by Cara Bastone
“Frosting.” Serafine smiled.
Via’s hand automatically went to the pendant. “I was just thinking about that.”
“Well, I wanted you to have some first-day juju, and I know how much you love shiny things.”
Via laughed, blushing a little. “Well, it’s gorgeous.” She gave Fin a hug, a real one.
Via took a fortifying breath and headed out the door. She had her witchy sister in her corner, a magic necklace and a master’s degree. Bring it on, Brooklyn Public Schools.
* * *
TURNED OUT THAT lots of people had first-day-of-school jitters. Via was comforted by the teachers rushing the hallways with school supplies in one hand and coffee in the other, waving harried hellos and lining up at the Xerox machine. She was even more comforted by the wave of loud, chirping, summer-fresh children that poured into the school around 8:15.
Right, she reminded herself. She could do this. This was the easy part. As the new third–fifth grade student counselor, Via wouldn’t see any kids on her first day, but she did have an insane number of files to read over. She’d come in the week before to set up her office, and now she smiled as the sun shifted overhead and caught the three clear crystals that spun in her window with the breeze.
She ate lunch by herself, at her wooden desk. At 4:15, she took a deep breath and checked her makeup in the bathroom on the way to the staff meeting in the library. The weeklong orientation she’d gone through last month had been with all the new staff in the district, but unfortunately, none of them had been from PS 128. And she hadn’t gotten a chance to meet hardly anyone when she’d come in to set up her office, though a few people had popped their heads in to say hi.
She stepped into the back of the library and put a small, professional smile on her face. She could do this. How many new schools had she been punted into as a foster kid? How many mandatory after-school programs and group therapy sessions had she had to step into and find a place for herself? The answer was a lot. The answer was also that it never seemed to get much easier. The main difference here was that this room, right here, was Via’s choice. This was a step she wanted to be taking in her life. She took a deep breath.
Teachers were milling around, greeting each other, finding their seats. Via was just about to walk up to a group of older, chatting teachers and introduce herself when Principal Grim tapped one of her very large rings against a water glass.
The sound tinkled through the room, and Via felt like she was at a wedding. Not that she’d ever actually been to a wedding. But, you know, goals.
“Shall we?” the mildly eccentric but very competent older woman called to her staff.
Via slipped into one of the chairs set up toward the edge of the room and watched everyone settle in around her. Principal Grim was just standing up when something caught Via’s eye.
She looked across the room and there was Mr. Dorner—Sebastian—giving her a half smile and a wave. Right. He’d said he was on staff, but it was still a surprise to see him at the staff meeting.
Via felt herself light up like a birthday candle as she waved back. It was really nice to see a familiar face. Even if his face wasn’t so familiar to her. He looked very different from when she’d had Matty in her pre-K class. His hair, somewhere between brown and gold, was shorter and trimmed, long on the top, tight on the sides. He had more of a beard now, but it was neat and intentional. Not the five-day-old scruff he’d sported for most of that entire year. And he wore a casual button-down and dark jeans. It definitely had a different effect than the rumpled suit he’d worn every day for most of Matty’s pre-K year.
Sebastian turned back to the front of the room, but Via surreptitiously studied his face for just a moment longer. He’d looked like some of the other dads at the farmers market, maybe a little taller and fitter, but he’d looked like he belonged there. But in this elementary school library surrounded by women in colorful dresses and alphabet earrings? It made his blunt features somehow blunter. His shoulders wider. It was like spotting a lion among a flock of flamingos.
A lion who was chatting easily with a few of those flamingos, chuckling and sharing gum.
Hmm.
“All right, you brilliant people!” Principal Grim stood up, her dyed black hair almost maroon under the fluorescent lights. “It’s time. You know what time. Get those hands up.”
Via looked around in confusion and saw that almost the entire staff already had their hands in the air.
“Let’s get those spirit fingers working and give it up for another fantastic school year!” All the teachers shook and waved their fingers furiously. Smiling to herself at the absurdity, Via did the same.
* * *
A KNOCK ON the frame of her office door had Via glancing up. “Sebastian!”
“Hi.” He practically filled the doorway shoulder to shoulder. “How was the big first day?”
She took a deep breath and finished slipping some files into her shoulder bag for the walk home. “Hungry. I didn’t bring enough snacks.”
He chuckled. “Well, you can always come down to the cafeteria at lunchtime. I’ve got the hookup on all the extra carrot sticks and tahini dip you could ever want.”
She laughed. “That’s really what they’re serving in the cafeteria?”
He nodded, scraping a wide paw over his beard. The scratching sound carried across her small office. “Oh yeah. Principal Grim got us onto this healthy eating pilot program through the city. We’re getting Whole Foods’s day-old goods or something like that.”
“You’re kidding.”
He shrugged, a little half smile on his face, and Via couldn’t tell if he was kidding.
“So, what’d you think of the first staff meeting?”
Via blinked at him. She made a point to always tell the truth. But it was her first day here and she had no idea who might be passing by in the hallway. She went with the most evasive version of the truth her conscience would allow her to tell. “I, uh, wasn’t expecting quite that much dancing.”
