Maggie and Kevin were waiting in line to enter the football stadium.
“And that has got to do with what?” He asked, handing a student his ticket.
“I don’t know. They’re very unpredictable. Just consider yourself warned.”
They made their way through the crowd and towards the bleachers. Maggie caught sight of her uncle standing and waving wildly at her. She waved back.
“I guess we have to sit with them,” she told Kevin. “They’ve seen us, so we can’t be rude.”
Maggie climbed up the rows on the bleachers, Kevin behind her. He cast an appreciative glance at the way her jeans cupped her backside. I wonder what she would do if I just accidentally touched it, he mused. As he was casually reaching a hand out, she stopped suddenly causing him to make contact with more force than indented. She turned to look at him, a quizzical expression on her face, one eyebrow raised in inquiry.
“I, uh…Sorry. I was trying to keep my balance,” he told her, embarrassed.
Maggie smirked questioningly as they sat down.
“There’s my Maggie May,” her uncle said, rubbing a hand on the top of her head. “I just had some boiled peanuts and was out of napkins. Hope you don’t mind. Hi,” he said, turning to Kevin. “I’m her uncle. I was the once who taught her how to spit. Has she shown you the distance she can get?”
“Uncle Will!” Maggie admonished, blushing deeply. “Kevin, this is my uncle, William Martin. That’s his wife, Sue, and their daughter, Annie. Everyone, this is Kevin Scott. He’s a good friend.”
Kevin shook her uncle’s hand, grinning at her as she rolled her eyes at her uncle. It was only a few minutes until Maggie’s parents arrived.
“How you been doin’, Hoss?” James Martin asked, slapping Kevin on the back and shaking his hand.
“Just fine, sir. And yourself?”
“Oh, no need to complain. Won’t do any good,” he sighed, sitting one row above them.
“That’s right,” Maggie’s mother agreed. “Kevin, I’m glad you’re here with Maggie. It’s nice to see her dressed up a little. I keep telling her she’ll be more attractive with a little make-up on, but she just won’t listen to me.”
“Mama,” Maggie began, irritation evident in her voice. She stopped when Kevin discreetly places a calming hand on her arm. She turned back to watch the game.
*********
The high school auditorium was dimly lit and decorated with black and gold streamers and balloons. Music thumped loudly from the large speakers on the stage. It took a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to the lighting.
Kevin thought he heard Maggie saying something and leaned in closer to her.
“What?” He said loudly.
“I said, I can’t understand how anyone can listen to music this loud! It’s enough to make you go deaf.” “Oh. Actually, I have heard it a lot louder. You should be with while I’m working. This is a whisper compared to that.”
They stood near the door, Maggie checking students’ tickets as they came in. She had the next thirty minutes of that job. She smiled and cut up with the students she taught as they came in.
“I don’t know whose bright idea this was to have us work in shifts doing this. It’s a waste of time,” she yelled at Kevin over the music. “Usually, we have the secretary take the tickets and money outside before they come in. I guess someone thought this would be more efficient. Personally, I think it is just a way to make more of the teachers stay here for a loner period of time. A lot of them don’t like doing the school function thing.”
“I can’t imagine why not,” Kevin told her. He was having a good time, watching the kids dance. Not that he didn’t see that at the concerts, but this was different. It was just high school fun.
Maggie was watching a group of students huddled in the corner when another teacher came up to her.
“Miss Martin, you can go now. I’ll take over for the rest of the night. You’re obviously distracted.”
Maggie looked at the woman. Mrs. Watkins, the lady who sent notes up to her all the time about being so noisy.
“I’m not scheduled to leave for another ten minutes. I can stay,” she told her, looking back at the group. She had a funny feeling about them.
“Really, you should leave without making a scene. No one will notice. You don’t want more talk about you, now do you?” The Watkins woman asked, snide dripping in her voice.
“What? I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” Maggie told her.
