“Right over there is one of our neighbors, and I’d damn sure trade you.”
Sam followed Palmer’s line of sight, wondering who he was referring to, and then saw Justin Tiller and his family and frowned.
Justin Tiller was a regular in the drunk tank and trouble waiting to happen.
“I’d better go catch up with the girls,” Sam said.
***
Katie had zoned out of any fear of panic. She was in her element with the parents and children, answering questions and explaining a little of what the first few weeks of first grade would be like. Then she met Miranda and Jeff Dooley and their son, Thor, and quickly realized they were going to be this year’s pains in the ass.
Miranda’s hair was dyed jet black and curled high up on her head. She had diamonds in her ears, diamonds on her hands, and the tightest jeans Katie had ever seen a woman wear. Jeff Dooley’s blond hair was buzzed on the sides and long in the back—a mullet worthy of a second look, for sure. He kept patting his wife’s butt as if it was his pacifier. Their son, Thor, was wearing Levis, a leather vest, and cowboy boots, and sporting a mullet like his daddy.
Jeff Dooley had already taken a snipe at Katie’s height.
“Boy howdy, lady. You didn’t know when to stop growin’, did you?” he drawled.
Before Katie could respond, Miranda gave her the once-over and then pointed to the cubbies.
“I want Thor’s cubby to be one of the middle ones. So he won’t have to reach up so far.”
“They’re in alphabetical order,” Katie said, “and none of them are out of a first-grade reach. Here, let me show you.” She pointed at the cubbies. “Thor, can you show me your name on your cubby?”
The little boy grinned. “I can read and write my name good!” he said. He swaggered over to the wall, slid his little hand right in the one with his name, and patted the name tag. “This says Thor, and this here little hole is where I put my stuff. Right?”
Katie beamed. “You are so right!” she said. “Good job.”
And then she heard her name being called and turned to see Beth and Evie coming toward her.
“Them are my girlfriends,” Thor said.
“Both of them?” Katie asked.
Thor shrugged. “I can’t tell ’em apart, so I just call ’em twins.”
“I understand your confusion,” Katie said, then shook hands with both parents. “It’s so nice to meet you. I look forward to a great learning experience for all of us this year, and Thor, I’ll see you in the classroom.”
At that point, Evie and Beth came to a sliding halt before her with their hands clasped beneath their chins in pure delight.
“Guess what, Miss Katie?” Evie said.
“Yes, guess!” Beth echoed.
“I can’t imagine,” Katie said.
“We’re in your class!” they shrieked, and then bounced…once…from the excitement of it all.
“I know! It was a surprise to me, too,” Katie said, then saw Sam coming toward her from across the room and sighed.
He made her stomach flutter, and that was a fact.
“Are those computers for us to use?” Beth asked.
“Yes, but we’ll all have to take turns, because there are only four and there will be eighteen students in this class.”
Then Katie felt a pat on her arm and looked down. It was Donny Tiller, Rita’s grandson. And to her dismay, his father was the angry man in the old black truck who she’d seen when she first moved to town.
“Miss Katie, that won’t come out even,” Donny said.
Katie frowned. “What won’t come out even?”
“The kids. At the computer,” he said.
Katie’s heart skipped. “How do you know that?”
He shrugged. “I just do.”
Katie was dumbfounded. “Can you tell me how you figured that out?”
The little boy stood there a moment, frowning, trying to figure out a way to show what he already knew in his head, and all he could say was “Because we don’t have enough kids in our class to make it even.”
Katie was excited, but the teacher in her was in awe.
“Can you show me what you mean?” she asked.
He nodded. “Can I use the dry-erase board?”
Katie ran to get a marker. By now, Donny’s parents had come to see what was going on, and when Katie and Donny went to the dry-erase board, a number of other parents, including Sam, followed them, curious about what was going on.
Katie handed Donny the marker.
“You said eighteen kids, right, Miss Katie?”
She nodded.
Donny gripped the marker, then began counting aloud, “One…two…three…four…,” making a black mark for each number and keeping them side by side across the board, all the way down to the last ones, “sixteen…seventeen…eighteen.” Then he pointed at the marks. “That’s how many kids will be using four computers. So only four kids at a time can play, right?”
“Right,” Katie said, wishing Susan was here to witness this, wishing Marcy could see this, because she knew what was coming.
“So,” Donny said as he went back to the first of the line of marks and counted down four, then drew a circle around them. Then he counted down four more and circled them, and then again, and then again, until he had four circles on the board encompassing sixteen black marks, with two lone marks left out of the circles. “See…it can’t come out even. There will always be only two kids playing by themselves at the end…unless two kids move away, or two new kids come to school, and then it would be even again.”
Parents were staring.
Sam whistled beneath his breath.
“You are absolutely right!” Katie said, and put her hand on Donny’s back. “Good job, Donny. Good! Job!”
He beamed.
Katie noticed Justin and Frieda Tiller were silent, and Justin looked angry.
“Mr. and Mrs. Tiller, I hope you know that what your son just exhibited is a grasp of math far beyond his age group. I have never had a student like him before.”
They looked at Donny as if they’d never seen him before, and then Justin appeared to be embarrassed.
Donny Tiller was just a six-year-old kid, a little rumpled from head to toe, sadly in need of a haircut, and missing two buttons on his shirt.
But he was more…so much more than he appeared.