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Mrs Alex isn’t known for her kind demeanor, except towardthe staff A joke that I’m the butt of She’s at least twenty years older than me, not to mention married However, it doesn’t stop her fro her affection, which is why I only come to the mailrooe Your faculty advisor called and needs to schedule a rabs the stack of papers out offor the note she wrote "He said he needs to do your quarterly observation I swear I put it right on top"

I reach forward and swipe the contents oflate, so I’ll look through it later I’ll let you know if I don’t find it"

She sood-bye as I back away froot to quit co to leave as fast as I can I’m relieved when the door to the ad to have to get someone else to check myher on like that," Gavin says I look up and he’s staring through theat Mrs Alex

I roll h school, Gavin It’s even worse now that I’m a teacher here"

Gavin looks past h theand s you Maybe you should flex your ive her a nice viehile you’re walking away"

The thought of Mrs Alex ad e the subject and walk toward ht? I haven’t seen you guys there in a couple of weeks"

"Maybe Why? You doing one?"

I shake ht," I say "We’ll be there a little after eight, though My sitter isn’t available until seven-thirty, so we’ll probably miss the sac"

He stops in his tracks just as we reach my classroom door "We? Who’s we? Does Will Cooper have a date?" He cocks an eyebrow and waits forout with students outside of work, but Gavin and Eddie have been showing up at Club N9NE every now and then for a few otten to know the at twenty-one years old, it’s sort of difficult to completely cut off socialization with people who are practically your age

"So? Who is she?" he says "Who’s the elusive girl that may just be the end to Will Cooper’s dry spell?"

I open the door to the classroom and lose the smile as I switch on teacher-hs and salutes me, then heads down the hallway

"THANKS AGAIN, MAYA," I say as I head through the living room "There’s cash on the table I ordered pizza about fifteen rabbackward a lot so just ignore it He’ll talk frontward if he has anything ionto the sofa with the reree to watch that other kid"

"He’s just the neighbor," I say "He’ll go houess I’ll pay you extra" I’ve turned to head outside when the boys make their way back into the house Kel stops in the doorway and puts his hands on his hips, looking up at me

"Are you my sister’s boyfriend?"

I’m thrown off by his directedness "Um, no Just her friend"

"She told ht only boyfriends took girls on dates"

"Well," I pause "Soirls on dates to see if they want theirlfriend"

I notice Caulder standing besidein the conversation as if he’s just as curious I wasn’t prepared to have to explain the rules of dating right now

"So it’s like a test?" Caulder asks "To see if you want Layken to be your girlfriend?"

I shrug and nod "Yeah, I guess you could say that"

Kel laughs "You aren’t gonna like her She burps a lot And she’s bossy And she never lets me drink coffee, so she probably won’t let you have any either And she has really bad taste in s way too loud and leaves her bras all over the house It’s gross"

I laugh "Thanks for the warning You think it’s too late to back out now?"

Kel shakes his head,my sarcasm completely "No, she’s already dressed so you have to take her now"

I sigh, pretending to be annoyed "Well, it’s just a few hours Hopefully she won’t burp a lot and bossto her really bad music and leave her bra in my car"