“I have a hungry Sergeant who will steal all your potato skins if I don’t get him his own!” I called back. “Let us put in an order before we come over there!”
Jackson leaned close. “She have a thing for potato skins or something?”
“You have no idea,” I replied.
We got our own potato skins. Also burgers, because protein comes in more shapes than tater shrapnel with cheese. They promised to bring our food to the table, so Jackson and I moseyed towards the pack of competitive educators who occupied a booth and mashed answers into a terminal.
Tracey stood up and gave me a brief hug. “Hey, Sebastian! I didn’t think you’d come tonight!”
“Husband got home early, and we thought we’d join the fun,” I said, and gestured to Jackson. “This is Jackson. My new husband. Jackson, this is Tracey, Social Studies teacher extraordinaire.”
He held out his hand. “Great to meet you, Tracey.”
“Great to meet you, too,” Tracey said, eyeing him up and down. “Sebastian, you said he was hot, but nothothot. You have an older brother, Jackson?”
Jackson’s neck and ears turned crimson. “Just a younger brother, sorry.”
“I don’t usually like ‘em young. Too much effort to train ‘em.” She gave a wicked smirk. “Congratulations on marrying the best history teacher at the school. Best science teacher, too, but don’t tell Murray that.”
Murray was Murray Lenyard, who taught Chemistry and should have gone into lab work instead. He had the brains but not the disposition for teaching, and he regularly left students frustrated with his way of doing math. I hoped he would retire soon, but I also hoped he’d keep coming to trivia nights. The man was a brutal opponent on science questions.
He waved without looking up from the terminal. “Hendrick. We needed you fifteen minutes ago.”
“It’s Sadler now, Murray.”
“Sadler. We needed you fifteen minutes ago.” Murray corrected himself without a hiccup.
They’d gotten a biology question, then. “Sorry. I’m here to save you from mitochondria questions now.”
“Thank God someone is,” Murray muttered, and scooted over so we could pull up a couple more chairs.
Michelle Lagan, our AP English superstar, waved. “So glad to see you, Sebastian! Oh, hi, you must be Jackson! Really glad to meet you. Kaz is in the head, but he should be back- There he is.”
“Hello!” Kazuo Bordash, a Geography teacher from the local middle school who knew us all through Michelle, returned to the table with a wave. “Sorry. I should not eat the poutine without taking lactose stuff.”
We all laughed, because none of us needed to know that and yet now, that information resided in our grey matter forevermore. I’d probably just forgotten something I’d need later in life to make room for Kazuo’s lactose intolerance.
They skipped a round so we could chat and catch up. Murray, after much goading and to the shock of everyone in attendance, admitted he had asked the woman in the apartment next to his out on a date. He had met her when her vacuum had stopped working and she’d asked for his help to troubleshoot it. After years of her making him a pie for literally every holiday she knew of, he’d finally made a move. We cheered and bought a round in celebration.
Tracey had knitted a sweater she intended to enter into the county fair. She didn’t expect to win, but she could then cross “enter an item you made into a fair” off her bucket list. We promised to buy her a round when the fair had ended, and we could celebrate bravery and initiative in all its forms.
That was Jackson’s idea. He clapped her shoulder as she sheepishly admitted she was nervous about entering, and felt silly that was one of her life goals at all. “Bravery’s not just about charging into battle, you know. It’s about seeing something you want, something that involves a little risk, and doing it even when you’re nervous. Making something and sending it into the world is damn scary. You’ve got this.”
Have I mentioned I love that man?
Tracey had just started to tell us about how she’d designed the pattern when someone behind me cast a shadow over the remains of my burger. “Hey, guys. I heard you were here, so I thought I’d stop in.”
I froze, still as a statue and angry as a wet cat. I knew that voice.
Tracey’s eyes had widened. “Hey, Dana,” she said, and shook her head at me.I promise I didn’t invite her,Tracey mouthed.
The rest of the table looked just as surprised, so I didn’t think any of them had, either. We’d just ended up with the bad penny mysteriously in our midst. Looking back now, I see I should have questioned that odd appearance harder, but at the time I had one thought and one thought only.
Time to go.I glanced at Jackson, who raised an eyebrow at me, and I nudged my head toward the door. Confusion and a hint of disappointment showed on his face, but he nodded and stood up along with me.
Dana stood so close that my chair almost barked against her legs when I pushed it back. “Hey, Sebastian. Aren’t you going to say hi?”
“Hi, Dana,” I intoned without looking at her. “We’re just leaving. Feel free to take my chair.”