“Grubby?”
“You know what I mean.”
I did. Caleb was one of those guys who thought teaching was the in-between time between vacations. I’d figured that out a week into the school year. I’d had an inkling already from his reputation, but it was obvious considering how he treated his students.
I wasn’t entirely sure he knew all the names of the kids in his class without a name tag.
“Do you want me to call in the relief sub?”
&nbs
p; “No. I don’t need to bother Adrienne yet. I’ll just sip water and find some animal crackers in the cabinet.”
“You sure?”
“Definitely. I’ve had the real flu and this isn’t it. Could be by tomorrow, but for now, I’m good.”
“This place is one big petri dish, man. Well, holler if you need help.” He was already heading toward his room when he said it.
Obviously, he meant every word.
Not.
If he wasn’t getting his tongue down my throat, he wasn’t interested. And he sure as hell wasn’t interested in me right now. Maybe I needed to keep the stomach flu as a backup to make him steer clear of me. It was a thought.
I made it though the rest of the day by sheer force of will. The kids were happy to have a day of crafts. Even the pile of Play-Doh scraps I had to clean up afterward was worth the relatively low-stress afternoon.
We used molds of numbers and did some easy addition and subtraction so the day wasn’t a total loss. By the time the bell rang, I was ready to crawl under the desk, but at least I hadn’t had to run for the bathroom again.
As the kids filed out, I collapsed into one of the little chairs and put my head down on the desk. The nausea was gone, but I could literally have blinked out.
I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t when I heard Ally’s voice from the doorway. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, just one of those days.” I got to my feet a little unsteadily. I braced myself on the back of the little chair and cursed my height. The kid-sized proportions made it feel like I had to lean down to the floor.
Ally rushed forward. “Hey.”
“Don’t get too close. Afraid I may be next on the hit parade for that stomach flu.”
Ally took three huge steps back.
I laughed. “Yeah, no need to have that go around your house again.”
“No, thank you.”
“I’m glad you’re here anyway.”
“Yeah, what happened with Laurie?”
“Not sure what’s up. As far as I was aware, she and Weston Kramer were good friends.”
“Ahh.” Ally winced. “Don’t tell Seth, but Laurie is a bit of a femme fatale.”
I laughed. “Is that so?”
“Yeah. She’s been talking about—”
“Jeffrey?”