Ninja School Mum

by Lizzie Chantree

  Zack was quite excited about how well his interactive app design idea was coming along. He was going to install cameras on the safety helmets and, for a small fee, parents and friends would be able to watch the tree climb from the safety of the refreshment hut, where several mini screens would be installed across one wall. He was also going to have screens set into some of the trees. They would be in waterproof surrounds, but would tell the tree explorers how high they were from the ground, what type of tree they were climbing, and what was the hardest or simplest route back to the ground via the course. He was even adding a couple of simple games for them to play at the press of a button while they waited on the crossing points for people to traverse between the trees. There would be extra strapping and tree links to be attached before the game would begin, so that everyone was safe and not distracted.

  Some people took their time to cross the ropes, or got worried about the height, and this could mean a queue formed at the crossing posts. He felt the adrenaline hit his veins every time he thought of investing more money in this venture, but it was a good feeling and he had made the decision to move ahead and expand the business, so he might as well jump in and enjoy the experience. He just had to work out how to get the same pleasure out of his personal life and not spend practically every waking hour dreaming of computer designs and rope runs in the trees.

  Zack felt annoyed by his own weakness, cowering away and hiding from a strong woman like Mirabelle. Trying to come up with a solution, he remembered something Marlo had said earlier in the week about the estate being a great place for a party, but what a shame the owner was a complete hermit. Marlo had laughed and Mike had snorted and turned away in mirth.

  Narrowing his eyes in determination, Zack made up his mind. He knew that he had been manipulated by yet another woman when Marlo had set down the challenge, but he had been just too thick to realise it at the time. She was throwing down the gauntlet. He’d been goaded into responding. For a usually quick and alert male, he could be a bit slow sometimes. He’d had to take an old acquaintance to the school quiz night to shut Mike up, but now school gossip was rife about him again and Belle kept scowling at him.

  He already had a few ideas for the ball he would hold in the grounds, though. He would use it as an opportunity to launch his new app design to the locals. They were his customer-base after all, and he wasn’t about to let Marlo have it all her own way. If he had to socialise with them, then he would use it as a business marketing opportunity at the same time. Zack smiled widely and thought about how angry Marlo would be when she found out the ball he was proposing was going to double up as a work function. She would be cross for about a minute, then she would be nagging him about decorations and catering. He sighed and his equilibrium slipped a little. Maybe he would need some help, if he wanted to do this properly? He would need invitations that made people choose to attend in the first instance. He knew Skye was an author and wondered, if he tried his hardest and was nice to her for once, she might scribble down a few lines to entice people here. He was sure many would turn up for the free booze, but he wanted it to be strictly invitation only and he would have to ask a few local dignitaries. This meant a good invitation, so that they would want to come.

  Zack thought back to the days when he had wooed Emmie’s mum, Kay, with flowers and the most expensive perfumes and jewellery he could afford at the time. It had nearly broken his spirit trying to pay for them, but he had believed she was worth it. How wrong could a man be? He thought of Skye’s sparkling eyes and silky dark hair and couldn’t remember ever seeing her wearing jewellery. He didn’t think she was the hearts and flowers kind of gal either. Maybe he could turn up at the cottage to inspect the property with a bottle of wine, and then ask for her help? That wouldn’t work, as she would probably laugh at him and think he was a total creep. Seeing the mischief in her smile the other day at school, she would probably grab the wine first, then shut the door in his face. The thought didn’t make him feel too good and Zack decided it was time he introduced himself properly and apologised for his previous behaviour.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Skye opened the door to the cottage and let Thea and the children precede her into the lounge. There were supposed to be four other children joining them again today for her new afterschool ‘fitness club’ and, for once, Skye was glad of the distraction. It meant she could put off Thea for a while longer. She didn’t know how her life had come to this, teaching seven and eight-year-olds tactics on how to avoid Miles, while letting them think she was running some sort of afterschool club. What the hell had she been thinking?

  She had decided it was time her son learned how to protect himself, and Allie was welcome too, but she didn’t really like other children and, to make matters worse, the mums who brought their kids over for a play date tried to stick their nose into her business and would ‘innocently’ wander into the nooks and crannies of her home, their eager eyes darting everywhere, inspecting her credentials. She absently wondered what they thought of her little home, then smiled to herself as they wouldn’t discover much about her personality from the furnishings, as someone else had bought every last thing in the house and she had relocated her few personal belongings upstairs.

  The busybodies all seemed to sit and hover awhile, as if she would offer them coffee. Thea, who usually had to help herself to a drink, seemed to understand from the look of suffering on Skye’s face she was not to offer one to anyone else, or get her own until they had vacated the building, in case they got any funny ideas about it being a coffee shop or a social occasion.

  After the last mum had reluctantly left their child there and gone home (she was sure there were two more women than last week), Skye decided that if they wanted to snoop into her life so much, she would charge them for the pleasure. Surely after school clubs weren’t cheap? She would have to get officially registered, which would be tedious, but she might start to enjoy herself and play with their minds. She could leave clues around the cottage about her life, for the school mums to work out, if they were so bloody interested. She smirked at the thought of them discovering her real job, they would run for the hills, but for now she could be a belly dancer, or an astronaut – although maybe the last one was a bit far-fetched.

