Twins for the Teacher

Jolie smiled. “You are both very welcome. Thanks for the copies, Beth,” she told the secretary before leaving the office.

“And here are copies of your paperwork, and our school handbook,” the secretary told Hank, handing him a folder. “Do you want to put anything in their lunch accounts?”

He hadn’t thought that far ahead, but figured buying their lunches from the school cafeteria might help them fit in better. He also knew he wouldn’t have time to pack brownbag lunches, although he could probably have one of the hotel chefs whip something up.

“Sure,” he said, taking out his checkbook. He wrote a check for one hundred dollars, putting fifty into each account. That should cover the rest of the school year.

Afterward, he ushered the twins out the school doors and back to the hotel. Deep down, he hoped this relocation worked out and he worried that it wouldn’t. He’d received quite a promotion when he’d been named the Nolter’s manager. The next step up the chain would be running a bigger hotel, like the one in New York or Paris, or even back in Chicago.

As it was, he had hundreds of employees under him, including various day managers, night managers, accountants, human resources personnel, cooks and groundskeepers. Everything at the hotel, in the minds of the brass at corporate headquarters, started and ended with him.

It was a job he’d been working more than twenty years for, ever since he’d graduated from college. The Premier Corporation had fifty hotels scattered all over the world. The company promoted management from within, rarely hiring outsiders over its existing employees.

Despite the opportunities to work abroad, Hank had always requested to be kept stateside because of his wife and children. He’d even turned down a promotion to Seattle after his wife, Amanda, had told him she really didn’t want to leave Chicago and her parents.

Now, five years after her death from ovarian cancer, Hank finally felt strong enough to move forward with his life. He couldn’t put his career aspirations on hold any longer. The Nolter job was the first step in making a fresh start for himself and the twins.

Hank slid his key card into the lock of their suite. He’d taken the four-bedroom suite in the east wing. The main portion of the hotel towered thirty-five stories and offered a fabulous view of Table Rock, one of Missouri’s largest lakes.

The east and west wings of the hotel were fifteen stories tall, and their suite was on the top floor, with a view of both the lake and the golf course.

He glanced at his Rolex, a gift from the company when he’d received the promotion. Almost three. That meant Elsa, who sang in the hotel lounge at night and did child care during the day, would be available to babysit for a few hours. He’d promised the kids they could see a movie tonight, but that didn’t start until seven-thirty. If Hank hurried, he could get his reports done today, instead of waiting until Monday.

“I’M GOING TO GET Ms. Tomlinson for a teacher,” Ethan announced after their father left them yet again with Elsa.

Not that there was anything wrong with Elsa, Alli thought, ignoring her brother’s bold comment. Elsa was pretty nice as babysitters went, not afraid to take them to the indoor water park or get her blond hair wet.

Alli had blond hair, too, and she’d always been a little afraid of the water because Grandmother said the chlorine could make her hair turn green. Now that Alli was ten, she’d learned there were “clarifying” shampoos that kept that from happening.

Alli pressed the controller on the video game she and her brother were playing. She’d wanted to go swimming, but Elsa said their dad was planning on taking them to the movie so they shouldn’t get dirty.

How they would get dirty swimming in a pool was beyond Alli, and she figured that since Elsa was singing tonight she’d probably made it up. But her dad had told them he’d taken the whole day off. Once again, he’d lied.

Alli jutted her chin forward as Ethan’s game character ran across and gathered up two of the gold coins spinning on the screen. “Hey, one of those should be mine,” she protested.

“You should move faster then,” Ethan retorted. Alli bit her lower lip. Ethan got everything. He always said it was because he was born first. Alli didn’t know who’d decided to let her brother arrive before her, but she didn’t like the results one bit.

“I think I’ll play later,” Alli said, getting up off the beanbag chair. She left Ethan’s room, heading to her own. She had to admit that the hotel suite was okay.

She had a huge bedroom, her own bathroom, and she’d been allowed to bring most of her things from Chicago. Dad had even had the staff put a Playstation 3 in both her and Ethan’s rooms, meaning they didn’t have to share if they didn’t want to. Aside from a computer in each of their bedrooms, there was also a family computer with Internet access out in the living area, which was bigger than the family room at their old house. Dad had said they might be able to have a small dog or cat after they were settled for a while. She’d never had a pet. Ethan, of course, wanted a dog, but Alli really wanted a kitten. She’d held one once at the pet store and fallen in love before she’d learned she had to put it back.

