Fox Play

by Robin Roseau

That afternoon in Lara's kitchen, Francesca cooked, asking Angel, Ava and Sophia to help. Scarlett phoned Angel, so we invited her, too. Francesca gave me the exam and started a timer. I sat at the small kitchen table and started on the exam.

  It took me twenty minutes. It was, unsurprisingly, very easy. "Done," I declared.

  "Angel, take over," she said. Francesca took my exam from me and went into the living room. She was back fifteen minutes later. "Michaela, please come into the next room."

  She made me sit in the sofa, and I wondered what was wrong. "It was easy, Francesca. But you don't look happy."

  "Congratulations. You passed. Barely."

  "What? I got every answer correct."

  She handed my exam booklet. I had scored a 71. "That's a low C," she said. The paper was filled with red marks.

  I looked through them. "This answer is right!" I said. "So is this one!" I looked through all of them. "They're all right. What the hell, Francesca?"

  She reached over with her red pen and circled the top of the exam where it said, "Show your work." She sighed. "Where is your work, Michaela?"

  "There's no work to show. I got these answers right, but you're saying they're wrong."

  "You didn't follow directions, Michaela," Francesca said very gently. "Show your work. I know it seems silly. But later classes are built on earlier classes. At the college level, it becomes all about proving what you're saying, not just getting the right answer. If you can't do a proper proof, you will do very poorly at college."

  I looked away from her, trying not to take all this personally, trying hard not to cry. She'd just told me I had nearly failed a simple exam. "I'm not qualified to teach these classes, Francesca."

  "Don't jump to conclusions. Here, do that first one again. Do it properly."

  She slipped a piece of paper to me. I did the first problem. It was very hard to not just write down the answer; it was obvious. It was much harder to go through the steps one at a time. When I was done, she took the paper from me. "Better," she said. "For this exam, even smaller steps. Do the next one."

  I did. Then the third, and the fourth, and it felt like I was learning to crawl.

  "Can you do the entire exam like that?" she asked.

  "I already took the exam."

  She took my exam book and tore it up.

  "Isn't that cheating?" I asked her.

  "I call it something different. I call it teaching."

  We moved back to the kitchen. Francesca gave me a fresh exam book. The kids looked over. "Oh, oh," said Scarlett. "Someone didn't show her work."

  I looked at her. "And how do you come to that conclusion?"

  "Because there is no way you don't know ninth grade math," said Angel. "And mom has had years drilling 'show your work' into our heads."

  "It was hard following some of your lessons," Scarlett said. "You jump too many steps."

  I looked up at Francesca. "Now you understand?"

  "Yes, Francesca. Now I understand. How can I teach them if I can't do it the way they need to be taught?"

  She started the timer.

  Lara arrived at home before I was done, and dinner was ready. "We'll just let it simmer until Michaela is done," Francesca said quietly. I tried to hurry.

  She graded it in front of everyone, her bright red pen poised over the paper. When she was done, she said, "Better." She turned it to me. 94.

  "I showed my work! And I know the answers were right."

  "Near the end, you got flustered by the time it was taking, afraid we were all waiting for you," she said. "Just like kids do when other kids start finishing the exam and they still have a dozen problems left. So you started cutting corners to hurry."

  I sighed.

  "I've done that," said Ava. "Sophia always finishes faster than I do, so whenever she finishes, I start rushing."

  "You do?" Sophia asked. "I'm sorry."

  Ava laughed. "Mr. Peters told me that's what I was doing, so I stopped."

  "Self awareness is a powerful tool," said Lara. "Can we eat now?"

  * * * *

  I had my thousand dollar buy in for Wednesday's poker game. Janice had taken to hosting them last fall. She only invited me when she was inviting someone she didn't like and wanted to make sure that person lost. I didn't always take their money, but I did it reliably enough it made Janice happy.

  I was always happy to take Janice's money, too.

