As Julian walked through the hallway after school, he came across Elden unexpectedly. He paused as he considered turning around and going in the opposite direction, but ultimately kept his head down and walked forward, avoiding eye contact.
"Is that how it's going to be?" Elden asked. "You're just going to pretend like I don't exist anymore?"
"I don't want to start anything with you," Julian insisted.
"I can't believe you're still mad about that lame Halloween party."
"You caused more trouble with that party than you know. My mom is still obsessed with trying to find out who brought in the alcohol."
"And that's why you're not talking to us anymore?" Elden scoffed. "Be real. I didn't see you having a crisis of conscience when I offered you a drink at the party or on any of the other weekends we spent drinking. Are you mad that we got you in trouble with your mommy?" he asked mockingly.
"I'm not in trouble with my mom, because instead of ratting us out, Meghan came up with a cover story and now she's blaming someone else."
"So we're all good," Elden shrugged, not seeing what the problem was. "And Meghan should have covered for us since she was the one who was dumb enough to leave the evidence lying around for your mom to find." Seeing that he struck a nerve, Elden was starting to piece together why Julian was so angry. "Oh, you're not mad about the alcohol, are you? You're mad about Meghan."
"You've all treated her badly since you found out she was a freshman. You only pretended to be nice to her to keep me hanging around and none of you appreciate that she was still ready to lie to protect us."
"I wasn't pretending. Freshman or not, she's totally hot. I wasn't nice to her for your sake, dude," he laughed.
Julian was furious. "Okay, now this is why I've been avoiding you. You're acting like a pig."
"Cause I hit on her?"
"I warned you not to mess with her, man."
Elden broke out into a laugh. "Oh ho, all this time Melanie was right to be jealous of the little stepsister! Don't tell me you've had a thing going on with her on the side all this time? Mad you can't have her all to yourself. Scared I'm horning in on your piece of-."
Pushed to his breaking point, Julian grabbed Elden in a headlock. Elden pushed him away and soon the two boys were tousling in the middle of the hallway.
* * * * *
Alma had been feeling down ever since she found out her current substituting assignment was almost over. As hard as she tried to deny it, of all the things she would miss, the thing she would miss more than anything was working with Mr. Clark. As she went about her day, her mind kept drifting back to him and how much she was going to hate not seeing him every day.
She tried to tell herself that she was being ridiculous. She was a married woman with four children. She shouldn't be having crushes on coworkers, but she couldn't help it. He was so handsome and kind. He really seemed to listen and appreciate her ideas. Whenever she talked, he looked at her so intently as if he were staring into her very soul.
She felt so silly thinking this way. She had never been the type to gush over a man, not even when she was young. She'd been too busy working and taking care of her family, first with her mother and sister and then later with her husband and children, to fuss about the opposite sex. Even when she agreed to marry Edward it was from a desire to have a family rather than because of physical attraction. These were feelings that she was just now experiencing for the first time and it was overwhelming. She was torn.
She walked into play practice late. Mason and Mrs. Neilson were sitting in the front row watching the students go through their rehearsals. Instead of joining them as she had intended, Alma lingered in the doorway and watched Mason from a distance, listening as the students on stage played through a scene where the two romantic leads professed their love.
Alma's heart was pounding in her chest and she felt as if she were outside of herself, living in someone else's life. It was stupid and reckless and she would be throwing her entire life away, but she knew before she left this job, she was going to have to confess how she felt.
As the scene ended, Mrs. Neilson applauded. "That was fantastic. You've been doing some great work this semester. I'm so proud of all of you."
As the students cleared the stage and started to disperse, Mrs. Neilson turned to Mason, "And that goes for you too. You've done a great job with them."
"You'll have to tell that to Alma. She has been a big part of this. I would have been lost without her."
Alma's heart swelled at the praise, more sure than ever that she should take a risk.
"I'm almost sorry that you're coming back," he teased.
She laughed. "If you feel that way, maybe I'll extend my leave. I'm glad I had such a great replacement in my absence."
"You did. Alma's great. She's down to earth and not afraid to speak up when she needs to. She doesn't sugarcoat things, but she's never harsh. She kind of reminds me of my mother, actually," he said with an embarrassed laugh.
Suddenly Alma felt like she couldn't breathe. His mother? She turned and hurried out of the auditorium before they could see her and quickly retreated to her car. How could she have been so foolish and so wrong? She couldn't believe how close she had come to making the biggest mistake of her life.
* * * * *
In Lawrence's home office, Shayna was on the phone with a potential new resident for Arrendale Heights. She had been anticipating their confirmation of acceptance so that they could begin construction on another home, but instead, the news was not what she had hoped.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Ramone, but we've decided not to accept your offer."