“Really, Miss Martin. Are you that dumb? It’s bad enough that it’s all around town about you and that man there. But to have the nerve to actually bring him here to this high school and flaunt it. You have no shred of dignity, do you? You’re only bringing shame on yourself and your profession.”
“What the he… Here, you want to do this job? Fine. Take this,” Maggie said, shoving the box of tickets at her. “I’ll give you a hint, though. See those students over in the corner?”
“Why, yes,” she said in her annoyingly slow way, as if she was talking to a child. “Those are some of my best students. Never gives anyone a problem.”
“Really? Well, they have a fifth with them. Deal with it!”
Maggie turned and stormed out of the auditorium, seething with rage. The cool night air hit her face as she took a deep breath. Kevin came running down the steps after her.
“Maggie? Why did you leave like that?”
“It’s nothing. Listen, I need to get home. I’m just gonna walk, all right? You go on back to your room,” she told him.
“You’ll do no such thing,” he said, grabbing her arm. “Come and get in my car. I’ll drive you.”
“It’s only a block away,” she said, trying to get his hand off her.
“I don’t care. You’re riding with me and that’s all there is to it.”
********
Maggie sat quietly on her couch, the dogs stretched out on the floor. Kevin was next to her, waiting. Obviously she wasn’t going to go first.
“What happened back there?”
“Nothing.”
“Something had to have. Did she say something to you?”
“Only every day since the first day of this school year. She is constantly sending up nasty notes to my room. She has to be the one who told the principal that we make too much noise up there. When I went in for my evaluation consultation, she told me I needed to have better control over my classes!”
“What does that mean?” He asked, pushing a stray hair from her face.
“It means that I am in big trouble. This is my tenure year and that can screw it up for me! Where does she get off coming into the school and bossing me around?”
“You mean she’s the new teacher? She looks like she’s been teaching about twenty years,” he commented.
“Try twenty-five. She decided she wanted to transfer here last spring. I don’t know why. She’s such a kiss-butt type of person. I know she’s been saying things about me in front of those students.”
“She can’t do that, can she?”
“She’s not supposed to. No matter how mad I get at my fellow faculty members, I would never air it in front of my kids. I can’t really prove it, though.”
“Then how do you know?”
“One of my students has her for a study hall and overheard her. She has the upper students, the preps and rich kids. I have the average to just below average students. A lot of them aren’t as fortunate as others are. I treat them all the same, as if they are the smartest in the world. Most of them earn an honest A or B in my class. It’s because I expect it of them and believe they can do it. The only problems I’ve ever had are with the ones she teaches.”
“Do you know your students really respect and like you?” He asked quietly.
“Yeah. They’d rather eat worms than admit it, though,” she said, laughing.
“You’re right about that. You’re obviously good at what you do and you still have fun, right?”
She looked up at him. Her own words coming back to her. “Yeah, I still have fun. But that doesn’t make things like what happened tonight with her any easier to deal with.”
Kevin was gently twirling a strand of her hair. She suddenly became aware of how close he was to her. She knew she should move away or give some hint to him to do the same, yet she stayed where she was. Glancing down at the dogs, Thunder whining in his sleep, his feet moving like he was chasing something, she chuckled softly. She looked back up to find him gazing at her.
Without a single word, he lowered his head, softly pressing his lips to hers. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, slowly sliding it down her arm. Feeling her body grow warm, she awkwardly returned his kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close in an embrace, rubbing her back with his hands. He made the softest of a sound in his throat as he pushed his tongue between her lips. Caught off guard, she involuntarily pulled back.
Releasing her, he looked into her eyes. He could see the surprise in them. Hell, he didn’t even expect it to happen. Feeling an uncomfortable strain at his jeans, he knew then he needed to leave.
“I’m going to go now,” he said softly. “I know the way out. I’ll call you later.”
He stood up, hoping it didn’t show too much. Not that he actually expected her to be looking there.
“Kevin,” she said quietly.
He turned around.
“Thanks. It was nice.”
He smiled tenderly at the memory as he left her.