Whatever It Takes, page 7
“Are you kidding?” Emily asked, admiring the small kitchen with its marble island and the steps leading down to the basement to her right. “It’s perfect. It kind of reminds me of the place your folks had back when we were kids.”
“Why do you think I grabbed it? Aside from the dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room, it’s almost exactly the same. Well, that, and I don’t have a pool in the backyard.”
“But you do have a back yard,” Emily said.
“I do, and we can make the most of it once it gets a little warmer outside, but if you honestly expect me to scarf down my pizza before it gets cold, we aren’t eating it out there.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Emily said with a smile, taking a plate from Sarah before grabbing two slices from the pizza box. “I probably don’t have to ask but—”
“Sodas are in the fridge in the laundry room.”
Emily nodded at that, making her way down into the family area before setting her plate on the long coffee table between two sofas. “Pepsi?” she asked as Sarah made her way down the steps.
“Bottled water, please. I’ll go ahead and throw the movie in. I grabbed Interview with the Vampire. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Emily still remembered the first time Sarah had shown it to her. Her dad was pissed when he saw a naked, or mostly naked woman on the screen. “And here I thought you were going to get something like The Birds or Tremors.”
“I thought about it, trust me,” Sarah said from her place in the family room, “but I figured this would be a nice throwback before we get into any of that.”
Emily nodded in agreement, then quickly walked into the laundry room to get their drinks and a handful of paper towels from the roll hanging above the washer and dryer. “Here. I wasn’t sure if you got napkins or not.”
“Thanks.” Sarah took two of the paper towels, then set them in her lap before folding her legs under herself.
Emily kicked off her shoes and followed Sarah’s example, leaning back on the sofa as the opening credits popped up on the screen. “Man, I’ve missed this. Jess and I have movie nights sometimes, but it’s usually on the pullout sofa that doubles as my bed so… it isn’t the same.”
“This one pulls out as well, though I never use it.” Sarah folded a slice of pizza and shoved half of it in her mouth, closing her eyes as she took her first bite. “Pepperoni and onion. It never fails.”
“It’s an amazing combination,” Emily agreed, “and it’s your fault Jess and I argue over the last slice every single time.”
Sarah made a sound of approval, then turned down the volume just enough so they could hear the movie but not get
drowned out by it. “Do you remember when we tried to super pinkie swear?”
“Oh god,” Emily groaned. How could she forget? “Though I’m pretty sure we could’ve just done it a little tighter instead of actually using super glue. Your mom was so angry.”
“And you were freaking out,” Sarah said with a laugh.
“You kept trying to pull away only to realize we were stuck to each other.”
“And here I thought those finger traps were bad. That was such a stupid idea.”
“We had a lot of those,” Sarah said as she set her plate in her lap. “But to be fair, we had a lot of fun too.”
Emily nodded at that. Their summers and winters were the best. They practically lived in the pool, and if they weren’t swimming, they were off hiking or biking.
“I still miss our snow forts.” They were huge mounds of snow with tunnels underneath and enough of a ceiling to hold someone up if they crawled on top. “You don’t really get snow like that anymore.”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m happy for that. That ice was nuts. You lost power for a week.”
“I think the entire neighborhood did.” Good thing we had a fireplace. Otherwise, Emily’s family would’ve had to go somewhere else.
“At least we still get off for the summer,” Sarah mused aloud. “I mean, we aren’t really off since I’m always trying to plan the next semester’s curriculum, but you get what I mean.
I’m just glad I’m not stuck behind a desk anymore.”
“At the vet’s office?” Emily asked, offering her a sideways glance.
“Clerical work. I did it while I was in school, and it was the absolute worst.”
“I believe it. You never did like staying indoors.” Sarah was the reason they went hiking as often as they did. Good
thing there was a path and a ton of trails not far from her home.
“I still go camping when I can, but that isn’t really the best place to go when you have a mountain of tests to score. I do get a really good one, sometimes. The tests, I mean.”
“You mean someone who aced the test?” Emily asked.
“More like the kids who finish early and are too shy to be the first one to turn their work in. You should see some of the stuff that ends up in the margins. Some of these kids are seriously talented, though my favorite sketch I’ve ever seen had to be of a dragon and a gryphon. Probably because it reminded me of you.”
“I’ve missed this,” Sarah continued, leaning her head back so she was staring at the ceiling. “I missed us, and I missed you,” she explained, meeting Emily’s gaze as her cheeks filled with color. “Even after I moved into this house, I could see you everywhere. It’s strange because when you really think about it, I was acting like you weren’t around anymore. I kept saying ‘Emily would’ve really liked this’ instead of how you’d like it if you ever came to visit. I don’t know, you were just stuck in my head somehow.”
“Having a similar-looking house to the one you grew up in probably didn’t help, but I thought about you as well.”
“Oh?” Sarah asked, turning to face her before taking another bite of her pizza. “How so?”
