Page 44 of Promises We Meant to Keep (Love in Massachusetts #1)

forty-four

“Let’s run some mirror drills today. I know you all have plenty of practice, but I’ve seen some bad habits forming lately. Break up into teams of three—” Elia stopped talking as the door to the Speech room opened loudly.

She’d been expecting Kamryn to show up late since she had a phone call that was taking longer than she expected and had texted as much, but she didn’t anticipate the force with which Kamryn slammed open the classroom door.

All of the kids stopped to stare at Kamryn, and then looked at Elia. She set the dry erase marker onto the desk in front of the white board and focused all her attention onto Kamryn. She wasn’t moving. Her hand was on the doorknob, and her chest was rising and falling in little breaths, but she didn’t look worried or afraid. So it couldn’t be anything bad.

Elia faced the kids again. “I told you to break up into teams of three—”

“Dr. Ogden, what’s wrong?” Ethan asked, always the one who would bring something up and point out the obvious. That kid seriously had no fear.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Kamryn rushed out the words.

Elia paused again. What was she supposed to do with this? Kamryn wasn’t saying or doing anything, and all of the kids were waiting for some kind of explanation of this random behavior from their temporary Head of School.

“Why don’t you all split into groups, and I’ll talk to Dr. Ogden,” Elia said, trying to get the attention of the classroom back on her, but the kids continued to ignore her.

“Is something on fire or something?” Bristol asked, grabbing for her bag.

“No, nothing’s on fire. Nothing’s wrong,” Kamryn reiterated, but she still hadn’t moved from the door. “You got a minute, Elia?”

Elia?

Kamryn was always so careful to use her salutation and last name in front of the students. This wasn’t a work conversation. It was a personal one. There was a quiet hush around the room while the students murmured amongst themselves, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Elia was going to have to come up with some sort of explanation when Kamryn finally told her what was happening.

Focusing on the kids, Elia was about to remind them again to start their practice, but she gave up. They wouldn’t listen anyway, not with Kamryn acting so oddly. Elia dropped her hands to her sides and strode toward the door. She was just about to walk out of it when Kamryn caught her arm and stopped any forward movement.

“They offered me the job,” Kamryn whispered.

Elia had to lean in to make sure that she’d heard correctly. “What?”

“They offered me the job—Head of School. Officially.”

“What?” Elia’s eyes widened, the excitement she now saw in Kamryn’s face lighting her up. Elia’s chest felt like it was going to explode. She grinned broadly as she pulled away to say something.

Before she could speak, Kamryn rushed forward and pressed their mouths together and wrapped her arms around Elia’s neck. Cheers went up from the rest of the classroom, and immediately Elia jerked back with a start. Kamryn winced and frowned.

“Crap,” Kamryn said.

“Crap is right,” Elia answered, putting even more space between them.

This wasn’t how they wanted this to get out.

“Do you think they heard me?” Kamryn whispered.

Elia shook her head as the cheers continued. “I think they’re cheering for other reasons.”

“Really?” Kamryn popped her head around Elia’s shoulder and glanced to the classroom behind her.

“Really.” Elia straightened her back and snagged Kamryn’s hand. She walked into the classroom and shut the door firmly, making sure that Kamryn stayed right next to her but still kept a good distance between them.

“We can’t tell them yet,” Kamryn mumbled. “They haven’t officially announced—”

“Again, I don’t think that’s what they’re cheering about. You might have saved yourself explaining the other one.” Elia put her hand up to calm down the ruckus that was happening. But when she went to speak, she was struck dumb. No words would leave her lips.

“I just have one question!” Bristol raised her hand. “When did you two…hook up?”

“Oh Jesus,” Kamryn muttered. “Poor choice of words, Bristol.”

Elia’s cheeks burned. Is that what all the students thought they were doing?

“And it’s really not relevant to this conversation,” Kamryn added.

“But it is!” Ethan called. “We need to know who won the bet!”

“Bet?” Elia’s voice was a whole lot squeakier than it should have been.

“Oh yeah, we made a bet at the beginning of the year after the first meeting. We need to know who won,” Ethan explained.

“What exactly is the prize?” Kamryn asked, keeping her hand locked in Elia’s. “Maybe we’ll get to pick the winners.” She sent Elia a look, having way more fun messing with the kids than Elia was.

Elia was mortified—at least somewhat. The fact that the kids seemed so excited was more than what she’d been hoping for. And she wasn’t clueless about the fact that she knew the kids were talking about her relationship with Kamryn. She just hadn’t thought it had gone so far as a bet.

“The loser has to wear a clown costume to the next Speech meet,” Bristol said.

“Oh, no. That’s a no on that one,” Elia jumped in. “It’ll turn our next meet into a joke.”

Bristol laughed. “We knew you’d say that, so we came up with an alternative. They don’t wear it during the competition time, just before and after and all the other time we’re there.”

Elia pursed her lips. She didn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue with it. “And how do you determine the loser?”

“Whoever had the farthest date.”

Kamryn glanced at Elia and nodded her head, as if asking if Elia wanted to tell them or not. “What’s the prize for the winner?”

“A hundred bucks and a pair of AirPods.”

“Not a bad prize,” Kamryn commented. She turned to Elia, squeezing her fingers. “How much fun do you want to have with this?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Elia’s chest was still tight with tension. “I’m not sure we can have fun with this.”

“Sure we can.” Kamryn faced the class full of kids again, and she leaned forward toward the desk to grab the dry erase marker off the desk. “We’ll start with January. How many of you picked dates in January?”

