004

The glare diminished, but only slightly. "Yeah, I remember."

"Alright. I want you to head down to my office, and we'll talk about this, and figure out the next step. I need a minute with Mr. Canon first, though, okay?"

With one final withering look at me, Taylor pivoted and flounced out of the room. Was that a smirk I had caught on her lips? Maybe. After all, she had engineered a way to ditch the seventh period.

I had to hand it to her, Louisa Barbour was a heck of a smooth operator when it came to de-escalating situations. We had all seen the videos of uniformed brutes body-slamming mouthy preteens, but our Louisa was a genuine asset. This wasn't the first time I had seen her work her magic, but it was the first time it had been done to rescue me. Only a couple of years out of the academy, but she had a hell of a great head on her shoulders.

"Thanks, Louisa. I have no idea how things went sideways like that. She's been in a heck of a mood today - I caught her cheating, and she made me prove it in front of the whole class. Must have really set her off."

She laughed and took a seat atop a student desk near me. I rebuked my students for doing that, but she had earned the right. "You'd think for someone who cheats as often as she does, she'd be better at it. So much for practice makes perfect, right?"

"Evidently. Man. Really, you were great with her. Though I suppose you and Taylor have had plenty of one-on-one time, eh?"

"That's for sure. The girl spends enough time in my office; I think my girlfriend's starting to get jealous." I laughed. Her relationship with the new social studies teacher had been a source of quite a bit of gossip when it started last fall, but by now, it was old news. "And don't worry about the scuffle, okay? I'll make sure it's clear in the report that you didn't initiate anything."

"Thanks. Thanks again, I guess. I can't believe she pounced on me like that. I had no idea how to react. I mean, what's a guy supposed to do?"

"Panic, probably?" Louisa shrugged. "It's different for you guys. You're not supposed to have to deal with that stuff. I don't even know what I'm going to do with her for this. Under a month to graduation, and she probably got herself expelled for assaulting a faculty member over some fucking chapstick."

"We could always go old school and put her in the stocks," I joked. But it was a half-hearted thing. I may not like Taylor, but I knew well enough what kind of future she had in store for her in a town like this with no diploma. Bye-bye income. Bye-bye opportunities. Maybe she could put that body to use at Jumping Jack's, the strip club over on East Jefferson. I drove past it twice a day.

"You know, just the other day I was reading one of the magazines they send us. You know, all this ridiculous army surplus stuff and toys for departments with money to burn. I don't even know why they sent it to me. Anyway, I read about this new riot suppressor they got. It's more humane than tear gas and sucks the fight right out of them. No joke, the first thing I thought of was our girl there. Maybe we could order a few dozen gallons of the stuff and see if Taylor could actually make it to graduation."

We shared a chuckle. "With the way my second period has been lately, it just might be the way to go."

"I'll send you the article." Louisa stood up, her grin shifting from mirth to commiseration, and she patted my shoulder. "Are you okay? It might not be a bad idea to see the nurse. Sometimes even a little mild action like that can put you through the ringer. It's hell on your nerves."

"Thanks, but I think I'll be okay, Louisa."

"Don't mention it. All right, no more stalling, Barbour. Let's do this." The trained officer took a deep breath, bracing herself for another encounter, and then she was gone.

Sure enough, as I left the school a couple of hours later, there was a scrap torn out of a magazine in my mailbox with a post-it from Louisa. "Discount on bulk?" it read, with a winky face next to it. Beneath was a picture of a spray bottle, white with a red print. Serenex.

"Say goodbye to unrest," read the bold letters at the start of the pitch beneath.

I was in early on Monday. Early enough that I'd been sitting in the mailroom for close to an hour when Officer Barbour arrived. She was wearing her usual uniform and even had a spring in her step.

"Morning, Louisa."

"Good morning, Mr. Canon. How are we today?"

Did she not know my first name, or was she always that formal? We knew each other only professionally, so I honestly wasn't sure. "Doing all right, but the week is young. Say, about that whole mess Friday... have you already filed the paperwork on that?"

The spring promptly disappeared, her feet anchoring in place at the mere reference to Taylor Stern. "Not quite. By the time I could get her parents to come to pick her up, it was going on five, so I figured I'd finish it up this morning. Why, did she start something else over the weekend? I swear if that girl starts cyberbullying another faculty member..."

"Huh? No, no, nothing like that. I was only wondering if, maybe, we could give her one last chance."

Louisa grimaced. "Gee, I don't know about that. Accosting a teacher like that... that's crossing a big line. I can fudge the little stuff, but that's a tall order."

"I know. But I was thinking maybe she and I can work something out. I feel like I owe it to myself to give it one last shot. Some good karma going into the summer months, you know?"

"I'm really not supposed to let things like that slide, you know..."