Outcasts MC (Complete Series), page 59
I had been fortunate with this group. Of course, I loved all of my students, but there was no denying that some of them were more challenging than others. Especially in this day and age where the parents could be just as tricky as the students sometimes. Although thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with letter grades with this age group; instead, they just got marks for satisfactory work.
Still, in my previous year’s class, there had been two especially difficult students: one who had a terrible time sitting still or paying attention and another who was sullen and unhappy no matter what we did.
But this year’s class, all the students seemed to be sweet and interested. There were a few who had been pretty timid at the start of the school year, but bit by bit, they came out of their shells at the encouragement of the rest of the students and myself. I hadn’t had any difficulties with their parents either.
And the more behaved the students were, the more fun activities we got to do as a class. Whether it was playing games or drawing assignments, we had plenty of opportunities to make the learning fun. I was going to miss this group at the end of the school year. Enough that I almost wished I could move up to the third grade with them.
But hopefully, next year’s class would be just as much fun. Part of the joy of teaching, really, was getting to touch different students’ lives, and also figuring out ways to connect with them when they were challenging. Every new year was entirely different, even if the curriculum stayed the same.
I couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life.
“All right, everyone, remember how I said that we were going to get to do some drawings this morning?” I asked the class. There were some enthusiastic nods in response. I passed around sheets of paper. “Well, the unit that we’re starting is about families,” I continued. “Does anyone know what a family tree is?”
“Is it like when my daddy planted a tree in our front yard?” Neil asked excitedly.
I smiled at him but shook my head. “Good guess, but that’s not quite it,” I said. “A family tree looks something like this.” I started sketching on the whiteboard, drawing little stick figures as my people. “So this is me here,” I explained as I drew, “And this would be my mom here. And my dad would be here. And then from there, I would have my grandparents. Does that make sense?”
More nods around the room.
“Today, we’re just going to start with the first part,” I said, circling the part of the tree that included me as well as my supposed parents.
“What I want you all to draw on your sheets is yourself and then your mommies and daddies. And when you draw yourself, I want you to draw yourself doing your favorite activity, and when you draw your mommies and daddies, let’s draw them doing their job. So for example, my daughter, Piper, would probably draw herself climbing up big rocks while we hike, and then she would draw me teaching a class. Does that make sense?”
Roman’s hand shot into the air. He had a puzzled frown on his face. “But Teacher, I don’t have a daddy,” he said, sounding uncertain.
“That’s all right, Roman,” I said warmly, even though my heart was breaking for the kid. I should have clarified that before any of them had to ask. “It’s all right if you don’t have a mommy or a daddy, or if your grandparents are the ones that you live with, or whatever your family is like at home. Just do the best that you can.” I smiled at Roman. “Actually, I don’t have a daddy either. So if I were drawing my tree, I wouldn’t be able to put anything there.”
Roman’s eyes widened. “You don’t have a daddy either?” he asked, sounding surprised.
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “But that means you’d better do a really good drawing of your favorite thing to do, all right?”
“Okay,” Roman said, sounding happy.
Soon, all the kids were drawing. I moved around the room, peeking over their shoulders and adding helpful suggestions where I could. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Roman’s question about not having a father.
Like with Jackson’s death, my lack of a father was something that I had long since gotten over. But I knew that Piper was in the same boat as Roman. She didn’t have a daddy. And while that wasn’t entirely unusual, I knew that she still missed the daddy she barely remembered.
I also knew that she still didn’t really understand why her daddy would never come home again. How do you explain death to a kid her age and actually get her to understand it? There wasn’t any way to do it.
I sighed and shook my head. Of course, we had to talk about these things in my class. We were talking about family trees, and there was no way to do that without talking about parents. But I wished, suddenly, that there had been some other way to introduce the unit without this. Now, I was going to spend the whole rest of the unit remembering again how difficult it must be for Piper. Because I knew what it was like to grow up without a father. No one to take you to father-daughter dance evenings. No one to help you build a birdhouse. No one to make Father’s Day cards for. Among other things.
I wanted the world for Piper. But even though I knew that she and I were happy in our own little world, just the two of us, I still almost wished that there were some way to make it so that she didn’t have to grow up without a dad.
Almost. But not enough that I actually wanted to start dating again. I knew that there was no way I would ever find someone as wonderfully compatible with me as Jackson had been, and everything else would feel hollow. And I didn’t want to put Piper through the emotional roller coaster of my dating.
I just had to do my best to be there for her whenever she needed it, to lessen the effect of her not having a father. But being there for her at all times? That was just what a mom was supposed to do anyway. I did everything I could to make sure that Piper knew that she was loved, that her father had been a wonderful man, and that we were still a complete family with just the two of us. It had been working so far, at least.
5
Xander
Tuesday morning, Otis called me. I answered immediately when I saw it was him. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I was just wondering if you had been by the school to see Cora yet,” Otis said.