Sebastian outright laughed. At one point, Principal Grim had had the entire staff in a circle with their hands waving and their hips circling. “Yeah, she has sort of a freewheeling leadership style. And she believes wholeheartedly in the body’s expression of the inner mind.” He looked down, apparently saw his sleeves were different lengths and started peeling one of them back to even them. “It didn’t scare you off, did it?”
Via shook her head, throwing her bag over her shoulder. “No way. My best friend is basically a psychic, so the more mystic juju there is, the more comfortable I am.”
“Like, a crystal ball type of psychic?” He looked intrigued, finishing his sleeve.
Via shook her head. “She’s never practiced with a crystal ball before. At least not with her clients. But she does use other kinds of crystal.” She pointed to the ones dancing lightly in the breeze at the window.
“And that, too?” He nodded toward the pendant at her chest.
“Oh. Yup. She gave this to me this morning. For luck.” She automatically started playing with it.
“Well.” Sebastian squinted at the clock on the wall. “I think I’ve given Matty enough time to scream his brains out on the playground. I should probably get going.”
“He’s in the after-school program?”
“Only when we have a staff meeting. I swear it’s his favorite day of the week, though. A real hit to the ego that he’d rather play on the same jungle gym he did at recess than go to the library with his old dad.”
She laughed again. “Well, you gotta keep it fresh. It’s like a long-term relationship. You can’t just go to dinner and a movie on every date.”
He blinked at her, scraping that same paw over that stubble again. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“See you tomorrow?”
“You got it.”
And then he was
gone and Via walked home on her own.
* * *
HER FIRST WEEK of school passed in a blur of new students and names and more paperwork than Via had thought humanly possible. When the dismissal bell rang on Friday, she flopped gratefully back into her swivel chair and eyed the ceiling of her office.
She felt like she’d just run a marathon. Three marathons. Back to back.
“Hey,” a voice spoke from the doorway of the office and Via looked up to see one of the first-grade teachers. Sadie Carroll. Young and pretty, she always looked very stylish. They’d sat next to each other at the staff meeting but hadn’t crossed paths the rest of the week. “You survive your first week?”
Via sat up. “Define survive.”
Sadie laughed. “Sounds about right. First year’s the hardest. Although, this is my third, and I’m still waiting for the easy part.”
Via nodded and started packing up her bag.
“So listen, some of us do this happy hour thing on Friday afternoons. Any chance you’d wanna join?”
Via’s heart leaped and she couldn’t help but feel like that middle school foster kid again. Equal parts eager and terrified at any invitation. She swallowed, keeping her seesaw of emotions off her face. “That sounds great.”
“Oh good!” Sadie clapped her ringed fingers together and shook back her chin-length red hair. “We just walk to that bar one avenue over, Cider. You know it?”
“Sure, it’s got the steel pumpkin on the sign.”
“Right. They keep a table for us on Fridays.”
“Do they have food? I was just considering gnawing off the corner of my desk.”
Sadie laughed, although Via had barely been making a joke. Former foster kids took snacks very seriously. “They’ve got a turkey sandwich that’ll get you face-to-face with your maker.”
“Is that a good or bad thing?”
Sadie laughed again. “Come and find out.”
“Can significant others join?” Via asked as she slung her bag over her shoulder and followed Sadie out of the office.
“Oh, you’ve got a person?”
Via nodded. “Evan.”
“Man Evan or woman Evan? If I can ask.”
“He’s a man.” Via cocked her head to one side, intrigued by the question.
“I thought I’d check because my girlfriend’s name is Rae, and everybody gets confused. Well, anyways, Evan is definitely invited. Everybody’s been so curious about you, I’m sure they’d love to meet your SO.”
Via ignored the way that piece of information made her stomach clench. She hated being the source of any gossip or in the spotlight. Her first few years in the foster system had been spent scrupulously attempting to camouflage herself in all possible ways. Drama of any kind meant getting shuffled into a different home, a different situation. After three different homes, Via learned that keeping her head down and blending in meant that she got to stay put. Even a decade and a half later, Via found herself shying away from anything that might make her a target for drama or gossip.
But she told herself it was natural for her coworkers to be curious about the new girl. And it wasn’t like Evan was some salacious secret. He was her boyfriend of almost two years. It was normal—NORMAL!—that he’d meet her coworkers.
She and Sadie chatted on the walk over to the bar and Via realized that they were some of the last people to arrive. She and Sadie slid into the last two available seats. The bar was funky and dark. It had the typical Brooklyn gimmick to make it memorable and patently Instagramable. In this case, the gimmick was an entire wall filled with slowly creaking gears. Mumford & Sons played over the speakers and a waiter in an old-timey cap completed the look.
Via was mildly surprised to see who’d shown up. Sadie had said happy hour, and Via had automatically pictured all the younger members of the staff. But Shelly, the middle-aged librarian, was there; Becky, the older fifth-grade teacher; and Jim, one of the older fourth-grade teachers was there as well.
