone he liked. Until she said something ridiculous that Topanga would never say. To maintain civility, he pretended the comment was directed at Cory and found her to be more manageable that way.
He may have been imagining that she was Topanga, however there was one thing he would have gladly let the real Topanga do that he would not allow the fake one to do and that was to sit by Jon. He would not, no matter how sweetly she tried to rearrange the seating in the superintendent's office, allow her closer to his father. Eventually, she gave up and remained in a seat across from them while they ate.
Throughout the lunchtime conversation Katherine began to gently seek out more personal information from Jon, who was now relaxed enough to let his guard down and answer her. Shawn pretended not to notice, giving his phone what appeared to be his undivided attention, but his ears were focused on what she was saying. At random intervals, he would join the conversation purposely bringing Audrey up more than was necessary. If Jon noticed this, he didn't care. But Katherine did notice and she did care. The corner of her mouth was twitching again.
"My oldest son is coming by after school tomorrow," Katherine said suddenly, stunning both Jon and Shawn who stared at her.
"Is everything okay?" Jon asked.
"Oh, it's fine. I just wanted him to see what I do and to work on his school work. He doesn't focus well at home."
Shawn couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this fishy excuse. He folded his arms across his chest.
"Oh," Jon said, not looking particularly happy about the idea. "Well, I-"
"Since Julia is here every single day," Katherine went on, refusing to accept any answer that wasn't affirmative. "I know it won't be a problem if Dylan is here a few days a week. Besides, I think the kids would get along really well."
Shawn sent himself into a coughing fit trying to restrain from making a sarcastic retort to this presumptuous notion that she knew anything about his sister and who she'd get along with.
"I guess," Jon said, giving Shawn a concerned look. He was distinctly ill at ease with this idea.
"Great," she said with a bright smile. "Is there anything I can do before your next meeting?"
"No, we're good," Jon said uncomfortably.
After she'd left, Shawn rolled his eyes and gave Jon an exasperated look. "Really? Why's her kid coming here?"
Jon shrugged, looking upset. "You know as much as I do."
"You know that's the kid she'd trying to set Julia up with, right?"
This was news to him. Very unwanted news. "What are you talking about?"
"Julia told me that Kat," he said her name with great sarcasm, "has been trying to set up a meet and greet for a while now. Dylan is the one she wants her to go out with."
The thought of his daughter dating was horrifying and not something he was even remotely ready to entertain. "Yeah, well, that's not happenin'. Julia's too young to date." He shook his head adamantly. "Besides she's got school and figure skating, competitions. Nah, she's dating anyone."
As much as Shawn agreed with him about Julia dating, he had to chuckle at this double-standard; Jon had no issue with him dating at 15 so long as he didn't lie about it.
"I've seen Dylan," Jon went on. " He is not her type. Besides, if she was going to date someone- and she's not- she likes the son of Grayson's coach who plays hockey for Greenwich High."
The figure skater and the hockey player-wasn't that a movie? Shawn thought amusedly, making a note to tease his sister about this at some point. Then his thoughts turned to Miss Tompkins' ploy to distract Julia from Jon and force a meeting she did not want and it made him angry.
Well, I can play that game too, he thought. I've got three more siblings and a niece and nephew I can call in.
And that gave him an idea.
"Dad, would it be alright if Riley and Auggie came over tomorrow after school? Topanga's been working on this major trial that's gone on way longer that she anticipated. I think Cory needs a break and the kids are missing a home cooked meal."
"Cory told me about that case," the superintendent replied distractedly, his thoughts still on his daughter and dating. "Yeah, that's fine with me. Check with your mom and make sure she's up to it."
Immediately, Shawn sent two texts. Cory responded instantly, even though Shawn was pretty sure that he was supposed to be teaching at that moment.
We'll be there. My cooking stinks.
I know. Waiting for the okay from Mom.
A short time later, Audrey responded, but she had a few conditions.
Mom says yes, but she wants you over ASAP after school to help her and watch the kids.
Anything she wants.
Before you go over, drop Riley and Auggie off at Dad's office.
Why?
I'll fill you in later. But Miss T's kid is going to be here.
The one she wants Julia to date?
Yep.
I'll drop them off.
I want them to talk about Audrey as much as possible while they're here.
You got it. Riley already is. She's trying to come up with a cool name for Audrey when she becomes a grandmother.
What?
She says Maya can't call her grandma she's too young. I agree.
Why is Maya calling her grandma?
What else is she gonna call her dad's mom?
Shawn stared at the text, his brain simply refused to process what Cory was implying. He shook his head. He absolutely could not think of that right now; he could barely handle the idea of his sister dating.
I'm gonna stop answering your texts now.
Lol.