I frowned. I knew there had to be a reason that Otis wanted me to check in on this woman, whoever she was, but I had thought that, in light of the meeting with the other chapter presidents, we were supposed to be finishing up as many projects as we could this week. So I hadn’t bothered to go by the school just yet because, to be honest, there were other projects that seemed more important.
Maybe I’d been wrong about that. But if so, it was through no fault of my own. Otis needed to give me more information if he wanted me to check on this woman right away. He at least needed to impress upon me the fact that this was urgent. As it was, just stopping by a school to “look for anything unusual” didn’t seem like the highest priority.
Of course, there was no way to say that to him without sounding like I was questioning his authority.
“I haven’t been by the school yet,” I told Otis. “I spent yesterday closing out the Kenyon account.”
“Good,” Otis said, but I could tell he was slightly impatient.
“Who is this woman?” I ventured to ask. “Is she a future client?”
Otis was silent on the other end of the line, and I prepared myself for a lecture on how I shouldn’t question him because he was the president, and so on and so forth. But instead, he finally sighed. “I suppose you have a right to ask,” he said. “She’s not a client, but let’s just say that I need you to find out what’s going on in her life. For a future client.”
“Huh,” I said, not sure what to say in response to that. What, did this future client think that Cora posed a threat to them? I couldn’t imagine a schoolteacher being considered a threat, but then again, I didn’t know her. The whole thing was very strange, but I wasn’t stupid enough to try to ask Otis any more questions about her. I had already pried enough.
“I want you to become friends with her, if you can,” Otis continued suddenly. “But don’t tell her who you are or that you’re involved with the MC.”
I blinked, stunned into silence. Become friends with her? This was clearly more than a one-off project to see how the woman was doing and if there was anything unusual going on in her life. I wondered just what Otis knew about this woman. But whatever it was, he didn’t seem keen on sharing; that was all the information he would give me about her.
“All right,” I said, shrugging. “I’ll swing by there in a little while and then let you know how things go.”
“Perfect,” Otis said before he hung up the phone.
I frowned down at the device in my hand, not sure what to make of this new assignment. Otis wanted projects finished up and closed down so that if shit hit the fan with this other MC encroaching on Outcasts territory, we would be ready to face the threat. Whether it was on our turf or in New York or Pittsburgh.
But now, he was giving me a new project, just when things ought to be tapering off into preparations. What’s more, it was a project unlike anything else I had ever had to do for the MC.
Was Cora Cole somehow involved with this other MC? I had to wonder. The timing was only too coincidental, and Otis’s impatience about this project had to stem from something. Maybe he thought she knew something about the plans of this other MC. Maybe she was here to try to figure out the lay of the land in Greenboro.
I would have to be careful around her. Not that I generally went around blabbing about my role in the MC anyway. That was a surefire way to get myself in trouble with the authorities, even though of course they already knew who was involved.
I glanced at my phone, checking the time. Nearly noon. Cora should be at the school at this hour on a Tuesday. How the hell was I supposed to check up on her now? And become her friend? She would be in the middle of teaching, and I didn’t even know how I would get into the school. It wasn’t like I would be allowed to waltz into the place with no reason to be there. That just wasn’t possible.
I called Dax. Maybe he would have some insight as to why Otis was acting so weird about this woman. And even if not, maybe he would have some advice for how I could slip into the school to spy on her. Two heads on a project were better than one, and that’s what my brothers in the MC were there for.
We met at a coffeehouse near the school. “It’s just weird,” I said to Dax, shaking my head as I stirred cream into my coffee. “He won’t tell me anything about who this woman is, but he said he wanted information about her for a future client.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what that’s about,” Dax said. Then, he smirked. “Unless maybe she’s his age and he’s trying to figure out if he should actually date her or something?”
I snorted. “As amusing as that would be, I seriously doubt that’s something Otis would do,” I pointed out. “And besides, I already looked this woman up online. She’s not that old.”
“That’s a shame,” Dax said.
I rolled my eyes. “With this heat coming from that other MC, the one trying to encroach on the Outcast chapters in New York and Pittsburgh, Otis probably doesn’t have time for dating anyway. Even if I could imagine him with someone, which I definitely can’t.”
Dax shrugged. “He had Kane and me,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but that was before he was old and, you know.”
Dax laughed, “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it. If he’s asked you to look into this teacher-lady, then I would just focus on that.”
“Therein lies the difficulty,” I said. “Just how exactly am I supposed to get into the school?”
Dax frowned. “Maybe going directly into the school isn’t the smartest idea,” he said. “If I were you, I’d probably wait until school gets out for the day and then try and follow her from there.”
“Yeah, but Otis wanted me to try to befriend her, not just stalk her,” I reminded Dax. “And he seemed pretty impatient about it. Like he wanted to hear about her as soon as possible.”
“I guess,” Dax said, frowning as he thought over my predicament. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers. “Hey, which school does she teach at? Greenboro Elementary?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly.
