Fox Play (29 page)

And with that, we had a plan. I sighed.

"What's wrong, little fox?" she asked.

"There's nothing for me to do to help."

She laughed. "This is all happening because of you, and you've been offering good suggestions. There isn't much for me to do, either. This is why we're paying Greg such an insane amount of money."

Greg was grinning. "Yep. And it's been a long time since I've enjoyed a job this much, either."

"You're earning your money," Lara said.

"We always do." He laughed.

"Anything else we need to do?" Lara asked.

"Are we actually going through with the poker game you offered?" I asked.

They all looked around the table. "Can you beat him this time?" Elisabeth asked?

"Last time, we had to lose. I was just trying to slow it down for my own selfish reasons. If you let me win, yes. Especially if we can get Jared out of the game."

"I'll engineer a crisis in his companies," Greg said. "No promises, but maybe he'll be too distracted to come."

"Then it's not a lot of money, but yes, I think we should do the game," Lara said.

"Then I'll need a stake. Lara, you need to talk to Janice and get me invited."

"Damn it!" said Elisabeth. "I've been winning lately."

I grinned at her.

Building a Program

I interviewed all the kids who were interested in my program. I tied their goals, as best they knew them, with the current curriculum that Francesca taught and identified additional opportunities for classes I thought the kids would like. It took me a week, and even then, most of the class descriptions were only a few words. Then I got together with Francesca.

"Correct me if I am wrong," I said. "But it strikes me that the traditional program is designed for some sort of average."

She smiled at me. "Yes. Even programs designed for college bound students are aimed at the 60th percentile or so."

"But these kids are 90th percentile or even higher," I said.

"Yes."

"So we can cover the core material faster."

"Yes. And these kids could be more driven to spend time, meaning they can shove more in. They will do the homework faster, too."

"The state does not dictate how we teach the material, just that we teach the material?"

"Right. If we were a public school, that would be different. But we're private."

"All right," I said. "That's what I thought." I gave her a sheet of paper." This is what I am recommending for fulfilling the core requirements." I accelerated everything so that the kids were completing all their senior year requirements by some time in their junior year. Francesca looked it over. "This could be tighter."

"Yes, for these kids. But I wanted to leave a little room."

"All right."

"Can you do something similar with the courses I'm not teaching?"

"Yes."

Then we discussed each of the students and what I was proposing. Francesca had good suggestions, including restructuring when I taught some of the classes so as to not be teaching a particular class to only one student.

"All right," I said. "Do we present this to the parents individually or group?"

"Pack play night is this Saturday," Francesca said. "Let's get them here in the afternoon and they can join us in the evening."

* * * *

During that time, I also worked my way through the ninth grade textbooks. I'd actually had to study some of the material. There were holes in what I knew. At lunch on  Wednesday of the first week, I asked Francesca when I could take the math exam. She grilled me verbally for a few minutes. When we were done, she grinned. "You really did study."

"Just a few chapters. It seems, I don't know. Stupid."

She laughed. "Yeah, I know. But it helps some kids understand the material better, so the standard exam includes it. Why don't I invite my household for dinner tonight? You can take the exam while I'm cooking."

I frowned. "All the kids will see me working on it. It will be difficult to hide what I'm doing. Unless you weren't serious about supervising me."

"I'm sorry, no, I wasn't kidding about supervising you. But the kids already know about it."

I sighed.

"It isn't Angel's fault, and she came to me in tears about it. Sophia asked her mother why you pushed the alpha off the boat. Harper told her the gist. So Harper asked Angel if she knew anything about it, and she did it in front of all the other kids."

"Angel shouldn't have been that upset," I said. "I'd asked her not to bring it up but told her to be honest if she had to say anything at all."

Francesca nodded. "By the time they understood everything that was going on, according to Angel, Derek stood up and said, She is going through high school for us! No one better tease her about this. She is doing it for us."