During Jon's afternoon conferences, Shawn took it upon himself to quietly begin to transcribe the notes from various meetings of the past week that had not been touched and get them uploaded to the proper places. After proofreading the forms and booklets that needed to be printed, he sent them to the Xerox which was down the hall from the main office and could be printed without being disturbed by any meddling busybodies. Next, Shawn double checked the schedules and found there to be a number of changes that had been emailed out but not updated on the shared file. As he was about to send the updates out to the members' on the file, a pop-up stopped him asking if he wanted to add more members. Upon closer inspection, he saw that Audrey's name, while a part of the group, was not selected to receive the schedule. Immediately, Shawn corrected this and sent the update out fuming all the while that she had been taken off to begin with.
Later, when Katherine was on a brief break, he slipped away to get what he'd printed from the Xerox machine. He was in Jon's office organizing the paperwork for that night's Board Meeting when she walked in asking if there was anything Jon wanted her to do.
Shawn could tell by the look on his father's face that there was a sarcastic retort on the tip of his tongue that he bit back. Jon had been giving him a running commentary on all the things that Shawn was doing that Katherine was supposed to be doing throughout the day. He was not happy that it was only now that she was offering to do her job.
"No. Shawn's got everything ready for tonight."
Katherine blinked twice as the hologram flickered more than usual.
"Well, then I'll get on the weekly report for the Board."
Jon look at Shawn who shrugged.
"It's done," the younger man said.
Katherine's smile froze for a moment. "Oh. Great. Then I can get to work on sending out meeting notifications for this week."
Jon looked down at the floor, struggling not to laugh.
"That's done, too," Shawn told her.
"The agenda for tonight isn't done."
"Yes, it is."
"Updates to the schedule?"
"Check your email."
"Wow, Shawn, it looks like you've really taken care of everything."
"Only doing what needs to be done," he said as humbly as possible.
"Well, if you need me for anything. You know where to find me."
Once she was gone, Shawn turned to Jon with a smirk. "I don't get it. She's let all this stuff go but is totally offended that I took care of it."
Jon laughed. "Uh-huh. Things might start working the way they should around here if she has a little competition. Keep it up will ya?"
Shawn grinned. "You got it."
Julia was in later than usual. She had gone home first to pick up the dinner Audrey had made the three of them. She had her senior moves in the field test for figure skating that night and would be picked up later. Since Jon would not be able to make the test session, she had insisted on at least having dinner with him. Shawn greeted her at the door and helped her carry the food in.
Just like the day before, Katherine was far too nice to her for her liking, but she had other things on her mind and didn't want to tangle with the secretary, so she kept her head down trying to sneak by. Katherine, however, kept trying to tell her something about Wednesday that Shawn kept interrupting. She didn't bother trying to find out what was going on; her brother would tell her later. She was not happy that her father was once again missing something he never would have in the past.
Julia didn't really like for anyone to see her as anything other than independent and unbreakable, but the full truth was that, deep down, she wanted nothing more than to be small enough for her father to carry her around again. She wanted to be able to hold onto him and not let him do anything without her. The thought of him missing yet another major event in her figure skating journey was devastating to her.
"Whoa!" Jon said, not expecting his daughter to throw herself onto his lap and bury her face in his neck. "Are you okay?"
Her reply was so muffled he couldn't understand her and he looked to Shawn for help. But Shawn could only shrug; he didn't know what was wrong either.
Finally, she lifted her chin, and rested it sharply on his collar bone. "Please skip the meeting tonight and come to my test."
Jon sighed. He'd forgotten that her big figure skating test that she'd been working so hard on was just a few hours away. "You know I can't do that. I wish I could but I can't."
She nodded and with a heavy sighed, pulled herself out of his arms and helped Shawn finish setting up dinner. They sat in silence for a long time, staring at the food but not eating much. Finally, Shawn decided enough was enough and lightly kicked Julia under the table. That sparked an outcry which then turned into a volley of friendly jesting that they pulled Jon into. With Jon and Julia in a much better mood, Shawn suddenly became aware that they had been undisturbed since Julia got there and that made him very suspicious. He excused himself to the restroom so he could check things out.
There was no one in the main office; everyone appeared to be out to dinner. He was about to go back to Jon's office when he saw Katherine's computer screen. It did seem a little strange that Katherine had not tried to inject herself into Jon's space very much today. And she was very preoccupied with something she was reading this morning when they arrived at the office.
Taking a very big risk, Shawn sat down at her desk and pulled up her browser history, wondering how savvy the former teacher was with technology. Either she didn't know enough to clear her history or she just hadn't done it, what Shawn found didn't surprise him as much as it confirmed his worst suspicions. Her search history included searches for office relationships, reuniting with an ex, and similar topics. But it was her website history that made his blood boil. She had been reading a lot of articles about how to tell if your boss is interested in you, signs of a failing marriage, and how to win over your boyfriend's children. Shawn had no idea what the district's policy was for employee internet usage but he was going to find out- this could not be acceptable.
