Goodbye, Mr. Terupt, page 11
“Danielle, look,” I urged, trying to keep my voice low so I didn’t spook Suzie.
“She’s starting,” Danielle whispered. “This is it.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said, getting up from my pail and standing at the rail. I was about to witness the miracle of life for the first time. I turned around and reached for Danielle’s hand, pulling her up to the fence so that she was next to me. The last girl’s hand I’d held was Jessica’s, I suddenly remembered, feeling bad—but that was a long time ago, I reassured myself.
Danielle and I stayed there, holding hands and barely breathing, for the entire birth. We watched as the newborn calf’s head poked out. Then little by little, Suzie pushed the rest of the calf’s body out of hers until it fell free and landed on the ground. Suzie turned around and immediately started licking her baby. That part was super gross, but equally fascinating.
“That was incredible,” I said, turning to Danielle. “Thank you.”
She smiled, and then looked away. We continued watching Suzie groom her newborn, the mother-child bond on full display. I recorded countless notes in my journal. I was still scribbling away when Danielle said she needed to use the bathroom. I told her to go and she promised not to be gone that long. I continued observing.
IF you want to make the best possible observations, THEN a closer view will help.
I expected to find Luke still hunched over his notebook when I returned. I’d made it quick like I promised. I don’t know if he got bored, wanted a better look, or if he was testing some wild hypothesis, but it never even occurred to me to tell him to stay out of the pen.
The moment I saw he was missing, a feeling of doom seized me because I knew. I ran to the rail and searched the pen area. He was in there, carefully circling around Suzie and her newborn calf, continuing to record his notes.
“Luke, don’t get any closer!” I warned, but it was too late.
Suzie locked her eyes on him and lowered her head. He was a threat to her baby.
“Get out of there!” I yelled.
Suzie charged.
Luke dropped his notebook and scampered for the nearest exit. He wasn’t going to make it.
“Hurry!” I yelled. “Hurry!”
He reached the fence and started climbing, but Suzie was closing in fast. I couldn’t watch. I cringed and buried my face in my hands, but that didn’t keep me from hearing the loud bang as Suzie rammed into the railing and Luke’s scream that followed.
Slowly, I peeked. Luke was on the other side of the fence, sprawled flat on the ground. I rushed over to him.
“Are you okay?”
“I twisted my ankle,” he said, and grimaced. “It hurts.”
“Stay here,” I ordered. “I’ll get the four-wheeler.”
“You can drive?” he asked. “You’re amazing.”
I grinned. “Sit still. I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.”
I ran into the house and told Mom and Grandma what had happened. They called Mr. Bennett while I took the four-wheeler and got Luke. When I returned Mom helped me move him inside and onto the couch. Grandma took a bag of frozen peas out of the freezer and put it on Luke’s ankle.
“Why did Suzie do that?” he asked. “She’s always been so gentle and nice.”
“You don’t mess with a mother and her baby,” Grandma explained. “You won’t find anything more protective in all of nature.”
He nodded. “I guess so.”
“Look at the bright side,” I said. “You lived to tell about it.”
He chuckled. “I’ve learned so much. Thank you for helping me, Danielle.”
I smiled, but I had to look away again.
A few minutes later Luke’s dad knocked on the door and Grandma let him in. After some small talk and explaining exactly what had happened, Mr. Bennett loaded Luke into his car and off they went to the emergency room for X-rays.
“Quite the day,” Grandma mused after they’d driven away.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“I like that Luke. He’s a nice boy,” she said.
I nodded, but quickly changed the subject. Grandma was on to me.
“Mom, can you take me to the school since it’s not too late? I’d like to help Mr. Terupt with the tournament, and I should tell the rest of the gang about Luke.”
“Yes, of course. Let me get my jacket.”
Grandma cast me a suspicious glance, but she would have to wait to interrogate me. Thank goodness, because I wasn’t quite ready for that. And I definitely wasn’t ready for what I saw on the way to school.
Jeffrey’s performance won him the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler Award. The trophy was almost as tall as Asher. It was one big reminder that he was definitely way better without me. I was ready to get out of there.
“Champion or not, he’s still a jerk for what he did to you, Anna,” Lexie said. “And like, I’ve run out of patience waiting for him to apologize. If he doesn’t do it by the end of my New Year’s Eve party, he’s going to be sorry. Sorry because he won’t be able to kiss you when the ball drops and sorry because he’s gonna have my fist to answer to.”
“Guys,” Danielle called, running up to us. She was out of breath and looked shaken.
“What’s wrong?” Jessica asked. “Where’s Luke?”
Before Danielle could answer Mr. Terupt was by our sides. “Did Suzie have her calf?” he asked, excited.
Danielle gave a slight nod but didn’t say anything. Something was wrong. I saw it in the way she looked at him. In the way she looked at me. There was something even more wrong than what had happened between us that morning.
There was nothing poetic about what happened next.