On Via’s other side was one of the second-grade teachers Via didn’t know very well.
“Cat Foster,” the woman reintroduced herself. She was probably midthirties, had some gray in her curly brown hair and wore a large, artsy wedding band on her left hand. “How was your first week?”
Almost everyone had asked that same question. “Good. Busy. Lots of things to get in order before I can run the position the way I want to, but, you know, good.”
“The last person in your position wasn’t exactly...organized.”
“I noticed,” Via said dryly. She bit her lip for a second. That hadn’t been the most professional thing to say, but the woman had left her about two hundred disorderly files, some of which were on students who didn’t even attend the school anymore.
Cat laughed. “Well, that’s public school for you. You’ve got the people who join up to make a difference—” she tipped her beer toward Sadie “—and you’ve got the people who join up in order to do the least amount of work possible while still getting the health insurance.” She tipped her beer back, as if into the past, to indicate the person who’d had Via’s job before her.
“How’s your class this year?” Sadie leaned around Via to ask Cat.
Cat dropped her head back and made the sound of angels singing in a chorus. “A-ma-zing. It helps that there’s only twenty-two of them. Last year I had twenty-eight,” she told Via as an aside. “But they’re also just a really good group.”
“I’m so jealous that you have Joy and Matty. Those two are the best. I almost considered moving up with that class, just so I could have them another year.”
Via’s ears perked up. “Matty Dorner?”
“Yup,” Cat answered. “And Joy Choi is his best friend. They’re the cutest. Utterly inseparable and so sweet with each other.” She placed a hand over her heart and rolled her eyes backward. “I love them.”
“I had Matty in pre-K. He’s such a great kid. So creative and smart. Always making little presents for everybody.”
Suddenly, Via was very aware of Sadie’s and Cat’s eyes on her like laser beams. She tried not to shift uncomfortably.
“So then,” Sadie replied, “you’re familiar with the fabulous Mr. Dorner.”
“Oh sure. I had Matty for a year, so we knew each other a bit.” A very little bit. Via had watched him go from disheveled, barely aware, grief-stricken dad to vaguely aware, semi-put-together, grief-stricken dad. She couldn’t exactly wax poetic on the man. Via studied the giddy energy coming off the two women.
“So, what’s his deal?” Cat asked, leaning closer, her elbow on the table and her temple leaning on one fist.
Oh. The pieces clicked into place. They were interested in Mr. Dorner gossip. She looked back and forth between Cat and Sadie. The flush in both of their cheeks and their wide eyes. Yet another piece clicked into place. They were attracted to him.
Huh.
He wasn’t Via’s type at all, so she hadn’t particularly noticed. She liked tall and lean. Dark hair and dark eyes. Like Evan. She was attracted to pretty men. And Sebastian was definitely...not pretty. His features were blunt and wide, almost plain, except for those light gray eyes. Even with his short, trimmed hair, he looked vaguely mountain mannish.
She looked back at the flushed faces of her colleagues. Well. To each their own.
“I don’t know much about him, really. Just that he’s a good dad.” She’d seen plenty of proof of that, especially toward the end of the year when he’d started to get his act together. She couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been after losing his wife. She’d gotten the impression that he’d been learning fatherhood from scratch. And he’d done well, in her opinion. Better than a lot of dads she’d had in the class. Of course, Via didn’t say a word of that out loud to Sadie and Cat.
“Does he date?” Cat asked, leaning forward a little more.
&n
bsp; “Cat!” Sadie laughed. “What do you care? You’ve been married for a decade.”
“Morbid curiosity. And no curiosity-killed-the-cat jokes.” She pointed between them. “Just because I can’t buy doesn’t mean I can’t window-shop.”
“I honestly have no idea if he dates or not. I didn’t know him very well back then, and I’ve only run into him a time or two since.”
“Damn.” Sadie leaned back. “I really want some deets on that guy. I could never crack the egg when Matty was in my class.”
“And what do you care?” Cat leaned over and asked. “You’re engaged yourself.”
Via caught sight of a pretty engagement ring on Sadie’s hand that she hadn’t noticed before.
“I might be engaged, but I’m not dead. A Thor look-alike has universal appeal.”
Via laughed along with the women. Maybe this job wasn’t going to be quite as professional as she’d thought. And honestly, she didn’t mind one bit.
CHAPTER FOUR
SEBASTIAN TRUDGED UP the stairs of his front porch, swinging his house keys on one finger and sighing deeply. He’d done it. He’d gone on a date, and he’d kissed a woman who wasn’t his wife.
It had been...fine. Emma was pretty and smart, and it wasn’t her fault if Seb’s rhythm had been off the entire night. Majorly off. Like, laughing-at-everything-she-said-because-he-couldn’t-tell-what-was-a-joke kind of off. Honestly, he’d been pretty surprised when she’d kissed him outside the subway entrance. He would have preferred to take her all the way home, but in New York City dating language, getting on the train with someone was the same as inviting yourself upstairs for a cup of coffee. He’d tried to get a cab for her, but she’d insisted she was a big girl who could ride the train at 9:00 at night.