“Well…” Emily paused as she looked back on the time they’d spent apart. “There were the claw machines at the local corner store that you were always good at, and then there was the yogurt shop with all sorts of toppings behind the counter.”
“I would’ve pulled one of those levers until my dessert was overflowing.”
“And then you would’ve gotten sick because of it.” Emily shook her head. “You really are hopeless sometimes.”
“I know a good thing when I see it,” Sarah simply said. “It might’ve made me sick, but man if it wasn’t ever tasty before that.”
“You know, most creatures learn a thing or two when something hurts.”
“If you’re trying to tell me I need to be more like a deer or a helpless sparrow, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Sarah had her there. Considering the pain she’d been in shortly after Emily arrived, Emily was lucky to be sitting with her at all.
“So what was it like living in the middle of nowhere?”
Sarah asked when Emily didn’t say anything. She turned to face the television again, but her eyes were still on Emily.
“It wasn’t the middle of nowhere,” Emily laughed. “We had everything you had back here. Including a spa.”
“Oooh, a spa, ” Sarah teased, drawing out her words.
Emily bumped shoulders with her and smiled. “It was okay, but it wasn’t New Brook.” She smiled then, her time in Sarah’s home feeling more surreal than ever before. “Thanks for inviting me here.” Coming out today had messed with Emily’s nerves, but things went a lot better than she ever could’ve hoped for. It was also more than she probably deserved.
“Thank you for joining me. If you didn’t, I’d still be working,” Sarah said. “I tend to go a little overboard with these bigger assignments. I know I could just use last year’s lesson plans, but I always try to improve on things and to make them more fun, you know?”
“I do.” Emily was the same exact way. “Perfectionist.”
“Oh? You’re one to talk. I bet your space doesn’t look any better than mine did before you walked in.”
“I try to keep my space at Jess’ tidy, but there’s still some spillover from time to time.” Like the papers currently scattered all over Jess’ counter or the mountain of books propped up on one of the coffee tables. “What can I say? I love what I do.”
“And it shows,” Sarah said as she finished up her food.
“Kids pick up on stuff like that. If you make it fun and enjoy it yourself, they’ll enjoy it as well. It’s as simple as that. Just try and stay away from PowerPoint presentations or using an overhead projector.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Emily never could stay awake during things like that. As soon as the classroom lights went off, her head went down on the desk.
“You know, we kind of have one of the easiest jobs in the world. I mean, sure, sometimes it can really suck, but we have at least twelve years of experience before we even get to college. Those twelve years make a huge difference in how we teach and how we were taught. That doesn’t mean I want to go back and sit in a classroom as someone goes on about physics, but you get the idea. If we didn’t like it as a kid, chances are it won’t work now that we’re adults.”
“I’m just glad the kids mostly understand the whole ‘no cell phones’ rule. Most of my students have them out before class starts, but by the time I close the door, just about everyone puts them away.”
“It’s a different age, that’s for sure. It’s way too distracting if you ask me, but what can you do? It isn’t like they can go for long hikes like we once did. There are too many dangers out there, and I’m not talking about what happens when you throw a rock at a hornet nest.”
Emily laughed, practically choking on her soda. “That was your idea,” Emily reminded her. “I was the one standing far away telling you to run.”
“At least I didn’t get hit,” Sarah said as she smiled fondly at the memory. “I did get them stirred up, though.” That was putting it lightly!
“And then one of them flew right into my face. It’s a good thing I wasn’t stung.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. You aren’t allergic, anyway.”
“To bees,” Emily pointed out. “We weren’t sure if I’d react to wasps any differently.”
“And did you?”
Emily sighed. There was no way she’d win this argument so she didn’t even try. “No.”
“See?” Sarah said as she sat up. “You were worried for no reason.”
“But things are different now,” Emily said, repeating what Sarah had said before. Allergens aside, there were other dangers out there now compared to when they were kids. “It’d hard not taking an interest in their lives.”
Emily loved talking to her students for the first five minutes of class, especially after a long weekend. It was how she learned about their very first dates and even the first concert their folks might’ve let them go to. But there was also a very thin line Emily wasn’t supposed to cross, one that included her own life and her tendency to overshare.
“You know how you sometimes talk to your family with a lot of affirmative answers and small talk without fully getting into the conversation?” Sarah asked, pulling Emily from her thoughts. “Just do that. I know you want to get into the details of their lives, but it isn’t really any of our business. It also makes it that much harder to start a new year when you have new students to mold.
Trust me, I’m talking from experience here. The less time you invest in their lives outside of school, the better. The only exception to this rule is if you feel something might be off at home. Then you report it to Principal Wallace to see if anyone else might’ve noticed.”
Thankfully, Emily hadn’t seen anything like that.
However, given the way Sarah spoke just then, it was easy to see she had.
“Have you ever had to report anyone?” Emily asked, resisting the urge to reach out to Sarah when she flinched.
