Page 15 of A Chance at Forever
“Actually, we’ve been friends for so long it’s hard to tell who has corrupted whom,” Jonica pointed out.
Victoria lifted her glass. “To us. And to Jonica’s sangria.”
“Hear, hear.”
The rest of the day passed in pleasant camaraderie. When Steve and Danny came home from work, the couples and Victoria ate dinner together on the patio and swam in the pool with Mark and Stevie. Later, Steve loaded the rose bushes in the Expedition and offered to drive Victoria home when Mark complained he had a stomachache.
“You ate too many cookies,” Mia chided him.
“Your cookies are too good, Mom,” was his snappy comeback.
Steve ruffled his son’s hair. “Go inside with your mom, Mark. C’mon, Tori. Bud! Let’s go!” The dog bounded toward them and jumped into the SUV.
When they arrived at Victoria’s home, she helped Steve carry the potted rose bushes to the backyard, and they set them where the flowers would be planted. Before Steve left, Victoria glanced at her neighbor’s dark and gloomy house.
“It feels so sad,” she remarked. “Do you know who lives there?”
Steve rubbed the back of his sweaty neck. “Well, um, yeah. A teacher…”
Bud barfed all over Steve’s shoes.
“Bud! What in the world! That’s gross.”
Steve laughed and grabbed the garden hose off the spindle attached to the wall of the house. He turned on the spigot and rinsed the doggy vomit off his walking shoes. “No worries, Tori. I can’t tell you how many times the boys have thrown up on me.”
“He doesn’t look too well. I think he must have overdone it today. If you don’t mind, I’ll say good night and take him inside.”
“Not at all.” He turned off the water and replaced the garden hose around the spindle. “Good night, Tori. See you soon. You, too, Bud.”
The dog let out a low whine.
*
With Bud feelingill and content to sleep on Victoria’s bed the next morning, she put the finishing touches on the downstairs bathroom, unpacked her boxes of books and shelved them, and decided to make a trip to Marysville High School in order to scope out the auditorium and her classroom and get materials. Before she left, she checked on Bud, who lifted his head weakly to eye her.
“You’re okay, boy. You had too much excitement and fun yesterday.” She rubbed his belly and his tail thumped a little. “I’m going on an errand, and when I get back, I’ll have a special treat for you.”
He yawned and closed his eyes.
Aside from recent renovations, Marysville High School still looked the same. Wonderful memories of the best years of her life flooded her mind. Pep rallies, football games, pizza on Friday nights, cookouts on the lake, lunchtime antics, and classes with teachers who’d known her and her friends their entire lives, and group dates with Jeff, Steve, Danny, Mia, and Jonica. The guys played various sports and the girls never missed a game.
Taking a deep breath, Victoria entered the twin glass front doors and stepped into her past. There at the desk where she’d spent the last forty years sat the eyes, ears, and voice of Marysville High. Patsy Merriweather. She wore her silver hair perfectly coiffed in a bun at the nape of her neck, no makeup, her typical slacks and blouse, and a white sweater draped around her shoulders and clasped with a delicate chain. Though she remained behind the front desk, Patsy managed to look down her nose at Victoria through her reading glasses attached to a beaded chain.
“Well, Ms. Victoria Lockridge, what do you have to say for yourself? Are you home for good or are you planning to abandon us again?”
“For good, ma’am.”
She rose to her full, imperial height. “All right, then. Follow me.”
CHAPTER 5
Victoria ran herhand lovingly across her old desk in her office backstage in the auditorium. She opened the center drawer and found a photograph stuck in the back. It was a picture of her and her first group of drama students taken on opening night of their performance ofGrease. No successful product line she’d ever created for Lockridge Cosmetics could compare to what she and her kids had accomplished that year.
She replaced the photo and glanced around the office. The bare bookshelves caused righteous indignation to sweep through her. All of her books of plays and scripts were gone. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she whipped out her cell phone and started calling her colleagues in other school districts to beg for any material they were willing to share with her. Then, she marched up to the front office and looked for Mr. Noyes.
When she found him outside in the courtyard, he greeted her with a broad smile and shook her hand. “I’m so happy to have you back, Victoria. What can I do for you?”
“Everything’s gone, Mr. Noyes. My scripts, my books, the flats, and costumes. I can’t even find a paintbrush. I don’t have any material to use with my drama classes. Is there still a budget for the drama department?”
