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“I don’t know why you are smiling,” Mr. Locke muttered. “You were just suspended.”
“I’ll have all of my work caught up during the suspension. I’ll do the work. When can I come back and do weightlifting?”
Mr. Locke glanced over his shoulder at the teachers, and one of them nodded. “The day you come back, we will schedule the interview. Does that work with your schedule, Mr. Garr?” he asked Tabian.
“I’ll make it work,” he said as he slid the paperwork and pen back to the principal. Tabian stood. “My phone number is on the paperwork. I would like to be added as one of his contacts. If you have a werewolf issue that comes up, I can help.” He offered his hand for a shake and Mr. Locke stood and shook it.
Tabian turned to Bay and twitched his head toward the principal. Bay caught on immediately and offered his hand for a shake. “Thank you, sir.”
“Again, you’re suspended.” Mr. Locke sounded tired, but he shook Bay’s hand.
“See you next week,” Bay said, and gave a little wave to the other teachers.
“Not in here, I hope,” Mr. Locke called as Tru followed them out.
Tru was in shock. She was quiet until they reached the parking lot, where Bay started jumping up and down and freaking out about getting to do weightlifting with the football guys.
Tabian was grinning and held his arm out for Tru to slip under it and hug his waist as they walked.
“That dude really said you hit him sixteen times?”
“I mean, honestly, I hit him hard and he went down. It probably felt like sixteen times. He looked pretty confused.”
Tabian snorted. “Yeah well, less of that, okay? The humans like to battle with words and internet bullying.”
“Not my gig,” Bayen assured him. “Can I invite Breah tomorrow night?”
“What’s tomorrow night?” Tru asked.
“A surprise,” Tabian said, reaching a foot out to trip Bayen.
He tripped a little but recovered and said, “Oops. I forgot.”
“Hey, what’s going on? Why do you two have secrets from me?”
“We’re hanging out with the Pack tomorrow night,” Tabian told her.
“Sooo…same as every other night?”
The boys chuckled, and Bayen swooped in and yanked her keys from the open zipper of her purse. “I’m driving your car home. You can go hang out with Loverboy.”
“No joyriding! I only have a quarter tank left and I’m not picking you up off the side of the highway today.”
“I’ll put gas in it on the way home. I have some money left over from working for Tabian on the cameras. Hey, when are we going camping again?”
Tabian pulled them to a stop near his truck. “You really want to go again?”
“Yeah. Tru has weekends off work.”
Tru had thought he was only wanting to go camping with Tabian, so this shocked her, and touched her heart. “You want me to go too?” she asked softly.
“Of course. You don’t gripe at me as much when we are camping,” he teased.
“Yeah, because I’m the one griping at you out there,” Tabian deadpanned.
“See? She gets a break and is way more fun out in the woods,” Bay joked as he walked backward away from them, her keys dangling from his fingertips.
“Love you kid,” Tru told him. “Drive safe.”
