Chapter 37

“What does he mean, his dorm will be ready,” Colleen looked at Jon as she asked him again.

“Jake asked me last spring if he could go to Pennington instead of Polly Prep, his friend Ricky, needed a roommate,” Jon explained.  “By the time we got his paperwork in the spot was gone.”

“Yeah Miss O’,” Jake explained. “As soon as it came open, I was transferring.”

“We were lucky a spot came open for both Romeo and Jake,” Jon told her.

“So this is something that didn’t just come to being, since I could lose my spot at Polly,” Colleen asked? “Don’t lie to me, Jon.”

Jon looked up at her, was she mad or scared or both.

“Yes and no,” Jon told her.  “I was going to wait till the end of the year, but our situation just moved it forward.” Jon got up and walked over to Colleen and wrapped her in his arms. “I don’t want you to lose your job, and tomorrow, you won’t.”

Colleen sighed and put her arms around Jon’s waist.

“What else can happen,” Colleen mumbled more to herself than Jon.  She didn’t think he heard her, but he did.

“Nothing we can’t handle together,” Jon said as he kissed her lips.

<@>

Monday morning, Colleen met with Officer Jamison at the police department.  Jon was meeting her at the school.  She looked at mug shots and tapes of what the security cameras caught of the whole break-in.  Jon had told her this morning that Max had the unbroken things out of her house, and had her clothes cleaned. She pulled into the school’s teachers’ lot and went to her classroom first, then after receiving a text to tell her the meeting had been moved from the Deans office to the auditorium, for the meeting.  At breakfast this morning, Jon had told her, he was taking the kids to school, so he could be there for her meeting.

‘Why did this feel like I was going to the gallows?’ Colleen thought as she opened the door to a packed auditorium.  So, this was what Jake and Jon had meant about operation save Miss O’, meant.  Students and parents filled up the room, she found Jon with his two sons in the front of the row.

“Miss O’Sullivan, if you’ll come to the stage,” the Dean of the School motioned Colleen. “We’ve had a larger turnout than expected.”

Colleen came up to the stage and up the steps, she went to the table with her name on the tent on top.  She looked out over the audience and saw thumbs up from her students. Feeling a tear forming she quickly wiped it way.

“We’ve had several students and parents call the school this morning, wishing to speak on your behalf Miss O’Sullivan,” The Dean informed her.  “After this and the meeting with Mr. Bongiovi we’ve, the board, have decided to not only change the teachers’ contract, and we’d like to keep you on here, teaching at Polly Prep.”

Colleen didn’t know whether to be upset or relieved that she still had a job.  After this morning’s discussion with Romeo and Jake, she was more relieved.

“I want to thank the facility for the rule change and allowing me to continue to work at Polly Prep.  To the parents and my students, I feel like I owe you all a huge thank you, for your support,” Colleen said trying hard not cry.

“Well, thank you Miss O’Sullivan, and let’s get these students to class,” the Dean said, dismissing the meeting.

Colleen left the stage to the applause of the parents and the students.  By the time the room emptied, she made her way to her classroom.

“I want to thank you all for your support, today.  I can’t tell you how much it means to me, that you all came out to support me,” Colleen told her class.  She smiled as she looked at each student, finally coming to Jake, who she gave a wink to.  “Now all the excitement is done with, let us turn to the second chapter of Beowulf, Mr. Harris will begin with you reading and going down your row, to Mr. Bongiovi,” Colleen sat at her desk while the class began to read.

The day felt longer, this being because of the nightmares she had last night, caused her not to get much sleep. When she went to the teachers’ lounge, she made a cup of tea and ate her lunch. Several teachers came up and congratulated her, and thanked her for getting the rules changed.  But even Colleen could tell, they just wanted to know if Jon was as hot in bed as he was walking, and talking.  She was finally alone when her phone beeped, she had a new message.  Taking her phone out of her new briefcase, Jon loaned her until she got the insurance check to buy a new one.

Jon: Can you bring the boys home after school, I’m down here in Pennington signing papers and contracts.

Colleen: No problem, I know Jake has practice, I’ll let Ro know to come to my classroom after school.

Jon: See you at home, we’ll celebrate tonight.

Colleen: Sounds like a plan.

Colleen went to find Romeo and Jake after she went into the office and pulled up their schedule.  She was waiting outside Romeo’s class when they got out.

“Hey Miss O,” Romeo smiled.

“Hey Ro, come to my classroom after school,” She walked with him to his next class.  “You guys are coming home with me.”

“Okay Miss O,” Romeo headed into his next class.

Colleen just had to let Jake know, she knew his next class was in the same wing as her classroom.  She saw him standing with a cheerleader, who wasn’t happy.

“But why now, why not after the season,” The young blonde sniffed.

“It’s been something I wanted, I’ll come back for the Christmas formal, you’ll still be my date,” Jake told her.

The blonde wrapped around Jake as she continued to cry.  Jake looked lost on what to do. 

“Hey you two, you need to get to class before the bell,” Colleen told them as she gave Jake the note she wrote.

If, the dirty look, the blonde gave her was any warning of how the other cheerleaders would react to Jake leaving, Colleen was not excited to go to cheer practice tomorrow.  It was going to be brutal.

<@>

After school they headed back to the apartment, with the boys taking over the bar in the kitchen, as Colleen started to cook dinner.

“Wow, something smells great,” Jon said as he walked into the apartment around six. It had been a long time since he came home to someone cooking in the kitchen.

