Sweet Expressions

A Delicious, Stolen Date.

Dishes clinked in Sean's dining room and an occasional lowly murmured comment greeted Meanie and I on our way to our seats. Gabriel pulled my chair out and kissed the top of my head as he slid my chair further in underneath me. My eyes slowly panned the seated boys in front of me and barely took in that Meanie had gone around to sit next to Mr. Blackbourne at the head of the table. Not one of the boys dared a glance at me, except Sean who had winked at me as soon as I was seated, and Gabriel who had smiled at me brightly before digging into the scrambled eggs. My eyes dropped to the hash browns steaming in front of me and I began scooping some onto my plate as I mulled over the possible reasons Kota would have to shush Victor. Victor seemed subdued and was picking at his eggs with his fork without taking a bite. I tapped the serving spoon off on my plate and returned it, contemplating briefly who could pass me the bacon. North noticed and grabbed it, hovering the dish over my plate so he could drop several pieces onto it. The boys seemed to take that as a signal to pass nearly everything my way and my plate was soon over filled by North's overzealous attempts to get protein into my diet. I sighed and placed my napkin in my lap, glancing around the table at everyone before my eyes halted at the head of the table.

Kota was using that now very familiar silent communication thingy they all did with Mr. Blackbourne. I zeroed onto his face, trying to make sense of the series of twitches and eye movements. I must have been too obviously engrossed in trying to decipher, because he did a double take in my direction. He adjusted his glasses and then smiled at me sheepishly. Busted.

I picked up my fork and without breaking eye contact I scooped up a random bite and bit down on it. I stared at him and chewed through the degrees of uncomfortable he went through before he finally looked down. Mr. Blackbourne took a sip of coffee in my peripheral vision and cleared his throat.

"Mr. Coleman? How is your assignment coming along, any developments?"

Gabriel finished his bite and I sat forward, finally releasing Kota from my perusal.

"There's no sign of bullying so far among the students as far as I can tell. They seem a pretty happy group with only a few shy ones. Our target hasn't shown any signs of fear from any of the others, but it could be too soon to tell."

Mr. Blackbourne dabbed at his lips with his napkin as he thought.

"The staff?"

"The superintendent is a piece. Has me jumping through so many fucking hoops it feels like a pony show."

Mr. Blackbourne ticked his head at the swearword and then glanced at me almost imperceptibly when I said nothing. I cringed. That's right. I put my fork down, beginning to feel miserable. Even if the boys were up to something, Mr. Blackbourne was probably only participating because he had faith in me. I couldn't help the churning in my stomach at the thought of disappointing him. I looked at Meanie, whose attention was centered on Mr. Blackbourne

"So far from what I can tell she has very little contact with the students, but when she does it seems to cause a lot of tension in the kids. I can see bullying happening if a kid feels stressed enough after an encounter with her. Other than her, everyone else seems reasonably stable."

No, that wasn't right. Addie's confrontation came to mind. Now was as good a time as any to bring it up. I just hoped I wasn't making a bad call on her

"Except Miss Ayers you mean."

Mr. Blackbourne froze with the napkin at his lips and then lowered it. The silver in his eyes became sharp when he turned them on me.

"Explain your observation Miss Sorenson."

"Other than she threatened to get me fired and take my place as Gabriel's assistant? She seems to cause the same tension as the Superintendent with the children whenever she enters the room. It strikes me as odd because otherwise she is very nice to Gabriel, and hasn't said or done anything to the children that could be taken in a bad way."