  Thea was standing by the entrance to the kitchen. The back door was open and the children were already practising their balancing skills on the slightly raised planks of wood that Skye had zig-zagged across the garden. She had spent hours building little supports for them, so that they were about two feet from the ground, and the children had their arms outstretched, concentrating on staying upright when moving from plank to plank. It was a simple but effective way to make them look where they were going, as they didn’t want to fall, even though they could step down at any time. The planks were wide enough for their feet to fit on easily but, as the adjoining plank was always at an angle to the first and there was a gap between each end, all of the children were totally quiet and deep in concentration.

  Leo had reported back to Skye that they had managed to dodge Miles quite well so far, as they were more aware of things being thrown at their heads, and they kept tabs on his whereabouts, so they could move somewhere else. The group of them made a game out of it and, apparently, more children now wanted to play with them, so Miles was becoming increasingly frustrated.

  Skye knew this behaviour could escalate, but for now it was being neutralised while Miles tried to fathom out what was going on. Leo and Allie seemed much happier and that was enough for her.

  She could sense that Thea’s patience with her was wearing thin, by the way she was staring pointedly at her and tapping her nails on the grey granite kitchen counter. Skye sighed and walked over to pour herself a glass of lemonade. She graciously got out a second glass for Thea and took her time slicing some strawberries from the fridge, which was about as culinary as she got, to pop into the drinks with some ice.

  Walking outside and placing the drinks on the little wooden table under
the window, she lifted the plain green parasol to offer some shade from the last of the spring sunshine, which had unusually been blazing all day and was making Skye wish she was wearing a pair of shorts. As Skye turned and jogged over to the children, Thea took a long sip of the surprisingly delicious drink and watched as Skye hunched down and explained what she wanted them to do next, making them giggle and run off in all directions.

  Finally, Skye returned and pulled out the chair opposite Thea, who still hadn’t uttered a word. Skye gave in and lifted her hands in mock surrender, which made Thea raise half a smile.

  Checking the children were busy with their next task and that they couldn’t be overheard, Skye decided it was time she finally trusted someone and made a new friend. From what Thea had already told her, she was pretty certain that anything she said would be confidential and wouldn’t make Thea grab the nearest phone and call the police.

  ‘I was a field agent,’ Skye began, speaking in a low voice and darting glances around out of habit. ‘My job was generally to make first contact with our target and assess the feasibility of our operation. I worked as part of a team and it could get pretty hairy at times. My parents died when I was in my early twenties,’ she paused in thought.

  ‘They had me when they were quite old and didn’t think being parents would ever happen for them, but when I surprised them by turning up, they never looked back.’ Skye pictured her dad’s gentle face and kind eyes and a ball of sadness unfurled in her stomach. ‘It wasn’t the case where my dad looked like a granddad bringing his granddaughter to school. Both were pretty crazy and grabbed hold of life. They gave me a zest for adventure and they were everything to me.’ Skye’s lip trembled and Thea reached across the table to squeeze her hand in sympathy. Skye gritted her teeth so as not to cry. She was pretty much hard as nails, but she hadn’t spoken about her parents for so long and it felt good to remember them, even though it hurt today as much as it had then. She still missed them terribly.

  ‘They died when my mum was seventy and my dad was seventy-five. They were on another adventure and the boat they were on capsized.’ A fat salty tear slid down her cheek and she angrily brushed it away. She was too old to be crying over her parents. It was ancient history, she told herself again and again. Skye straightened her shoulders and refused to give in to the familiar sadness that threatened to engulf her. She had been extensively trained to suppress her emotions, outwardly anyway, but this sometimes meant she held them internally and she occasionally wondered if one day she would simply erupt and explode into an angry ball of hurt and frustration at the way her life had turned out.

  ‘I didn’t have any other family,’ she continued sadly, ‘not that my parents ever talked about, anyway. I used to wonder if they had pushed everyone away when they thought they couldn’t have children and had come to terms with living their lives to the full on their own. When they finally relaxed, my mum got pregnant. You hear about that kind of thing all the time, don’t you?’ Thea nodded, but didn’t comment in case Skye stopped talking.

  ‘I was so lonely and angry when they died, I spent most of my waking hours in pubs, getting as drunk as I could before I passed out.’ She raised her eyes to meet Thea’s, waiting for the inevitable censure, but saw only kindness and understanding there. ‘One evening, I got into a fight and this guy I’d never met piled in and saved me.’ She pictured her first glimpse of Reece as he ploughed in, with bulging muscles under a tight denim shirt and soft blonde hair that looked like it had been kissed by the sun.

  Her heart still flipped over at the thought of him and she picked up her drink and blocked her face with the glass as she took a sip, not really tasting the sparkling concoction, trying to avoid choking on the soft strawberries, defying herself not to cry again in front of Thea.

