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“Exactly. Coach.”
“Now you have to grovel.” I check the clock one more time. Three minutes until first bell.
“I did. I went to her house. I texted her.”
I stand to let Elijah know he’s leaving before my class arrives. “Sorry,” I smack him on the back. “You need to pull out the big guns.”
His shoulders slump.
“Just think of what makes Becca happy, why she fell in love with you, and you’ll figure it out.”
“How do you know, Coach?”
I open the door and wait for him to walk through. “Because I was you at one time. And another piece of advice?”
He waits for me on the other side of the door.
“Don’t go listening to your friends. They usually give shit advice, and honestly, you usually get a lot more experience with a girlfriend than by flipping around with multiple girls. Teenage boys have shit for brains. Don’t listen to them.”
I really don’t want to know how far he’s gotten with Becca. Especially with Phoenix and Sedona being the same age as Elijah.
He looks at me sheepishly. “Well, we have—”
“That’s a conversation I don’t want to hear and no one else should either. Don’t be a dick and kiss and tell.” The bell rings. “Go to class.”
He turns around. “You mean assembly.”
“Assembly?”
We walk out into the hallway where everyone is filing toward the auditorium.
“Yeah, remember Principal Miller had the baby?”
Shit. Now I’m running my fingers through my hair. All the teenage angst had me forgetting that we have to meet the new principal of Lake Starlight High School this morning. The last principal I’ll ever be under because next year I’m heading to the college level—I hope.
“Yeah. Go. You don’t want to be late.”
“Thanks, Coach… for everything.” He jogs down the hall, catching up to his friends.
I turn to go through the back entrance since I’ll have to sit in a chair in front of all the students so that we can appear as a united front for the new principal. A symbol that says we have their back.
I run smack-dab into Fay Murphy, the office assistant. “Hey, Fay.”
“I’m so happy I found you.” She seems a tad flustered, and her face has that beet-red overlay she used to get when Principal Miller reprimanded her for not refilling her stapler.
Working without that dictator will be a nice change. Let me tell you, pregnant women donotlike it when they have to give up coffee—something we all paid the price for.
“What’s up?” I keep walking because we’re going to be late if we don’t hurry.
“We need you to introduce Principal Radcliffe.” She peers behind me then pushes up on her tiptoes to whisper in my ear, “Malcolm, I mean Vice Principal Ealey, called in this morning. I think he was still…”
Fay doesn’t have to finish the sentence. Malcolm Ealey went through a public divorce last year and has been spending a lot of his time at the Lucky Tavern, drowning in a helluva lot more than his sorrows. That’s why, even though he should have become our temporary principal, the school board decided to hire someone new.
“Why me?”
She hands me a piece of paper. “The kids look up to you, and everyone thinks that the kids will welcome Principal Radcliffe if you introduce her.”
Her.Another woman. Hopefully this one is well-caffeinated and not pregnant. We’ll all stand a better chance that way.
