Chapter 36 – Unexpected Intervention – Erica Henson

I walked in on what looked like a very emotional conversation between Ms. Logan and Holly Hayfield. Ms. Logan was crying into Holly’s chest in a way that felt reminiscent of adolescence. Holly had her arms caringly wrapped around Ms. Logan, completing this mother-child image. As I walked inside Ms. Logan didn’t even acknowledge me. She was too forgone in her sorrows to turn her head my direction. Holly on the other hand faced me promptly.

“Holly…?” I asked, “What are you doing here?”

Holly was slow to respond. Either she was brainstorming some phony response or she was too focused on Ms. Logan to respond quickly. It was impossible to tell with her. On the surface Holly seemed simplistic. However, after my last conversation with her I learned that was a cover. Beneath the surface she was intelligent and sly, a dangerous combination.

“Oh, Erica… I wasn’t expecting you.” She said casually, “I was just giving Ms. Logan some counseling. We all need a little support now and then. I came to help her out today.”

“That’s funny because I wasn’t expecting you here either. I thought it was going to just be me and Jay.” I said.

“Holly volunteered to help me out.” Jay said, “I wasn’t told you’d be joining me.”

“Ms. Sampson scheduled me to join you just a couple of hours ago.” I said.

“It’s okay.” Holly said, “The more the merrier. Can you help finish cleaning off the desk? Once it’s done we’ll get right into grading homework.”

“Sure…” I said.

I wasn’t sure how to take this. Jackie had received multiple complaints from Ms. Logan all day about how she was shorthanded and how Jackie needed to send help. Ms. Logan did this on a daily basis like clockwork. She represented a routine headache for Jackie. I had to put up with listening to her complain about Ms. Logan regularly. The two didn’t seem to be on the best of terms yet Jackie always caved to Ms. Logan’s demands.

The strange thing was that Holly was volunteering to offer Ms. Logan counseling. Normally everyone avoided contact with Ms. Logan whenever possible. She was known for randomly lashing out at people within her proximity. Holly might’ve been more genuinely caring than I initially gave her credit for. I knew she was compassionate by the way she handled Val, but I didn’t know that those tendencies extended even to the school staff.

As for Ms. Logan finding comfort in Holly’s counseling, that part wasn’t that hard to believe. Jackie would always tell me what a pathetic train wreck of a human being Ms. Logan was. Jackie would always stress how isolated Ms. Logan was even in her non-professional life. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was constantly battling depression from her loneliness. It was no surprise that Ms. Logan would jump at the hand of the first person to offer her affection.

The only problem I had with this image was why it had to be Holly. Was it just coincidence that she was here with Jay? I thought about the school’s official counselor for a moment, Mrs. Douglass. Mrs. Douglass was an unpleasant old kook that was so judgmental that it was impossible to talk to her about anything. Mrs. Douglass was from a much older generation of women that were more prim and proper. She treated every student at this school with visible contempt.

When I thought about it like that then I supposed Holly’s appearance here wasn’t too odd. She was still busy comforting Ms. Logan as I cleaned up. They weren’t talking anymore. Ms. Logan was just continuing to cling onto Holly like a monkey. She was just being spoiled now.

“Okay, looks like I’m about done cleaning the desk area now.” I said. “How about we move on to the homework now?”

“Sure.” Holly said, “I’m ready for that.”

Jay was on the other side of the room cleaning. She came over when she heard me talking about the homework. The only person not ready was Ms. Logan herself. She didn’t want to leave Holly’s side. This was sad, in a way. I had never seen an adult so down in the dumps like this.

“Do you need a few more minutes to rest Ms. Logan?” Holly asked nicely, “You must have a lot on your mind.”

“I do!” Ms. Logan responded quickly. “Please, let’s stay like this just for a few more minutes.”

That was annoying. Holly was just letting this grown woman burden her with melancholy and despair. This was unacceptable even at a school like this. If I were in Holly’s shoes I’d force Ms. Logan to snap back into action. Holly was incredibly patient, that much was for sure. Holly pointed out some of the previously sorted papers on Ms. Logan’s desk.

Jay and I got to work grading the papers on Ms. Logan’s desk. The answer sheets were all in Ms. Logan’s handwriting which made them unbearably difficult to read. Ms. Logan herself was still out of commission so Jay and I were forced to make due. We had to make our own answer sheet in the areas that Ms. Logan’s was lacking. Luckily Jay and I were high up on the academic chart so this wasn’t a huge problem. Still, it would’ve been nice to have help from the smartest girl in school that happened to be sitting next to us.

