Day 20

I sit in the school's front office, anxiously rubbing my palms across my knees. "You okay, Aly?" I hear Tyler ask.

"Hey…yeah, just really nervous for this interview," I answer. "And I feel so weird actually dressing up. I don't feel like myself when I'm not in jeans."

"You're going to do great!" Tyler says. "This is the one to be the secretary at Avi's school?"

"Yeah," I answer. "I'm just nervous actually applying for a job in my field. What if I'm actually not good at it?"

"Nonsense," Tyler says. "You'll never know until you put yourself out there. And I know they'll love you."

"Thanks, Ty," I answer as I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"Let me know how it goes, okay?" he says. "I miss you."

"I will," I answer. "I miss you too." I look up as the principal's door opens and the shorter woman walks out into the front office. "The principal is here, I gotta go. Love you, Ty."

"Break a leg, sis!" Tyler responds. "Love you too!"

"Ms. Ronan?" the principal says as she walks up to me. "I'm Mrs. Hedstrom."

"Nice to meet you," I say as I stand and shake her hand.

"Ready to get started?" she asks. I nod and she leads me into her office. She gestures for me to sit in the chair in front of her desk as she takes a seat in the one behind her desk. She lets out a sigh before saying, "Thank you for coming in and for actually applying for this job. Avi tells me that you have an accounting degree so I'm sure there are other jobs you could have applied for making more money than this."

I shake my head, "Honestly, it's just nice to actually be working in my field. And being here for Avi is important to me too."

"You two seem pretty close," Mrs. Hedstrom says. I nod with a smile before she adds, "I'm sure you know about Chloe then?"

I close my eyes and nod my head. "She…she was my cousin."

Mrs. Hedstrom's face softens as she says, "I am so sorry for your loss. She…she was really an extraordinary young woman."

"That she was," I say, looking down with a small smile.

"I'm sorry for starting this interview on such a somber note," Mrs. Hedstrom says. She grabs a notepad and says, "Let's get started."

I walk down the hallway and knock on the classroom door labeled "Ms. Jennison: 3rd Grade". I smile, At least she gets to stay in the same room and grade this year considering everything.

The door swings open and Avi stands in the doorway. "Hey," she says without a smile. "You all finished up?"

"Yeah," I say, "and I hope you brought in my bag from the car because I'm using your bathroom to change back into my jeans."

"Go for it," Avi says, a small smile on her face. I walk into the classroom as the door slowly swings closed. Avi returns to her desk and I find my bag on a desk and begin to rumble through it.

As I pull my shirt and jeans out, I look up at Avi, sitting at her desk and a hand on her forehead. A heavy feeling settles in the room and I ask, "Is everything okay?"

Avi sighs and shakes her head. "Apparently everyone thinks it's custom to stop in on a person's first day back to work after someone dies to come tell them how sorry they are for their loss. Everyone's been in here and told me how sorry they are about Chloe and asking me how I am and telling me how awesome they thought she was and I just…I'm at my limit." My heart aches as I start to walk over to her and she says, "If you come over here and hug me and tell me how sorry you are, I'm going to punch you."

I pause, hanging my head before asking, "How about a hand on your shoulder?"

Avi shakes her head, "I thought work would be a place for me to clear my head…get everything ready for the school year since it starts in less than a month. But everyone is starting to make it a constant reminder here too that she's not here. It's almost suffocating."

"Well do I need to withdraw my application and us look elsewhere?" I ask gently. "I'm sure there is another school around who we could get a job with."

I shake my head, "I don't know…where would I go? I've been at this school going on four years now. My people are here. And there is no way I could pack up all my stuff and set it up at a new school in time for school to start."

"We will make it happen if that's what you need," I say. "Between me, your parents, Amber, and Ashley, we can get it done; whatever you need."

Avi simply nods before looking up and asking, "How did it go, by the way?"

"Good!" I say. "She seemed to like me but she said she still has a few days left in the application window and that has to close before she can start making a decision so it would probably be a week or two before I heard one way or another."

"Hedstrom is good about that," Avi says. "She always calls or has you come in one way or another. Granted, I'm taking that mostly by word of mouth. She only called me to hire me."

I chuckle a bit, "I'll still do some applications to have a back up just in case so we don't run out of time before the deadline on the apartment." I look back up at Avi and ask, "Unless you've made a decision on keeping the apartment or not?"

Avi shakes her head, "I don't know. I don't know how we'd find the time to pack up everything there either or if I can let it go yet."

"It's okay, we've got time," I say. "I'm going to go change now." Avi nods as I grab my clothes and go into the classroom bathroom. I change and walk back out to put my interview clothes back in my bag. I look up as I hear a key slide into the doorknob and the door creeks open. One of the custodians, a larger man with dark hair and beard walks in and waves at Avi.

"Hey Daniel," she says with a small smile. "What's up?"

"Not much, just here to change out your Wi-Fi router" he answers as he walks over to the corner of the room with a ladder and a box.

"Thank God!" Avi shouts. "I struggled with the stupid Wi-Fi so much last year."

"That's why I'm here!" Daniel says, climbing the ladder. "How is your first day back?"

"Don't get me started," Avi says with a sigh. "I am so tired of people telling me how sorry they are about my loss or asking me how I'm holding up."

"That's tough," Daniel says, taking the old router off the ceiling. "I guess you don't want to hear about who came up to the front office then?"

"Who?" Avi asks. "What happened?"

"Chase Thomas," Daniel answers, opening the new router's box.

"He's the kid who Chloe mentored, right?" Avi asks, her voice catching. Daniel nods. "Oh God…what happened?"

"He came up here with his grandmother and a trophy because he wanted to thank Chloe for helping him raise the money for his soccer uniform and to show her the trophy he won playing," Daniel answers, attaching the new router to the ceiling and plugging it in. "Stacy at the front desk had to break the news to him. He was devastated."

"I can imagine," Avi whispers. "His behavior changed so much because of her. I don't want to think what he'll do now."

"Me either," Daniel says as he climbs down from the ladder. "I just hope we can find him a new mentor who could even come close to helping him like Chloe did."

"Me too," Avi says with a heavy sigh.

"I gotta run and do some more routers," Daniel says. "But if you need to talk, come hunt me down later. And that's all I will say." He gives Avi a sad smile as she waves at him and he walks out.

Avi puts her head in her hands, "I didn't even think about that kid until now. She did so much for him. She said he reminded her of Nathan…the guy who killed Rachel, kidnapped me, almost killed her, and she ended up killing to protect us. She always said that if he had been given a real chance and really had actual help, he wouldn't have ended up the way he did. And she wanted to make sure Chase didn't go down that path. But now…who knows." A few tears trickle down her face as she says, "I know how he must feel. And it freaking sucks." She wipes her face before looking up at me and saying, "Can we go? I need to go home." I nod as I help her gather her things and walk out the door.