Schooled: A Novel by Ted Fox

Author:Ted Fox [Fox, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2022-09-30T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

In hindsight, I probably should’ve taken advantage of Chad being distracted and used that to get to the school first. Because no matter how satisfying it was to pump that gas pedal once to get him to look over, and then again when he did, there was no getting around the fact that he was in a BMW and I was in a vehicle that was at least 17 percent discarded Cheerios and french fries.

The worst part was that he didn’t even have to gun it, like he did with the truck. He just smoothly accelerated to 50, caught the next light at the yellow, and left me and my wounded pride rolling to a stop at the intersection of State and First, his vanity license plate taunting me as it went:

HENSOME.

I could only assume that was a play on his last name and the word handsome, which made me want to go back and give Sammi $50 to come up with something a lot worse to do to his coffee.

When I got to the school, he was already out of his car, surrounded by a circle of parents laughing about who knows what. It looked like they were filming a campaign spot. It also meant I hadn’t just failed to get there before Chad; I hadn’t gotten there before anyone, even though I had pulled up with close to 10 minutes to spare.

I threw the van into park. No sign of the kids yet. Maybe if I met Lulu right away when she came out, she wouldn’t be upset about how far back our car was in the line, and I could still try to help the teachers. There was time to rally.

I got Klay out of his seat and had put him on the ground when the gaggle of kids started streaming out of Door D.

“All kindergartners, on the bus,” Ms. Sandra hollered. “Grown-ups, we will see you there.”

I forgot all about making a good impression on the teachers and focused exclusively on finding Lulu. We had gone over how I’d be the one driving her maybe five times. The teacher I remembered as being Ms. Brianne was the closest to me, so I picked Klay back up and flagged her down as nonaggressively as possible.

“Excuse me, Ms. Brianne? Hi, I’m Jack Parker.”

“Oh, sure!” she said. “So great you can come with us today!”

“Yeah, happy to do it. Anyway, I . . . uh . . . I told my daughter I’d be driving her to the zoo?”

“Actually, all the kiddos ride the bus together.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I mean, I heard. I’m afraid she’s going to get upset since this wasn’t what she was expecting.”

“Who’s your daughter?” she asked, breaking away from the pack and coming over to talk with me.

“Lulu. Lulu Parker.” I scanned the masses for the multicolored long-sleeved peacock shirt she had insisted on wearing that morning. I had finally given in about it, but only because I was going to be

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