He heard Katherine's laughter outside of the main office and saw her walking down the hall with one of the women from another department. Shawn quickly closed the browser out and returned everything to the way it was before he sat down.
But not before he recorded everything.
It was Cory who came to pick Julia up and take her to Audrey and the other kids who would be waiting for her at the rink. Shawn walked Julia out to him and asked him not to say anything to her about Dylan being there after school the next day. He didn't want to ruin her night and distract her from her test. He'd let her know later. After saying goodbye to Cory and his sister, Shawn headed down to the conference room with Jon for the Board meeting.
The meeting lasted almost two hours and Shawn found it hard to care about the financial arguments that when on for almost the entire time. After the meeting was over a number of parents and other people from the area stayed to talk to Jon. It was closing in on ten o'clock before the two men were finally able to pack up for the night and head home.
A text had come in during the meeting from Audrey letting them know that Julia had passed her Senior moves test. Jon sent a quick congratulations and promise to celebrate over the weekend. Shawn caught the look of weariness and guilt on the superintendent's face.
"You okay, Dad?"
"Yeah," Jon sighed. "Just hate that I missed Julia's Senior moves test. It's a really big deal for her. She been working really hard on this for a year."
"Yeah, I know."
"I missed Grayson's game last night. Gonna miss the next one too. Julia's got a competition in Lake Placid next week, probably won't make that either."
Shawn frowned. "Is there anything you can do so you're not staying here so late?"
"I dunno, Shawn. I can't do anything about Board meetings; I have to be here for those."
"If we have time tomorrow, will you go over your schedule with me just to see if there isn't something we can do? Change things around. Or you know, just stuff I can do?"
Jon considered this while he closed his briefcase and slid it off of the table. Tapping his knuckle against the desk top, he looked at his son and said, "Yeah, I think we could do that."
Shawn breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time, he was beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Wednesday morning brought with it a way too perky Miss Tompkins and Shawn knew that the war between them was heating up. Jon was greeted by stacks of forms, agendas, and booklets already to be distributed to the appropriate people over the course of the day. The supply order had come in late the night before and everything had already been put in its place. Jon was right about competition being what Katherine needed to do her job.
"I'm sorry, Shawn," she told him with faux concern. "I'm afraid you may be a little bored today."
"Oh," Shawn gave her an equally fake smile. "Don't you worry about me, Kat. I have plenty to do."
With smiles frozen to their faces, they glared at each other before moving on.
Shawn knew he had to be on his toes as she had obviously caught on to what he was doing. However, she didn't know that he'd gotten Jon to agree to give him more of a workload to take pressure off of him. So while Katherine was busy trying to beat him in doing all the clerical stuff, Shawn would be out doing more of the heavy lifting and actually meeting with people and collecting information needed for the Board and various upcoming meetings. Again something that was a part of the job duties of the executive secretary. The only downside to this is that it took him away from Jon and left her with him instead. However, she did seem to be overly consumed with getting things done so he couldn't do them that Shawn wasn't sure she noticed his comings and goings. The upside to being out of the office was that it made a significant impression on the board members and others to whom he spoke that the superintendent's son was meeting with them rather than the person who should have been there.
Shawn's primary job during these meetings was gathering information that his father needed from these people. It was a lot of note taking and a lot asking questions. Many of the people the he spoke to vented frustration that there was not a smoother way of doing these things so that everyone who was involved in the various groups and projects could communicate with one another other than by emails which often got lost in a sea of other messages. This got Shawn to thinking; what they were wanting was actually something else that the executive assistant should have already done. On his way back to the main office, he stopped by the IT department to speak with the director about this lack of connectivity in spite of the technology available. He was told with much annoyance that the district had purchased that very program over the summer but it had never been implemented. Shawn asked if it would be possible for him to take a look at it. The director told him he might as well; no one else had. The software wasn't all he left with; he also made sure to ask for an employee acceptable use policy for the internet.
Katherine had done everything she could to ensure he would have nothing to do and was quite pleased with herself because of it. Shawn gave her an amused smile, told her it was so nice to see her do her job so well, and then went on to Jon's office. She had no idea that by doing all that it freed him up to work on the office solutions program.
"Hey, Dad," he greeted Jon and handed him a stack of files he'd collected over the past few hours.
"Hey, what've you got there?" the superintendent asked, motioning the software case he had under his arm.
"I stopped by IT on the way back. The number one complaint I got from people today was that there's no easier way to communicate than email. Russ said there was a program but it's never been used."
Jon rolled his eyes and pointed towards the door. "You know why that is."
Shawn nodded. "I figured. If you want me to take a look at I will. Russ gave me a copy of the software."
"Yeah, if you wanna do that. That's be great. It'd cut down on emails, too."
Shawn spent the rest of the school hours working on the office program when he wasn't helping Jon in meetings. The program itself was simple enough to use, it was just uploading everything to it that was going to take time. A lot of time.