On the other hand I had to thank Holly for keeping Ms. Logan ‘sedated’ for long enough to work without interruption. Normally right about this time she’d be pointing out my mistakes and ranting about Ms. Sampson not sending her good helpers. I had never seen Ms. Logan act so reserved up until now. Maybe all she really needed was a good damn hug. That just made me pity this sad soul even more.

We finished grading the homework without a minute to spare. The final school bell rang shortly as we finished stacking the last papers into Ms. Logan’s completed homework cabinet folder. Ms. Logan was glued to Holly the entire time but once the bell rang Holly pulled herself away. This was to Miss Logan’s dismay, of course. Holly distracted Ms. Logan by pointing towards the cabinet folder.

“You’re all caught up now. You’ll be able to relax and take things easy once you get home.”

Ms. Logan looked over and nodded in approval.

“That’s all thanks to the help you three gave me today. Thank you very much.” Ms. Logan said.

She was still being unusually docile. Normally she didn’t thank me at all and just sent me on my way.

“You’re welcome.” I said.

Jay muttered some uninterested response. Jay was the first one to get up and start walking away. I cautiously followed Jay’s lead, wondering if Ms. Logan would have a change of heart. As Holly got up to leave, Ms. Logan held her by the arm.

“Wait! Holly! Can you come back tomorrow?” She asked.

“If you need me just give the office a call. I’ll come to help out.” Holly said.

“Thank you!” Ms. Logan said, “I may call for you soon!”

“Goodbye.” Holly said.

Holly followed behind me as we left the classroom. I walked out of the room ahead of her as she turned back to close the door gently. When the door was shut she looked back at me with her award-worthy full-teeth smile and began to walk away. Now obviously I was annoyed by her nonchalant behavior. She was just going to walk away like nothing happened without as much as a word? I grabbed her by the hand before she could get any further.

“What’s up?” She asked like nothing at all was up.

“Don’t ‘what’s up’ me. I want to know what that was about.”

“About what?” She asked.

Now this was just plain infuriating.

“You’re playing dumb! I want to know what the hell was going on between you and Ms. Logan.”

“Like I said, I was just giving her a little…”

“Counseling, yeah, I know. What I want to know is why? Why are you down here in the history hallway instead of in your homeroom study hall.”

She stopped trying to get away and turned to face me. I let her hand go once it was clear she’d cooperate.

“Don’t you feel sorry for her?” Holly asked. “Ms. Logan is always down in the dumps. It’s really such a shame that everyone treats her so poorly. It makes me reflect on the way I regarded her in the past. I want to try to make her feel loved. Someone in her life should.”

Was this a shtick or was Holly serious? She wasn’t wrong to be concerned for her, but honestly what could a student do for her?

“You’re wasting your breath.” I said. “She’s on an assortment variety of pills half the time, and the other half she’s off her rocker. There’s nothing you can do for her that hasn’t been tried. Her problems are probably deeply personal and psychological in nature.”

“Does that mean we can’t show her empathy?” Holly asked flatly.

“It means that her problems are her problems alone. You shouldn’t try to intervene without knowing what you’re doing. You’ll only end up causing more damage in the long run.”

Holly smirked.

“You mean like your problem with Val?” She asked.

That was a punch to the gut. I didn’t expect her to turn my own words on me like that. I put my hands on her shoulders and shook her.

“No! We have a deal! You promised to help me talk to Val.”

“You said that you’d drop out of the presidential race.”

“I’m not dropping out until you fulfill your end of the bargain. How are you coming along with a plan for Val to talk to me? Has she said anything about me?”

“The only things she’s told me about you are pretty negative.”

“That’s obvious. What else did she say? Does she want to try talking to me too?”

“If she wanted to try talking to you herself then we wouldn’t need a plan now would we?” Holly said.

She wasn’t wrong but it was aggravating to hear when she put it like that. She brushed my hands away from her shoulders.

“Relax Erica,” She said, “I’m going to make this conversation between the two of you happen. These things take a bit of poise and patience.”

“You’d better, or else I’m not dropping out of the race. I’ll split the vote and that stupid little prima donna Megan Schwinn will end up winning and neither of us wants that.”

“I’m still looking for the right opportunity.” Holly said, “When I find it I’ll let you know. When that time comes you need to drop out of the race. Elsewise you’ll never have a real conversation with her again.”

She turned her back on me and left me there to think about that alone.

Now that school was over Jackie would probably be in her office attending to the grievances of the staff. That usually went on for an hour or so before we went home together. Of course, I always had to meet her off campus to facilitate that arrangement. More recently we started going home together without the façade. Jackie was starting to care less and less about what others thought about her. I couldn’t say if that was for the better or worse.

