The Promise (Neighbor from Hell 10)

“She’s fine,” Reed said, making his way through the throngs of students staring down at their cellphones as they struggled to wake up with the help of eight-dollar lattes, energy shots, and twenty-ounce bottles of Coke.

“I see,” Jackson murmured as Reed sat down next to Shawn. “And what exactly is she doing there?”

Driving him out of his fucking mind, but since he couldn’t exactly tell his best friend that he’d held his sister in his arms last night, trying to ignore just how good it felt to hold her, he went with, “She’s on sabbatical.”

“Still doesn’t explain what she’s doing there,” Jackson pointed out.

“You okay, buddy?” Reed asked Shawn as he shifted the phone away from his mouth. Nodding, Shawn continued to sit there staring down at his feet.

“She came home to fix up the old house,” Reed said, gesturing for the small group forming near them to get to class.

“Shit,” Jackson said, sighing heavily.

“Exactly,” Reed said, watching as the last of the stragglers headed toward the front doors. Without a word, Shawn stood up, adjusted his backpack, licked his lips nervously and after a slight hesitation, headed toward the front doors with Reed by his side.

“She’ll go bankrupt trying to fix that old place.”

“Which is why she’s decided to see if Uncle Jared will buy it,” Reed said, gesturing for Shawn to follow him to the front office.

“That might be for the best,” Jackson said before asking, “Where is she staying?”

“In town,” Reed said, deciding that it was probably for the best if he kept that information to himself until after Jackson had a chance to talk to Joey.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jackson said as Reed stopped by the front desk so that he could pull up Shawn’s schedule just as the first bell rang.

“Probably not, but she has nowhere else to go,” Reed said absently as he pulled up Joey’s schedule and compared it with Shawn’s.

“What is she doing to stay busy?”

“She’s filling in for me at the school,” Reed promised him as he made a few adjustments to Shawn’s schedule before he sent it to the printer.

“You don’t have to do this, Reed,” Jackson said, sighing heavily when they both knew that he didn’t have a choice.

It was either watch over the little brat or let her…

“Where the hell did she go?” he asked, looking around the empty lobby.

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll call you back later,” he said absently as he ended the call and slid his phone back in his pocket.

“Who?” Shawn asked, reaching up to run his hands over his messy short blonde hair as he followed Reed’s gaze.

“Your new case manager,” Reed said, handing Shawn a copy of his new schedule as he glanced around the front lobby one last time before biting back a curse because he should have known better than to turn his back on the little brat.

Chapter 18

“So, you don’t use books?” Joey asked, worrying her bottom lip as she looked around the large barren classroom, noting the bare walls, empty bookshelves, the empty table in the back, and the sad desk that looked older than her in the corner.

There was a heartfelt sigh, bringing her attention back to the girl sitting on top of the small desk in front of her, idly swinging her legs back and forth as she slowly shook her head. “Sadly, no.”

“I see,” Joey said, nodding as she considered the rest of the class, noting the way they all sat there, nodding in agreement.

“It’s okay because we don’t actually need them,” a boy said from the back row.

“You don’t?” Joey asked, carrying her bag over to the large desk that she was going to be calling home for the next three months and placed it on the floor.

“We finished weeks ago,” Jen, she believed her name was based on what she’d overheard during the morning meeting, said nodding solemnly along with the rest of the class.

“You finished U.S. History weeks ago?” Joey asked as she reluctantly hopped up onto her desk.

“Unfortunately,” Jen said, following that up with a shrug. “We’re the accelerated class.”

“Oh,” Joey said, frowning down at the syllabus that John handed her before the morning meeting. “They didn’t tell me that you were the accelerated class.”

There was a sad, drawn-out sigh followed with, “They always forget to tell the substitute teachers.”

“I was planning on going over the American Revolution, but since you already covered it…” Joey said with a helpless shrug.

“We already did,” another boy said, nodding.

“I guess we could watch a movie?” Joey suggested with a sigh and a lazy gesture toward the flat screen television mounted on the wall.

“You know,” Jen said as the rest of the class nodded in agreement, “that would probably be for the best.”

“Since we’re supposed to study United States history, why don’t we watch ‘The Patriot?’” she suggested as she slid off her desk and picked up her bag.

“I suppose we could do that,” Jen said as she sat down at her desk while the rest of the students nodded eagerly.

“Okay,” Joey said as she put her bag on the desk and searched for her copy of The Patriot. “I was really hoping that we wouldn’t have to do this.”

“We could do what we normally do and just hang out?” someone suggested even as they started pulling out their phones.

“True,” Joey murmured as she pulled the movie out before reluctantly grabbing a soda and the bag of junk food that she’d picked up this morning on the off-chance that it came to this.

“Should I get the lights?” a boy asked, already getting up to shut the lights off.

Turning around, Joey couldn’t help but frown. “But then how would you be able to see what you’re writing?”

“Wait, writing?” he asked, shooting a nervous glance back at Jen who simply shrugged it off.

“I usually wait until the end of the semester to do this with my students, but since you’ve already finished I guess we’ll do it today,” Joey said with a shrug as she walked over to the DVD player resting on a shelf near the television.

“Do what?”

“Normally, I have my grad students look for thirty mistakes and my undergrads look for twenty, but since you’re the accelerated class we should probably stick with thirty,” Joey said with a heartfelt sigh as she took the DVD out of its case and popped it into the DVD player.

“Thirty what?” the leader of the pack asked, shifting nervously in her seat as she glanced back at the rest of the class for help.

“Historical inaccuracies in this movie. Since you’re the accelerated class you should have no problem finding them,” Joey said with a smile and a satisfied sigh as she turned around and faced the horrified group of students behind her.

Jen opened his mouth, but Joey cut her off, “Did I mention that this was going to be counted as a test?” she asked brightly, noting that more than half the students looked like they were about to be sick as she pressed Play.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

“Wait! You can’t do this!”

“I really can though,” Joey said, nodding solemnly as she walked back over to her desk, sat down, leaned back, propped her feet up on the desk and grabbed the bag of chips with a satisfied sigh as every last student sat there, staring back at her in horror.

With a chip, she gestured toward the movie, “You already missed one,” Joey pointed out as she popped the chip in her mouth.

“But…” Jen said, looking completely lost as she sat there while the rest of the class tore their bags apart, desperately looking for something to write with.

“Missed another one,” Joey said, taking another sip of her soda even as she couldn’t help but notice that a mini-fridge would go very nicely in the corner by the closet.