Page 116 of Mr. B

Cassandra smiled. “He’s definitely a lot cuter than Miss Debra.”

Bailey laughed. “She was old.”

“Careful. She was probably only a few years older than I am now.”

“How old is Milo?”

Cassandra thought for a moment. “I think he’s ten years younger than Wes, so he should be twenty-seven.”

“So how old is Luke, then?”

“Hmm. Twenty-two or twenty-three.”

“So, when Mr. B was in college, he had a brother who was, like in kindergarten?”

“Yes. Six boys, oldest to youngest.”

“Crazy.” She looked at Cassandra for a moment. “If you and Mr. B…”

“No more babies for me, honey.”

“Phew.” She smiled. “I guess it’d be sort of cool. But it’d be more weird.”

“I agree.”

Bailey picked up the guitar. “Speaking of Mr. B., there were a lot of rumors going around school today.”

“About why he wasn’t there?”

“Yeah. Since I’m the keeper of secrets, will you tell me the real reason he wasn’t at school yesterday and today?”

Cassandra sat down. “He was asked to take a leave of absence until the poison berry incident is resolved.”

“Oh my gosh. That is so unfair. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know. It’s not fair at all.”

“What can we do? We need to do something.”

“First off, don’t tell anyone what I just told you.”

“But we need to rally behind him. We need to let the district know how much he means to all of us.”

Cassandra smiled. “I think that would be a wonderful idea. But not until word gets out about why he’s gone. You can’t be the one to let it slip.”

“Right. I know.”

“Everyone who was at the board meeting will put it together sooner or later.”

“What do we do in the meantime?”

“You can plan. But don’t talk to anyone or put anything into motion yet.”

“What do you think would work? A protest? A sit-in? What if we all refused to go to school until they bring him back?”

“That’s a little extreme.”

“Extreme times take extreme measures.”