Heard It Through The Grapevine

HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE

Callie Watson was having coffee with her friend, Jennifer Saunders. Both were high school teachers at the same school, Central High. They had a long-standing meetup for Friday after school to meet at Mr. Bean, the local coffee house. It was a bitch session for both women who found it extremely therapeutic to be able to moan and gripe about their week. Who better than another teacher to know what it was really like in the trenches? Where else can a fourteen year-old call you an f-ing bitch, and then, instead of consequences for the young man, have your boss tell you that said fourteen year-old is just having a bad day, and that you should ignore the outburst? No apology, no detention. Just a sucker to make him feel better. On the positive side, there are very few jobs where your former students come up and thank you for having faith in them, and encouraging them, when no one else seemed to care, and tell you that without your support they were not sure that they would have made it. That was the real payoff. Not the fourteen year-old with anger issues, but the other students who credited you with their success.

So, on this Friday Callie and Jennifer were in Mr. Bean, enjoying a cafe mocha (Callie) and a mint tea (Jennifer). They always took a back booth, away from the door. Mr Bean was a fair distance from the school, but still close enough that they always scanned the coffee shop for students. Neither Callie nor Jennifer wanted a student overhearing their conversations. And so far, after three years of coming here, that had never been a problem. Until this particular Friday.

“I couldn’t believe the mouth on that kid!” said Callie.

“Wow. And admin did nothing?” said Jennifer.

“Nope.  As usual. Other than he give Kyle a lollipop.” Callie took a sip of her coffee, shaking her head. “You know, rewarding bad behaviour seems to be admin’s go-to. They seem to think that not ever dealing with a problem is going to make it magically disappear. That does not work.”

“I know,” said Jennifer. “I had problems with Kyle Dubois in my music class today, as well. He told me that he wasn’t going to play the f-ing stupid music I assigned, that he was going to play music he liked. When I told him that everybody had to learn the same single piece, that it was for evaluation, and if he didn’t do it, he would receive zero. He then told me to f-myself, and my f-ing music, he was calling his mom, right now. He got up and left the class, but not before calling me a stupid c-word. After class I went to his vice principal, Garfield, and explained the situation. And you know what Garfield said?”

Callie shook her head.

“He said that mom had called, and threatened to sue the school for something — I can’t remember what. Probably for being mean to her little Kyle. And couldn’t I make an exception for Kyle.” She sighed and took a drink of her tea. “I said no.”

“Really! What did Garfield say?”

“At first he just sat there, mouth slightly agape, then he said ‘No?” as if he’d heard me incorrectly. He was quite astonished that I had said no to him.”

“Then what?”

“I explained. First of all, I told him that no, I couldn’t exempt Kyle from the exercise. It’s a two minute piece, and every grade eleven music student in the country has to learn and preform this same piece. It’s mandated by the federal education standards. The fact that it takes less than two minutes to play makes it a perfect example of understanding, ability to read and interpret music, and allows the teacher to see how well the student plays their instrument.”

“What did he say next?”

“Well, after he shut his mouth, he stammered something about expectations, and learning plans. I told him that Kyle did not have a learning plan, and had no such exemptions. Then he mumbled something about Kyle’s mother saying that I was rude to her son, and made him leave the class.

“Oh. My. God,” said Callie. “And Garfield believed that, right? Because Kyle and his mom said it was so?”

Jennifer nodded her head. “You got it. When I explained to him that the whole episode had been recorded, he lost his shit. ‘How can you record students without their consent? That’s against the law!’ I reminded him that it was his idea to install cameras in all the classrooms, and that it was board approved. He said that we couldn’t use the recording regarding the behaviour of the students, only staff.”

“Wow!” said Callie. She was dumbstruck. "Shows how important we are."

“So, I called my union rep, who said that the premise of in-class cameras was to protect both students and staff. And it was usable in cases of discipline. I told Garfield this, and insisted that we check the tape. But when I went to review the tape, guess what? It had mysteriously disappeared. Probably when I stepped out to call my rep.”

