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Emily returned to the island on New Year’s Day with both nervous excitement and a sense of foreboding. She felt she’d been gone for a long time and was worried things had changed. What if people didn’t like her anymore?
She’d missed her island home, but she’d also enjoyed her break away, where there were more people and everything just felt more normal. She’d liked having a cell phone again. And her old library. And her old church.
Her cats hadn’t liked Plainfield though and had spent most of the week hiding behind the couch.
On Monday morning, Emily was excited to see her students. She drove into the parking lot with a giddy feeling in her stomach and a new bracelet on her wrist.
Even though she was earlier than usual, Thomas and Chloe were already in her classroom. “Do you guys sleep in here?” she joked.
They were excited to tell her about their Christmas, and their New Year’s. Apparently, they’d received lots of presents, especially Thomas, who’d gotten a new game console that cost a fortune. And apparently, there had been a giant New Year’s Eve party at a senior’s house, and many a bad decision had been made. Chloe hadn’t attended, but Thomas had, and he was eager to tattle on everyone he’d seen there. Emily heard a few basketball players’ names and raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t they under contract?”
“Pfft! Yeah, but those contracts don’t mean anything. Half the girls drink with the coach!”
“Thomas!” Chloe snapped, and Thomas snapped his mouth shut, looking chagrined.
“Thomas?” Emily said slowly, looking from one face to another. “Is that true?”
Chloe was glaring at him.
“I dunno. Probably just rumors,” Thomas said.
Emily looked at Chloe. “Chloe, is it true?”
“No.”
“Because if it is, you wouldn’t lie to protect him, would you?”
Chloe looked at her. “It’s not true, Miss M. I know he can be a jerk sometimes, but Milton is a good coach.”
“OK, then,” Emily said, opening her laptop. She wanted to believe it wasn’t true, but the way Thomas had first said it had sure made it sound like well-known fact.
The bell rang and Chloe and Thomas sauntered off as her freshmen filed in. She was surprised by how happy she was to see them and greeted each of them by name.
That morning’s announcement included an invitation for volunteers to host basketball players in their homes the coming weekend.
“Are you going to host?” Tyler asked Emily.
“I don’t think so.”
Oh, but she was going to host. Julie tracked her down during her prep period. “I don’t have you on the host list yet.”
“OK,” Emily said.
“Has Lauren or Mike talked to you yet?”
“Uh ... no. Why, do they want me to host?”
“I would assume so.”
“OK, then, I’ll host,” she said because she wasn’t sure what else to say.
“OK, great,” Julie said and turned to walk away.
“Wait! Can you tell me a little about how this works?”
Julie turned around and looked at her as if she were stupid. “You pick them up at the gym Friday evening and take them to your house. You’ll get girls. Two of them. Sometimes you’ll get a coach too, but you probably won’t, as you don’t really have room.”
Julie’s apparent knowledge of the capacity of Emily’s home unnerved her.
“OK, but I’m not sure I even have room for two girls. All I have is a couch. Unless one of them wants to sleep on the floor.”
“Your couch is a pullout,” Julie said matter-of-factly.
So creepy, Emily thought.
“You take them home and feed them. Then wake them up on Saturday morning, feed them again, let them shower, and then bring them to the gym. That’s it,” she said, as if that was no small charge.
“And parents are all OK with this? I would think in this day and age, they might not want their kids sleeping in strange houses. I mean, they don’t know me from Adam.”
“This is Piercehaven,” Julie said. “Things like that don’t happen here.”
This didn’t really answer Emily’s question, but she didn’t really want to be further patronized by the school secretary, so she smiled and said, “OK, thanks.”
