by Karey White
“Julie, wait.”
But she didn’t. Once again, all she wanted to do was get away from him.
Chapter Eight
Dane placed his hands behind his back and gripped his wrist as he watched Julie hurry through the crowd, her eagerness to ditch him apparent. He stood there, his muscles rigid, his jaw clenched.
Their every interaction, no matter how big or small, never seemed to turn out right anymore. He remembered how she’d acted toward him when she’d sat down today in the auditorium. She’d been softer and had actually smiled at him. Sort of like the old days before she’d written him that love note.
Last night after she’d left, he’d taken the letter out of his dresser drawer and reread it. He cursed his old self for being such a schmuck. What he wouldn’t give to relive that moment, find Julie in the crowd, and smile back instead of laughing at the flowery language. What an idiot he’d been. She’d laid her heart bare, and he’d laughed. He probably didn’t deserve her.
In retrospect, he wished he hadn’t called her on the forged letter today. He should have just gone along and acted like he’d written it. Pretended that shaving his head had been his idea. He’d ended up agreeing to it anyway, so he might as well have earned her gratitude for it.
What could have been written on the first page, anyway? Whatever it was, it had definitely mellowed her attitude toward him. He’d pay good money to know what the key to softening Julie’s heart was.
He considered asking her honors English students, but he’d probably end up looking like the love-struck idiot he was. How had they known to write her that letter, anyway? He chuckled without humor. They were smart kids. The way he looked at her, his heart on his sleeve, probably gave them the idea.
The vice principal headed his way, and Dane willed his features to go blank as he walked toward his coworker. Now wasn’t the time or the place, but eventually he’d have to have it out with Julie, and soon, before she drove him absolutely crazy.
Chapter Nine
The next afternoon, Julie faced her honors English class. She didn’t say anything for a long moment, just looked at each student in turn. There was a lot of squirming and uncomfortable glances upward, then down again, plus a little bit of outright alarm. When the silence was practically screaming, Julie finally spoke.
“Here’s the deal. I’m not going to name any names, even though I think I know who the culprits are. I’m just going to say that when we came up with the idea of writing love letters, it was supposed to be fun. Maybe Principal Parker was right about bullying and hurt feelings resulting from a fundraiser idea like that.” She paused a long moment. “Was he?”
Some heads stayed down; other kids looked confused as they looked at their classmates and tried to understand what they’d missed. A few mumbled no, and she heard a lot of foot shuffling.
Since no one seemed to be looking at her, Julie considered the possibility that they’d all been in on it. “I’m not saying that my feelings were hurt by the fake love letter someone left on my desk.” She lifted the two pieces of paper in one hand. “All I’m saying is that I thought I’d been quite clear that these were to be nonfiction letters, not fictional ones.”
She walked over to the board where she tacked up the word FICTION, a piece of paper she’d prepared earlier, and attached the letter, minus Dane’s forged signature, to the board. “I’m just going to consider this letter as fictional. Basically, whoever wrote it lied. Luckily, your principal is a good sport.” She turned around again. “As am I. Here’s what we’re going to do. No more love letters. We’re selling candy bars. Period.”
The kids groaned— she finally got a reaction out of them. She raised an eyebrow. “Yes? Any comments?”
“Come on, Ms. Ashburn,” Jae said. What had happened to the kid who never spoke up in class? “The letters are selling really well. We make three times the money when we attach a love letter to a candy bar.”
Julie’s brows rose. “Three times?”
Angela raised a hand. “They really are making us a lot of extra money. Don’t you want to see Principal Parker shave his head?”
“Sure,” Julie admitted. “I’d love nothing better. I just don’t want you hooligans running around the school with poison pens, writing letters for people whose feelings could end up getting hurt.”
“We swear we won’t do that,” Jae said. “It’s just that you’re such a good sport, we thought it’d be funny.”
She eyed the boy, gratified that she’d been right about one of the culprits. “What you thought was that I’d announce Principal Parker’s agreement to shave his head, and then he’d be forced to go along with it.”
A pleased smile briefly lit the boy’s face, and she narrowed her eyes at him until he looked down. The kid was too smart for his own good.
“You’re really making three times the amount?” asked Julie.
They all nodded. She thought about how pathetic she must have looked to Dane when she’d been all smiles, standing at the podium earlier. Heat built in her face. “As much as I’d love to see Principal Parker shave his head— and believe me, I do, quite a bit— I can’t condone selling love letters after the principal specifically said no.”
“Come on, Ms. Ashburn. Have a heart,” Evan said.
“Of course…” Julie sat in the chair behind her desk and picked up a piece of paper then started scribbling nonsense. “The problem is, I’m obligated to shut you down when I know you’re doing something wrong. This is your official shut down notice. If I hadn’t known about it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But since I do know about it, it’s back to the candy bars.”
She glanced up to see the kids straightening in their seats, and grinning at each other.
“We’re clear, right? No love letters with the candy bars.” She figured kids as bright as her honors students would get the message.
“Yes, Ms. Ashburn,” they chorused.