“That bastard. Why? Does Kyle’s mom have some dirt on him or something? Is he compromised? Or is he just worried about how it would look, a student swearing at a teacher like he was raised by longshoremen? Asshole.”

Jennifer smiled. “Exactly. But …”

Callie looked at her friend, and nodded her head. “But, someone recorded it in class, and posted it.”

“Yup.” She smiled. “So, I whipped out my phone, and I showed Garfield the incident, and he mumbled something about how he couldn’t be sure that the video hadn’t been tampered with.”

Callie was dumbstruck. “Are. You. Kidding. Me?”

“No. Nice to know that I'm trustworthy. I just stood there, staring at him. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ I said. ‘No,’ he said, ‘you just can’t be too sure about these things.’ I said, ‘There were twenty-three other students in that room. More than one of them recorded the incident. Do you think that they all got together to tamper with the recording?’ ‘No, no, of course not,’ he said. Then I had the coup de grace — Kyle’s own download of the incident, and him laughing about it, saying his mom’s a high power lawyer, and no stupid bitch teacher is going to tell him what to do.”

Jennifer quickly brought up Kyle’s recording on her phone, and handed it Callie, who watched, volume on low. When she was finished, she looked back up at Jennifer.  

“He shoots his mouth off, and then says, ‘BAM! You're dead bitch!’ at the end. Like he’s going to shoot you." Callie stopped and looked back at the frozen image on the phone. "With his finger.  What are you doing about it?”

“I don’t know. I'll think about it over the weekend. But f I’m not in on Monday, check with Kyle and his finger gun.”

Neither laughed. 

A little while later, the pair got up and left Mr. Bean, having forgotten about Kyle Dubois and his finger. Instead they were chatting about their weekend plans.

*****

Also in the back of the coffee shop sat a single customer, nursing a smoothie, hunched over her computer. She sat with her back to the teachers, her hoodie up shielding her face. For the most part, the solitary girl, Lena Martin, had worked on her computer — she had a paper due for history on Monday, and needed to get it done this weekend. But she couldn’t help hearing some of the conversation between her teachers.

Now, as she watched the women leave through the front door, she pulled down her hood, confused.

Had she heard correctly? Of course she had. She was only a couple of tables away from Mrs. Saunders and Ms. Watson. She knew what she heard. Didn’t she? She texted her best friend, Jemma.

Lena: OMG! Just saw Ms. Watson and Mrs. Saunders in Mr. Bean. Can’t believe what they said. Meet me?

Jemma: Really! Juicy?

Lena: Yup!

Jemma: See you in ten.

Jemma arrived nine minutes later, stopped at the counter, grabbed a White Chocolate Mocha — she didn’t really like the taste of coffee, but this was almost like a hot chocolate, although much more sophisticated — and dropped into the chair across from Lena.

“Sooooo …” said Jemma.

“Weeeellll,” said Lena, drawing out the word. “Apparently, Ms. Watson and Mrs. Saunders both had run-ins with Kyle Dubois today.”

“Yeah, I know. I'm in Ms. Watson's class. He called Sheri Calvert a skank and a whore because she wouldn’t give him the answers to yesterday’s homework. Ms. Watson sent him to the office, and he came back smirking ten minutes later with a sucker. Ms. Watson ignored him for the rest of the class.”

“Well, when he was in music, he called Mrs. Saunders the c-word, then called his mom to complain about some music recital he had to do.”

“He’s such an ass. And a baby. Who calls their mommy because they don’t want to do their homework? I don’t know how anyone is his friend.”

“Yeah, but that’s not the juicy stuff. Apparently when Mrs. Saunders complained to Mr. Garfield, they had a huge fight in his office, and he destroyed the class recording showing Kyle swearing. Then Mrs. Saunders said that Kyle’s mom had dirty pictures of Mr. Garfield.”

“Eww! I can’t imagine!” whinged Jemma.