"I'm disappointed to hear that. Are you sure? Arrendale Heights is a great neighborhood. It's a safe community associated with the best local schools in the area. What changed your mind?"
"We've been reading some articles in the news recently that have led us to believe this neighborhood isn't for us."
"The recent negative publicity has been unfortunate," she agreed. "But I assure you the actions of one of our younger residents shouldn't sour you on the rest of the neighborhood and isn't a reflection of the rest of our residents. This really is a nice and safe community."
"No, we're not concerned about that. We just don't feel comfortable living in a neighborhood where at any time our family or one of the members of our family could be asked to leave by our neighbors. I'm sorry, but it's just not for us."
Shayna sighed as she hung up after politely ending the phone call. The Carrs had been the perfect candidates, such a good upstanding family that would have been a great addition to the neighborhood. It was going to be hard to find someone worthy of taking their place. She wasn't looking forward to starting the search over again or explaining to Lawrence why they changed their minds.
Before she could decide whether to call Lawrence and let him know now or wait, her cell phone rang. She was surprised to see the call was from the high school.
"Ms. Ramone. We're going to need you to come pick up your son, Julian. He and another student were fighting on school grounds."
"Fighting? Like physically fighting? Julian?" Shayna sputtered, unable to comprehend what she was hearing.
"Yes."
"There must be a misunderstanding."
"We can discuss this more when you get here."
Shayna hung up her phone and grabbed her purse. Nothing was going her way lately.
* * * * *
Jolene looked up from the dining room table where she was helping Lorna with a school project as Shayna stormed out of the office and out of the house without a word. Jolene eyed the office door wondering if this could be her opportunity to look through the file cabinets without being noticed.
"How does it look?" Lorna asked as she held up her paper.
"That looks great," she said encouragingly. "I love it!"
The project was to make a family tree. Jolene listened patiently as Lorna pointed out all of the members of her family. "Do you have any brothers or sisters, Miss Jolene?"
"Just a sister, but she's a lot older than me."
"I wish I had a sister, instead of just brothers."
"Which one would you be willing to trade?" Jolene asked as she spotted Lance eavesdropping from around the corner.
"Neither, I guess," Lorna admitted.
Their conversation was interrupted by the doorbell. Jolene went to open the door expecting to see Shayna back for something she'd forgotten. Instead, she was greeted by a familiar face, one she hadn't seen in a long time.
"Well, look at that," the other woman said. "If it isn't Jolene Parker herself."
With panic in her eyes, Jolene quickly ducked outside and closed the door behind them.
Lance, intrigued, ran out the backdoor to find a better spot to eavesdrop.
"Okay, I can explain," Jolene said as she tried to guide the other woman back to the curb, but she wasn't budging.
"You can?" she asked skeptically. "Because I would be really interested in hearing the explanation for this article," she said taking out a folded newspaper page. "Because I thought it was really interesting that this photo caption says I was at the Arrendale Heights' fall carnival a few months ago, but the woman in the picture looks a lot like my former roommate, Paige."
"I'm sorry, Jolene, but I really needed this job. If they knew my family history, they would have never hired me. Besides you have past childcare experience and good references."
"So you stole my identity?" the real Jolene exclaimed.
"Keep your voice down," the fake Jolene hissed.
"Why? You're afraid of being found out? Why shouldn't I tell everyone that you've been lying and posing as me this whole time?"
"I swear I didn't mean any harm. I wasn't trying to take advantage of you. I wouldn't have done it if I thought it would have any impact on you at all."
"You can't tell me you don't see how this isn't okay. Seriously! You're lucky I didn't go straight to the police station with this."
"I know, I know," she pleaded. "But I promise I only did it so I could get my foot in the door with this job. I swear I'm not using your name for anything else and once I leave here, I'll never, ever do it again."
"I still don't understand why you're doing this now. Why did you need this job so badly that you would steal my identity to get it?"
"I can't explain right now. It's complicated. But if you will let this go and not expose me, I will do or give you literally anything you want. Just name it. Please. I'm begging you."
Jolene seemed conflicted. She was outraged that her former roommate and friend would pose as her without her permission, but she seemed so desperate, she felt like something very serious must be going on.
She shook her head. "I don't know."
"Just think about it, please. Let me meet with you after work and we'll talk more."
"Fine, but I'm not making any promises."
Once the real Jolene was headed back to her car, the fake Jolene hurried into the house and tried to compose herself.
"Who was that?" Lorna asked.
"No one. Just someone looking for directions," the nanny answered quickly before changing the subject. "I think it's time to start cleaning up from your project. We need to get the table cleared before dinner."
As she started to help Lorna clean up, she was startled by the sound of the back door.
When she went to investigate, she found Lance sauntering into the kitchen grinning proudly.
"Oh, I didn't know you were outside," she said casually.
"I was," he continued smiling. "And I heard everything."
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