Julia came in at 3:30 swinging her book bag into the corner of Jon's office with a thud. She glared at Shawn at she took a seat next to him. The glare wasn't for him, he knew, but for what was coming into the main office shortly.
"I hate this," she harrumphed, quietly as not to disturb her father who was on a phone call.
"Don't worry," he assured her. "I called in back up."
Dylan Masterson arrived promptly at 4 pm while the superintendent and his kids were working behind closed doors. Those doors were unceremoniously thrown open without so much as a knock by a proud mother wanting to show off her rather miserable son.
Dylan was tall, thin, and very pale as though he spent most of his time in a dark room. His thick, wavy auburn hair was longish on top and very short on the sides and back. Bright hazel eyes peered out from under plush black eyebrows which stood out in stark contrast to his hair. Freckles dotted his angular features. He was actually a good-looking kid. And would have been much better looking had it not been for the frown that sharply pinched his features together.
Jon scowled at the boy as he was very unhappy with the idea of anyone trying to set his daughter up with a boyfriend behind his back. Shawn scowled at the boy because, through no fault of his own, he was related to the woman he couldn't stand. Julia scowled at the boy because his mother was trying to decide her future without so much as consulting her. The boy scowled because he had no idea what was going on or why he suddenly had to spend three days a week in the superintendent's office after school instead of with his friends. Katherine chose to ignore all this and introduced her son everyone.
One of the main reasons Dylan did not want to be anywhere near the district office was because of Jonathan Turner. His parents' divorce had been very bitter and drawn-out which resulted in a lot of bouncing around for him and his brother. The atmosphere in both parent's homes had been very tense and stressful; very unpleasant to live in. His father hadn't helped matters by having a child with girlfriend at the time. As Dylan had predicted back then, the relationship was short lived with the girlfriend taking his half-sister and ditching his father for someone else. In time, his father had become repentant, began to work on himself, and eventually followed them to New York to be closer to the family. He had just started to spend time with his mother again and get back in her good graces. Things were going well between them and they were spending time together as a family again until she began this new job. From that point on it was Jonathan Turner this and Jonathan Turner that. He was so sick of hearing about Mr. Wonderful.
Now standing before the Superintendent of New York Public Schools, Dylan was completely unimpressed. This was not a man who looked like he'd ever touched a Harley let alone owned one; his father currently had three and one was a vintage bike from the 50s that was in perfect working order. This man was in all right shape as far he could tell but his dad was much fitter and very committed to living a healthy lifestyle. This man was decent looking, perhaps he'd been handsome even once upon a time, but his father was extremely good-looking and could attract the attention of much younger women. No, Dylan could not see even one area where Jonathan Turner was better than his father. He couldn't imagine why his mother was enamored with superintendent. He had no desire to speak to the man yet he mumbled a "hello, nice to meet you, sir" for his mother's sake but that was the extent of it.
The man next to the superintendent was introduced to him as Shawn Hunter and that was it. Shawn stepped forward, gripped his hand very tightly, and with a menacing look in his eyes said gruffly to him, "I'm Julia's brother."
Ah, well, that would be why he's trying to break my hand, Dylan thought as he tried not to show any fear or pain. He took his hand back and shook it, trying to restore feeling to his crushed appendage. Shawn might have a nice looking guy if he hadn't looked like he wanted to kill someone. He glanced quickly at the superintendent and then back at the younger man. They certainly looked like father and son especially when they had the same dark expression on their faces. He didn't understand why they had different last names, but he also didn't care enough to ask.
Finally, he was introduced to Julia. Dylan couldn't help but stare at her. He promptly forgot about the other two in the room. She was beautiful with inky black curls that spilled into the most unusual color of eyes he'd ever seen. Julia did not offer her hand in greeting when he was introduced to her. Instead, she stared aloofly at him with those icy gray eyes before turning a cold shoulder to him and trading encrypted looks with her brother. She was beautiful and cool.
Dylan Masterson was absolutely smitten.
Shawn saw the look on the boy's face change when he laid eyes on Julia for the first time. It was the same look Cory had when he saw Topanga for the first time after a summer apart and she had grown up in noticeable ways. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the boy. Putting a protective arm around her, he turned to look at Jon who looked like he liked Dylan as much as Shawn did. And Shawn couldn't stand the kid.
Jon was fighting back the ferocious protectiveness that consumed him when he saw this kid drooling over his daughter. He did not like anything about this boy or this situation. And he really did not like that he could do nothing about it.
"I have work to do," he said sharply, keeping an intense glare on Dylan. "It needs to be quiet."
Dylan had no issue exiting the superintendent's office as quickly as possible, but he did not want to leave Julia behind. Hopeful that she would do her school work in the outer office with him, he allowed his mother to lead him out. His hopes were dashed as she walked up behind her father who was now sitting at his desk and put her arms around him, leaning over his shoulder to talk to him. She did not once look in his direction.
