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She’d shed her skin once before, transforming herself from the Student Most Likely to Succeed into the cliché good girl who ran off with the bad boy. Try as she might, she could never get that role to fit. But neither could she pull on her old skin of Girl at the Head of the Class. Now she had to forge a new identity in this company, and she was determined it wouldn’t be the Kid at the Back of the Class who didn’t know the material.
Kylee rolled up her sleeves and prepared to get to work. Of course, her cell phone chose that moment to ring. She looked down at the number. The number had a Virginia area code, and it looked vaguely familiar.
“Mrs. Romano?” said the voice on the other end.
“No,” Kylee said, shaking her head for further emphasis even though the person on the other end of the receiver couldn’t see her. “I mean, yes. I was Kylee Romano. I go by Bauer now.”
“Mrs. Bauer-”
“No. I mean, yes. I’m no longer married. It’s Ms. Bauer.”
There was a pregnant pause. “Ms. Bauer?”
“Yes.”
“This is Mrs. Ackerman from Barton Elementary School. I’m calling about your daughter.”
Kylee didn’t panic. She didn’t immediately think the worst. She doubted that her child had fallen into danger and been harmed. Instead, Kylee sighed and caught her forehead in her palm. “What has Molly done now?”
“She was sent to the principal’s of
fice this afternoon. He’d like to have a word with you. Can you come in?”
Kylee couldn’t leave work just now. She had to turn in this project. But first, she had to understand the software, get her test questions into the software, and figure out where the send button was. “I’ll be by to pick her up after school.”
“He’d like to meet with you before then, if possible.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t leave work right now.”
There was another pregnant pause. But Kylee was used to them. She was determined not to let that silence judge her. Unfortunately, the silence was louder than her resolve. “Fine. I’ll be there in an hour.”
Molly acting up at yet another school was the last thing Kylee needed. The jokes she liked to play and the mischief she liked to cause were all from her father’s side of the family, make no mistake about it. Kylee knew the divorce had been hard on her daughter. But so had the years of moving around and not knowing where the next meal was coming from.
They were stable now. There would be no more moving now that she was back in her hometown of Saint Judith’s just outside the nation’s capital of Washington, nestled in the suburbs of Northern Virginia where bike paths lined every two-lane street and recreational areas for the young and young at heart were at every corner. She was determined to give Molly the same kind of upbringing that she’d had.
However, when Molly entered the dating years, Kylee was going to scrutinize every guy that came along. If he wore a motorcycle jacket, was in a band, or any other cliché that bad boys donned, she was going to kick his little booty to the curb so fast.
Molly would be a good girl. And there would be no James Dean wannabes hanging around her daughter. There would not be a repeat mistake of that. In fact, Kylee was certain she would never date again herself.
Chapter Two
The day had been cloudy, but as Ron stepped out of the cafeteria, the clouds broke, and the sun came out. A blue jay perched on the cherry blossom tree outside the doorway to the lunchroom and began a sweet tune. Ron hummed along, pursing his lips in time to the tweets.
Kylee Bauer was back in town.
“Principal Kidd, someone stuffed a Harry Potter book in the toilet in the bathroom in the upper hall. There’s water all over the place.”
“Cool. That’s good,” Ron said patting the head janitor on his back.
Not only was Kylee Bauer back in town, but she was minus a wannabe James Dean husband. Ron had never liked Jason Romano and his ultra gelled hair, and his misquoting of Lord Byron love poems, or his motorcycle jacket and motorcycle, and did he mention the gelled, black hair.
Back when they were in high school, Jason would rev his motorcycle engine loud in the school parking lot to make sure everyone knew he had arrived. Ron and Kylee used to roll their eyes at the delinquent as he went out with cheerleaders and popular girls and even a couple of teachers. Kylee had always said she’d never fall for a guy like that.
And then she did.
“We just had two more violin bridges break. The piano needs another tuning, plus some keys are stuck and one pedal isn’t working. And I just found a hole in the drum this morning.”
Ron nodded in earnest as Ms. Dawsey, the school music and choral instructor droned on and on, trailing him down the hall.
