Being a high school teacher and the guardian of a teenager at the same school did have its awkward moments for Rich, especially when he arrived from from a long day at school to find his baby sister greeting her boyfriend with a gigantic smooth on the sidewalk. Of course, it probably would have still been awkward to see his baby sister kiss anyone, even if he wasn't the boy's teacher.
As much as she loved spending time with Bryan, Violet knew he couldn't be the center of her world. She didn't want to become one of those girls who found a boyfriend and forgot about her friends, so she made sure to make time for her girl friends too and tried not to let on how often Bryan was on her mind.
She had hoped to have her best friend and her boyfriend over to hang out and watch some movies, but it was kind of hard to do so when her brother insisted on sitting in the living room to read the paper. She was sure he was doing it purposely to chaperone them.
"Hey, Violet. Why don't you come outside? Geneva and I have been in the pool and the water's not too cold yet. If you do get too chilly we can hop in the hot tub. All of us, that is. Geneva's getting in now."
Violet grinned the hot tub sounded like fun. "Just let me get my suit."
By the time Violet was ready, Geneva had already gotten out and decided to go inside and get a snack. Bryan had waited for her, so they got in together.
"Sorry about my brother being in the way. I really wanted to watch that new movie with you. I think you'd really like it."
"Maybe some other time," Bryan said, scooting closer to Violet. "Right now I'd rather be out here alone with you anyway."
"Dinner's ready," Rich announced.
"I'll go tell Violet and Bryan," Geneva announced and quickly jumped up and went out the back door.
As Tosha looked up from feeding her fish and happened to glance through the window, she could see why, Geneva was so eager to be the one to tell them to go in.
She was covering for the two teens making out in the hot tub.
Tosha kept quiet and decided not to say anything about it to her husband. She waited until after dinner, after Rich had gone upstairs to change, and pulled Violet aside as she was taking her plate to the sink.
"So, I guess things are going pretty well between you and Bryan, huh?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah. It's great," Violet beamed.
"Are the two of you getting pretty serious?"
"I don't know. Nothing is official, but I'd really like it if he was my official, steady boyfriend."
"I know it's fun to have a boyfriend and it's a great feeling to be in love or to have a crush, but you don't want to get too carried away. You don't want anything to stand in the way of getting into college, right?"
"No and I know. I'm not going to let anything happen, I promise."
After dinner the teens went outside again. This time Violet and Bryan stayed out of the hot tub, but that didn't stop them from exchanging a few hugs and kisses in the backyard.
"Do you really like me, Bryan?" Violet asked.
"Isn't that obvious? I more than like you. You're my girl."
"Really?" Violet beamed. "I hoped so. Do you want to go steady with me?"
"Absolutely," Bryan agreed.
Violet was thrilled, she felt like she was floating on air. In her joy she didn't think anything about the way Bryan suddenly turned and stepped away.
After making it official, Violet had to go inside to finish her homework, but Bryan and Geneva decided to hang around.
"So, you and Violet, huh?" Geneva asked. "You know we all saw you kissing out here in the hot tub."
"You all did?"
"Maybe not Mr. Cormier, but I think Mrs. Cormier did."
"Are you really serious about Violet? Because she's serious about you and if you don't really think you're going to be together for a long time, you should tell her. I don't want you to lead her on."
"How should I know how long we'll be together? Do you think I'm a wizard with a crystal ball?"
"She is one of my best friends," he admitted. "And I do hope we'll be close friends forever, if not more than that."
"I'm glad to hear it," Geneva said. She realized maybe she was being overprotective of her friend, but after seeing how Charlotte had treated her brother with so little consideration, she wanted to make sure Violet wasn't being played as well. "Because she's one of my best friends too."
"We're way too young to be thinking about marriage, you know."
"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll drop it. I just wanted to make sure you're going to treat my friend right."
Things were not going well for Rich at work. He was being investigated by the school board for fudging the attendance records for last year's summer semester. They believed that he should have marked some of the girls absent and docked their grades since they did not attend all activities and lectures conducted at the camp. He argued that the absences were (mostly) excused. Violet had food poisioning and a couple of the girls suffered bee stings. That still didn't explain all the absences and why the girls spent so much time primping in the bathroom or exploring the campgrounds on their own.
That alone wouldn't have been so bad, but they were beginning to question the authenticity of all of the grades he had given recently, especially where his sister, Violet, was concerned. Her grades had improved drastically over the last semester. Was that really a true reflection of her own work and knowledge, or was he giving her a little too much extra help? They decided the only thing to do was to let him go, at least until they could fully investigate the situation.
Rich was crushed. They didn't need this, especially now that Tosha was on maternity leave and they had a baby on the way. It couldn't have come at a worse time.
Tosha took the news with surprising calm. "I'll just have to go back to work right after the baby comes." She didn't really want to leave her career anyway. She missed her deep sea diving.
Rich was barely out of work for a day and already he and Tosha were getting on each other's nerves. He kept turning on the TV when she was trying to nap.
And she kept turning it off while he was trying to watch.
"Why don't you take a nap upstairs, Tosha?"
"It's only 1 p.m. I'm not really napping, just resting my eyes. Besides it's hard to climb the stairs with swollen ankles and the couch is more comfortable for my belly. I'm the pregnant one. You should want me to be comfortable."
"I just lost my job. You should want to let me find a way to take my mind off things."
"You could find something else to do. Something quieter."
Since Violet had just gotten home from school, he decided to challenge her to a game of rock, paper, scissors. That had always been a fun one to play when they were kids. But he just found it depressing that his baby sister, who he taught the game to when she was small, now seemed to beat him easily. This was just not his day.