“Okay, then. If you will all open your books to page 85…”
She felt a little guilty. She shouldn’t have encouraged the kids. But if they’d really learned their lesson, and if they really were making three times the money what was the harm?
If Principal Parker asked her if she had anything to do with it, she could honestly say she’d told the kids not to do it. And if the kids made $5,000, it would serve that smug, self-righteous man right. Watching his glossy hair fall to the gym floor would go a long way toward assuaging her embarrassment.
Chapter Ten
Dane sat in his office, staring at his computer screen. Between interruptions and phone calls, he wasn’t getting much done.
He kept seeing Julie’s face in his mind. Kept reliving the way she’d met his gaze. Her shy smile and shining eyes.
What on earth could have been on the missing page that could have put that look on her face? And how could he recreate it?
He focused again, typing a few more words on the fourth draft of the letter. As soon as he finished, he’d write it out, but it turned out expressing feelings was harder than he’d expected. Maybe he’d been too quick to nix the love letter fundraising idea. If he’d allowed it, he could have hired one of her students to write this letter for him.
He gave a snort of exasperation. After laying her heart on the line the way she had, Julie deserved a real love letter. One he wrote himself. Otherwise, it wouldn’t count. Not in her eyes, anyway. Instinctively, he just knew.
He put his fingers on the keyboard again, bouncing one knee up and down. He should have done this a long time ago. Unfortunately he’d been too thick-headed to realize it. He started typing again as he tried to lay his heart on the line. But he ran out of words, rubbed his forehead, and sat back. He picked up a stress ball and threw it hand to hand. Trying to declare his feelings once and for all was exhausting. As soon as he got the words right, he’d write it out in longhand, attach it to a candy bar, and finally let her know how he felt.
If his letter could elicit the same reaction as the
other letter, he’d be a happy man.
Chapter Eleven
Coming back from lunch with Kayla, Julie locked her car and headed toward the front doors of the high school. “Thanks for going to Cracker Barrel with me today. I needed to get away, if only for a short while.”
“You shouldn’t let the little buggers get to you so much.”
Fake letter aside, it wasn’t so much the students getting to her as much it was the principal. She didn’t want to discuss the whole thing quite yet, and reaching that point would take longer than a lunch break. She shrugged. “It’s just been a long week.”
“When the kids get to me, I pull out a can of mace and a hammer, set them on my desk, and stare the class down.”
Julie laughed. “You do not.”
Kayla smiled, her wild red hair blowing in the breeze. “In my mind I do, so it’s almost the same thing. It makes me feel better, and I think it puts a vibe out into the air. It says, ‘I’m on edge. Don’t cross the line, or you’ll regret it,’” she said menacingly. She stuck her straw in her mouth, took a noisy sip of soda, then chucked the paper cup in a garbage can outside the doors. “It could just be my imagination, which I admit is a good one, but it makes me feel better anyway.”
“I’ll remember that,” Julie said dryly. She opened one of the doors and let Kayla go first. “You’re a kook, do you know that?”
Kayla grinned. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“Ms. Ashburn? Hey, wait up.”
Julie and Kayla turned as one to see Mason Wright, a sophomore from second period English, running toward them.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m in the office during second lunch, and if I don’t get back soon, they’ll think I’m ditching.” He handed her a small package. “This is for you. Gotta go.” He turned around and took off running.
It was a candy bar with a note wrapped around it. Julie shook her head. She huffed out a breath and looked at Kayla. “Those kids are really pushing it.” She held up the candy bar. “I told them I don’t want to know about it if they’re still selling love notes, so they send me one?”
“Maybe it’s not from them. Or maybe it’s a thank you for being such a cool teacher. I got one of those from a kid hoping I’d let him do extra credit.” She grinned. “It worked.”
Julie plucked the love note off the candy bar, opened it, and scanned the text. Her lips tightened. “Are you kidding me? Seriously, those kids are so dead.”
“Mace dead or hammer dead?”
Julie laughed and handed the note over. “That imagination of yours is going to get you in trouble one of these days. I think I’ll stick with detention, or at least the threat of it.”
As they walked toward the stairs, Kayla read the note. “Another one from Principal Parker? They’re not very original, are they?”
“Ooh. Good one. I’ll use that. When I tell my honor students they lack originality, it will tweak them worse than mace or a hammer would.”
Kayla handed the paper back. “It’s sweet. Don’t give them too hard a time. They probably can tell you still have the hots for our good principal and are trying their hand at matchmaking.”
Julie stopped in her tracks. “I do not have the hots.”
“Never, never underestimate the cunning or intuitiveness of a seventeen-year-old. I don’t. I’m always on guard. A fleeting expression probably gave you away.”
Julie sighed and started walking again. “I repeat, I do not have the hots for that man.”
“Whatever. Come on, let’s get to class before the little buggers run riot. At this age, they can flash to mob mentality in seconds. It’s the hormones.”
“Why do you teach high school if you’re so distrustful of teenagers?”
“Are you kidding? That’s what makes them interesting. It’s almost like I have a job taming lions or tigers or bears.”
