“Somehow this is a lot less glamorous than I remembered,” Ty commented.
“Maybe you got us mixed up with your fancy school.”
There it was again—another reminder that Ty hadn’t been good enough sixteen years ago, and he was only good enough now because he was offering free labor. Suddenly he felt like he was going to throw up. Why was he doing this to himself?
Ty fought the urge to push back, but he could feel the words chafing in his throat now. The more he did it, the harder it got to breathe. Soon he’d be choking on them.
Instead of speaking, he grabbed a random textbook off the shelf behind Henry’s desk and leafed through it. The tops of the pages were caked with dust. The thing had to be older than Ty was. “You’re not still using this to teach, are you?” he asked. The cover had indicated it was some kind of first-aid book. “Because they changed the compressions-to-breaths ratios for CPR.”
“Yeah, they covered that one in our professional development training. The one with the active shooter drills.”
Jesus. Ty put the book back on the shelf. “You do not get paid enough.”
“Don’t think any of us got into it for the money.” Henry glanced at his watch. “I’ve got a class this morning. You want to sit in? Otherwise I’ve gotta go. The kids get real nosy when you’re late.”
Ty had no idea why—not why Henry asked, and not why he agreed—but he shrugged and said, “Sure. Lead the way.”
It turned out to be a gym class of tenth-grade boys. Henry introduced him as “Mr. Morris, who’s going to be shadowing me today,” and then went right into assigning warm-up exercises. The class ran two laps at a jog, and then Henry selected kids at random and called out a muscle group to have them demonstrate stretches.
“I love a pass/fail mark,” he confided to Ty as they stood against the gym wall. “Nice to be able to give everyone perfect on something,even if they have lousy hand-eye coordination.” After each kid demonstrated a correct stretch, he put a checkmark next to their name.
“You probably shouldn’t brag about that in front of the English teachers.”
Henry grinned. “Mum’s the word.”
After that they didn’t get to talk much, with Henry busy directing the kids through the finer points of the rules of basketball. Ty sat on one of the old wooden benches near the wall, observing.
But that grain of sand kept chafing. Henry treated his students fairly, with an even mixture of discipline and good humor. He didn’t put up with bad behavior or kids mistreating each other, but he didn’t raise his voice unless he needed to make himself heard over the racket in the gym, and he had kind words for everyone.
All those kids… by now some of them must be on their second or third or fourth chances with Henry. Ty remembered what it was like to be a teenage boy—more attitude and hormones than brains. None of these kids had gotten kicked off the baseball team and expelled.
Ty knew he hadn’t been an easy teenager, but he wasn’t a bad one either. His mother had just died. Why hadn’t he gotten another chance?
And could he really do this volunteering thing without clearing it up?
He couldn’t. At ten minutes to the bell, Coach dismissed the kids to change and shower, and Ty shoved his hands into his pockets and made himself get up. If he didn’t ask now, he’d stew forever.
“Hey, uh, Coach, I gotta ask—why did you… I mean, after everything that happened.” Ty huffed, hating himself as much for needing to know as for his inability to get the words out. “You guys kicked me out of school as a kid, but it’s okay that I’m back now? You and Principal Gupta are acting like nothing ever happened. Well, mostly.” He couldn’t have the rug pulled out from under him again.
Henry frowned. “We didn’t kick you out of school.”
What was he talking about? “Uh, yeah, you did. I think I’d remember. After the chicken fiasco in Gupta’s office? I’m not saying I didn’t deserve to be punished—”
“Ty. You didn’t get kicked out of school.” Henry shook his head. “Principal Gupta and I agreed. You were grieving the loss of your mother, so you lashed out. It wasn’t appropriate or constructive, butit was certainly understandable. We decided on a three-day in-school suspension, and you’d have to sit out the first baseball game of the season and clean up the mess the chickens left in the office.”
Ty blinked as that uncomfortable grain of sand grew heavy and sank into his stomach. “I don’t understand. If I wasn’t expelled, then why…?”
Why did I have to change schools?This was the only one in town. Changing schools had meant boarding at Northeast Academy. If he hadn’t been expelled, then he wouldn’t have had to leave. He could have stayed with his friends. He could have visited his mother’s grave. Instead—
“Your father thought it would be best if you got a fresh start somewhere else.” Ty didn’t know if Henry put the sarcasm in his voice on purpose, but he heardYour dad thought we were all too soft and this was the perfect excuse to get you out of the house for good. “I didn’t know he told you otherwise. I’m sorry.”
Of course. Fuck. Ty should’ve guessed years ago, but he’d never questioned it. He knew he was a pain in the ass. He’d spent half his life fucking around. It had only been a matter of time before the find out part came around.
He just hadn’t expected his own father to be the one to hurry that along.
“Right.” Ty cleared his throat. “I, ah, I actually think I need some air. I’ll come find you at lunchtime?”
The kindness and understanding in Henry’s eyes almost undid him. “Sure, Ty. Of course.”