“So how’d it go? And where’s Luke?” Mr. Terupt asked Danielle, glancing around the gym.
Danielle swallowed. “Mr. Terupt,” she croaked. “Are you moving?”
He froze.
“Are you moving…away?” Danielle asked a second time, her voice shaking. “I saw a For Sale sign in your front yard on my way here.”
I stopped breathing.
Mr. Terupt let out a heavy sigh. “You weren’t supposed to find out like this.”
These weren’t the results I’d been worried about. This wasn’t supposed to happen—Teach moving to be closer to Mrs. Teach’s family. What about us?
I couldn’t. I ran.
My already broken heart found a way to break again.
Dear God,
Please. We can’t lose him again.
The exhilaration of getting my arm raised in victory was nothing compared to the devastation I felt when Jessica told us the news about Terupt after Lexie sprinted out of the gym.
After all we did to save his butt last year, he was just up and moving like it was no big deal. Moving to be near Mrs. T’s family.
We were his family before she was.
Even though X-rays confirmed that I only had a sprain, my ankle was still killing me—but all the pain went to my heart when we drove past Mr. Terupt’s house on the way home and I saw the sign sitting on his front lawn.
Signs
can say many things.
Stop
Yield
or
For Sale,
on my teacher’s front lawn.
Never fear
Mr. Terupt will make it better;
he always does.
But how can he
when he’s moving…
away.
Danielle wasn’t supposed to be at the wrestling tournament, so I had arranged to get a ride home with Lexie. Danielle left with her mother and her own hurt feelings. We never talked about what had happened that morning. We never talked about Mr. Terupt moving. We never talked.
And that wasn’t all that never happened. Lexie’s big plans for her New Year’s Eve bash fell through too. It went without saying, none of us felt like partying or celebrating after learning about Mr. Terupt.
That explains why I was sitting at home on New Year’s Eve with Mom and Charlie. Their going-out plans also got canceled because Charlie wasn’t feeling the best. So the three of us had a quiet, boring night of watching the ball drop on TV. It wasn’t until Mom came into my room to say good night that things got exciting.
I was sitting on my bed with my broken heart and sadness when Mom plopped next to me, all happy-go-lucky, glowing and acting as if all was well.
“Anna, you’ve been extra quiet all day. Did something happen at the wrestling tournament yesterday?”
That was it. That was all it took. I lost it. I’d been holding on to too much, and it came spilling out in a hot blubbering mess.
“Anna!” Mom cried in alarm. She pulled me close and held me, gently rocking while I sobbed and sobbed. When I’d finally calmed down enough to talk, I began telling her about Jeffrey and then Mr. Terupt’s news. It was easier to tell her about those things than it was the jealous feelings I’d been harboring since summer.
“The Jeffrey bit will work itself out in time,” Mom said. “That’s part of growing up. The Mr. Terupt news is part of life. These things happen, Anna. When people get married and have children, things change. Priorities change. Family dynamics change.”
“I know,” I croaked. “Our family dynamics have already changed.”
“What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath.
“Anna, what do you mean?” Mom asked again.
“It’s just different now,” I said. “It’s been different for a while. You and I haven’t had lunch together or a mother-daughter movie night in…It just feels like you don’t have time for me anymore. I love Charlie, but—”
“Anna, you listen to me. No matter what, no matter how things may seem, I’m always here for you. I promise. But you’ve got to come to me when you need me, because I won’t always know. Life gets busy and I might miss the signs. Communication is key in every relationship. Husband-wife, mother-daughter, sister-sister, sister-brother.”
I scowled. Why did she include that last one?
“Do you promise to come to me when you need me?” Mom asked. “Do you promise to communicate?”
I nodded. “I promise.”
“Good. Then there’s something I need to tell you. I wanted to tell everyone at Christmas, but it’s still early and things can happen, so Charlie and I decided to hold off. You need to keep it secret for now.”
“Keep what secret? What’re you talking about?”
“Anna, I’m pregnant.”
I couldn’t tell you if the girls or Luke talked to Mr. T when we returned to school in January, but Jeffrey and I sure didn’t. We didn’t even talk about him. What was there to say? The guy had betrayed us.
When it came time for our first wrestling practice after having learned the news, we just put our heads down and went to work. We drilled harder than we had all year—fueled by anger. Watching us, one would’ve thought we were having a great workout, but we couldn’t wait to get out of there, away from the traitor. As soon as practice ended, we made a beeline for the locker room.
“Jeffrey. Peter,” T called, stopping us before we made it. “I need to talk to you for a minute.”
Here it comes, I thought. His stupid apology and sob story. I didn’t want any of it.
We waited for him to catch up to us, but we still didn’t look at him. “I talked to Coach Jennings,” T said. “He saw you guys wrestle in the finals at the holiday tournament. He wants you to start practicing with them tomorrow.”