Shortly after Dylan settled at a table to work on his schoolwork, the district office was once again invade by kids; this time it was Cory's crew. Miss Tompkins was clearly bothered by their arrival. She did not want to entertain them and tried to steered them away by telling them the superintendent was busy.
Because he'd texted Shawn ahead a time and knew Jon had a small lull in his afternoon, Cory didn't hesitate to announce their presence:
"Hey, Shawnie, we're here!"
His former social studies teacher glared at him and seemed more upset by him being there than was reasonable.
"You're a friend of Shawn's I take it?" Miss Tompkins warily watched as the Matthew kids swarmed around her desk.
"Uh, yeah," he said slowly, not sure what to make of this question. For the last eight months, she'd interrupted every single one of his lunches with Jon, inviting herself to sit down and join them. Did she really not recognize him? Cory was baffled by this. "I'm Cory Matthews."
She stared at him for a moment then blinked. "Cory Matthews..." A light went on in her eyes. "Oh, you were the other one that always slept through my classes."
It took Cory a moment to decide on what to say. She remembered him as a kid but not as an adult from just last month?
"Yeah, well, nothing personal," he said sheepishly. "I slept through Jon's classes and Mr. Feeny's, too."
"Jon?" she questioned with raised eyebrows, clearly surprised by Cory's familiarity with the superintendent. There was a tone of disapproval in her voice. She, much like Mr. Feeny, had always preferred to keep strong boundaries between herself and her students. And between Jon and his students.
"Yeah," Cory shrugged, although he heard the criticism in her voice. "He's family. Has been for a long time."
Before the secretary could question him further, Jon's door swung open and Shawn jogged over to greet him.
"Hey, Cor, so glad you're here." His grin quickly faded as he took his best friend by the arm and made him turn slightly to the right. He nodded to the boy sitting quietly in the corner of the office.
Cory nodded his understanding as to who this was.
Auggie was suddenly at Shawn's side tugging at his hand. Shawn looked down and saw the boy motion for him to get closer. He leaned over and Auggie whispered in his ear, "I've got a million stories about Aunt Audrey ready to go. You need anything else," he glanced at the woman at the desk with a secretive look, "You just give me and Ava a call. We got your back."
Shawn grinned, ruffled his hair, and thanked him. With that he took off and planted himself at Katherine's side and would not move. Turning to Cory with a slightly confused look he asked, "What exactly did you tell him?"
Cory knew as much as Shawn did. He held his hands out to indicated this. "Same thing I told Riley: talk about Audrey a lot. I don't know where the rest of it came from."
Shawn shook his head as Jon exited his office with Julia to greet the kids. Riley ran to Julia and threw her arms around her as though it had been weeks since she last saw her and not less that twenty-four hours earlier. The group ended up congregated around Miss Tompkins' desk and Riley let go of Julia in favor of the superintendent.
"I'm so glad we're going to your house tonight, Uncle Jon," she said, leaning her head against him. "This case Mom's working on is the worst."
"Uncle Jon?" Katherine looked at her boss incredulously.
"Yeah," he responded not understanding her issue with this. "Cory, Topanga, the kids- they're family."
"I'm just glad Aunt Audrey is cooking tonight," Auggie told her with wide-eyed innocence, playing it up as though he was much younger than seven. "She is the best cook in the whole world. Even better than Mommy and that's sayin' somethin'."
"Oh," Cory exclaimed suddenly. "I've gotta go. I promised Audrey I'd go over and help her as soon as I dropped the kids off."
Jon was not expecting this. He was under the impression Cory and the kids were going straight to his place. "They're staying?"
"Yeah," Cory glanced at Shawn. Obviously, there was a reason his best friend hadn't said anything about them staying. "If that's okay with you, Jon."
Katherine gave Jon a look that made it clear she thought he should send them out with their father. Ignoring her, the superintendent replied, "Fine with me."
"We won't bother you, Uncle Jon," Riley promised with genuine sweetness.
"Yeah, I know you won't," he smiled, affectionately putting a hand on her head.
Katherine was not at all happy with this decision and said so. "Jon, you have two members from the Regional Office coming for a meeting any minute. They can't stay."
Jon glanced at Shawn then nodded towards Dylan. "If he and Julia can be here, so can they."
She was undeterred by this. "Dylan and Julia are children of district employees."
The superintendent frowned at her illogical argument against the Matthews kids staying. "Then that's all the more reason for Riley and Auggie to stay."
"What?"
Jon raised an eyebrow. After all of the times she'd tagged along on his lunches with Cory at the middle school, he couldn't decide if she was being serious or not with her question." Cory teaches at John Quincy Adams."
A light finally went on, but she tried to downplay the realization. She more than a little embarrassed that she had not recognize the younger man from the beginning. He was the one Jon met with once a month at the middle school and she had not been able to figure out why.
"I guess I'm still surprised he became a teacher," she said, trying to cover her gaffe. "He must of done a lot better in your class than he did in mine."
