Jen froze up for a moment as she saw Mr. Black, Karyn's dad, approaching her. He had short red hair and a beard. He was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, and carrying a paper. "Sorry to bother you, but I've been having a hell of a time trying to find the classroom that I'm looking for," he said. "Do you work here? Any chance you could help me?"
Smiling, Jen shook her head. "I don't work here, no. I think I'm probably here for the same reason you are. But if you show me..." Jen reached over for the paper, a list of classes and where to find them, she started reading it.
"Oh, sorry. You just seemed a little young to have a kid in high school."
"Yeah, well..." Jen said. "Which one are you looking for?"
"English."
"Scanning the page, Jen nodded. "You're in luck Mr. Black. I'm heading that way too. I can show you."
"Thanks, uh... how'd you know my last name?"
Jen smirked as she held up the class schedule and tapped the section with Karyn's name. "Lucky guess."
Mr. Black shook his head and chuckled. "Right, right, stupid of me." He took the schedule back and Jen started leading him. "And, uh, sorry. About that comment before. Didn't mean to say anything out of line."
"It's fine," Jen said, waving him off. "I got used to much worse comments a long time ago. You're good."
"My name is Michael, by the way. Michael Black."
"Nice to meet you, Michael. I'm Jen Madison."
"How have your meetings been going tonight, Jen? Hopefully no unpleasant surprises."
"Not really, no. I'm lucky that my daughter is a pretty good student. No major behavioral issues, pretty good grades most of the time."
"Same with my daughter. It's a relief, really. Her brother, he's a sophomore in college now, he was something of a nightmare in high school. Decided he liked partying more than learning and..." he trailed off, turning to Jen and made a very unimpressed face. "Took three straight weeks of making the boy clean his puke out of his carpet with lout music blaring to make him learn some moderation."
Jen laughed, easily able to imagine that. Sean had gone through a bit of a rebellious streak. It had been pretty cool in Jon and Karyn's opinion, even if they hadn't had much interest in partying like he had. As Jen, though... "I can imagine that being tough. I'm just hoping Zoe skips that with me."
"He's straightened out well enough now, and Karyn is easier, but... yeah. It can be tough. I'll hope your daughter gives you an easier time of it."
"Appreciated." They walked and chatted for a few more minutes until they arrived. "Well, you're looking for that class over there," Jen said. "And this is me."
"Thanks for the help," Michael said. "Only about 10 minutes late."
Both of them entered the classrooms and Jen met with Mr. Peterson. Zoe was currently getting a B, was well behaved, so on and so forth. No major issues. She thanked him and left and saw Michael standing in the hall, looking at the schedule again.
"Trying to figure out where to go next?" Jen asked.
"I think I have it. Met this teacher last year, pretty sure I remember," he said, looking up from the sheet. "Wanted to thank you again for the help."
"It's really no problem."
"And, uh... if you wanted to exchange information, maybe we could meet up sometime. Exchange parenting tips," he said. Jen's eyebrows shot up at the realization that... He was asking her out? She knew Karyn's mom had left when she was younger, but... "No pressure, of course, I was just thinking..."
Jen smiled and nodded. "No, no, I... sure. Let me-" She walked over and handed him her phone, letting him enter his number. Once she had it, she texted him so that he had hers. He smiled at her and then headed off, toward his next destination. Jen carried on too, mind in a bit of a fog. She had been asked out? By a man? And he was Karyn's dad. The Jen part of her was giddy. She had been on some dates, of course. Not many since Zoe was born, because a lot of guys were iffy on dating a single mom, but a few. The Jon part was creeped out, but had felt bad for Mr. Black floundering a bit after asking for her contact info.
She finished up her meetings and made her way to the cafeteria, waiting for Linda to show up. When she finally did, she looked angry.
"I'm going to kill him," she said. "Michael has 4 D's, and might fail Math. He's smarter than this, he needs to-"
"Shhh," Jen said, putting her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Relax. You're better at thinking of punishments with a cooler head. And maybe some drinks in you."
"You just want dinner."
"I really do," Jen said, nodding. "But it doesn't make the other things any less true. Growing up, it was when you left me alone for a bit before retaliating that I knew I was in for trouble. Like when I borrowed that dress in my junior year."
"It was expensive, you should have asked."
"You would have said no," Jen said with a shrug. "Anyway, dinner? I can tell you about my night while you stew, and then we can plot what to do about your son."
"Gonna brag about Zoe's grades?" Linda asked with a sigh.
"I can if you want, but... I think a guy asked me out."
"What?!" Linda asked, her voice practically raising to a shriek. "Who? When? More details."
"Car first, so that we don't kick start rumors and get the kids at the school all talking about the crazy women who were screaming in the cafeteria." Linda allowed herself to be pushed along by Jen, but didn't really hold off on questions. Jen shook her head and tried not to make eye contact with anyone as they left the school.