“Boy, you can’t wait to get rid of us, can you?” I snapped. I couldn’t hold my anger inside any longer.
T scowled. “I’m not even going to respond to that. We have advising at the end of the week, and we can talk about it then. Right now, I’m telling you what Coach Jennings said.”
My muscles tensed. I clenched my teeth. Jeffrey and I were supposed to make the move to the varsity team together, but what did that stuff even matter anymore? I turned and walked away.
I stood there after Peter stormed off. I couldn’t get myself to move. Terupt could see something was eating at me.
“What is it?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Do you really think we’re ready?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, Jeffrey. You’re the ones who need to believe it. But yes, I think you’re ready.”
Thoughts raced through my mind. I’d been angry with Terupt ever since I learned he was moving, but now I was beginning to feel something different.
“What else?” he said, knowing I was hanging on to more.
“It’s just…I was excited about the thought of going to varsity, but now I know this is my last practice with you…and I’m not sure I want to move up anymore.”
Coach Terupt blinked. “You know I always have your best interests in mind, and moving up is what’s best for you and Peter. You’ll have better practice partners and competition, and that will help you keep getting better.”
I nodded.
“I’ll swing by the varsity practices when I can, and I’m going to do my best to make it to as many of your matches as possible.”
“Okay,” I said.
“You just need to promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“You’re still going to be the hardest worker.”
“You can count on that,” I said.
IF Mr. Terupt moves away, THEN the gang will fall apart.
That was the last statement I wanted to prove, but the data was already supporting it. The gang hadn’t been together since getting walloped by Mr. Terupt’s news. I had seen Danielle at the farm—even though I was hobbling around on crutches with my foot in an air cast, my project couldn’t wait—and that was when she’d filled me in on what I’d missed at the tournament. It wasn’t until our first January advising session that we were all together again.
“How were your holidays?” Mr. Terupt asked, trying to start a conversation.
We responded by staring at the floor and shrugging our shoulders.
He sighed. “Okay, no beating around the bush. Best just to get it out there. Sara and I will be moving after the school year ends—whether our house sells or not.”
I’d been thinking we could sneak over and vandalize Mr. Terupt’s house to prevent anyone from purchasing it, but if he was going no matter what, then I could forget that idea, which came as a relief.
IF you ever have an idea that sounds like something Peter could or would contrive, THEN it’s probable you’ve gone too far.
What we needed was a Luke Idea, not a Peter Idea, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
“We’re moving,” Mr. Terupt repeated. “There’s no stopping this one, gang. So please don’t try. That’ll only make things harder.”
“But why?” Lexie croaked. “I thought you liked it here.”
“We love it here,” Mr. Terupt said, “but we want to be closer to Sara’s family. We want Hope and our next baby and any babies after that to be close to Grandma and Grandpa and aunts and uncles.”
This was all about family—a mother’s love and looking out for her children. Suzie had shown me there was no stopping that.
“Family is most important,” Jessica whispered, and sniffled.
“It is,” Mr. Terupt agreed. “It’s what brought your father here. He dropped everything for the chance to get back what he lost.”
“And now you’re dropping us,” Peter added, his voice cold.
“Don’t say it like that,” Mr. Terupt said. “If I could have it both ways, you know I would. This is the way life plays out sometimes. You’ve got to find a way to make the most of it.”
Make the most of it, I thought. “I have a way,” I blurted. It had hit me out of nowhere, the way these things did sometimes. “It’s an idea for our final project.”
“A project?” Peter exploded. “Like that’s going to make everything better. For such a brainiac, you can be really stupid sometimes.” He grabbed his stuff and barged out the door. None of us tried to stop him, not even Mr. Terupt. Was this the beginning of the gang falling apart?
Mr. Terupt frowned. “It’s understandable if you’re upset with me, but please don’t take it out on each other. In the end, it’s one another you’ll have to lean on.”
That was Jeffrey’s cue. He was the next to grab his things.
“Go check on him,” Mr. Terupt said.
Jeffrey gave a slight nod and we watched him go.
“Luke, let’s hear about your idea,” Mr. Terupt said, returning his attention to the rest of us.
I glanced at the girls, who appeared ready to listen. I swallowed and then started explaining.
IF it was a good project, THEN maybe there would be hope for the gang yet.
I went to advising hoping Terupt would say something to Peter to fix him. At this point, I’d been to three varsity practices and Peter had gone to none. He’d skipped all of them. He hadn’t put on his wrestling shoes since the day Terupt told us we were moving up. Coach Jennings had asked me where Peter was, and I’d covered for him, pretending he was sick. But that wasn’t going to work forever. Terupt needed to confront Peter. That was all there was to it. He needed to say something to get Peter’s head screwed on right again. Terupt fixed stuff like that.
But when advising came, no fixing happened. Peter blew up when Luke mentioned another project, and then he grabbed his stuff and barged out the door. Terupt never even tried to stop him.