  On Wednesday, we were short some of the usual crew. Malcolm and Liam weren't there. Janice had warned them I was coming. Vivian and Violet were there instead. Elisabeth volunteered to serve as enforcer so that Karen could get her first introduction to poker with the pack.

  "That's very sweet of you, Elisabeth," I said.

  No one told Karen that Elisabeth was tired of letting me take her money.

  To round out the six players, Lara and Janice both played.

  Karen was a good player, but she didn't realize that I'd been trying to make Lara a better player. I had made sure that Lara knew all her own tells, and midway through the evening, she was able to convince Karen she was bluffing, cleaning Karen out. Karen was a good scout about it.

  That put Lara up, which is a nice position to be in, especially the first game after the fox has told you all your tells.

  I slowly took Vivien's money. When she finally gave her last two hundred dollars to Janice, I told her what her tells were. She was shocked. "I do not!"

  "You do," said Janice. "It's subtle, and you don't always do it."

  Violet was slowly losing money to me, as well. I had been taking a little from Janice and Violet had been as well, but she held in until midnight when she let Lara buy one pot from her and then, the very next hand, took the rest of her chips. Lara was up big, Janice was down a little, and I was up moderately.

  I was proud of Lara. She was doing well, and a cash advantage like she was holding was powerful.

  Then she let Janice take a big pot from her. I didn't have a clue until the reveal what Lara was holding; she had mastered control over her own tells. But she didn't know how strong a hand Janice was holding. Lara still wasn't as good at reading the other players as I would have preferred.

  I lost pots to both of them. I was proud of Lara, but if I lost my buy in tonight, I was going to be forced to play poker with the kids before I could come back another night.

  I could still read Lara's heart rate. I folded out a hand she tried to play casually, but her heart gave her away to me. She took a large pot from Janice.

  I got two good hands in a row, very good hands. Lara folded both of them, but I played Janice for everything I could, and soon she was out.

  "You know I always play to win," Lara said. "I know you need this money, but if you want it, you're going to have to win it."

  "If I can't take it from you, I don't deserve it, Lara." I paused. "Alpha, if I need a loan, I'd like to point out my house in Bayfield is paid off. Is it sufficient collateral for a loan? And is my credit good? I think you know whether I have a reliable job."

  She stared at me. "What are you telling me?"

  "Play to win. This isn't my only option. It might be my favorite option, it's not my only option. In fact... If you can clean me out, I will remove all objections to that little thing we've been discussing lately." I was referring to letting her make me scream when we made love.

  "And if you clean me out, you expect me to do it your way?"

  "Nope. I want to know you're playing to win, and I suspect that reward will make sure."

  "You have figured out this is important to me."

  "Yes. I don't know why yet. I'll figure that out, too."

  "I'm playing to win, little fox. And if I win, you know what that means."

  "I do, Lara. I'm looking forward to it with a certain amount of embarrassment."

  She grinned. "Deal the cards, Michaela."

  She didn't win; she didn't clean me out. But by two AM, she was still holding as many chips as I was. We were each up about fifteen hundred d
ollars. I thought perhaps she was building a new tell, but I realized it was mostly frustration because she knew she wasn't going to win without a foolish, lucky play.

  Vivien had hung around for the night. Violet had gone home. When we finished, I told her, "You need to come give me more money next week."

  She laughed. "Not intentionally."

  Janice gave me a permanent invitation until this issue was settled and promised to have more council members each week. When I thanked her she said, "Are you kidding? I have council members coming to my house and giving me money. I'm in heaven, Michaela. But I'm still going to try to take your money."

  * * * *

  The next week, a council member named Aaron attended. Violet was unable to make it. We played with five. Vivien did better, and poor Aaron didn't know what hit him. It took ten minutes for all of us to know his tells, and the only ones he learned were our fake tells. He played his last hand and Janice called a break after our first hour.

  I almost felt bad for him. But he was a wolf, so I didn't feel too badly.

