Schooled (11 page)

Leo was still trying to explain himself while I was lost in my reverie. “The girls were moping by the pool. I told them that I’d watch them.” He tried to explain, a little of guilt on his face. “I was a certified lifeguard. I figured that’d be fine.” He said apologetically. “I should’ve asked first. I’m sorry. It musta scared you.” He walked over to me dripping wet, without a towel.

I handed him my towel. “It’s okay, Leo, really,” I said. Looking at Carlee and Kara, “Girls, I’m not mad; you should’ve just checked with me first. Lunch is ready.” I walked back in to the poolhouse, my house, and got the food and smoothies.

Returning to the patio, I saw that the girls were sitting at the table, wrapped in towels, remorsefully awaiting their lunches. Glancing down at the tray, I was shocked to see that I’d made four of everything. I had four sandwiches, four smoothies, and four fruit cups. Did I make four of everything out of habit, counting Marcus? Or had I just absently included Leo in our lunch plans, hoping he’d join us? It wasn’t typical for Marcus to join the girls and me or all the kids and me for a day of fun. He always considered a day that I was with my nieces and nephews as a day he could golf or go to some sports bar with his buddies. I knew why I’d made enough for Leo to join us. It wasn’t rocket science; I liked his company.

“Hey Leo, you hungry? There’s plenty.” I called to him nonchalantly, putting all the food out on the table.

“I thought you’d never ask. Starving. Where’s everyone else’s?” he asked as he pretended to put all the food in front of himself, acting like a ravenous monster eating up the food. The girls laughed and tried to steal their food back from him.

“Enough you three,” I said, emphasizing the word three. “There’ll be plenty of play time for you kids once you eat your lunch.” He really was cute with the girls.

“Yes Ma’am,” they all grumbled. Leo looked over at me, smiling with a glint of humor in his eye. He winked at me and chuckled. Those dimples were adorable.

After lunch, the girls and Leo cleaned up the plates and cups, bringing everything back to the poolhouse. He insisted that I not lift a finger, since I made the entire lunch and since they’d given me quite a scare. I couldn’t argue with that logic. I sat back on the chaise and watched as the girls were captivated by Leo, obeying his every order. They were only six-years-old, but were entranced by him; it was as if Justin Bieber himself were helping them clean up.

Once I doused the girls in another gallon of sunscreen, they dove into the water, begging Leo to join them. He told them that he still had a lot of landscaping to finish, but did enjoy his afternoon with them. They were relentless, not giving up that easily. Finally, he caved and said, “I’ll play if your aunt will join us too.” That was all it took.

The girls leaped out of the pool, attempting to drag me into the water. I didn’t budge, wouldn’t budge. “Help us Leo, Aunt Janelle’s too heavy,” they begged.

Seconds later, Leo hoisted me into his arms and jumped into the pool, holding me like a bride on her wedding night. We splashed into the water. I was laughing and sputtering; it wasn’t a graceful water entrance. I’d gotten water up my nose and in my mouth. I splashed and kicked at him. “You jerk; you could’ve warned me. I still have my watch on.” I hit his arm.

“Ohhhh, I didn’t know; did I ruin it?” He was reaching for my wrist.

I jumped up on his shoulders, trying to dunk him, “Nah, it’s waterproof. What the heck? Go under!” I was pushing with all my might; he wouldn’t move.

He laughed, “Are you trying to do something here?” he jabbed. Frustrated, I was still trying to trip him to sink him in the water. “Are you trying to do this?” He grabbed me, lifted me with ease, and threw me through the air. I hadn’t been thrown in a pool since I was the girls’ age. It was fun, really fun. Ahh, to be young again. Coming up for air, I was laughing, happily.

The girls were yelling and clapping. I motioned for the girls to throw their bucket to me and to come help. They grabbed the bucket, chucked it at me, and jumped in right by Leo. We were all splashing , dumping bucketfuls of water on him, at him.

Leo, being a good sport, but feigning anger, stole the bucket, threw it poolside, grabbed my wrists, wrapped his arms around me, and pinned my hands to my back. His body pressed against me, his arms tightly securing me. We were laughing uncontrollably as he dunked me backwards, pulling me immediately back up. He gave me a few seconds of breath, before dipping me back under the water. Coming back out of the water the second time, I gasped for air, coughing a bit.