Alli flopped on her bed. “I don’t care who I get,” she told herself, thinking about school. She’d prefer Ms. Tomlinson, but Alli was simply happy to be going to school. She loved Grandmother, and Grandmother had taken them to all the museums in Chicago, but Alli was tired of only being around Ethan, not that she wanted to get rid of him or anything.

She liked the idea of being around other kids, even having friends who were girls her own age. And she’d be closer to her grandparents on her dad’s side. Grandpa and Grandma Friesen were much more fun than her mom’s parents.

In Chicago, every Sunday after church, Alli had dressed up in her finest and eaten lunch at some fancy restaurant. For once, she wanted to wear jeans on Sunday. Maybe this move would turn out to be a good thing, after all.

Chapter Two

“So, I heard you and I are each getting a new student,” Carrie Hillhouse said Friday after school as she entered Jolie’s classroom.

“You heard correctly.” Jolie put aside the spelling tests she’d been grading so she could speak with the other fourth-grade teacher.

“Beth said they’ve been homeschooled by their grandmother their whole lives,” Carrie said as she sat down. She glanced at Jolie’s desk. “Ah, spelling. I gave my test yesterday. How are your kids doing?”

Jolie tapped the red pen on the desk once before setting it down. “Not too bad. The few who never study didn’t this time, either. No surprise there. I think they have permanent spring fever. I’ll reteach and retest. That will give Ethan a chance to catch up, anyway.”

“Beth said you gave them a tour?” Carrie asked, toying with her wedding ring. She was young, three years out of college, and already married. She and Jolie had become close friends during the time they’d worked together. Jolie envied her. She’d been in love once, but it hadn’t ended well.

“Yes, I met the father and the kids,” Jolie offered. “They seem like a nice family.” She shrugged, trying to stretch her shoulders. She’d been sitting grading papers for about twenty minutes. “Beth said he’s a widower.”

“Is he cute?” Carrie asked, grinning impishly.

“Never mind that,” Jolie scolded gently. “We have bigger things to worry about.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. With homeschooling they could be anywhere on the social and academic scale.” Carrie voiced Jolie’s unspoken fears. Some parents homeschooled their children and did a better job educating them than the local school district. Others used homeschooling as an excuse to be lazy, and their children were light-years behind other kids their age.

“They seem fine, but we’ll see exactly how much they know once they start attacking the curriculum. I think this is a family that values education.”

“Good.” Carrie’s relief was evident. Even after only a few years’ teaching, she knew how hard it was to toss a new kid into the mix so close to the end of the school year. “So are you and Chad going out this weekend?”

Jolie shook her head. Her love life was starting to become a sore subject. “No. I think this thing with him has fizzled.”

Chad had been Jolie’s on-and-off boyfriend for the past year. She hadn’t heard from him in about a week, probably because they were running out of things to say to each other.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Carrie said.

Jolie sighed. Chad owned a car-repair shop and they’d met when she’d needed new brakes. “Yeah, well, don’t pity me. It’s just a dent in my pretty nonexistent sex life. Not that he was that great, anyway. Heck, sex wasn’t even great during my marriage. I’m in a lifelong dry spell.”

“There’s always the local bars,” Carrie joked. “Or the sex-toy shop.”

Jolie laughed. Trust Carrie to put things into perspective, even if slightly skewed. “Perish the thought. I’m not that desperate yet!”

The women sat for a moment, each in her own thoughts. Then Carrie said, “I don’t know how you do it. I mean that in a good way. I don’t think I could be out there dating again.”

Carrie had married her childhood sweetheart. Neither had ever gone out with anyone else after meeting in eighth grade.

“You just do it,” Jolie said, picking up a stray blue pen and putting it in her desk drawer. “It’s not what I planned for my life, but I’ve learned to take it as it comes. So get home to that guy and consider yourself lucky. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Sounds good. Don’t work too hard.” Carrie rose and left and Jolie finished grading her papers.

PAPERS WERE the bane of a teacher’s existence, Jolie thought the next week while her class was at music. She pushed the stack aside, dreading the phone call she had to make.

“How are you doing?” Carrie asked, taking the chair next to Jolie’s desk. Their plan time overlapped by ten minutes, so Carrie usually popped in after dropping her class off at phys ed.

“Getting ready to make a call,” Jolie said.

Carrie winced. “Ethan?”