Game Change: A Nina Bannister Mystery (The Nina Bannister Mysteries Book 3) by T'Gracie Reese, Joe Reese Read Free Book Online

definitely not. Yes. Yes, they will all be given excuses and not be counted late. I’ve just informed their teachers. Yes, I know who they are, and I’m calling their teachers. Yes, of course, you can call me any time.”
    Which they would.
    And did, but that mattered little, because other crises came up, and still others.
    They were all unimportant, though.
    Only one truly important thing was scheduled for the first day back.
    One essential thing.
    That was, of course, the decoration of her office.
    Until that happened, she was in limbo.
    It did happen, though, shortly after lunch when the school van arrived carrying several boxes which she had stacked neatly, at six AM that morning, on her bottom step.
    The boxes were brought in, and opened.
    So that by one thirty, the office looked as she wanted it;
    A picture of Frank, a picture of her and Frank just married, a picture of her parents, a picture of her grandparents, a picture of Furl, a picture of her and Margot, a picture of Elementals: Treasures from the Earth and Sea, a picture of her and John Giusti and Helen Giusti just married, two ivy plants, a picture of her beach shack with the sun going down behind it, a stuffed dog, a copy of her Bachelor’s Degree, two blue pennants with the word ‘Mariner’ on them, a stuffed rabbit, a stuffed bear, fifteen books of various kinds, a pillow, a big spherical glass that had snow falling in it when you shook it, a calendar, several ball point pens, a stapler, two reams of copy paper, a mouse pad for the computer—
    ––and the nameplate that said NINA BANNISTER: PRINCIPAL.
    After that, it was all something one did by instinct.
    And she had the instinct.
    She didn’t know when or how she had developed it.
    Some people never did, or never would.
    And she could not have explained how she knew what was going to happen after school at the end of her first day.
    She just did.
    Perhaps word of it had filtered down through the ventilation system.
    Perhaps she had overheard it talked of in another language, the language of students.
    How did she know?
    No matter; she just did.

    So that she was standing in a particular place in the hall when fifth period bell rang. Normal hall chaos ensued. Bodies flew by here and there and someone ran into the blue and white Mariner mascot, knocking its paper Mache sword loose and separating the gold ring from its ear.
    No matter.   That could be cleaned up later.
    Somehow, though, she singled out a student who was hurtling by in the flood of youthful humanity, much as a wrangler might cut out an unbranded calf, and, by means of an assortment of judo holds and subtle jabs and uppercuts disguised as gestures of affection, mangled him into a space beside the water fountain, where relative calm reigned.
    “Hey Jeremy.”
    “Hello, Ms. Bannister.”
    “What’s going on, Jeremy?”
    “Not much.”
    “Really?”
    “Not much at all, Ma’am.”
    “Nothing at all?”
    “No, Ma’am.”
    “That’s not what I’m hearing, Jeremy.”
    “Well…”
    “So what’s going on?”
    “I guess, maybe, I’m not sure, but, just guessing, some kids might be getting together.”
    “That so?”
    “Just what I’m hearing. Don’t know who told me.”
    “Sure.”
    “Just, you know, just getting together.”
    “This afternoon?”
    “I guess.”
    “Where?”
    “I wouldn’t know about that. Not exactly.”
    “Where?”
    “That lot behind the old Dairy Queen that’s closed.”
    “When?”
    “I don’t know for sure.”
    “When?”
    “Right after school.”
    “You going to be there?”
    “Not sure.”
    “You going to be there?”
    “No, Ma’am.”
    “Good. Well. You have a nice rest of the day, Jeremy.”
    “Yes, Ma’am.”
    And Jeremy disappeared.
    An hour and a half later, she was in the school’s mini-van, approaching Bay St. Lucy’s most disreputable neighborhood. It was not really a ‘neighborhood’ at all, though it had at one time been so. But it had fallen into disrepair and