"So I guess it's okay if they see me taking the exam." I sighed, then smiled. "Francesca, thank you for this opportunity. I always wanted to go to high school. Do you think when I take my last senior year exam, I can attend the prom?"

She laughed. "Yes. Bring a date. We always need chaperones."

That afternoon in Lara's kitchen, Francesca cooked, asking Angel, Ava and Sophia to help. Scarlett phoned Angel, so we invited her, too. Francesca gave me the exam and started a timer. I sat at the small kitchen table and started on the exam.

It took me twenty minutes. It was, unsurprisingly, very easy. "Done," I declared.

"Angel, take over," she said. Francesca took my exam from me and went into the living room. She was back fifteen minutes later. "Michaela, please come into the next room."

She made me sit in the sofa, and I wondered what was wrong. "It was easy, Francesca. But you don't look happy."

"Congratulations. You passed. Barely."

"What? I got every answer correct."

She handed my exam booklet. I had scored a 71. "That's a low C," she said. The paper was filled with red marks.

I looked through them. "This answer is right!" I said. "So is this one!" I looked through all of them. "They're all right. What the hell, Francesca?"

She reached over with her red pen and circled the top of the exam where it said, "Show your work." She sighed. "Where is your work, Michaela?"

"There's no work to show. I got these answers right, but you're saying they're wrong."

"You didn't follow directions, Michaela," Francesca said very gently. "Show your work. I know it seems silly. But later classes are built on earlier classes. At the college level, it becomes all about proving what you're saying, not just getting the right answer. If you can't do a proper proof, you will do very poorly at college."

I looked away from her, trying not to take all this personally, trying hard not to cry. She'd just told me I had nearly failed a simple exam. "I'm not qualified to teach these classes, Francesca."

"Don't jump to conclusions. Here, do that first one again. Do it properly."

She slipped a piece of paper to me. I did the first problem. It was very hard to not just write down the answer; it was obvious. It was much harder to go through the steps one at a time. When I was done, she took the paper from me. "Better," she said. "For this exam, even smaller steps. Do the next one."

I did. Then the third, and the fourth, and it felt like I was learning to crawl.

"Can you do the entire exam like that?" she asked.

"I already took the exam."

She took my exam book and tore it up.

"Isn't that cheating?" I asked her.

"I call it something different. I call it teaching."

We moved back to the kitchen. Francesca gave me a fresh exam book. The kids looked over. "Oh, oh," said Scarlett. "Someone didn't show her work."

I looked at her. "And how do you come to that conclusion?"

"Because there is no way you don't know ninth grade math," said Angel. "And mom has had years drilling 'show your work' into our heads."

"It was hard following some of your lessons," Scarlett said. "You jump too many steps."

I looked up at Francesca. "Now you understand?"

"Yes, Francesca. Now I understand. How can I teach them if I can't do it the way they need to be taught?"

She started the timer.

Lara arrived at home before I was done, and dinner was ready. "We'll just let it simmer until Michaela is done," Francesca said quietly. I tried to hurry.

She graded it in front of everyone, her bright red pen poised over the paper. When she was done, she said, "Better." She turned it to me. 94.

"I showed my work! And I know the answers were right."

"Near the end, you got flustered by the time it was taking, afraid we were all waiting for you," she said. "Just like kids do when other kids start finishing the exam and they still have a dozen problems left. So you started cutting corners to hurry."

I sighed.

"I've done that," said Ava. "Sophia always finishes faster than I do, so whenever she finishes, I start rushing."

"You do?" Sophia asked. "I'm sorry."

Ava laughed. "Mr. Peters told me that's what I was doing, so I stopped."

"Self awareness is a powerful tool," said Lara. "Can we eat now?"

* * * *

I had my thousand dollar buy in for Wednesday's poker game. Janice had taken to hosting them last fall. She only invited me when she was inviting someone she didn't like and wanted to make sure that person lost. I didn't always take their money, but I did it reliably enough it made Janice happy.

