Without Mercy - Lisa Jackson [114]
“But she’s so unhappy,” Jules said.
“Shaylee is always unhappy, and I’ve been through this a million times. In fact, I just told her all this,” Edie insisted, then turned the conversation to Jules. “So, where, exactly, are you again?”
“Not far from San Francisco,” Jules lied smoothly, glancing out the window at the ice-glazed edges of Lake Superstition.
“Still looking for a job?”
“As it turns out, there are possibilities at several districts, at least for next year, so I’ll be here a while.”
“What about your cat?”
“No worries. My neighbor is taking care of Diablo and picking up my mail, so everything’s fine.”
“Good. Look, I’ve got to run. We’ll talk soon.”
“Okay, Mom. Take care.” Jules clicked her phone closed and locked it, a precaution she’d practiced since arriving at Blue Rock. Stashing her phone in her purse, she found her lesson plan and prepared for her last class of the day, the group of students from Cooper Trent’s pod, which included Shay. The subject was U.S. history, and according to the syllabus, the class should have been studying the years surrounding the Great Depression and comparing that era to the recent economic downturn.
The kids began to file into the room, some laughing and talking, others more reserved.
Shay, of course, brought up the rear, but at least she wasn’t alone. Lucy Yang, the girl with whom she’d spent the weekend shoveling snow and manure, walked into the classroom and took a seat next to her.
Progress? Had the girls bonded through the incident?
Jules hoped so.
She introduced herself for the fourth time that day, then broke the ice by saying, “I know this is a hard time for everyone. I didn’t know Nona, but I understand she was from your pod, so this must be particularly difficult for each of you. So, let’s kick back a little. We’ll catch up later in the week, but why don’t you tell me what you’ve been studying and bring me up to speed. As I understand it from Dean Hammersley’s notes and Ms. Howell’s syllabus, you’re working your way through the early nineteen hundreds.”
No one seemed interested.
She didn’t blame them.
They were under so much stress right now, and eighty years ago was ancient history to them. “Hey, I need your help.” A few heads lifted, a couple sets of eyes sparked. Jules managed a smile and saw that she’d caught some of her students’ attention. “I’m the newbie here, right? So, come on, help me out. We’re talking about the Great Depression, and as ancient as I might seem to you, I didn’t live through it, either.”
A few kids snickered. Good. A start.
She thought she’d see how this played out. Find out who the leaders were, who engaged, who didn’t. In her experience, the discussion would start slowly, with only one or two students offering anything up. Midway through the period, a few more kids would warm up to the discussion. Usually by the end of class time, most of the students would be engaged.
And so it was with the kids in Shaylee’s pod. When she asked if anyone could compare what was going on in the economy now to the years of the Great Depression, a few kids actually spoke up.
Lucy Yang, Keesha Bell, Nell Cousineau, and Ollie Gage were the most talkative, Ollie admitting that his father had lost his job in the dot-com crash, and Keesha worried that her parents might have to turn their condo back to the bank. Shay kept her eyes on her desk, and Jules had to ask Chaz Johnson to remove his hood and stay awake. Although Maeve Mancuso kept her eyes down as she fidgeted at something under her sleeve, when called upon, she was able to answer a question. JoAnne Harris, aka Banjo, shared her sense of guilt. Though her family was doing well, she felt bad that her grandfather was scooping up foreclosed homes, kicking homeowners out, then renting the houses, sometimes to the same people, actually making money off of someone else’s misfortune.
“That’s really messed up,” Ollie said. “But it’s not on you. You know what I mean? Not your fault, Banjo.”
Eventually Crystal Ricci raised her hand. “So what’s really the difference