Page 27

Miri

M iri stacked the neatly labelled files in front of her and brushed a piece of lint off the table she had prepared.

Why the administration had insisted on having parent-teacher conferences in the expansive auditorium, she would never understand.

Why not let the teachers hold the meetings in their own classrooms?

Ya know, the actual rooms where their children spent half their lives.

It was the Monday after spring break—aka the unholiest of day of spring. No more lounging around the house in her pajamas. No more spending her mornings testing out fun recipes or wondering which demon was going to pop up for a taste test. She had been dreading it all weekend.

It had been an exercise in her fathomless patience to corral the kids after a long week of running around unchecked at home.

She loved her students to pieces, but the parents?

Not so much. Discipline didn’t seem to be in their vocabulary.

Miri wasn’t a strict teacher by any means, but even she had a problem with the little goblins trying to draw on the walls.

There had been more time outs in one afternoon than there had been all semester, and it was only the first day back.

Miri snuck a handful of chocolate candies from her pocket and popped them in her mouth. She was going to need every bit of chocolate-bolstered confidence to get through the horror that was still to come.

The first wave of parents had only begun to arrive.

Every designer purse that entered the cushy auditorium was a reminder of the student body’s net worth—and just how underpaid she was.

If Miri was being honest with herself, the really wealthy parents were the worst. The sense of entitlement was absolutely staggering.

It was always “why isn’t my special little angel reading War and Peace yet?” and never “Ms. Brown, you’re doing a wonderful job taming twenty tiny hellions.”

She’d like to see even one of the snobbish parents try to get a classroom of kindergarteners out the door for recess. They’d have a mental breakdown after the first rain boot to the face.

The first parent beelined straight for her table, an enormous red leather bag swinging from her arm. She sat down in a huff.

“They don’t provide drinks at these things, anymore?”

“Uh, no. Past experiences made the academy board ban alcohol during conferences.”

She scoffed. “What exactly am I writing a big ass check for every semester?”

Miri didn’t bother answering her. Her bag probably cost more than Miri’s car and she was complaining about spending money on her child’s education. This was exactly why Miri hated dealing with parents. Kids were so much easier.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name…?”

“Uh, Mrs. Hannity? My son is Grayson Hannity? Duh.”

Miri gritted her teeth. “Aw, yes. Grayson’s mom.”

Flipping through the stack of piles, she pulled out the appropriate records. She did a quick skim of his test scores and closed it again.

“So, the good news is that Grayson’s doing excellent academically. He loves math in particular. Reading is still a bit of a struggle, but we’re working on it—“ Miri started.

“What’s the bad news?” she interrupted.

“Grayson is having a little trouble socially—specifically with following classroom rules and interacting politely with his classmates.”

Which was code for “your son is a fucking brat who’s too smart for his own good.” The little brat was one of her least favorite students, not that she ever showed it. The kid was a friggin menace.

“I’m sure the problem isn’t Grayson.” Her nails flashed as she waved away Miri’s words. “Have you spoken with the other kids parents? Clearly, there must be something wrong at home.”

Yeah, her home. Her kid was a brat who made any group activity a nightmare.

“If we could work together to set some boundaries for Grayson that are consistent at home and in the classroom?—“

Her nostrils flared. “Are you telling me how to parent my kid?”

“No, that’s not?—“

Mrs. Hannity stood up abruptly and let her chair fall back and clatter to the floor. She hauled her enormous bag over her arm and glowered.

“My son is an angel. If you don’t know how to properly teach him, then I’ll have him moved to another class.”

Miri bit her tongue. Was that supposed to be a threat? She’d dance a jig if the little brat was sent off to another classroom to rain hell on them instead of her. She would happily let him and his entitled mother be someone else’s problem.

“Well, Grayson will be missed. Please let me know once you’ve contacted the headmaster and we can get his transfer underway.

Mrs. Hannity spun away from the table and stomped out of the auditorium, her bag swinging wildly with each step. Her shoes clicked on the polished floors as she threw the doors wide open. Miri had to hand it to the woman; she was a pain in the ass, but she had good taste in heels.

Looking down at the list in front of her, she sighed and checked off Grayson’s name. One down, nineteen to go.

“Was that the best way to handle that?” a familiar voice asked.

Miri gritted her teeth. “How I handle these conferences is my prerogative, Jason.”

Maybe if she didn’t look at him, he would vanish. Like a bad dream… or a spider that you knew was hanging out in your shower but just refused to acknowledge.

“You need to cater to the parents, Miriam?—“

“Miri.”

“Their tuition checks pay your salary,” he finished.

“Well, then I guess I’d better be ready to take a pay cut.” Good thing she had four demons to help cover the cost of living.

“Listen, why don’t we get together,” the slick man pushed. “I’ve been meaning to discuss our future with you, anyway.”

Miri pinched the bridge of her nose. “There is no ‘our,’ Jason.”

“Don’t be like that, Miriam?—“

She spun in her chair to face him. For the first time in a long time, she really looked at him.

His eyes were too close together and his chin was weaker than a waterlogged loaf of bread.

After being surround by four handsome as sin demons day and night, Jason had never looked less appealing…

which was saying something, because Miri hadn’t been particularly attracted to him before she met her boyfriends.

“You can call me Miri or, better yet, Ms. Brown,” she snapped.

