Misunderstandings (Woodfalls Girls 2)

“Yeah, except he’s taking his role a little seriously,” Justin complained. “He tried to con me into giving him extra dough so he’d know what it would feel like to have some wealth. Those were his words.”

“Hey, can’t blame a guy for trying,” Travis said, entering the kitchen. “Brittni,” he smiled widely, happily pulling me up for a bear hug. Travis was a hugger. I was slowly adjusting to it. Slowly.

“Hey, Travis,” I said, returning his smile. When Travis was around, you couldn’t help responding to his enthusiasm and personality. “How goes the showbiz?”

“Well, it’s tough to be a star, but I’m adjusting to all the fame and paparazzi,” he joked, taking his own seat.

“Oh boy. You better get the contractors out here, Mom. Looks like we’ll need to have the doors widened to fit Travis’s head and ass if he doesn’t stop eating all the bread,” Justin growled, moving the bread from his brother’s reach before he could add a third roll to his plate.

“I can’t be blamed for being a growing boy,” Travis answered, unfazed by the ribbing. Justin held the bread basket out to me so I could claim my own roll.

“Key word there being ‘boy,’” Justin joked. Travis retaliated by throwing a piece of the rolls in question at Justin, who deflected it, where it ended up landing in Hollie’s glass.

“Ew, gross. Can you two please act your age?” she huffed, stomping to the kitchen to get a new drink.

“Boys, behave,” Trish said, looking up from a stack of papers from school she was grading while we ate.

I still liked the fact that Trish was a teacher, which is what I wanted to be for as long as I could remember. My friend Tressa said it was because I was born bossy, which was probably true. I liked the idea of teaching others. I wasn’t the most affectionate or easygoing person, but I really did like kids. Even if I did gripe about the ones I worked with at the daycare. It was just the way I was. I put on an air of gruffness, but working with kids was my passion.

“Yes, Mom,” Justin and Travis answered in unison. They both exchanged silent death threats once her head was bent down again.

Hollie and I laughed at their antics, which made Trish’s head shoot up again as she mockingly glared at both of them. “I mean it, or I’ll put you both on dish detail for a week without the dishwasher.”

Her words had the desired effect, as both guys instantly grimaced at the idea of a week of hard labor.

“Harsh, Mom,” Hollie quipped, taking a large bite of her salad.

“Sometimes the dish card is necessary,” Trish laughed, pulling her reading glasses off and placing them on top of the stack of papers. “Now, tell me about your day.”

“Molly threatened to cut my braid off if I wouldn’t let her cheat off my paper today,” Hollie piped in while helping herself to a serving of the big bowl of spaghetti at the table.

“What the hel—” Justin started to say as Trish sent him a warning look for his language. “What the heck?” he clarified.

“You can say ‘hell.’ Ms. Johnson says it all the time,” Hollie said nonchalantly as she took a hearty bite.

“I thought you said this charter school would be a good experience for her,” Justin said, shooting his mom a look.

“It is a good school. Hollie, what did you do when Molly threatened you?”

“Nothing. Mr. Davis was right behind her and heard the whole thing. You should have seen her face.”

“I bet. What did Mr. Davis do?” Trish asked, holding up a hand so Justin wouldn’t interrupt again.

I smiled and patted his leg as he clamped his lips closed.

“He sent her to Principal Rhodes. She didn’t return to class, so I’m pretty sure she got suspended, which is too bad since we took the test and she wasn’t there for it.” She grinned mischievously.

“Okay, that’s good. Now what is this about Ms. Johnson?”

“Well, a couple of kids in my class have been cussing lately. Not me,” she added quickly when everyone pivoted to look at her. “Anyway, Ms. Johnson told us that chances are we were all going to be exposed to swearing and most likely do it ourselves. She made us think of all the swear words we could and she wrote them on the board. The only curse word she wouldn’t write was the F-word because she said that’s just vulgar,” Hollie continued around a bite of her roll. “She said as long as we use them in context, she was fine with us using them, but if we use them out of context, we have to write a five-hundred-word essay on the origins of swear words. None of the boys want to write the essay, so the cussing has stopped. I guess they were using them wrong.”

“I guess so,” Trish answered dryly. “Sounds like Ms. Johnson knows what she’s doing.”

“Yeah, she sure tricked them,” Hollie said, obviously not fooled by her teacher’s ploy. “Anyways, Justin can say ‘hell’ because it seemed like he was using it in context, since that was my response when Molly threatened to cut my braid off.”

“Thanks for your permission, squirt,” Justin replied as the rest of us laughed.

“What about your day?” Trish asked, turning her attention to Travis.