“Oh, my.” Julie laughed again. “You really are a loon.”
Kayla grinned. “It’s why you like me so much.”
They parted ways at the top of the stairs, and Julie headed to her classroom. If her students were matchmaking, she would put a stop to it before they embarrassed her again.
Chapter Twelve
When Julie entered the classroom, her gaze immediately shot to Jae Boswell, then to Angela Hart. Neither looked particularly guilty of anything, but you never knew for sure. Julie chuckled. Kayla’s distrustful attitude was rubbing off on her.
She stopped in the front of the room and cleared her throat. When all eyes centered on her, she walked to the corkboard.
“Okay, kids.” She took the new love letter and tacked it under the FICTION label with the other bogus letter the kids had written. “While I’ll admit this one is well thought out, and rather quite sweet, I must inform you that pulling the same stunt twice in the form of sending me another love letter from Principal Parker, is…” She turned so she could look out at the faces to see if anyone flinched. “Completely unoriginal.”
No one moved. Not a cringe, a grimace, or a double-blink in sight. The little fakers. She rounded her desk so she could sit on the edge and cross her legs in front of her. “I thought we’d talked about this already, but if you feel the need to have another lecture on the subject, I’m game. The candy bar fundraiser is just that. We are not doing love letters, but if we were, the notes would be touching, funny, or complimentary. Above all, they would be non-fiction, like the ones we’ve been studying. Writing pretend love letters from one person to another leaves both parties feeling foolish. So stop it.”
The kids looked at one another as if searching for the culprit, innocence and confusion on their faces. Oh, yeah. They were good. “Are we clear?”
“Yes, Ms. Ashburn.”
“Are we wanting extra homework assignments for the weekend?”
“No, Ms. Ashburn.”
“Okay, then.” She glanced over her shoulder at the love letter and felt a pang of regret. If Dane had really written any of those things, she’d have melted into a puddle, just like she’d done when she read the first one. She turned away to see a few students still watching her and remembered Kayla’s warning that a fleeting expression could give her feelings away.
To Dane as well? The horror of that thought made her really want to put some distance between the two of them. Maybe it would be a good idea to start lining up something new for next year. If she transferred schools, she could better protect her heart.
So why did the idea of never seeing Dane again make her chest ache?
Chapter Thirteen
Dane drummed his fingers on his desk, sank back into his chair, and stared out the window. He was eager to see Julie’s reaction to his letter. He glanced at the clock on the wall. She was teaching a class, so it wasn’t like she could come see him. She wouldn’t be free for a couple of hours, but he wasn’t sure he could wait.
Pushing himself up, he headed for the door. He could easily call her into the hall for a moment. He wasn’t getting any work done anyway. He grabbed his cell phone, stuffed it in his pocket, and headed out the door.
Karen straightened as he passed her desk. “Where are you going?”
He shrugged. “Just catching up on a few things.”
She picked up her iPad and stood. “Do you want me to go with you to take notes?”
Dane managed to keep a straight face. As there might be groveling involved on his part, Julie might appreciate notes so she could remember the conversation word for word. But he didn’t need an audience. “No, thank you. You stay here.”
Hurt flashed across her features.
He smiled gently. “You know how I depend on you to take care of things when I’m not around.”
With a pleased expression, she sank down.
He nodded. “And I have my cell phone if I’m needed.”
“Yes, sir.”
He headed down the hallway. When Julie read the letter, had she been surprised? Probably. But what else? Happy? Charmed? Forgiving? A man could hope. He’d laid i
t on sort of thick, and perhaps a bit wordy, but she deserved it. She’d laid her heart on the line, and he could do no less.
He headed up the stairs to her classroom, taking his time, enjoying the sense of rising anticipation. How would she look? What expression would she have on her face when he showed up at her classroom? Julie could never hide her emotions. Everything she thought or felt flickered in her expressive brown eyes.
He reached the landing and headed down the left hallway, trying to think of an excuse for interrupting her class. No doubt she’d see right through him, but he needed something to distract the students.
He could ask if she needed anything… but… that would be weird.
He could check to see if she remembered the faculty meeting next week… but that was too far away to be convincing.
The fundraiser. Of course. He could check to see how the fundraiser was going.
Excuse at the ready, he reached her classroom, saw her sitting at her desk and heard her talking about composition. He lightly knocked on the open door. When she looked up, he entered. “Ms. Ashburn, sorry to interrupt, but I thought I’d stop by to ask how the fundraiser is going.”
She glanced at him once, then away, her hair hiding her face so he couldn’t see her expression. “Oh. Well, according to the kids, it’s going great. But as the money won’t be turned in until just before the dance, I can’t give real numbers.”
“You’ll be impressed, Principal Parker,” one of the boys said.
“Get ready to shave your head,” a smiling girl added.
Dane raised a brow. “You really think you can earn the $5,000?”
“Piece of cake,” said a cocky-looking boy with a smirk.
Dane reached up to rub the top of his own head. “So, I won’t need gel anymore?”