• 7 •

School was over, for the kids at least. The teachers had a few more days of postschool cleanup left, but they weren't waiting to celebrate. Everyone was going to Elsa Wilson's spa party. And it looked like that included Rachel. The last thing she wanted to do was spend money, but it was hard to turn Elsa down, especially when she knew that both Rachel's children were going to be off with friends, celebrating the end of school and leaving their mother alone. Excuses were hard to find when your coworkers knew you had no life.

So now here she sat in Elsa's living room, surrounded by other broke teachers who were all spending money they didn't have to help Elsa get a free spa basket full of expensive creams and lotions. Elsa's house was a ramshackle older home, but it was on the lake, and her living room framed a view of shimmering blue water. Rachel tried to use it to distract herself while Chere the Sensual Woman told them all the reasons why they needed to spend a fortune on body butters, perfumes, and candles. Every woman but Rachel bought a bottle of Magnetique, which Chere assured them would make each of them irresistible to the opposite sex.

Rachel settled for a candle that Chere said was designed to inspire romance whenever they lit it. Rachel didn't know about that, but she loved the exotic floral scent it was sending from the refreshment table. Anyway, she had to buy something. Elsa would be disappointed if she didn't.

And there went twenty-some more dollars. As she wrote her check Rachel tried to console herself with the knowledge that she had done her part to make Elsa's party a success. To have a friend you had to be a friend.

Maybe she couldn't afford to have friends.

It was Jess's first day of flying solo and she had three classes. She looked at the eight little girls and the one boy who was already all over the mat like an escaped slinky and thought, I can handle this.

If she couldn't, Brenda Bletznik would tell the whole neighborhood. Why, oh why, thought Jess, did I get stuck with the daughter of the biggest mouth in Heart Lake in my class? Never mind, she told herself. You can do a forward roll. You are queen of the gym.

Still, the queen of the gym took as long as possible with taking attendance.

But soon, every little future Olympian was accounted for and she had to begin. “All right. We have to stretch all our muscles really good so they'll be happy,” she said. Her muscles would probably never be happy again but oh, well.

The students looked at her eagerly, expectantly, as if she was a gymnastics goddess and mimicked her every move. The parents smiled benignly. So far, so good.

“Now we're going to play follow the leader. Do what I do.” She demonstrated, showing off her new sashay skills. “Can you do that? Follow me.”

Around the gym they went, Jess sashaying for all she was worth, arms held gracefully to the side like a ballerina. She checked over her shoulder. They were all following her like so many baby ducks. “You're doing great,” she called. The children smiled. The parents watching smiled. She smiled.

And then something sneaked in front of her foot, something big and thick and pain inducing.

Down she went like a whale doing a belly flop, her startled “Oomph” ricocheting off the walls of the gym, and probably floating out the door for half of Heart Lake to hear. All her students stopped in mid-sashay to stare. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the incredulous gaping of the parents seated on the edge of the gym and Brenda Bletznik eagerly leaning forward in her seat, taking in every detail. She clambered to her feet and turned to see what had caught her so unaware. The stupid practice beam—why hadn't she noticed someone had moved it?

“Are you all right?” called Brenda.

“I'm fine,” she replied with a game smile. It was a lie. Her ankle was on fire and so was her toe, just like her face.

“We'd better move this balance beam a little bit.” If she wasn't in so much pain she'd have kicked it. “We don't want anyone else to trip, do we?” Not that anyone else would. She was the only klutz in the room. She picked up one end of the thing and heaved it out of the way. It fell with a satisfying whump, but the satisfaction only lasted long enough for Jess to remember that she'd have to move it back on the mat for the kids later. She returned to where her students stood gaping, limping as she went. Ow, ow, ow. She looked down. Her ankle was already swelling.

“Okay, everyone,” she said weakly, “we're going to sit down and stretch for a minute.” And while her little dears stretched, she crawled to the phone and called Mary Lou. “Can you come down here? I think I need help.”

She also needed Advil, ice, a doctor visit, and an Ace bandage. So far the queen of the gym was not having a very successful reign.