Changing the Rules (Richter Book 1)(79)

She snorted.

“The district sends me twice a year to different symposiums. It’s like a free vacation.”

“Your idea of a good time is questionable, Coach.” And yet something clicked in the back of her head.

“Well, I don’t teach for the pay, so I’ll take my kicks when I can. Especially if someone else is footing the bill.”

“So you go to a convention where you party with all the other math nerds?” Click, click, click . . .

“Fine, don’t become a teacher. But go to college and become something.”

She had to give the guy kudos for his effort. “Maybe tutoring will change my mind.”

Bennett sighed. “We have a little problem with that.”

Not what she wanted to hear. “Oh?”

“Dunnan doesn’t want to work with you.”

“What?”

“He has to take the time and supervise you tutoring someone before he puts you in rotation. And he’s not convinced you’re worth the time.”

Claire felt that lead slipping away. “You’re the head of the math department, convince him.”

“I’m not his boss.”

“C’mon, Coach. What do I have to do?”

She turned back to the wall of pictures, placed a hand on Marie’s.

Marie’s tears trickled down her beaten face.

Claire felt all the pent-up frustration about to boil over.

She could go to Mr. Green, make the administration take over, but if anyone was watching, they’d know something didn’t add up.

She needed more time.

The team needed more time.

“We might be able to set you up with an outside system so you can make the money for your trip.”

An outside system took time.

Claire felt a single tear drip down her cheek. She slammed the side of her fist on the wall and turned around.

She had to get out of there before the floodgates opened.

The coach called after her when she grabbed her backpack and left his room.





CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE


Coach Bennett filled Cooper in on what had happened with Claire.

Without talking to her, he knew exactly why emotion had overtaken her. He, too, felt like the hourglass was turned upside down and someone was shaking it.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she skipped track today,” Bennett told him.

“She’ll be here.” Even if she hated it.

“If she shows, pull her aside, talk to her. I would, but I don’t think she’ll listen to me.”

“Isn’t there any way to get her into the tutor job?” Cooper asked.

“I’ll see what I can do. Maybe get one of the kids that can’t afford to pay for a tutor to come in so I can sign off on her skills.”

Cooper looked at his watch. “C’mon, Claire.”

The team was halfway through their warm-up before she walked down to the field.

Instead of joining in, she sat under a tree with her back resting against the chain-link fence on the far end of the field. Her eyes followed the runners.

Cooper knew where her thoughts were.

Bennett walked up to him. “Part of the job is listening to teenage girls cry, and teenage boys rant.”

Cooper made it to her side and sat on the grass beside her.

She’d been crying.

“You okay?”

She closed her eyes. “I don’t cry.”

“Did Richter burn that out of you?” he asked. Their end of the field was empty. Being overheard wasn’t a concern.

“I’m so frustrated, Cooper.” She picked at the grass by her side.

“We all are. But this is when we need to keep it together.”

“I know that.”

He picked at the grass, gently touched the side of her hand that sat between them. “You didn’t process her. I expected tears when we left, maybe on the plane . . .” He kept his voice low.

“I have no business doing it now.”

He couldn’t argue that.

“Do you know how hard it is to sit here and not pull you into my arms?”

She avoided looking at him, and nodded. “I’d just cry harder.”

“That would make me hold you tighter, then I might accidentally kiss you. Then everyone would talk.”

She looked up at him, nudged his arm with her shoulder, and smiled.

He could die a happy man if she just kept smiling at him like that. “Dunnan doesn’t want to work with you because you’re a pain in the ass.”

“I have repented and changed my evil ways,” she said, a lift in her voice.

“What do we really need from him?”

She picked the grass more. “Get into the pool. Find which troubled students go to which tutors and are any of them a player? We’re running out of time.”

His pinky reached for hers. “Every time I thought that today, I found myself staring at the clock. My mind would go blank. Nothing productive happened.”

“Glad I’m not alone.”

Cooper stared downfield, saw Bennett working with the sprinters. The man was just as big a teddy bear as Neil. He really wanted to help Claire. “Sometimes we get so stuck in the weeds . . .”

“What?” Claire asked.