Actually, Joey does. His schedule’s more flexible, apparently
JULIAN: Why? What does this have to do with the park?
CONNOR: What time does school end?
JULIAN: Connor, what does this have to do with work?
CONNOR: I’ll explain when I get there. What time would Joey arrive to pick up his kid?
I frowned. Connor and Joey Leeds had never been friends. How could they have been, when Joey was one of Scott Nash’s minions? What was Connor planning now?
JULIAN: I’m not telling you until you explain what this is all about
CONNOR: Fine, I’ll just look the schedule up online
JULIAN: CONNOR. What the hell is this about?
Just when I thought he wasn’t going to reply, a new message appeared on my screen.
CONNOR: I was at McIntyre Beach last night and found someone trying to destroy the sea turtle nest. Long story short, I think it was Joey, and I think he was there on Scott’s orders and I want to find out if he’s behind the other vandalism and what he can tell us
My eyebrows flew up as I read. Joey Leeds had tried to destroy that nest? That was awful. Even for someone who’d been a bully in high school, I would have expected better.
To be honest, while I’d never liked Joey either, I had gotten to know a different side of him this year, having Dustin in my class. I knew Joey was worried about Dustin, and doing what he could to support him in school.
I also knew the world was a complicated place. People weren’t all good or all evil. Someone could be devoted to their family and still do terrible things. But I just felt sad, thinking about Joey doing that.
JULIAN: So your plan is to confront him in front of all the other parents and kids getting picked up after school?
CONNOR: If it really was him on the beach, he’s going to try to avoid me. I can’t just go to his house and expect him to open the door.
I wrinkled my nose. Connor had a point. But this still wasn’t an appropriate conversation—even if that was all it ended up being—to have in front of half the school.
JULIAN: I still don’t think that’s a conversation to have in front of kids. His kid, especially
CONNOR: Do you have a better idea?
JULIAN: I can ask him to come by my classroom during lunch tomorrow for a meeting. You can talk to him then
CONNOR: Fine. Just tell me where and when
JULIAN: Third grade classrooms are in the same spot as always
CONNOR: It’s been two decades since I was in third grade. I’m gonna need more than that
I sighed and texted him instructions. Connor had been a bit of a hothead when we were younger. But he’d changed in so many other ways since I’d last seen him. Hopefully, he’d mellowed out a bit, too.
Hopefully.
My class lined up for lunch on Thursday the same way they always did. I waved them off down the hall with one of the second grade teachers, then headed back to my desk to actually do some of the grading I should have been doing yesterday.
Katie hadn’t come by my house any morning this week, which was distinctly odd. She said she’d just been busy, and suggested a movie night tomorrow night instead. I was happy to take her up on the idea, but I couldn’t help wondering if she were okay. She’d sounded fine on the phone, but the overprotective older brother in me wouldn’t be appeased until I saw her for myself on Friday.
“Mr. Jackson? Uh, Julian?”
There was a hesitant knock on the doorframe and I looked up to see Joey Leeds standing awkwardly at the threshold to my classroom.
“Joey.” I waved him in, wishing I didn’t feel quite so much like I was tricking him. Even if he had tried to destroy that nest. “Come on in.”
Joey shuffled up to my desk, but instead of taking the chair on the other side of it, he looked around my classroom nervously. The walls were covered in brightly colored posters and charts, and I’d displayed my class’s last batch of creative writing assignments, along with illustrations, above the smartboard.
“That one’s Dustin’s,” I said, pointing to a picture of an astronaut eating Swiss cheese. “It’s very funny.”
“That’s good.” Joey bobbed his head up and down. “That’s really good.” Chewing the inside of his cheek, he gave me a nervous look. “Listen, before we start, I just wanted to say, uh, Istwanstaankferellerusinsuch.”
I winced. Joey was clearly uncomfortable, and I