Jon frowned slightly. There was something about Shawn and now Cory that really bothered her. Shawn he understood, Cory he did not. There seemed to be an underlying disapproval in her statement that made him feel defensive about the younger man.
"He's a really good teacher," he said firmly.
"If you say he is, then I'm sure he is."
Cory, who suddenly felt very weird about being at the center of this conversation, began his farewells. "I don't want to keep Audrey waiting," he told them.
Auggie had been intently listening to the conversation between his uncle and the woman that he didn't know and saw her subtle reaction to his aunt's name and he read between the lines that something was up. And that something had to do with Uncle Jon, this woman, and Aunt Audrey.
"So I've been googling names for grandmother," Riley said with a dreamy look on her face as she leaned her elbows on Katherine's desk. She had spent the last twenty minutes telling the secretary in explicit detail her plans for Maya, Shawn, and Maya's mother. The less Katherine seem to care, the more the girl talked. She would not stop. "I like Gigi, but Maya mentioned Glamma cause Aunt Audrey's so glamorous, but..." she made a face. "I don't really like that name. I don't think she'd like it either." Taking a moment to scroll through an app on her phone, she then said, "I like really Lolli, especially if Maya calls Uncle Jon Pop."
"Lolli? Pop?" Auggie cried in with deep disdain. "You can't be serious!"
"It's cute."
"It's stupid," he countered. "Uncle Jon will never go for that."
"Fine, the what about Tootsie?"
Her brother gagged. "What is she callin' Uncle Jon then- Roll?"
Riley made a face at him stuck out her tongue at him and went back to studying her phone. "I think Gigi is it. What do you think, Miss Tompkins?"
"I think grandmother is just fine." Katherine replied wanting the conversation to end.
Riley and Auggie both looked at her like she was crazy.
"Aunt Audrey is waaaaay too young to be a grandmother," Riley informed her cheerily. She was so lost in her day dreams of a happily ever after for her best friend that she completely missed the older woman's irritated reaction.
Auggie, however, missed nothing.
"What are you doing?" He stood very close to Katherine's elbow and watched her intently as she typed on the computer.
Katherine gave him a weak smile. "I'm working on a report for Mr. Turner."
The boy's brow furrowed in confusion. "Who's Mr. Turner?"
"Uncle Jon," Riley told him and rolled her eyes.
"Oh, right."
Even though she knew better, Katherine couldn't help but ask, "Why do you call him Uncle Jon?"
Auggie thought this was an odd thing to ask. "Because he's my uncle."
"No, he's not."
"Yes, he is. Shawn's his son. He's my uncle." He didn't understand why she was struggling to understand family dynamics. He thought she had been a teacher at one time.
"If Shawn is his son, then why do you call him Uncle Shawn?"
"Because he's my dad's brother."
"That doesn't make any sense," the secretary turned to the young boy in full teaching mode. If this was what Cory was teaching his son about family relationships, then she could only imagine what he was teaching his students. "If Mr. Turner is your uncle then your father would his brother not Shawn's. Shawn would be your cousin."
Auggie gave her a long, hard stare. Then with great patience, he gently told her, "You aren't making any sense, ma'am. My dad has two brothers. Eric," he put his left palm on her desk, "and Shawn." He put his right hand on the desk. "So I call them Uncle Eric and Uncle Shawn."
"Right."
"Uncle Shawn's dad is also my uncle, Uncle Jon."
"No, that's not right."
"Yes, it it is."
"Auggie," she said with strained patience. "Do you call Julia Aunt Julia?"
"Why would I call her aunt?" he asked, incredulously. "She's not my dad's sister; she's his niece. That makes her my cousin."
Katherine stared at him, unable to follow his seven-year-old logic. "What?"
"What?"
She shook her head. "That's not how it works."
"That's how it works in my family," the boy shrugged. "I don't know about yours."
Exasperated, Katherine turned back to her report and Auggie stood quietly by watching everything she did. Eventually, his presence unnerved her to the point that she turned to him and as sweetly as she could asked him if there wasn't something else he'd like to do.
"No, thank you," he politely declined.
Katherine turned back to her work and tried very hard to focus. But between Riley's chattering on about what this Maya should call her aunt and Auggie's constant stare, she found it nearly impossible to get anything done.
"Have you met my aunt?" Auggie said suddenly, resting his chin on the edge of her desk.
"Yes," she replied through gritted teeth. "A long time ago."
"Do you know how she and Uncle Jon met?"
"Yes, I do."
Auggie nodded agreeably and then launched into a very long winded story, detailing everything he knew about his aunt and uncle.
Half and hour later, Jon exited his office with the Regional members he'd been in meeting with, Shawn, and Julia. After apologies for having to cut the meeting short, Jon turned back to his children and niece and nephew. What he saw was his secretary leaning over her desk with her head in her hands. Auggie stood next to her with wide eyes, looking expectantly at him.