Dax grinned broadly at me. “I did some work for the principal of the school there, covering his back at one point. All you have to do is tell him that you’re there on MC business; I’m sure he’d help you out.”
“All right,” I said. “But not having a kid in the school, what excuse could I possibly use for wanting to see the principal directly? I’m sure the guy is busy, and I’m also sure that you can’t just walk in and start chatting with the principal.”
“Probably not,” Dax agreed. “But tell his secretary that you’re a superintendent from another district. That you’re there to sit in on a class or two to get a feel for how things are run in this district, that sort of thing. You know, like you’re trying to reform your district. Greenboro has one of the highest graduation rates in the state.”
“How do you know that?” I asked in surprise.
Dax shrugged and looked away from me, seemingly embarrassed. “There may have been a conversation about having children and where we wanted to raise them,” he admitted.
I laughed and shook my head. “Well, that’s convenient,” I said. I nodded. “All right, a superintendent from another district. That might work. And if the principal does believe that he owes us one, that’ll make things easy. I’ll just tell him exactly what I’m doing there.” I grinned wryly. “Or at least, I’ll tell him what I know about what I’m doing there. Not that it’s much.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Dax said. “And let me know if it doesn’t work out. I’m sure we can figure out some other way for you to get the info Otis needs.”
“Thanks,” I said, meaning it. Dax was always there to help me if I had cases I couldn’t handle on my own. It was another reason I couldn’t imagine heading off alone to New York. Sure, the guys there would probably help me as much as they could, but I would have a difficult time asking for help from guys I didn’t even know. Especially if I was president, or on track to be president. Then, I would have to act like I was two steps ahead of everyone else.
I knew the way Otis ran things. There was a certain amount of secrecy at any given time, information he was holding back until we needed to know it. As president, you couldn’t just ask for help because you couldn’t let anyone see those insecurities. But more importantly, you couldn’t let on that you knew only as much about a situation as the next person.
I headed to the school a little while later, still mulling over this whole project. I didn’t understand what information Otis wanted from me, but I supposed the only place to start was with making friends with first the principal and then the woman.
Getting in to see the principal was surprisingly easy using the lie Dax had come up with. Actually, I was a little bothered by how quickly the secretary got me in to see the man. She didn’t even ask why I hadn’t called to set up a meeting or anything else. She just ushered me right on back.
Maybe this whole thing was going to be easier than I thought it would be.
“Ah, Mr. Tidwell, was it?” Evan, the principal said to me, coming around the desk to shake hands. “I’m afraid I’m terrible with names and faces, so I’m sorry if we’ve met before and I’m just not remembering.” He frowned. “We must have met before, I suppose. Which school district did you say you’re from?”
“I’m not,” I explained. “I’m with the Outcasts MC. I hear you’ve done some business with us in the past.”
Evan raised an eyebrow at me, giving me a once-over. “That makes a lot more sense,” he said afterward, grinning at me. “No offense, but you don’t look like an academic.”
I had to laugh at that. “I’m not,” I agreed, shaking my head.
“So, what can I do for you today?” Evan asked briskly, leaning back against his desk. “I trust there wasn’t any trouble with my payment?”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” I told him. “I have a favor to ask you.”
Evan stared at me for a moment, and I could see him weighing his options in his head. He probably wanted nothing more to do with the MC. Here was a respectable man. Probably a family man, even. I had to wonder what it was that led him to the MC in the first place. Maybe I should have asked Dax, but I wasn’t going to bring up all of that now.
Finally, Evan slowly nodded. “I owe the Outcasts my life,” he said in a low voice. “What is it you need from me?”
“I’m trying to gather some information for Otis,” I said. “About one Cora Cole. I hear she’s a teacher here?”
“Yes, in the second grade,” Evan said, nodding. He looked uncertain. “But I’m not allowed to tell you any information about her,” he added. “Everything that’s in her teacher file here is strictly confidential.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’m not asking you to divulge information about her. I’m not sure that anything you have on file about her is the kind of information that Otis is looking for anyway. What he’s asked me to do is to make friends with her. I was hoping that you could get me an introduction. Here, today.”
Evan drummed his fingers against his desk. “She’s in classes at the moment,” he said slowly. “For the sake of the children, I’m loathe to interrupt her.”
“Understandable,” I said, nodding. “But I was thinking that maybe you could bring me to her classroom, and I could sit in and observe. You know, as a visiting superintendent from another district.”
Evan smiled ruefully. “You’ve clearly thought this all through,” he said, sounding appreciative. “I think that just might work.”
“Perfect,” I said.
Evan clapped his hands together. “All right, then. Let’s go.”
He led me down the empty hallways. It felt weird being back in a school like this. Smaller than I remembered my elementary school being, but then again, I had been a lot smaller back then. But the ceilings pressing down on me was almost claustrophobic. I hoped that I would get whatever information Otis wanted quickly and that I wouldn’t have to keep coming back.