Leo let one of my arms free and wiped the water from my face. “You okay?” he asked with concern in his eyes, his smile fading, and his dimples disappearing. He was holding me so close, looking at me as though I was fragile, breakable. My breath caught; I licked my lips.

“Uh Janelle, where are my girls?” Jocelyn was standing by the pool’s steps, hands on her hips, questioning me about more things than just her girls. There was a question of “what’s really going on here?” on her face. At that moment, I saw the girls out of the corner of my eye; I distracted Leo by motioning him towards the ladder to get out. The girls came running out of the bushes with the hose, blasting Leo right in the face with ice cold, hose water. He charged at the girls, taking each one under each of his arms, kicking and screaming, as he jumped back in the water. The girls resurfaced with giggles and delight.

Jocelyn cut the fun short; she needed to get going. The boys needed picked up from their soccer camp. The girls made Leo promise profusely that he’d be there again to play with them. Reluctantly, they gathered their stuff and left with Jocelyn, leaving Leo and I alone. Suddenly, I felt nervous, apprehensive about what was to come.

“Did I ever tell you about the time my parents were gonna call the school and complain about you?” He asked as he gathered towels and bottles of sunscreen.

“Ummm NO! About what? What I do?” I was floored; parents never complained about me. I was the coveted and glorified teacher. Parents begged guidance counselors to put their kids in my classes. This was definitely news to me.

Leo sat down on the top step of the pool, leaning back on the stairs’ handrail. He looked young with his hair wet, his damp skin glistening in the sunlight. Well, he was young. “Remember the time you told us that you didn’t really listen to music and everyone in the class went ballistic and asked what you did in the car then?” I got that same question every year in class. Teenagers just couldn’t understand that everyone didn’t blast music at eardrum-breaking decibels while cruising down the street.

“Well, you said, ‘I either talk on my cell or listen to Howard Stern.” Which was the truth, I never did anything else. “That Christmas, I asked my parents for a subscription to Sirius satellite radio. I wanted Howard too.” Everyone should get to start their days with Howard Stern. Howard was my happy wake up; he was better than Starbucks in the morning. Unless of course Eric the Midget/Eric the Actor was on, then I just wanted to blow up my radio. Man, that guy could ruin my entire day. “My parents were pissed; they said that you condoning Howard Stern was a bad influence on me.” I couldn’t believe I was just hearing about this.

“But I never TOLD you to get Howard Stern; I never even talked about what he said or did on the radio. I just said that’s what I did instead of listening to music.” I was freaking out. I didn’t want the Clings to think that I was trying to persuade my students to partake in deviant behavior; Howard was a radio comedian in my opinion. I loved him.

“I know, I know. Relax. I convinced them to leave it alone,” his voice softened as he tried to ease my concern. “I didn’t get Sirius back then; they wouldn’t hear of it. I have it now though; it’s good stuff.” He was smiling at me, but I felt awful. I hated that I caused friction in his family and that his parents thought that I was a bad influence. I didn’t want parents to think poorly of me. Maybe I should stop hanging out with my hot, young male students then.
Former students
.

I sat down next do Leo on the other side of the handrail, “So, do they hate me now?” I felt like such a loser.

“No, they like that I’m doing work for you now; they still show all of their friends that scrapbook you made us do.” Leo picked up the water in his hands and squirted it out of his fist. “They ended up thinking you were pretty cool, just like everyone does.” He wasn’t looking at me, just staring down at his hands, watching the water fly through the air. .

“Well that’s good; I guess I redeemed myself at some point, right?” I said. He was so easy to talk to; I felt like we’d been friends since childhood.

“I remember when I first thought that you were the cutest teacher on Earth.” He revealed.

I cut him off, “If you say one word about my baby costume…”

Leo laughed, “Oh no, that costume is when I decided I needed to start studying the female anatomy.” A look of raw animal lust crossed his face. “Man, I knew as soon as I saw you in that getup that I had to know exactly how and what to do if I ever got the chance to unzip it.” His look was faraway and reminiscent. “I studied my ass off. Kelsey never even evoked that kind of reaction from me. ” He spoke so matter-of-factly.

“Leo!” I shrieked. I couldn’t believe Leo Cling of all people just said something like that to me.

