Page 28 of Worth the Fall
SUCK IT, MISS SHOOSTER
THOMAS
Iquickly walked to my car and started the ten-minute drive to Clarabel’s elementary school. I’d reached out to her teacher and scheduled a meeting with her regarding the whole Clara-slash-Scott debacle, like she’d asked me to. I wasn’t sure why we couldn’t have this conversation over the phone or on video chat, so I didn’t have to leave my office, but Miss Shooster had insisted that I come in personally.
“Face-to-face meetings are more effective, don’t you think?” she had asked.
She’d basically given me no choice. And it’d put me in a pissy mood. I didn’t like being told what to do or how to spend my time.
“Thomas O’Grady. As I live and breathe,” Mrs. Alastair, the school secretary, said as soon as I walked through the office doors. She’d been working at the school since I had gone there as a kid.
“Mrs. Alastair. How are you still here?” I asked sweetly. At least as sweetly as I could muster. It probably came out rude.
“Retirement sounds boring. Plus, the kids keep me young.” She winked, and I forced a smile. “I heard you have an appointment with Miss Shooster—is that right?”
I nodded, and she gave me directions toward Clarabel’s classroom even though I’d been there a couple of months earlier for back-to-school night.
“She’s a great kid, Thomas,” Mrs. Alastair said, and I stopped in my tracks before turning to face her. “Clarabel. She’s smart as a whip, that one. And kind.”
Warmth spread throughout my body, all the way to my bones. “Thank you for saying that.”
“Well, it’s true. Good luck in there,” she shouted as I made my way down the long, fluorescent-lit hallway to the door with the number5on the glass.
I knocked half-heartedly before turning the handle and escorting myself inside. The walls were filled with color, the alphabet and numbers draped in order on one side. The rest of the room seemed to be decorated in some sort of underwater theme with pictures of sea animals and drawings of mermaids and pirates. It was chaos, but it worked.
“Mr. O’Grady. Thank you so much for coming.” Miss Shooster stood up from behind her desk and made her way toward me.
My daughter’s teacher looked more like she was ready for a night out on the town than teaching a bunch of second graders. She hadn’t been dressed like this during back-to-school night. Not that I cared in the least. I simply would have remembered.
She extended her hand, and I shook it firmly. Obviously a little too hard because she shook out her wrist lightly after I let it go.
“You can take a seat.” She pointed at one of the smallest chairs I’d ever seen, and a gruff noise escaped from deep within my chest.
“I think I’ll stand.”
Her cheeks flushed as she tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “Of course. You wouldn’t even fit anyway. What was I thinking?”
The woman was stuttering on her words. If this was how today was going to go, I might as well leave.
Deciding to cut to the chase so I could get the hell back to work, I asked, “Why am I here?”
“Oh.” She looked shocked by my bluntness. “Well, I’m sure you heard about the incident between Clarabel and Scott.”
She moved to touch my shoulder in some sort of comforting gesture, but I quickly moved out of her grasp.
“I did.”
“I’m also assuming you know that we follow a disciplinary plan here that deals with consequences for specific behavioral actions,” she explained as she walked back toward her desk and leaned against it.
I shook my head because Miss Shooster was speaking another language. One I definitely did not understand.
“You follow what?”