  The three of them proceeded to clean me out. I can't even blame bad cards. Vivien put the final nail in my coffin, outplaying me nicely. I was impressed with all of them but chagrined at the same time.

  "You have a tell," Vivien told me after raking in my chips.

  "I do not!"

  "You do," Lara said. She made a point of sniffing.

  "You aren't serious."

  "We are," Lara said.

  "I figured it out last week," Janice said. "I told them."

  "She didn't have to," Lara said. "That's how I held my own last week. But it's subtle, honey. And we know you very, very well. I don't think anyone else is going to be able to use it."

  "But every wolf in the pack can."

  "The ones who know you," Lara said. "Or the ones we tell."

  "You're saying I smell, and that's my tell."

  "Yep."

  "We won't tell anyone," Janice said.

  "If-" added Lara.

  "If what?" I asked.

  "I want a favor," Janice said.

  I sighed. "What favor?"

  "I don't know. You'll owe me. At some point in the future."

  "An unspecified favor. That could be anything."

  "It will be fair value, and if there is a dispute, I will agree that your girlfriend can adjudicate for fairness."

  "Fine, but only if these two stay silent as well."

  "Agreed," said Janice.

  "I want the same thing," Lara said. "An unspecified future favor. It will probably get spent begging your forgiveness for something I have done."

  I laughed. "You're not going to use it for that little thing you want?"

  "No."

  "Vivien?" I asked.

  "You already know what I want," she said. "You were supposed to do something, and you haven't done it. You will do so."

  I was supposed to call her.

  Janice looked between us. "I take it you are being obscure because you don't want me to know what this is?"

  "Yes," said Vivien. "I am sorry."

  "I need a fresh beer. Anyone else?" She headed upstairs, and Lara chased the enforcers out as well.

  "I have an opening tomorrow at six," Vivien said. "Another at eleven on Friday. Pick one. After that, you will attend twice a week, and at least one of those will be in my office. I would prefer both, but I will accept phone conversations for one day a week if necessary for schedules."

  I sighed. "Lara, I want you to come. Please."

  "Tomorrow at six, Vivien," she said. "I'll bring my schedule and we'll set up the next several weeks."

  "Can you teach me to control the tell?" I asked them.

  "Maybe," Lara said. "Or maybe teach you to disguise it, but that is dangerous as well. Maybe teach you to produce it as a lie. You're telling us when you have a good hand, and you tell us every single time you have a good hand."

  "That's why you're folding out early and can tell when I'm overplaying my hand."

  "Right."

  Janice returned. The three of them played for another hour but agreed to end the night early. They were all up, having my money and Aaron's to split between them.

  "Do wolves have scent tells?" I asked.

  "Yes," Lara said. "We usually learn to control our scent as adolescents though. We're so attuned to scent it's easy for us to focus on it. The visual tells actually aren't part of our normal thought processes, so they aren't automatic for us to fix."

  Vivien smiled. "I spent most of last week trying to convince these two I had a scent tell, and then this week I had hoped they would believe it."

  "We knew she was lying," Lara said. "There is no way Vivien would be so uncontrolled with her scent. So we ignored it."

  "And it was worthless against your fox nose," Vivien said. "It's too bad the reverse wasn't true."

  I sighed. A tell, and one I couldn't even recognize.

  * * * *

  We met with the kids and their parents on Saturday afternoon. Lara attended as well, along with my security detail. I thanked everyone for coming, explained how I'd spent my time, and then gave an overview of what we were doing.

  "Several of the kids don't know what they want to do for a living, although I think we might end up with a few engineers. That implies heavy math and physics, and I'd like to do an introduction to engineering class as a taste, but I'm not qualified to teach it."

  "We have pack members who can help," Lara said. "You'll need to coordinate. That sounds like multi-disciplinary, and you will need to work with several of them."

  I nodded.

  "The packets I've passed out show our proposed enhanced curriculum, and I have attached to the back of each packet the suggestions I am making for each student and my reasons why. If you want to take time to review everything, I can answer general questions as a group and then questions that are specific to each of your children individually."