“What? You can’t fault me for that. It was so…so…I don’t know, crazy sexy.” He didn’t look embarrassed or nervous saying that to me at all. I wondered why. “Miss Garrity, it’s all anyone talked about, guys that is,” he said. Turning toward me, he looked perplexed, “That’s what I couldn’t figure out. Girls knew we were talking about how hot it was, but every time they get chances to wear costumes, they dress like trashy whores. I never got that.” He looked truly baffled as he sat there shaking his head in disbelief. “I still don’t get it,” he said. Leo was smarter than most boys, men, I talked to. He had wisdom that was refreshing and pensive at the same time.

“Okay, remind me that if I ever find that costume in my boxes of junk to shred it and then burn the pile to ashes.” I shook my head, defeated.

“I’ll pay you 500 bucks for it.” He laughed. “Anyway, remember when we were doing
Macbeth
?” he asked. How could I forget? It’s the worst part of the senior curriculum. They say that Shakespeare is timeless, but try telling that to teenagers in 2012, while they sit deciphering archaic language simultaneously. It’s a freaking nightmare. “You must’ve told us a hundred times that you were only a few steps ahead of us, because it was not only the first time you’d taught it, but the first time you actually read it too.” It was. I had no idea what I was doing.

“I remember.” I groaned. I butchered my
Macbeth
lessons that year. It’s a wonder I didn’t get fired after that unit; I had no idea what I was talking about.

“We got to that part when Lady Macbeth says those lines about ‘given suck’ and some kid asked how she knew what that felt like to nurse a baby if they didn’t have kids.” He laughed, amused. Man, seniors were idiots; they couldn’t just leave things alone.

Leo continued, “You didn’t know. You spent almost the entire week trying to figure it out.” He said, with a look of amazement on his face. “You asked all the other English teachers; they didn’t know.” He laughed. “You then called one of your college professors from Ohio State to get the answer. Remember?” He seemed in awe retelling the story.

Oh, I remembered. I was such an idiot back then. Leo was referring to Act I Scene vii, when Lady Macbeth says:

I have given suck, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

Lady Macbeth was basically trying to persuade her husband to keep a promise he made to her, by guilting him in to doing so. Isn’t that what all wives want anyway? To ensure that their husbands keep their promises, their vows? Well, in her case, she was a power-hungry bitch who wanted her husband to kill the King for her, but that’s beside the point.

Anyway, nobody cared about Macbeth, probably hadn’t in the last century, but I had to teach it. Well, I had just explained to my students that Macbeth was destined to never have children, and some smartass kid said, “Who was she breast-feeding then?” I had no freaking idea. I was new, wanted to educate my students, educate myself. So, I spent nearly forever trying to figure it out. Instead of just telling the kid to read and move on, I wanted to find out for him. The only remotely valid answer I ever got was, “Historians believed that Lady Macbeth was married and mothered children before marrying Macbeth.” What the heck kind of answer was that and where were these previous kids in the play? I had no idea.

“I loved how passionate you got about finding the answer for us. Most teachers would’ve said that it didn’t matter, but you didn’t give up. It was cool,” he said. Then surprising me entirely, he said, “I also liked hearing you say ‘nipples’ all the time.” He laughed. I kicked water at him. “Hey, I was 17; my hot teacher was saying ‘nipples,” he explained. One thing that I have learned for sure in the last few weeks is that I had no idea how little it took to turn on 17-year-old boys. And here, I just thought I was teaching English.

It was starting to get late; I told Jasper that I’d cook dinner at his house for him. He had things he wanted to talk to me about. I explained to Leo that I needed to get a shower and go to the “main house.” We both laughed at “main house”; he needed to get going too. He’d wasted an entire day playing in the pool, instead of doing the landscaping for Jasper. Jasper would be pissed, but I’d handle him.

Leo got out of the pool first, grabbing a towel for me, holding it out like a parent holds a towel for their child when the kid gets out of the water. I hesitated momentarily, and then walked into the cloth as Leo wrapped the towel and his strong arms around me. My arms were pinned against my sides, trapped inside the towel. I was afraid to look up, into his eyes, at those cherubic dimples. I paused, then slowly looked up at him. He rubbed my arms, up and down my arms and shoulders, drying me off and staring at me the entire time. He asked if I was warm enough; I nodded, licking my lips, not taking my eyes from him. I waited.