“I did,” Sarah said as she looked at Emily again, “but just the once. This kid kept coming in late all the time wearing the same clothes he had on several days before. It wasn’t really a
problem until the other kids started to notice and tease him because of it.”
“What happened?”
“As it turned out, they lost their things in a house fire.
They were living out of their car for weeks before anyone noticed. Once we realized what was going on, we threw a fundraiser and donated all of the money to help them get back on their feet.”
Emily released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and put a hand to her chest. “Thank goodness. I thought you were going to say something else.”
“We’ve been very lucky in that regard,” Sarah admitted.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m not looking for it. Kids play sports like crazy, so seeing someone limp because of a hockey puck to the shin isn’t that uncommon, but if it’s the offseason, I ask them about it just to be safe.”
“But kids can lie.”
“They can,” Sarah said with a nod, “which is why you log it into the back of your memory and keep a list to see if any patterns show up, but again, it isn’t something you should worry about that much. It isn’t as common as you think.
Besides, what you should be worrying about is that dance we have coming up.”
“We?” Emily laughed. “I haven’t been asked to chaperone or anything.” Considering how late in the month it was, Emily was in the clear.
“Oh, don’t worry, you will. Principal Wallace loves putting folks on the spot, including those of us who can’t stand dancing.”
“But you love to dance.” Sarah had said so herself.
“When I can dance in my own way. But watching a lot of kids move to the beat without being allowed to join in? It’s the worst kind of torture there is, especially when one of your favorite songs comes on. Think about it. Pick a song you love to sing to, then imagine not being able to sing along with it at all. No lip-syncing, either.”
Emily opened her mouth to say something, then deflated just as soon as Sarah finished.
“See what I mean? It’s the absolute worst, and if I’m going to suffer, I’m going to make sure you get to suffer with me.”
She laughed and threw an arm over Emily’s shoulders. “It’s really good to have you back, Em. I mean that.”
“And it’s really good to be back,” Emily said as she leaned into her. “I missed you too, by the way. I don’t think I said it before.”
“You didn’t, but I think I got the message the countless times you tried to wave me down in the hallway.”
Emily forced a smile as she met her gaze. “I’m really sorry about that. I’m not usually that aggressive, but—”
“But you were right,” Sarah said, cutting her off. “I don’t want to go through life with a mountain of regret any more than you do. Because of that, and seeing as you’re here, I figure what the heck, right?”
“Right.”
“That’s not to say we won’t run into a few bumps along the way, but we’re adults now, so I’m sure we can navigate them without much of a problem. And if things really turn sideways, we can always go back to how things were, just like you said.”
“We can,” Emily agreed. “But I’m still planning to do everything in my power to make this work.”
“And so am I.”
Chapter Eleven
Emily loved Halloween. She loved the costumes, the decorations, and everything that came along with it. So as soon as her alarm went off, she pulled out her pink witch’s costume along with a plastic tiara she had to pin into place.
Looking in the mirror, she scrutinized the bumps in her hair. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do without removing the tiara altogether, so she let it be.
“Nice outfit,” Jess teased as Emily rounded the corner.
“I’m surprised they had one in your size.”
“It was the best thing I could get last minute,” Emily said as she made her way into the kitchen to grab her lunch. “It’s also easy. Besides, you like Glinda.” Jess couldn’t get enough of the good witch when they were kids.
“I do,” Jess agreed, “but you’re missing a wand.”
Emily patted her chest, her side, then shrugged. “That’s okay. She didn’t need her wand all of the time.” Though it would’ve been hard for her to help Dorothy without it.
“So what’s Sarah going to be? Or is she too old to play dress-up anymore?”
Emily honestly hadn’t thought to ask, but knowing Sarah, she’d probably stick with one of those headbands with the horns or cat ears on top. Something festive but tasteful. Emily had considered doing the same thing, but because this was her first year of teaching, she wanted to make it extra special in her own way.
That meant dressing up like she was about to go trick-or-treating with everyone else.
“It’s a shame they don’t do early dismissal anymore,”
Emily mused aloud as she gathered her things.
“It only happened that one time,” Jess reminded her. “They had parent-teacher conferences or something. It was cool,
though. Getting home before lunch and having enough time to get dressed and decorate?” Jess let out a long sigh. “Those were the days.”
“You on call again?”
“On a night like tonight? Always. You should see some of the crazy stuff that comes in on Halloween or during a full moon.”
“I’ll pass, thanks.” The last thing Emily needed was for her Halloween to get ruined by some gross images Jess managed to put in her head.
“Just saying. Anyway, I might be able to stick around after you’re done with work, but if not, I already have the candy bowl ready to go. All you need to do is set it out in the hall for the building and call it a night. Just don’t watch any of the horror movies without me. We’ll do that on my next day off.”
She smiled then, joining in Emily’s excitement. “You’re going to have an awesome day.”