I was always happy to take Janice's money, too.

On Wednesday, we were short some of the usual crew. Malcolm and Liam weren't there. Janice had warned them I was coming. Vivian and Violet were there instead. Elisabeth volunteered to serve as enforcer so that Karen could get her first introduction to poker with the pack.

"That's very sweet of you, Elisabeth," I said.

No one told Karen that Elisabeth was tired of letting me take her money.

To round out the six players, Lara and Janice both played.

Karen was a good player, but she didn't realize that I'd been trying to make Lara a better player. I had made sure that Lara knew all her own tells, and midway through the evening, she was able to convince Karen she was bluffing, cleaning Karen out. Karen was a good scout about it.

That put Lara up, which is a nice position to be in, especially the first game after the fox has told you all your tells.

I slowly took Vivien's money. When she finally gave her last two hundred dollars to Janice, I told her what her tells were. She was shocked. "I do not!"

"You do," said Janice. "It's subtle, and you don't always do it."

Violet was slowly losing money to me, as well. I had been taking a little from Janice and Violet had been as well, but she held in until midnight when she let Lara buy one pot from her and then, the very next hand, took the rest of her chips. Lara was up big, Janice was down a little, and I was up moderately.

I was proud of Lara. She was doing well, and a cash advantage like she was holding was powerful.

Then she let Janice take a big pot from her. I didn't have a clue until the reveal what Lara was holding; she had mastered control over her own tells. But she didn't know how strong a hand Janice was holding. Lara still wasn't as good at reading the other players as I would have preferred.

I lost pots to both of them. I was proud of Lara, but if I lost my buy in tonight, I was going to be forced to play poker with the kids before I could come back another night.

I could still read Lara's heart rate. I folded out a hand she tried to play casually, but her heart gave her away to me. She took a large pot from Janice.

I got two good hands in a row, very good hands. Lara folded both of them, but I played Janice for everything I could, and soon she was out.

"You know I always play to win," Lara said. "I know you need this money, but if you want it, you're going to have to win it."

"If I can't take it from you, I don't deserve it, Lara." I paused. "Alpha, if I need a loan, I'd like to point out my house in Bayfield is paid off. Is it sufficient collateral for a loan? And is my credit good? I think you know whether I have a reliable job."

She stared at me. "What are you telling me?"

"Play to win. This isn't my only option. It might be my favorite option, it's not my only option. In fact... If you can clean me out, I will remove all objections to that little thing we've been discussing lately." I was referring to letting her make me scream when we made love.

"And if you clean me out, you expect me to do it your way?"

"Nope. I want to know you're playing to win, and I suspect that reward will make sure."

"You have figured out this is important to me."

"Yes. I don't know why yet. I'll figure that out, too."

"I'm playing to win, little fox. And if I win, you know what that means."

"I do, Lara. I'm looking forward to it with a certain amount of embarrassment."

She grinned. "Deal the cards, Michaela."

She didn't win; she didn't clean me out. But by two AM, she was still holding as many chips as I was. We were each up about fifteen hundred dollars. I thought perhaps she was building a new tell, but I realized it was mostly frustration because she knew she wasn't going to win without a foolish, lucky play.

Vivien had hung around for the night. Violet had gone home. When we finished, I told her, "You need to come give me more money next week."

She laughed. "Not intentionally."

Janice gave me a permanent invitation until this issue was settled and promised to have more council members each week. When I thanked her she said, "Are you kidding? I have council members coming to my house and giving me money. I'm in heaven, Michaela. But I'm still going to try to take your money."

* * * *

The next week, a council member named Aaron attended. Violet was unable to make it. We played with five. Vivien did better, and poor Aaron didn't know what hit him. It took ten minutes for all of us to know his tells, and the only ones he learned were our fake tells. He played his last hand and Janice called a break after our first hour.

I almost felt bad for him. But he was a wolf, so I didn't feel too badly.