“Yeah. I know. Gross.” Lena shook her head. “But I heard Mrs. Saunders saying something about Kyle threatening to shoot her, and apparently there’s a video of him threatening her with some kind of gun, saying he was going to kill her this weekend. She told Ms. Watson that if she didn’t show up on Monday, then Kyle had killed her.”  

“Oh my God! Do you think it’s true?”

“Kyle’s a psycho, so sure,” said Lena.

*****

Later that evening, when Jemma went to her part-time job, she told her work buddy, Orin North about what Lena had told her in the coffee shop. Orin also attended Central High, and had a class with Kyle. He thought he was a bully.

“Yeah, so Kyle Dubois has a video of Mr. Garfield and Kyle’s mom, you know, fooling around, and he’s using it to blackmail Mr. Garfield into not suspending him for swearing at Mrs. Saunders in music class. Mr. Garfield and Mrs. Saunders had a great big fight in the office, and she accused him of tampering with the video to protect Kyle, who’s mom is a lawyer, and and threatened to sue the school if the video of her and Garfield got out. Mrs. Saunders threatened to go the Mr. Garfield’s wife with the video. When Kyle found out, he threatened to shoot Mrs. Saunders at school.  

*****

On Saturday morning, when Orin was at baseball practice he told his teammates about what Jemma had told him the night before at work.

“So, Mrs. Saunders has a video of Kyle Dubois’s mom and Mr. Garfield doing the nasty, and Kyle threatened to shoot Mrs. Saunders if she showed it to anyone.  Kyle sent her a DM telling her what he was going to do if she showed any one. Something like, ‘You show the video, you die, bitch. I will find you at school, and shoot your ass.’ Apparently, Mrs. Saunders is using it to blackmail Mr. Garfield into suspending Kyle because he called her names in music class.”

The coach, Henry Porter, overheard the conversation. Usually, he tried not to listen to his players. They were teenaged boys, and, well, they were prone to exaggeration. But when he heard that a student was threatening to shoot a teacher at school, he knew he had to act. His own kids went to Central High. He couldn’t ignore what he had heard. He made the call.

*****

When SWAT showed up at Tyler Dubois’s house later that afternoon, no one was more surprised than Kyle himself. When they handcuffed him in the foyer of his own home, he was so surprised that he started to cry. His mother was apoplectic.

“Uncuff my son, right now! You have no right to arrest him! I will sue you all — the police, for unlawful detention, each of the individual officers, and the chief of police! I want my son uncuffed right this second!”  

Mrs. Dubois actually stomped her foot.

“I’m sorry ma’am. We can’t do that. As well, we have a warrant to search the house.”

Mrs. Dubois stood there with her mouth open, dumbstruck. The officer turned Kyle towards the door to walk him out to the patrol car.

His mother yelled after him, “Do not say a word until I get there!”

*****

Detective Carlos Ito looked at Kyle Dubois and his mother through the one-way glass in the interrogation room. By her hand gestures and the look on her face, she was not happy.

“I think he’s grounded,” said Ito, deadpan.

His partner, Terry Waits snorted. “Yeah,” she said, “As soon as he gets out of jail.”

They had just finished their interview of of Jennifer Saunders, the teacher in the centre of the story.

Waits turned to Ito. “So, here’s what’s true.” She used her fingers to count. “One, Jennifer Saunders had coffee with her friend Callie Watson, another teacher at Central High.” She held up her second finger. “Two, VP Garfield did tamper with the in-class video.  That’s it.”

“Okay” said Ito. “There was no sex tape. There was no blackmail. There was no fight between Saunders and Garfield. Saunders did not fear for her life. Dubois did not threaten to shoot Saunders at school, but did threaten her indirectly, via his video post.”

“Hence the charges of uttering threats, and attempted murder. But that last one probably won’t stick,” said Waits. "I think they added it to scare the little shit. And because his mom's such a pain."

“But no blackmail, no threatening to kill Saunders if she showed the non-existent video to the non-existent Mrs. Garfield, and no gun, only a finger. That about it?”

“Yup. Gossip. You gotta love it.”