  Everything had happened so quickly and, from what she could remember, she had been roaring drunk. The man who tried to make her go home with him had been pretty surprised when she had landed her first punch. He had been much bigger than her, though, and had regrouped from being winded pretty quickly, grabbing her arm painfully and pulling her towards the door. No one else in the pub had seen the altercation as it was noisy and packed with hardened drinkers, but Reece had seen her plight and stepped forward to block their route out of the building. She didn’t even know him, but he had protected her and she had fallen madly in love with him in an instant.

  Looking back now, she could see how needy and lonely she had become, but Reece’s golden good looks and masculine charm would have worn her down eventually anyway.

  ‘We fell in love,’ she sighed miserably. ‘He worked for the agency, LUCAN, but kept disappearing for work. I suppose I got jealous. I threatened to leave him. He couldn’t confide in me about his real job, so he recruited me instead. He said he couldn’t bear to be apart from me.’ Thea looked sceptical about this declaration from what sounded like such a manly man. ‘He decided this was the obvious solution,’ continued Skye. ‘It was such a shock to find out what he really did, but when I went into training, it was unbelievable as I was a natural. I think it might have irritated him for a while, but he soon got over it. The benefits of having me around all the time outweighed his ego,’ Skye smiled sadly, trying to make light of an awful situation.

  It was becoming clear that the story was going to go from bad to worse, by the way a steady stream of tears was trickling its way down the side of Skye’s face. She kept swiping them away, but more followed. Thea reached into Flo’s baby bag and handed her friend a tissue, which Skye took gratefully, mopping her face, leaving her with flushed cheeks and a slightly red nose. ‘The training was pretty unbearable, but I got through it as I wanted to be near Reece. The team I joined became pretty indispensable for a time.’

  Thea sat back and let out the breath she had been holding. Skye assumed that she didn’t want to say anything yet, as Skye was unburdening herself and, after all, isn’t this what Thea had wanted; to find out more about this eccentric, crazy lady? She’d got more than she’d bargained for with Skye. The children started to look restless, though, so Thea jumped up and tried to pull down the hem of her creased skirt as it had got stuck under her. After a glimpse at Flo, who was playing with her toes in her pram, she gave the children a football that was in a basket by the back door and an ice lolly each from the freezer, probably hoping to distract and cool them down.

  Thea then rushed back into the kitchen and looked to see if Skye had prepared any dinner but only found burgers and chips in the freezer. She hastily stuck them in the oven, on a low heat. Skye prayed it would give her a chance to finish her conversation with Thea and have dinner ready by the time the other mums arrived to collect their offspring. She was really hoping that they wouldn’t hang around, as their own kids would need some dinner and the smell would prompt them to rush home.

  ‘An unhealthy meal won’t kill Allie this once, and I’ll lie to my sister and tell her that Allie has eaten steak. It’s the same meat after all,’ decided Thea. Slipping back into her seat opposite Skye, who was in a bit of a daze, she gently nudged her arm to snap her out of it.

  ‘I did enjoy the adrenaline of the job, but it was dangerous, as you probably already know. I was a bit of a maverick back then, although I still got scared,’ Skye continued as if coming out of a trance. She looked up to see the children happily munching on ice lollies and kicking the football into the small goal she had purchased the previous week for Leo. She turned her wrist over and showed Thea the slivers of silver scars that criss-crossed her arms. They were so tiny, you could barely see the jagged lines, but there were quite a few of them. Thea cringed and looked horrified at the thought of something cutting her friend’s delicate skin.

  Skye smiled sadly at her scars; as if they brought back painful memories, not just of the physical pain, but of the mental trauma she had been through. ‘I fell on a job once. I dropped through a window, just after I had found out I was pregnant. It cut my arms to shreds. Luckily, I had covering on every other part of
my body, but my wrists got the worst of it. They were mainly superficial wounds, but they hurt like hell.’ She rubbed the scars as if trying to erase the memory. ‘I never made that mistake again.’

  ‘I bet it wasn’t your fault,’ Thea leapt to her defence.

  ‘It was. I got cocky and can’t have checked my safety harness properly. The others in my team were ahead of me and I wanted to catch up and show them that I wasn’t a liability. Funnily enough, I arrived first as I pretty much flew there. We lost the element of surprise and I got a proper bollocking from my boss, and then another from Reece when we got home for not doing the safety checks properly. He screamed at me that I couldn’t take care of another human being, if I couldn’t look after myself first.’ She saw Thea flinch and sighed. ‘I had never seen him so angry before. He didn’t talk to me for a week after that.

  ‘He eventually gave in, but made me promise to take time off to take care of the baby when it was born, until he came up with a better plan for how we would manage.’

  Thea felt a big fat tear make its way down her own nose and she tried to sniff and wipe it away with a tissue she grabbed from an almost empty packet in the baby bag by her feet. ‘I’m so sorry. I assumed that, like my own story, the man in your life was a self-centred cheat, but I’ve been wrong. He sounds a bit controlling, but still one of the good guys.’