“For the last time, we do not have a future. There is no ‘we’ or ‘us’ or whatever other pronoun you want to label this with. We went on one date and you were a total prick. There will never be a second date. So, for the love of all things holy, leave me the fuck alone.”

Miri turned her back and focused on the man approaching her table. Anything was better than listening to Jason’s grating voice.

She blinked at the large set of moth wings on the man’s back.

He was definitely Addie’s dad; they had the same speckled wings and upturned nose.

She frowned. Throughout the school year, she had never once spoken to the man.

All of her correspondence and progress meetings had been with her student’s mom—one of the few parents she didn’t mind—and from their brief conversations, she had gotten the impression that Addalynn’s father wasn’t involved in her life.

“Well, hello there, Red.” The winged man plopped down into one of the empty chairs in front of her. “Addie didn’t mention she had such a beautiful teacher.”

Ew. First off, Miri despised being called “Red,” or “Cherry,” or any other redheaded nickname. Talk about an utter lack of creativity. And secondly, what kind of creep sat there hitting on his kid’s teacher?

Miri tried not to frown as Addalynn herself hopped up into the other chair.

The parents had all been given strict instructions not to bring the children to conferences.

It was difficult to discuss the ups and downs of their education when the kids in question were sitting right there, staring back at them with wide eyes.

And now Miri was going to have to dodge the man’s flirtations right in front of his kid. Awesome.

“Are you Mr. Callahan?” she asked patiently. “Up until now, I’ve only spoken with your wife.”

“Ex-wife,” Addalynn piped up.

Divorced. Lovely, now he was going to be even more unbearable.

“We divorced last year.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be, she’s a bitch… and you look awfully familiar, gorgeous.” His wings fluttered on his back as he shot her what he probably thought was a devastating smile. In reality, she was trying not to bat away all the powder his wings were throwing at her sweater. “Have we met somewhere?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Miri would definitely remember dodging this loser. She slid Addalynn’s file from the pile and flipped it open. “So, Addie is doing great with her reading?—“

“Let me take you out, curls.” He leaned forward and winked. “We can discuss Addalynn’s potential over drinks… and maybe your potential afterwards.”

Potential? She had to stop Addie from eating crayons a regular basis. And Miri’s potential, or lack thereof, was not up for discussion.

“Mr. Callahan?—“

“Call me John.”

“No, thank you,” she said shortly. “I don’t think it’s appropriate?—“

He snapped his fingers. “MONSTR! That’s it, I saw your profile on MONSTR.”

Oh, goody. Being monster horny wasn’t coming back to bite Miri in the ass at all or anything.

“I remember that hair of yours and…” His eyes flicked downward and lingered on her chest. “Oh, yeah. I definitely remember you.”

This mothball smelling motherfucker.

“Mr. Callahan, this is a parent -teacher conference. Can we please focus on Addalynn?”

His eyebrows lifted, a smirk curling over his mouth.

“You’re an uppity one. I like that.”

Miri narrowed her eyes. Plastering a smile on her face, she ignored him and turned to her student. Addie watched them talking, her wide eyes flicking back and forth between them.

“Addie, there are some snack on that table over there. I happen to know for a fact that the cookies are excellent. Why don’t you go grab one while I speak with your dad?”

“What kind of cookies?” Her little nose wrinkled. “I don’t like raisins.”

“They definitely don’t have raisins,” Miri promised.

She watched the little girl hop out of her seat and skip out of earshot, her tiny wings fluttering. Miri turned to the father, ready to tear him a new one. He was too busy leering at her chest to notice the storm cloud on her freckled face.

“Mr. Callahan?—“

“John.” He looked up and grinned. “Now what do you say about that drink? Or we could always skip the drinks and see what happens.”

“I say that it will be a frosty day in hell before I ever consider getting a drink with a man who sexually harasses his child’s teacher right in front of her.”

The lecherous smirk vanished off his face. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve been excusing you during our entire conversation for Addalynn’s sake.” Miri tapped the file in front of her. “Now, we can discuss your daughter’s academic performance—as this meeting was intended—or you can leave. Either way, I’m not going to entertain your inappropriate flirtations.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?”

“No, and, quite frankly, I don’t care.”

The monster—whatever the hell he was—stood up, powder clouding the air around his agitated wings. He turned to storm away, but not before muttering under his breath.

“Fat, stuck up bitch.”

What a charmer. It was a mystery why the previous Mrs. Callahan had dumped his sorry ass.

Miri opened up her laptop to shoot a quick email to Addie’s mother, her eyes still following the sorry excuse for a man as he grabbed his kid and stomped away. Parents covered their mouths and coughed as the dust from his wings left a trail behind him.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, she caught a glimpse of Jason’s smirk before he turned away and started a conversation with Headmaster Dolan. This evening was going great. Top five parent-teacher conferences of her career.

Miri slid her phone out of her pocket and pulled up the group chat she had lumped all her demons in.

Miri

I’m in teacher hell

Nico

Is there another kind?

Miri

Funny.

Duke

How many more parents do you have to get through?

Miri

Eighteen.

Kaz

Fuuuuuuuuck

Miri

Yeah. I’m pretty much dying here.

Ace

You got this, doll. Take no prisoners.

Duke

There’s a back rub waiting if you survive this

No strawberries this time

Miri snorted to herself and watched the others heart his message. Only eighteen more students to go and then she could go home and cuddle up with a demon. That was her reward for surviving this horror show.

And if she was really good about it, maybe the cuddling would be the naked variety…