One teacher questioned us on it while I was helping out in Jackie’s office recently. She noticed me get into Jackie’s car day after day and was wondering why Jackie was showing me such preferential treatment. Jackie explained that my parents were always busy and that she couldn’t just leave me to walk all the way home by my lonesome. It was bullshit of course, but the teacher bought it or at least didn’t care enough to ask further. It was probably the latter knowing the teacher in question.

So often times like this I had extra time after school. My favorite pastime in this situation was to head over to the newspaper club. The newspaper club was hardly a club at all considering it only had one permanent member. To top that off, the school newspaper wasn’t even in print any longer. Zoe focused all her attention on the stupid school website that she loved so much. I never had the heart to tell her how gaudy I thought it looked. In her heart of hearts she probably knew how coldly I felt about the website.

Zoe was never welcoming towards me, but allowed me to visit anyways. Zoe was never welcoming towards anyone, now that I thought about it. It was amazing that she and Lilith managed to hold the newspaper club together for as long as they did, not that it lasted long. Now the newspaper club was in dire straits. Every time a prospective member would show up to the club Zoe’s brackish attitude would scare them off. People always found her abrasive. I found her refreshingly unrestrained.

“Hey! I’m here again today Zoe!” I said as I came into the newspaper clubroom.

The clubroom was basically just an unused classroom with the extra desks and chairs shoved against one side of the room. The other side was Zoe’s side. There were a handful of computer stations, some scanning and printing equipment, and a few shelves with supplies. Most of the resources Zoe had went unused purely because her precious website didn’t require them. The only thing it did require was a service maintenance fee which Jackie begrudgingly supplied.

“I thought I told you not to come back.” Zoe said without even looking back at me.

She was staring at the school website with a text prompt opened up. I came closer to her to get a better look. She was responding to one of the parents that had a question about the school. Her response was so robotic that she could actually pass as a corporate stooge. Zoe’s helpfulness in situations like these was really the only reason the newspaper club continued to exist. That, and a bit of help from me of course, Jackie wasn’t easy to convince.

“Hmm… Isn’t there a better way to word all of this?” I asked.

I pushed Zoe’s chair away from the table so that I could sit in her lap. I wrapped Zoe’s arms around me and made myself comfortable against her body profile. Zoe immediately disengaged from that hug and leaned back in the chair.

“Hey, don’t you have something better to do than bothering me?” She asked.

I turned in her lap to caress her face with one hand.

“Not really. Besides, I wanted to talk to you.” I said.

She waved my hand away from her face.

“Talk,” She scoffed, “Just like we ‘talked’ last time you were here?”

“Just like that…” I said as I moved closer to her.

She firmly pushed me away and kept my face away from hers.

“I’m done playing your games, Erica. I mean it this time. I’m done. You’re in a serious relationship with that bitch the vice principal and I can’t risk the newspaper club by messing around with you. We were lucky we weren’t busted last time when that rando came in wanting to ask me about the website.”

“I locked the door on my way in.” I said cheekily.

“Great, now I just need to put you on the other side of that locked door.” She said coldly.

I turned back around in her lap.

“Fine, fine, I get it. No flirting. There’s something serious I wanted to talk to you about though.”

“What is it?” She asked like she was already tired of me.

“You and Lilith made an online version of the school yearbooks last year, didn’t you?”

“Don’t mention her name around me. Besides, I was the one that did most the work anyways.”

“How many years back did you two manage to upload?”

“Uhh... I think we only got to around 15 years or so ago before Lilith threw in the towel, typical of her behavior of course.”

“Can you show me the yearbook from ten years ago? I want to see the yearbook that Jackie’s in.”

“I can, but is there any real reason for that? Don’t tell me you just want to see what she looked like when she was younger because I have other things to do.”

“I want to see if Ms. Logan is from that same school year.”

“Why?” She asked curiously.

“I know Jackie’s hiding something from me, and I think Holly was onto something when she was talking to Ms. Logan earlier. She wasn’t there coincidentally. She said she was counseling Ms. Logan but that’s obviously bullshit. Those types of girls aren’t good at lying.”

“Unlike you,” Zoe added unnecessarily.

“The point is that I want to know if Holly was really up to something.”

“Sure, just let me save this message.”

Zoe saved the message in question and then went to a different part of the website. The file directory that contained the yearbooks had download links for each yearbook in the form of PDFs. The yearbook Zoe opened was the one from about ten years ago when Jackie was still a high school student. Each of the yearbooks had a complete directory of their student enrollment in the back of the book. I pointed out a name in the yearbook.

“That’s it! Abigail Emily Logan! Holly really was up to something.”