  The parents had questions, and I felt I provided satisfactory answers. Then Lara spoke up. "Ms. Redfur."

  Oh shit, I thought.

  "Alpha?"

  "I want to state first, this is my fault. I wasn't sufficiently clear." She hated it. Oh god, she hated it.

  "Yes, Alpha?"

  "I thought I stressed that I wanted this to be a very hands on program, and extremely extensive."

  "Yes," I said. "The individual classes will involve substantial lab work, and, where possible, field work."

  "Ms. Redfur," Lara said. "Can you give me an overview of the skills that you have used in your job, to use as a basis for our discussion?"

  "All right," I said. I gave a two minute review of the skills used to collect my field data and analyze it in the lab. I mentioned computer skills and basic lab work. By the time I was done, Lara was frowning.

  "How do you get to the locations you need to be when collecting your data?"

  "I drive." I paused. "You want me to teach them to drive?"

  "No. Is driving the only way you get there? I understand many of your sites are well away from roads."

  "I walk." I didn't know what she was getting at.

  "So you have never, for instance, used your kayak in relationship to your duties?"

  "Sure she does," Angel said. "Sometimes we had to go fishing. You know, for scientific research."

  "You're not helping, Angel," I said. She grinned at me. "But Angel is right. Yes, sometimes I kayak, but that would be an unusual skill to be required."

  "How about driving a boat? Navigating waterways?"

  "Yes, I guess," I said.

  "Snowshoe? Ski? Camp out in the field, even in the winter?"

  I thought about it. "Yes, alpha. All of those."

  "Why are they not in this list of classes?"

  I stared at her. "Because they're fun," I said.

  She smiled. "So? I think these kids expect to learn all the skills they would possibly need for the types of jobs they are considering, and to be blunt, I doubt they'll learn many of them in col
lege. I want these subjects taught, Ms. Redfur."

  I stared at her. Why hadn't she said this sooner. I looked down. "We'll have to drop classes to make room. We've filled the schedule."

  "Even the weekends?" she asked.

  "Well, no, not the weekends."

  "Well, I believe every student in this room expects to learn these skills. Kids, are you willing to give up some of your weekends to learn how to kayak?"

  "Yes!" they yelled.

  "And Ms. Redfur, are you willing to give up some weekends to teach them kayaking and these other skills?"

  "Is the alpha offering to help chaperone these weekends?"

  "Yes."

  "Then I am willing to teach them."

  "Good. I want them as official classes in the curriculum. Don't give them names like kayaking. Call them things like Field Skills and Aquatic Navigation. I expect every student who goes through the entire program to, by the beginning of his or her senior year, to be able to use these skills as part of their senior level classes."

  "Yes, alpha," I told her obediently.

  After that, I stepped aside, and parents came up to me one at a time with questions specific to their child. In the end, there were some minor adjustments, but everyone was by and large satisfied.

  Lara disappeared, but she caught me later. "I'm sorry to have blindsided you, Michaela. I had all that in my head, but I didn't properly explain it to you. It was just so obvious to me, but it was stupid of me not to explain it."

  "You can make it up to me later," I said. "What's the game tonight?"

  "I'm sorry, honey. You can't play tonight. Tonight is too rough for you. June wanted to bring Benny, but I had to ask her to spend the weekend in Bayfield. Michele Lassiter will be sitting out as well."

  "All right, Alpha," I said quietly. I'd been working my tail off, and my head hurt. I'd been working through the 9th grade science, much of which was new to me, and I had to do all the lab work. Francesca was making me turn them in one at a time and wouldn't let me do the next one until she graded the last one. So between setting up the classes for the kids and working on my own academics, I was ready to let loose. Being told I couldn't at the last minute added frustration and I didn't know what to do about it.

  I turned away. I suddenly didn't want to be around anyone, but there wasn't anywhere I could go, either.