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Chapter 15
All week after returning,Jewel wondered what Lea was doing. All weekend, Jewel held her phone in her hand just waiting to see if Lea would call or text. She had no idea what she was supposed to be doing. If they were in a relationship, she would just call, but they hadn’t talked about anything. Not in regard to where they went from here.
It was Tuesday after they’d gotten back when Jewel saw her for the first time. Lea looked exhausted. She walked with a purpose down the hall at school, but her feet dragged and her head was bent toward the floor. She couldn’t be regretting what they had done, could she?
Jewel couldn’t stop thinking about it. Everything about their week away, about the moment of them finally being together, was engraved in her memory for the rest of her life. She wanted to remember it like it was yesterday. She wanted it to happen again. Who knew that her small crush on the science teacher would turn into something so much more, and it had. Jewel loved Ms. Azalea Fuller.
She was pretty sure she had loved Lea before their week at Indigo, but it wasn’t until they were away from the rest of their normal world that she had a moment to truly think about what she was feeling, when there was no avoiding it or hiding from it any longer.
By Wednesday, she struggled to find the time to think about it all. Arriving in her classroom at the high school after spending the morning at the grade school, Jewel was thrown into the chaos that was final preparations. She had six weeks until the spring concert, and she had to make music choices. She’d called in one of her best accompanists for the day so they could run through all the music they had learned for the semester.
Setting up the microphone, Jewel turned around, surprised to find Mrs. Parris in the doorway. She put her hand over her heart and shook her head. “You scared me.”
“Sorry. I was watching how efficient you are with that technology.”
Jewel smiled. “It takes some getting used to, but it’s good for the kids to be able to hear themselves too.”
“Right.” Mrs. Parris was an elderly woman who had taught piano in town for more decades than Jewel had been alive—in fact, maybe more than Lea had been alive. She moved toward the grand piano in the center of the room and sat down at the bench, putting the sheet music she had brought with her on the piano. “Which one are we doing first?”
Jewel bent over to look at it. “I think we should do the Beatles medley first. The kids know it the least so far, but they are loving it.”
“You know back in my day this would have been considered devil music.”
Jewel kept her lips closed, not sure how she was supposed to respond to that. Mrs. Parris’ voice was so dry it was hard to tell if she agreed with the sentiment or not, although she was playing the music for them and had done so without a fuss so far, so Jewel suspected she didn’t quite agree.
“I always told them music is music, and I’m pretty sure God invented it.”
Letting out a whoosh of air, Jewel straightened her back. “I agree with you there. Humans are the ones who use it for whatever means they want. We just want to have a concert to show parents and family what we’ve learned this year and maybe have some fun in the process.”
Mrs. Parris’ lips twitched, about as much of a smile as Jewel would ever get from her. “I was sorry to hear about Brady. I thought the two of you would be getting hitched right soon.”
Jewel’s neck muscles tightened, her shoulders stiffening, her entire body frozen on the spot. She hadn’t anticipated this. They had been broken up for a good chunk of time at that point. Surely everyone knew because of how public she had made their argument. “It’s for the better.”
“Perhaps. I called Azalea Fuller after I saw you in the parking lot. First time I used this devil-thing my kids make me keep with me.” Mrs. Parris shrugged as she held out the ancient flip phone in her hand that looked as old as Jewel. Jewel was honestly surprised it still worked.
“Thank you,” she whispered, still half-leaning over the piano as if they were discussing music. “She was very helpful that night.”
“She’s such a sweet girl. Wish she would settle down with someone, too.”
Jewel’s jaw clenched. She couldn’t figure out where this conversation was going, although it wasn’t totally out of the norm. Mrs. Parris was known for being aware of all the town gossip, though she rarely spread it to others. “Azalea is quite satisfied with being independent.”
Mrs. Parris snorted. “That’s what they say about all the girls who don’t settle with young men.”
She was right, of course. Jewel bit her tongue, once again at a loss for how she could steer around this subject.
“If I was more like her, more sure of what I wanted, I wouldn’t have married a boy so young either. I would have been independent like her.” The wistful tone in Mrs. Parris’ voice caught Jewel by surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“I love my kids, always wanted kids. It was a different time back then, Jewel.” Mrs. Parris had tears in her eyes as she turned to look up at Jewel. “We didn’t have as many choices.”
“What do you mean?”
Mrs. Parris sighed heavily as the bell rang, signaling the end to the lunch period. “If I had been born in the nineties like you were, I may have made different choices.”
“I think I understand.” Jewel nodded and straightened her back as the first of her kids came into the room.
“Now, what order did you say we were going to practice?”
