With No Warning (Romance/Inspirational)(Complete)

CHAPTER 8: All Things Are Possible

CHAPTER 8: All Things Are Possible

“Okay listen up.” Olivia Tanner stood with a regal stance befitting a princess, amongst her dozens of recruits, consisting of teachers and students alike, who were sprawled Indian style on the gymnasium floor. “Thank you all for being here to help with our Pilgrim Baskets. As most of you know we distribute them to our neighbors who are going through unfortunate times.” Beaming around her with one of her angelic smiles, she gestured at the boxes and their contents which were scattered haphazardly around her. “The food is donated by local people and stores. The baskets by the basket factory in Jacksonville. And the ribbon from Carol’s Crafts. Thanks goes to everyone who helped with the fliers and the pickup of the donations.” Her searching eyes fell on a face not far from her and she smiled again. “And now I am going to turn over the floor to Ms. Brooks who will instruct us on assembling these.”

       Kelli stood and apprised, “I think that the assembly line, like we did it last year worked well. The baskets will start here, the boxes are numbered, one item out of each box into each basket, please. The colored cellophane bags go over the baskets and are fastened with those ribbons. We will make two lines, and I think things will go fairly fast that way. We have about three hundred to do, so lets get started.”

       The buzz of activity that ensued continued for well over an hour. Dakota took the finished product from the end of each line and stacked them next to the exit where they would be ready for the delivery date on the Monday before Thanksgiving. Kevin and his friend, Curt, helped her with this task, when they weren’t flirting with Bretni and Lana.

       When she dropped a basket onto the floor, Curt rushed with gentlemanly ardor to her rescue. Righting the basket and shaking its contents back into a semblance of order, he admonished “You don’t need to be doing this heavy work Ms. Winslow.”

       “Thanks.” She bit back a sarcastic rejoinder and accepted his help. Sometimes though, now that Curt was hanging around the dorm so much to see Lana, he got on her nerves with his niceness. Shaking off that crazy irritation, she decided to tease him after all, and referred to an incident the past week. “You wouldn’t be trying to get back on my good list would you?”

       “I know better than that Ms. Winslow.” He phrased smoothly in good humor, but she though she saw a glinting dark flash of something akin to annoyance momentarily darken his eyes at being reminded of the time she had caught him mixing rum and coke in the kitchen.

       On that particular night, she had confiscated his alcohol, and banished him from the dorm for a week. Later, she wished she had poured it down the sink in front of him, because he had the unnerving gall, to jokingly imply that she had kept if for herself, one evening in front of some of the other teens. Just as light, she had retorted that maybe she had, when all she had wanted to do was profess her innocence, because she was not even an occasional drinker. However, she had felt beleaguered, and had further felt that he was wanting just such an indignant answer, so he could rile her more in front of an audience of his peers. He was just a punk teenager, she told herself, but still, she continuously kept her shields up when he was around.

       “Aw Ms. Winslow, how long are you going to stay mad at him?” Kevin asked, breaking into her thoughts and plugging for his friend.

       “I don’t know. At least a few more days.” She replied sweetly tart. One of the boxes that had emptied was in the way and she pulled it to join a growing stack of others. When she turned around from her task, Curt was crouched next to Lana, playing with her hair, idly twisting it around his fingers, as the two of them quietly talked. Knowing he could face being expelled, she had decided against writing him up the night of the incident, but at times, like now, she regretted her decision.