“I was planning on finishing the pot before you woke up,” she said.
I walked into the room and took a seat across from her. Sarah’s toys were organized orderly on their shelves in a way they definitely had not been last night when we went to bed.
“Are you always up this early?” I asked her.
“My alarm is set for four-fifteen, but I usually wake up earlier,” she said, looking back to her screen. “So that house near Susan’s is a little over three hundred thousand, and that’s only because there’s numerous problems with it. Thankfully, they’re mostly cosmetic, so since you’re good at that stuff, the house would be livable and you could get other things fixed over time. The downside is that most of the loans you might qualify for require a pretty high down payment.”
“You spent all morning doing this?” I asked.
She looked over her screen. “I’m not going to leave you in this situation Jamie, no matter what you say.”
I pointed at her. “You swore on Peter’s life you wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“Am I telling anyone? No. But I’m not leaving you in a house where some psycho is breaking in to play with your underwear,” she said.
“I’m probably going to have to get another apartment. I’m just getting the distinct feeling that they’re not going to help me at the main office.”
“And you’re absolutely positive about the job?” she asked.
“I knew you’d be rooting for me to take that stupid job,” I whispered.
She raised her eyebrow at me in response.
“Yes, I’m sure I don’t want to take a contract job at evil headquarters.”
“Actually, after I heard that story, I thought even more highly of Patrick and his family. It actually sounds like they want to do right by you.”
“And I think you’re biased by your rich people blinders,” I said.
“I have no idea what that means,” she said.
“You think that they’re like a higher breed of human or something,” I said.
“Actually, I don’t think that at all. If you asked me, you would know what I think. But you don’t ask me, you just judge me,” she said.
Sighing, I climbed off the bed. “I’m sorry. I love you and I really appreciate everything you’re doing.”
“Of course, you’re my sister, I’d do anything for you,” she said, her focus returning to the computer. “So, what is on your detox list for today?”
“Taking on Sarah’s school board,” I said.
“Because they laid off her teacher? I thought the school board voted to keep her on part time?” she said.
“They did at first, but then they held another meeting where a couple of the parents from the PTA fought really hard for the dance teacher to have her job extended to full time. They did a revote two days before the cutoff last month and decided that without knowing the future enrollment next year, they should ‘temporarily’ lay off the second special needs class position.”
“That’s ridiculous, isn’t the number of kids going into special education rising?” she asked.
“At least at Coral Elementary, yeah. Several of the moms of incoming kids even came to the meetings. But, I know why the school board did it.” I shook my head. “Some of these PTA ladies have a lot of financial sway on the school. It’s technically a public school, but a huge amount of their funding for equipment and day to day stuff comes from private donation,” I said, leaning against the door frame. “When these parents have ideas about how the school should allocate the funds, the school board always votes in their favor.”
Amy cocked her head to the side. “What are you planning to do?”
“I was thinking about writing some letters to the district and the state board,” I said.
She shook her head slowly.
“What?” I asked.
She closed her laptop, turning fully to me. “You should force their hand.”
“How could I possibly do that?” I asked.
“You start a social media storm,” she said, her eyes bright.
“I have absolutely no idea how to do that. I’m still confused on how to update profile pictures,” I said.
“I could help you,” she said.
“You know how to do it?” I asked.
“I know how people do it; there’s no guarantee that it will take, but if you do it exactly right, there’s a good chance.”
“Could they sue me, or something for revealing info about the school?” I asked.
“You have to be very careful on what you reveal and to only state the exact truth. And you have to be sure that you are willing to face the social consequences, Jamie. You’re going to be forcing the school board to take action, and these rich PTA parents will not thank you for it. They might retaliate against you personally.”
“Half of them already hate me because I’m the only one who points out their bullshit at the meetings. What would I have to do?” I asked.
“You would need some powerful branding, a viral post or video, the video would be better since it could draw national media attention. You would probably need to use your celebrity status and any celebrity contacts you have.”
“I don’t have any,” I said.
“What about Beza?” she asked.
I nodded. “She definitely has a lot of them, but I don’t want to force her to commit the same parent-social suicide with me. She’s on the PTA and friends with a lot of these parents.”
“She could do it anonymously, like I’m going to. I probably know a lot of these parents, too.” Amy shrugged. “But, there’s a lot of behind the scenes things she can do to help without anyone ever finding out.”
“I’ll ask… how would we create a viral video?”
“It needs to be short, poignant, inspiring, and if at all possible, entertaining. What if you sang?”
“Seriously?”
“You’re a semi-famous singer, that’s the best weapon in your arsenal,” she said.
“I’m not even close to semi-famous,” I said.
“You can call back whatever little fame you had, especially if you have help from other celebrities.”
I looked down. “But this might not work?”
“I’d say you have about a forty percent chance of it going viral if you had more than ten celebrities with a decent-sized fan base endorsing your video.”
A nervous fluttering feeling formed in my stomach. “I would have no idea what to sing. I mean, I’ve never written a song before…”
“I’ll do it, I can do the research too,” she said with a small grin on her face.
“That sounds like a whole lot of work to do today, along with your more than full time job,” I said.
“Jamie, this will be invaluable experience for me. Also, if there’s something I can do, I want to help.”
“Oh, this is terrifying, I haven’t sung in like… in years, not like that. When do you want to do this?”
“Aren’t you supposed to do this step today?” she asked, her grin growing.
“Oh, I don’t think that’s so important,” I said, my voice pitching.
“Well, I do and I can get everything together today. Also, we’re both pretty busy for the rest of the week.”
“Oh, my god Amy, I don’t think I can do it,” I said, laughing.
“You are so going to do it. I’ll meet you during Sarah’s gymnastics. The sun will be just a little west-facing, and the warehouse walls will make for a perfect backdrop. We need to avoid recognizable buildings.”
“Except that it’s raining.” I shrugged. “Oh, too bad…we’ll just have to do it another day,” I said.
“It stopped raining, Jamie,” she said.
Peeking out of Sarah’s window, I realized she was right. The sun had actually almost entirely broken through the clouds.
“Shit,” I said.
Amy laughed behind me. “I am pretty excited.”
“I am most definitely not,” I said.
Amy laughed
so hard she snorted. Her hands flew up to cover her face.
I spun to smile at her. “Oh wow, Amy, I haven’t heard you snort in years!”
“Oh, that’s so embarrassing,” she said.
“Not in front of me. It reminds me of when you were little,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m going to start setting all this up so you have to do it.”
“Oh no,” I said as I walked out of the room. Before I had even completely stepped out, I walked back in the room, closed my eyes and said, “Fine, I’ll do it. You’re right; they’ll just ignore me if I try to do it the conventional way. They’ve been ignoring me all year.”
This volume is complete, but the story continues in Volume Three, release date July 31st, 2016.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider reviewing on Amazon.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to say a big thank you to Anne Loshuk for beta reading and for her awesome and thorough input and suggestions. Also, I’m sending a huge thanks to my editor Monique Fischer, who never ceases to amaze me. And as always, I want to thank my sister Anna, for reading everything I’ve pushed at her since the day I learned to scratch ink into paper.
The Fourteen Day Soul Detox, Volume Two Page 14