Molly's Mr. Wrong

“Maybe you should have let the hot prom guy handle it.”

“Homecoming, not prom. And I’d rather sing opera naked in the park.”

* * *

“YOU SURE YOU don’t want to watch the game with us at McElroy’s Bar?” Karl asked as Finn got ready to leave the store for the evening. “We three could attract the girls and maybe one of them would feel sorry for you.”

“Hard to turn down an offer like that,” Finn said with a grin. “But I’ve got some stuff to catch up on at home.”

From the way Karl and Cal exchanged glances, Finn gathered that Mike had shared his concerns with the boys. Finn had to admit that he’d never turned down an offer to go out in favor of kicking around his house before he’d gone overseas, but he hadn’t had a focus or direction then, either.

“Give me a rain check,” he said. “The guy who sublet my place while I was gone let a few things go to hell, and if I don’t take care of things now, I’ll regret it later.”

“We understand,” Cal said, stepping forward to clap Finn on the upper arm, as if he were about to embark on a perilous journey and making Finn wonder if he’d be better off going with the guys to McElroy’s and letting them attract women for him. It’d get these two off his back, but the truth of the matter was that he wanted to register for classes and before he did that, he wanted to give his cousin Dylan a call.

“Thanks for understanding,” Finn said with a grave nod. He’d have to go out and disgrace himself one of these days to keep Mike from worrying about him.

He grabbed his coat off the peg by the door and headed toward the side exit. Behind him he heard Karl, Cal and Mike shutting down the office in preparation for dinner out followed by the evening game. He was glad his grandfather had good friends, because it was going to make it easier when Finn informed him that he wasn’t going to be with the store forever.

After returning home, Finn signed into his newly created account at Eagle Valley Community College and registered for two evening classes, figuring that would allow him to ease back into school without affecting management of the store. He finished his registration, then got to his feet, feeling a surge of energy. No, make that energy coupled with unexpected anxiety.

What in the hell had he just done?

When he’d walked across the stage wearing his mortarboard twelve years ago, he’d sworn that he’d never subject himself to anything close to a formal classroom again. Yet here he was, wading in.

For a good reason.

He opened a beer, turned on the game and tried to focus, but even though the score was close, he kept going over the pros and cons of his plans for his future. Maybe he should have used the money he had coming due to his military service to dive in with both feet and do a four-year college program instead of a couple of courses at the local community college. That would show commitment. Was signing up for only two classes a wishy-washy approach to his new life?

Finn didn’t do wishy-washy. But on the other hand, he couldn’t just abandon his grandfather on short notice...although he had a feeling that if he did, Mike would wish him Godspeed and hire someone to do his job at a lower salary.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Action erupted on the screen in front of him, the announcers went crazy, and Finn opened his eyes again. His team had pulled ahead. Cool. Karl was probably going nuts because he hated Finn’s team. Finn smiled faintly and took a long drink, wishing he was enjoying the moment more.

Finally he reached for the phone and dialed his cousin’s number. Dylan answered on the first ring.

“I’m going back to school,” he blurted as soon as his cousin had said hello.

“No kidding.” Dylan sounded stunned at his announcement and he didn’t blame him.

“Yeah. I am. I want to become an industrial arts teacher with an emphasis in automotives.” There was a long stretch of silence. “Hello?” Finn finally said.

“Yeah. I’m here. I just thought I heard you say you wanted to be a teacher.”

“Not a real teacher. A shop teacher.”

“Last time I heard, they were real teachers.”

“What I meant was that I want to teach hands-on skills that kids who don’t go to college can use in life.”

“You want to be a teacher.”

“Strange, huh?”

“I gotta say that I never saw this coming. What does Mike think?”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“Why not?”

“I...don’t know.” Fear of failure maybe?

“What school are you going to?”

“The community college let me in. I got official notice last week. I’m only taking two classes. I thought it best to start slow.”

“Definitely. Especially after...uh...” Dylan gave a discreet cough and Finn filled in the blank for him.

“I did crappy in high school?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“I had no reason to do well. Now I do.” And his grades hadn’t been that bad. He’d graduated with a high-C average. He’d actually excelled in math, the only class he’d truly enjoyed. The rest had been more a chore than anything, but again, now that he had a reason to learn, he’d do better.

“I think this is a good idea, Finn.”

That was what Finn had been waiting to hear. Dylan knew school. He knew academics. He knew Finn.

“Maybe I’ll tell Mike, then. I can take math and English in the evening and still work full-time. After that, then we’ll have to work something out.”

“After that, Jolie and I will be back and she can take over your job.” Just the words Finn had hoped to hear.

They talked for a few more minutes about life in Colorado, then Finn hung up feeling a lot more certain about his course of action.

Hell, he was actually kind of excited.

* * *

“I KNOW THIS is a full schedule,” Mary Jean Flannigan, the curriculum director, passed a printout of Molly’s new classes across the desk to her, “but with funding cuts, we’ve all had to pull extra duty.”

“I’m okay with it.” As a new instructor to this school, she’d be stupid not to be okay with it, but the truth of the matter was that she didn’t mind being overloaded, and this schedule didn’t seem that bad. The only addition to the mock-up she’d received the week before was an evening basics class and a composition class run in conjunction with the local high school, which gave the high school participants college credit. Molly was well familiar with the program. She’d had nine college credits by the time she’d graduated from high school, but had never dreamed she’d one day be teaching in the program.

“Let’s see...” Mary Jean flipped through some papers on her desk, then squinted up at the computer screen. “Looks like you’re set. You’ll share an office with Kelsey Cunningham and you have a key to that, so...any questions?”

“Class lists?”

“Will be loaded by the end of the day.”

Molly smiled. “I’m set.”