Believe Me, I'm Lying

:Believe Me, I'm Lying: 31

“That was quite the scare, wasn’t it?”

I gave my uncle a flat look. “You’re the one that fired me.”

He gave me a sheepish look. “There was nothing I could do Harley.”

“I thought you weren’t allowed to fire teachers?”

“You’re not part of the union.”

“What about severance?”

“I was going to give you that,” my uncle informed me. “But not right away because I was trying to figure out another way you could work here.”

I blinked at him. “You were?”

He rolled his eyes, giving me a half-smile. “Harley, you’re my only family member. You’re my niece who is doing everything she can so that her and her brother can live together. I wasn’t just going to put you on the street.”

“Well technically I’d only be jobless…”

“You know what I mean.”

I laughed, nodding my head. “I know. Thank you for caring.”

“You should thank Arden too.”

“Arden?” I echoed, furrowing my eyebrows. “Why Arden?”

My uncle cocked his head to the side, mimicking my expression. “He didn’t tell you?”

“Ah… We’re not, um…” I hesitated, a hollow feeling appeared in my stomach. Of course Arden didn’t tell me anything. He probably still hated me. After a few moments I cleared my throat and continued. “We’re not exactly friends at the moment.”

“Really? But he’s the one who convinced his grandma to allow you to work as an assistant. In fact, he’s the one who urged his grandma to take this job. And the last time I knew of anything, Arden and his grandma weren’t on good terms.”

My mind blanked at this new information. I knew Arden wasn’t close to his family, so him and his grandma not getting along didn’t come as a surprise. But Arden didn’t seem to be the type of person who would just suddenly force himself to get along with his family… And yet he had to have been nice to his grandma at least the little bit. Especially if he convinced her to let me help her.

My stomach clenched uncomfortably and I shifted in my seat, suddenly anxious. Maybe Arden didn’t hate me. If he did, why would he try to help me? Did he just feel bad… or was he really just trying to help me? I needed to talk to him.

“Harley?”

“Huh?”

My uncle chuckled. “You just spaced out suddenly. But as I was saying, you should probably head to your classroom. The students will be arriving soon…”

“Oh, sure,” I responded, quickly pushing myself up from my desk. If there was one thing I didn’t want to do, it was deal with students I didn’t know. They had to know about me now. And I didn’t want to know what they might say to me.

“Barbara will be coming in second period because she lives quite a way away, so you’ll have to man the fort by yourself first period,” my uncle notified me. “If I remember correctly, it’s a prep period, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

I nodded, slowly backing away towards the door. “Right-o.”

“And Harley?”

I paused, giving my uncle a questioning look. “Yeah?”

“Keep you and Oliver on the DL.”

My uncle smirked as my face flamed. How did he know? I hadn’t told anyone about Oliver, and there was no way Oliver said anything either. “How did you know?” I finally asked.