Invisible Strings

Chapter Seven

Delaney's POV:

"You and Brantley looked mighty chummy back there." I said as daddy pulled the truck out onto the road and away from Brantley's.

"He's a good boy." Daddy said, his eyes never leaving the road. "Been through hell –some of it by his own doing in his younger days– but instead of the bad stuff turning him into a hardened man, I think it just made him better.

"He's the BEST!" said Chloe from the backseat, snuggling the puppy that she'd picked out.

"You're just saying that 'cause he had puppies." said Colton.

I couldn't help but laugh at the two of them as they talked back and forth. Before having kids, I had longed for a sibling, someone that I could play with anytime I wanted, someone who was my champion in life, someone who had my back and I had theirs through the good and the bad. But because of things that were beyond my parents control, I never got that sibling.

"Don't be surprised if Brantley reaches out to you about a job opportunity." said Daddy, pulling my attention back to him.

"What? Why would he want me to work for him? I don't know anything about music." I asked, my brain working to try and figure out what daddy meant. "I mean unless he wants me to be a nanny or something. But daddy, nannying ain't my thing. As much as I love working with kids, I need a break from time to time and nannying won't let me do that."

"It's not a nanny position," said Daddy. He stayed quiet for a few moments before turning left at the intersection instead of right like we would do to go home.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know if you remember much about Brantley's late wife," Daddy started, pulling his truck into an empty lot. Years ago, the building had been sort of like a community center, holding christmas parties for all the farmers in the area, a few weddings, and countless other things. Now though, it was clear that the building had been remodeled with rooms added onto the structure.

"I don't." I said. "I know she was active on social media and very vocal about her political and religious views."

"She was." Daddy said. "But more than that, teaching was a passion of hers. She loved every aspect of it, much like you do. Before she died, she had been gathering donations from locals –nothing monetary, just games, supplies, even volunteer help– in order to open a school that would allow her and Brantley to teach their kids and those like them. Things were just starting to get kicked off when she passed away."

"Oh wow."

"Yeah." daddy said, shifting the truck into park. "It took a few months after her passing for Brantley to get things moving but he had made it his life's mission to make sure this school became a thing. He wants to give her one of the many things that she had always wanted to do, he wants her legacy to live on and her love for education to spread to everyone."

"So you think he's going to want me to be a teacher here?" I asked. "Daddy, I know nothing about the school. What if they want me to teach things that go against my beliefs? I can't sign on for something like that. My conscience won't let me."

"You said you knew that Amber was very vocal about her religious and political beliefs. Her and Brantley are alike in that matter even if he doesn't post them on social media like she did." said Daddy. "They want kids to learn things the way they did when they were in school. They want there to be a strong faith based atmosphere. They don't want to expose kids to all the things that public schools are trying to implement; stuff like kids picking their own genders and telling them that it's okay to think that they are some sort of animal and not a little boy or little girl."

"So no CRT stuff?"

"Absolutely not." said daddy, knowing what the acronym meant. Critical race theory was a hot button topic that a lot of schools were looking at implementing. I hadn't done the research that I probably should have done on the topic but from what I knew, it was something that I felt would be more divisive than helpful since it would paint races in a bad way and remove some parts of history altogether. And that was something that I couldn't get behind. Removing history from our children's books would only lead to it being forgotten as the generations passed, leaving people to make the same mistakes all over again.

"And he thinks I would be a good fit here?" I said, gesturing towards the building?

"I think he's coming around to that line of thinking." said daddy, that knowing smirk on his face once again. "I may have done a little influencing."

"Daddy..."

"Ladybug, you are amazing at what you do. Teaching really is your calling. The work you did in Charlotte, the impacts you had on the kids, I think you can do just as much here." said Daddy. "Now, I don't know all of the details but I do know that the school will be a hybrid homeschool. I think that means that you have certain days on campus and certain ones off it."

"It does." I said. "A lot of families that have similar situations to Brantley's do something like that so that they can spend time with their parents on the road and still get to experience a classroom setting. I know a few of the drivers in NASCAR did something similar from what I overheard a few of the drivers' wives talking about. I know Chase and Ryan both talked about doing something with their kids as they got older. My only worry is that the school won't have the security needed to protect kids that are as high profile as those would be."

"Chase lives close enough to here that it would be crazy for him not to enroll his kids in the school, even if they choose to do the fully remote option." Daddy said. "As far as the security, Brantley is taking the guy who had been with him for years and giving him to the school so that not only will Barrett and Bray both have a familiar face when school starts, but because he is the best at what he does. And you can best believe that if PJ is in charge of hiring people to help keep the children safe, they will be on the same level as he is. There won't be an issue with security."

"And I guess if I work here, Chloe and Colt can attend too?"

"That's a given, Ladybug. Even if you decide not to take whatever position that he offers you, they can still attend and you won't have to worry about them not being safe. It's the perfect solution really."

"I don't know daddy."

"Look, Ladybug, you don't have to give me an answer. It's not my position to fill. But I wanted to give you a heads-up so that when Brantley calls you, you won't feel blindsided and like you have to make a snap decision. Just give it some thought."

"I will."

"I know," he said, winking as he pulled out of the parking lot. Just like I know that you probably have already made your mind up without even knowing the position. I'll let Brantley tell you about that. I will say though that it won't be in a janitorial capacity.

"Oh man, I love cleaning toilets." I said sarcastically. No one, in the history of ever, has ever loved cleaning a toilet.

Daddy got quiet then, obviously having said what he wanted to say, leaving me to think about his words as the kids sat in the back playing with their puppies. Later today, I would have to make a Walmart run to get all the things I would need for the dogs but I didn't want to take the kids with me in case someone recognized me as being Alex's ex-wife.

When I made the decision to move back home, I knew that I was going to have to find the best solution for schooling when it came to the kids. If what daddy was saying was true about the school Brantley was opening and the security that it would offer, this was the solution I needed. It would protect the kids from the prying eyes of the media because of the status of the kids enrolled. But not only that, working for the school would give me something to work hard at, to make successful if only because of the person it had been started for. And for anyone that worked in education and truly loved what they did, making an impact on the community and the lives of the kids was the only goal. Test scores, accommodations, awards, and everything else that came with it was just a bonus.

"You know me too well, old man." I said after a while, looking at daddy as I said it.

"I know you so well because you are just as much me as you are your mama. You have her heart and my determination." he said with a smile before turning his attention back to the road.