"You okay, Kat?" he asked. He'd never seen her look so worn out before.
She lifted her head quickly at his concern for her with a hopeful smile and a strange look in her eyes. Instantly, her son was by her side.
"Mom's fine," he practically growled at Jon. "I can take care of her."
"Okay," Jon shrugged. "I'm done for the night. You guys might as well head out, too."
Katherine looked at him in surprise. "It's not even 6 yet. You're going home already?"
He nodded. "Gotta get the kids home. Audrey's waiting for us."
Very quietly, almost to himself, Dylan wondered aloud, "Who's Audrey?"
A firm grip clamped onto his shoulder and voice hissed in his ear, "His wife."
Dylan turned his head cautiously and caught a glimpse of Shawn before the man let go of his shoulder and headed for the door. His wife? This Turner guy was married? Did his mom know? Before he could think any more about it, he felt a breeze blow by and he turned his head to the opposite direction to see Julia heading back into her father's office. A moment later, she came back with a textbook that she'd forgotten. He grinned a large, lopsided smile at her as she went by him again.
"'Night, Julia. See you Friday."
Julia gave him a quick glance and frowned.
"Whatever," she snapped irritably.
Dylan suddenly felt weak in the knees. She spoke to him!
Cory was attempting to entertain Jamie and Bella but wasn't having much success. Jamie was happy so long as he was being thrown in the air onto the couch. Which fine for the first ten minutes, then Cory found tossing the six year old around to require more strength and endurance than he had. Bella, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with him. She just sat and scowled at him offended that he was even there. Every so often she would try to sneak off to her mother and her uncle would catch her and pull her back to the room he was confining her and Jamie in. She made sure to howl her displeasure with him every time.
On her last escape attempt, just as Cory caught her, Jamie jumped on his back shouting something indecipherable about pirates. Or maybe dinosaurs. Possibly aliens. Whatever is was it was very loud and his landing knocked the wind out Cory.
"Okay, Jamie," he huffed, completely out of breath. "How about you let this old dinosaur rest for a minute?"
As Cory sank to the floor and leaned against the couch with a howling Bella, Jamie jumped on him again.
"What're we playing now, Uncle Cory?"
"How about hide-n-seek?"
"You'll never find me!" he shouted. As he jumped up, he used Cory's stomach as a launchpad. Cory groaned and Bella laughed.
Cory gave the toddler the best stink eye he could.
"My pain makes you laugh, huh?"
Bella giggled. "Cor," she said, popping her hand against his mouth.
"Ow, that hurt!" he cried in mock pain and pulled exaggerated facial expressions.
The toddler shrieked delightedly. They kept this game up until Jamie ran through the room shouting that Shawn was home.
After dinner, Shawn pulled Cory and Julia into the kitchen to clean up while Riley and Auggie worked on homework and Grayson was in the garage working on his stick handling skills. Shawn watched Auggie from the doorway of the kitchen; just as Jon was about to get up from where he sat next to Audrey, Auggie climbed on him to ask a question about his math homework and stayed in the superintendent's lap to finish the rest of his homework.
"Your kid is great at this stuff, Cor," Shawn said with great admiration. "You sure you didn't put him up to this?"
"I wish I could take credit for it," Cory replied, drying the dishes as Julia handed them to him. "But all I said was talk about your aunt as much as possible when we go to see Uncle Jon today. The rest is all him."
"Must get it from his mother," Shawn grinned at him.
"Oh, haha," Cory retorted, his ego slightly bruised. "I'm devious, too."
"As devious as a golden retriever," Shawn laughed.
Cory took aim and launched a dishrag at him
"By the way," Shawn said, returning the rag. It landed with a splash in the dishwater spending a spray of water on Julia's shirt. "Does Topanga know what's going on?"
Cory shook his head. "She wouldn't let me be involved if she did."
Shawn raised his eyebrows. "She'd think what we're doing is wrong?"
"No, she'd be mad she isn't a part of this and she doesn't like for me to have this much fun without her."
Shawn rolled his eyes. Somehow he doubted that Cory would think this was so fun if it was his parent's marriage they were trying to protect.
They had just finished cleaning up the kitchen, when the back pocket of Shawn's jeans began to to shake and chiming like crazy.
"What is that?" Julia asked.
"It's the burner phone," he said trying to get the dancing phone out of his pocket. He finally got it out and tossed it, still vibrating onto the counter, where it began to move in a slow circle. Julia quickly silenced the notification.
"I think it's malfunctioning."
"No, it's...the app is working!" Shawn exclaimed. Julia and Cory crowded around him. "That's all of Dad's messages and emails coming in."
"Whoa," Cory said as they watched the number of notifications increase by tens every few seconds. "I thought I got a lot of messages as teacher, but it's nothing like this!"