Kamryn walked up to the white board and wrote down the month on it. Then she started to write names under it. She went backward from January all the way to August before she stopped.

“All right.” Kamryn turned back around and glanced at Elia with a smart look in her eyes.

Elia wasn’t sure she was ready for this. Not that she ever would be.

“For those of you who thought it was before August, I’m going to tell you right now that you’re wrong.” Kamryn put her hands on her hips and looked around the room, eyeing each one of the students. “And by the way, after we finish this, I expect you all to jump into groups of three so you can do mirrors. All right? No complaints.”

Elia stepped closer to her and leaned in. “What date are we actually talking about? Because I can think of several that could be relevant.”

“Crap, you’re right.” Kamryn wrinkled her nose. “That first ethics meeting.”

Elia had to think about which date that was, because it wasn’t their first time kissing or even the first time that Kamryn had asked her for a kiss. But it probably was the first time that she had given in to the fact that she wanted more with Kamryn, and when they’d made some sort of commitment to try a relationship.

“All right.”

Turning back to the class, Kamryn pointed at January. “You all lose the bet.”

The groans echoed through the room, although that month hadn’t held the majority of the names on it. In fact, it was September, which would be the correct month. Had they been that obvious? Elia took the marker from Kamryn and walked up to the white board.

“Who had what date?”

Bristol read off the specific days, and the one student who had picked January thirtieth groaned loudly.

“Eddy, seems you’re the loser.”

“That sucks.”

Elia shrugged at him and then handed the marker back to Kamryn. “Gotta keep you on their good side at least for now. Since they’ll soon learn that being in the administration isn’t about wanting to be liked.”

Kamryn chuckled. “Fine.” She walked up to the white board and immediately started crossing out names under each month other than September. The kids reacted each and every time she put a line through a name.

When they got down to the month of September, Kamryn asked again, “What date did everyone choose?”

Bristol, who apparently was the official record keeper, listed them off.

“All right.” Kamryn stepped back and studied the white board. “I’m half tempted to just not tell them now.”

“What? You have to tell us!” Ethan whined. His name was still on the board.

Elia eyed him over before shaking her head. “For the record, Ethan, it’s not the thirteenth.”

“Shucks!”

Elia walked up and crossed out Ethan’s name. What had tipped off most of the students that they’d started a relationship in September? She would be curious to know, but she also wasn’t going to ask them—ever. That was something that was going to remain a mystery. Along with many other things, because as entertaining as this was, Elia wasn’t comfortable with their relationship being on display for the entire Speech team.

Kamryn took the marker from Elia’s fingers and immediately crossed out two more names. “Just to make this fun, everyone who would pick September sixth over the thirtieth, raise your hand.”

Only five students raised their hands. Kamryn then pointed at the thirtieth. “And this one?” Everyone else raised their hands.

With a smile on her lips, Kamryn moved the marker toward the thirtieth, but instead of crossing out the name, she circled it in bright red marker.

“Kayla, you’re the winner of a brand-new pair of AirPods and a hundred dollars, apparently.”

The cheers were so loud that Elia’s ears were ringing. The kids were high-fiving each other and chattering loudly. Elia’s cheeks were still on fire, but she managed to raise her voice loud enough to get their attention.

“Mirrors!”

The kids immediately parted into small groups of three. Elia touched the small of Kamryn’s back and nodded toward the door. “Hallway. Now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kamryn walked in front of Elia until they stepped outside. “I think that was a good deflection from the real news, don’t you?”

“Sure. We can not do something like that again.”

“Deal.” Kamryn held both of Elia’s hands and leaned in to kiss her again. “I do have some not-so-good news when it comes to a condition of my hire.”

“What’s that?” Elia hummed, already knowing that she wasn’t going to like this conversation.

“You need to find a new co-leader for the Speech team. They don’t want us traveling together or staying together during the Speech meets. They’d like to not expose the students to anything that might have repercussions.”

Elia frowned. “I’m not sure I understand their reasoning.”

“Not all parents are comfortable with a lesbian couple leading the Speech team together.”

“How many parents?” Elia asked.

“Enough that have loud voices. But it just means that you’ll still run the team with a new co-lead, and I’ll have less responsibility on my plate.” Kamryn tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“I don’t like it.”

“It’s a small concession, Elia.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“It was the only part of the negotiations that I was opposed to, but I’m here to stay.” Kamryn relaxed instantly. “They want to keep me on.”

“That’s really great news. Truly.” Elia smiled. “I’m glad they value you as much as they should.”

“You too,” Kamryn whispered. “They wouldn’t have kept me here if they didn’t want you to also stay. That came up in conversation, that if I left, you might also resign and move to another school—one that would allow us to be together.”

“Interesting.” Elia wrinkled her brow. “I think you’re more adept at negotiating contracts than anyone I’ve seen before.”

“Well, I had a leg up with all those Speech meets I won in high school.”

“Must have had a good coach.”

“The best.” Kamryn moved in again and stole yet another kiss from her. “Everything’s going to work out. I promise it will.”

“I trust you,” Elia answered. “When will they announce formally?”

“End of February. So we’ll need to plan to tell the Speech kids that I won’t be there next year.”

“I think they can handle it.”

“Probably.” Kamryn started back toward the classroom. “You coming?”

“Yeah. Absolutely.” Elia wouldn’t miss the rest of this year for anything. Even if it was the last few months of them co-leading. Elia would savor what they had for now, and she’d look forward to what they could have in the future.