Doppelgangers by Erin Lee

Author:Erin Lee [Lee, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crazy Ink
Published: 2020-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Neri

Monday morning

I wanted to be excited about my “date” with Kevin at the can drive later in the week. But nothing was going to pull me out of this mood. With Caden texting me every twenty minutes to update me on the status of his new neighbor—a less than savory sort who might easily have been one of Harlo’s clients—and a 3 p.m. meeting with Linda Hunt, I had bigger issues than listening to Samantha’s grand plans for changing a bulletin board in the special education office.

I watched her twirl around her office as she told me her giant bullet journal would be just what we needed to solve the para to student ratio on days the subs called in. I wanted to smack her. Never one to get her hands dirty but always the first to step in to take credit when the superintendent or principal was around; she’d only shrugged when I’d mentioned Laura’s reading. Harlo could want me to poison Herman all day long, but my eyes were locked on Samantha’s Starbucks.

Arsenic? What do you poison a person with anyway? “Sounds great to me,” I said, looking for any opening to get the hell out of her office to return to the classroom. I wanted to give Laura another shot. I’d told myself that maybe the first book was only a fluke. The cowardly part of me almost wished she was developmentally delayed just so I could avoid what was about to come with Linda. It made me wonder if this was how Laura’s mom felt. Was she, too, aware about Laura’s ability to read but wishing her husband was right only so she didn’t have to fight him?

I’d never understood mothers who put their spouses before kids. While there had been a time I loved Eric, nothing could compare with the way I felt about my sons from the first moments I knew they existed. Even pregnant, I’d have put them first and did. To this day, I missed smoking. And Harlo wasn’t helping with that.

It took the better part of third period for me to get out of Samantha’s office and only on the promise that I’d return later with erase board markers stuffed in Debbie’s desk. With the end of the school day coming fast, I’d be sure to test Laura again and come up with a solid plan about how to approach her mother. Set on it, I needed to be fully prepared for what was to come.

But the best laid plans are, well, just plans. And by the time the end of the day rolled around, I hadn’t made any progress on Laura. Sitting in the guidance counselor’s conference room where we held all our IEP meetings, I looked down at the makeshift bandage on my arm. Grateful I was positive Bobby didn’t have rabies, I wondered if today’s bite would leave another scar.

I texted Caden to keep his doors locked and was watching for some sort of response when Linda finally strolled in.

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