By the time the phone stopped flashing new notifications, there were over 500 unseen messages. The trio quickly left the kitchen and took refuge in Shawn's room in order to go over the notifications without being caught.
"If these messages are anything like the emails Dad and I went over today most are can be answered just by going to the district website," Shawn told them.
"Or reading the newsletters."
Shawn gave Cory a quizzical look. This was clearly a sore point with the teacher.
"No one ever reads the newsletters," Cory complained. "Not parents, not teachers, not principals. No one."
It took over an hour to wade through the countless messages, most of which were just as Shawn suspected. There was nothing not school related except for the occasional stray message asking for something way off topic like the recipe for something Audrey had made for a PTO dinner or who Julia's Learn to Skate instructor was. Just as they were coming to the end of the messages, Shawn, Julia, and Cory began to relax just a bit as all three's imaginations had worked over time worrying about the content of the messages Jon was receiving. Then a new message alert popped up that increased that worry dramatically.
It was an incoming message from Katherine Tompkins.
Without a word the trio exchanged apprehensive looks. Shawn, with his heart suddenly racing, opened the message.
Jon, I think the meeting with the kids went really well. Dylan hasn't stopped talking about Julia since we left the office. Why doesn't Julia come over this weekend and they can get to know each other.
"Absolutely not!" Julia cried, full of fury. "Her kid is as interesting as wallpaper. No way."
"Julia, remember it's important that we find out what's going on at the other end of this," Cory reminded her.
Julia shot him a dirty look and scowled at the phone.
Shawn had been very quiet during this exchange as he continued to stare at the phone waiting for Jon to reply. He licked his lips and found that his mouth had gone dry. He couldn't shake the feeling that there something more to this text that just getting Dylan together with his sister. Five minutes went by and there was no response.
"Delete the text," Julia told Shawn. "Dad doesn't have to see that."
"He may have already seen; we don't know. If he's seen and I delete it, he'll get suspicious."
"I don't care. Delete it."
But it was too late, Jon had seen it and responded.
I'll have to check with Audrey before asking Julia. We haven't let her date yet.
Before Julia could let out a sigh of relief, there was an immediate response.
It's not a date, more a like a play date. You could come with her and we could work on next week's newsletter and schedule while they get to know each other.
"Play date?" Julia huffed. "What am I- three?
"Wait," Cory said, pulling Shawn hand over to him so he could see the text. He began to shake his head in disbelief.
Shawn stared at the message for a moment before standing up suddenly and throwing the phone against the mattress of the lower bunk. Cory made a grab for the device and just managed to catch it before it hit the floor.
"That's what she's after. She doesn't really care about getting Julia and Dylan together." Furiously, Shawn began to pace the floor.
Julia had been so upset with the suggestion of going over to Miss Tompkins' place that she'd initially missed the worst part of the text. She gave Cory a distressed look. "Uncle Cory?"
Cory put an arm around her and tried to put her mind at ease. "Your dad won't fall for that," he said, sounding more optimistic than he felt.
Julia was not at all consoled. "If he does? What if he thinks it really is work related? Then what do we do?" She looked to Shawn for help.
Shawn shook his head. "I'm not sure. I wasn't expecting this so soon."
A notification alert buzzed again, this time it was Cory's phone.
"It's Topanga, she finally got off for the night." He shot Julia and Shawn an apologetic look. "I've got get the kids and get home. We haven't seen much of her in the last two weeks."
"Go, go," Shawn said distractedly. "I'll text if you if Dad responds."
"Yeah, do, or I won't sleep tonight."
Shawn and Julia followed Cory downstairs and they saw why Jon had not yet responded. Auggie and Bella were in his lap carry on a conversation with him. Audrey was curled up next to him, sleepily listening to the children as Riley, Jamie, and Grayson lay on the floor watching TV. Reluctantly, Cory gathered his kids and said goodbye to the rest of the family.
After Cory left, Shawn stayed on the periphery of his family, watching and worrying, waiting for Jon to pick up his phone that was sitting on the table next to him and answer Katherine. Audrey watched him worry for a while before calling him over to her. She gently nudged Jon to move down on the couch and took pillow from behind her back and placed it on her lap. Shawn smiled as he recognized what she was doing. He took his spot and he felt her fingertips in his hair and felt her shift her position as Jon put his arm around her, stroking her hair the way he always used to. For a moment all was right in his world. Then the anxiety kicked in and Shawn found it hard to relax, Eventually, drowsiness set in and although he fought to stay awake he wasn't able to. Some time later, Jon shook him awake and he helped him carry the younger kids to bed.
Just as he was settling himself into bed, Shawn remembered the text message and jumped down to get his phone.
Jon had still not responded to Katherine.
He was both relieved and concerned by this and with burner phone in hand he fought to stay awake again just in case Jon did reply after everyone had gone to bed. But it had been a long day and he was more tired than he realized. It wasn't long before sleep won and the phone he'd been holding slipped to the floor.