“Miss O’ made dinner,” Romeo told him as he watched his dad come in and lift lids off the pots on the stove.

“Beats pizza for dinner,” Jake said as he closed his books. “You know the one thing I’ll miss about Polly, is your class,” Jake told her.

Colleen smiled, it was nice to hear Jake say he’d miss her class.

“Oh, I’m sure your next English teacher will be just as good,” Colleen said as she got down bowls for the stew.  Going to the refrigerator to pull out the salad she had thrown together.  “Bar or table,” She asked.

“Table, we need to celebrate you keeping your job,” Jon told her. Jon chose a bottle of wine out of the wine cooler at the end of the bar.  Romeo pulled out silverware and took it to the table, while Jake got glasses of tea for him and Romeo.

Dinner around the table was on the coming weekend trip to Pennington, and what they would need to buy to get their dorm rooms made up.  Colleen told them about her hour with the police department, and looking at the videos.

Jon noticed the tears threatening to fall. So did the boys, they looked at their father to make Miss O’ happy again.

“Do you have to meet with the police department anymore?” Jake asked and he broke off a hunk of bread and began to sop up the gravy from the stew.

“Not until the trial, I don’t want to be in the courtroom for the trial,” She told Jake.  That was one thing she was happy about.  The insurance adjuster was going to be at her place, but Jon had suggested that Max will take care of it.  Max could work his magic and get her a better settlement.

“Homework done?” Jon asked his sons.

“Yes sir,” Romeo answered his dad.

“I just have to read three chapters, I can do that before I go to bed,” Jake said looking up at Colleen.

Colleen smiled at Jake, he could’ve blown off the assignment, since he was transferring, but she was happy to see him still doing the assignment.

“How about we go get some ice cream,” Jon asked them?

They went out for a walk to a local ice cream shop, and walked back to the apartment.

Soon it was time for bed, Colleen took a shower while Jon was on the phone with Matt.

“Things went great, I got the boys all signed in and a shit load of paperwork to read,” Jon said as he pulled out a supply list. “Jake is on the football team, that was the one thing he wanted the most,” Jon smiled.  He didn’t have to ask the coach, they told him in the meeting, they wanted Jake on the roster.

“Good Jonny,” Matt sat with Desie.  “Max and I got a dumpster for anything destroyed or unfixable, Des did the laundry, I can drop it off tomorrow.”

“Was there a lot that was unsalvageable,” Jon asked?

“The bed, her dishes, most of the furniture in the Livingroom,” Matt listed the things they wrote down on the insurance papers.  “Jonny, she had some first edition books that worth a lot of money.  I looked at a book-binder to see if some of them could be restored, but some were a totally trashed.”

“Thanks Matty, you make me a list of those first additions, so if they can’t be fixed I can replace them? Oh yeah, that big overstuffed chair, is it in the dumpster?” Jon cringed thinking about that chair being gone. He knew she was partial to that chair, the one time he had been over and found her asleep, curled up in that chair.  Hell her whole apartment was a teenage girls dream, very different from the apartment over the bar, and totally a three-sixty from Dorothea’s style.

“It was gutted, but I think it can be saved, you want me to remove it, if it is in the dumpster? There are a few of the big things that Max and I needed help to dump,” Matt told him.

“See about that chair,” Jon told Matt. “I’ll call some of my crew to help you two, maybe Tone can come and help too.”

“Where you want it if it is fixable?” Matt asked.

“Take it to the Jersey house,” Jon said.

“Jersey?  Are you sure?  Have you decided to clean it out and move back to Jersey?” Matt was stunned, to say the least. “Where in the Jersey house?”

“Master bedroom to start, by the window for now,” Jon told him. “I think we should renovate it, and maybe move back, where it’s safe.”  He’d thought of it as he and the driver headed back from Pennington. With both the boys in Jersey, there was no reason to be in New York.  Stephanie has her own life, Jesse is at Notre Dame.  He could hire her a driver and with the ferry ride, it was only forty-five minutes to Brooklyn.

“Got it, Jonny,” Matt said tapping on his tablet, he had put the list of all the stuff trashed or saved.  “I’ll get on all this tomorrow and send you a copy of the list.”

“Tomorrow Matty,” Jon said as he hung up the call. Tomorrow he’d call Steph to maybe come out Wednesday to go through the house to deal with Dorothea’s things still there, he’d also call Matty about donating the bedroom furniture.  A fresh start was what they all needed. He pulled his iPad out and started making notes for all the ideas he had jumping in his mind.

The bathroom door opened and Colleen came out fresh from the shower, wearing an oversized tee-shirt, and a pair of boxers. She had her hair wrapped in a towel.

“All yours,” Colleen said, as she went into the closet with her clothes, to add to the basket in the closet. She stood there roughly running the towel over her hair to start it drying.

“Matt is going to send a list of what they saved and what was unsalvageable,” Jon told her, as he put his iPad and phone on the bed and his glasses on the nightstand.  Getting out of the bed he followed her into the closet and grabbed his sweat shorts. Heading into the bathroom, that was damp with steam, and smelled of vanilla and brown sugar.

Hair almost dry, Colleen came out of the closet, and crawled in the king bed.  She felt small and lost in such a huge bed, she missed them cuddling in her full bed.  She picked up her readers, cell, and kindle off her nightstand. Putting her earbuds in she fired up I Heart Radio on her cell, then found the book she was reading. Propping up on the bed, she read till Jon was out of the bathroom.