Her First Mistake by Carey Baldwin (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

but today she’d allowed additional time. Over the weekend, a spate of news stories had aired regarding Celeste’s disappearance and its possible connection to the murder of an Arizona woman and the disappearance of a Colorado coed. Unfortunately, one channel also ran footage of Mia’s scuffle with that reporter at St Michael’s.

If she’d seen it, Pinkerman would surely want to discuss it.

The edited video from inside the sanctuary made Mia look deranged. Channel Four News had failed to air the portion in which the reporter accidentally shoved Alma. Instead, they’d shown, out-of-context, Mia lunging for the reporter and tumbling on top of her onto a pew with the following voice over:

Cooper family spokesperson, Mia Thornton, attacks local reporter. Pins her down and threatens her with bodily harm.

Some of which was a distortion of the truth, and some of which—the threatening with bodily harm bit—was a bald-face lie.

Nor had Mia claimed to be the family spokesperson.

That false report had caused Mia problems with Aunt Misty, who was already paranoid about the Coopers, and who, after watching the report, broke open her for-dire-circumstances-only bottle of tequila.

Mia pressed her palms to her temples to mitigate the throbbing in her head. The way things were going, she saw zero chance that Pinkerman wouldn’t be mad. With downcast eyes, she passed the teachers’ lounge, then turned the corner into the long hallway that led to the classrooms and to the director’s office. The thud of a heavy door closing, followed by the slap of shoes on tile, made her raise her gaze. And there, posed with her back to Mia’s classroom, lurked Ruth Hudson.

Mia had been too lost in thought to see exactly where Ruth had come from. Was she looking for Mia? She forced her best Miss Mia smile into place for Tennyson, but he wasn’t trailing timidly behind his mother like usual. She raised a hand in greeting, but Ruth didn’t make eye contact.

She rushed past so closely Mia could smell her gardenia-scented body lotion.

She wanted to believe Ruth must be in a terrible hurry, but she couldn’t quite reassure herself. Ruth had obviously seen her, and Mia would’ve hoped for at least a smile as a show of support—a sign that Ruth understood there must be more to the story than what she’d seen on TV.

“Mia…” Pinkerman poked her head out of her office and motioned. “May I see you for a moment?”

Once inside Pinkerman’s office, seated across from the stern-faced director of Harbor Youth Academy, Mia felt sweat dampen the back of her neck. She clasped her hands, waiting, wondering, as she often did, what prompted Pinkerman to wear her beautiful, thick black hair slicked into a topknot that had long since gone out of fashion, even for schoolmarms. Her cold appearance didn’t jive with the welcoming tone of her office, with its walls covered in children’s drawings and posters of kittens. Mia sometimes thought that the director of Harbor Youth Academy’s stark style might be overcompensating for a soft heart. Or maybe it was simply that it was harder for a woman in a position of authority to be taken seriously.

“Mia, I’ve known you a long time—” Pinkerman tapped some papers on her desk to align the edges “—and I’ve never observed you to be violent or confrontational in any way.”

The nervous fluttering in Mia’s stomach settled.

“But what I saw on the news shocked me.”

“I can explain.” Mia’s voice cracked, making it seem as though she was guilty of something.

“Good. Because we’ve had a complaint.”

So soon? “From whom?”

“If you don’t mind, I prefer to begin with your explanation. You did say you have one.”

Mia nodded. “Alma Cooper needed a ride to church, so I gave her one.”

“That was good of you. But I was surprised to learn you were the family spokesperson. Pardon my saying so, but I didn’t think you and Celeste were close.”

“I’m not the spokesperson, and Celeste and I aren’t close.” She shut her eyes, grasping for something both positive and true to say about her relationship with Celeste. “She was going to join my book club.”

When she opened her eyes, Pinkerman lifted an eyebrow in challenge.

“No, really, she asked her father to pick up a copy of Jane Eyre. But as I was saying, Alma and I—”

Pinkerman’s other eyebrow went up.

“I mean Mrs. Cooper and I went to light a candle for Celeste, and a group of reporters tailed us. One reporter followed us inside and later shoved Mrs. Cooper. She said it was an accident, but Alma would’ve fallen if I hadn’t been there to catch her. So when the reporter reached for Alma a second time, I stepped in.”

“You knocked the reporter down.”

“No. I put my arms around her to stop her, and I’m not exactly sure what happened after that. One of us stumbled, I think. Then, the next thing I knew, she was underneath me on the pew.”

“Why didn’t you get off right away?”

“I should have, but honestly, I was angry, and I wanted her to promise to leave the Coopers alone.”

“I believe you.” Pinkerman rubbed her jaw. “But the problem is the complaint came from Ruth Hudson, so I can’t ignore it.”

“Ruth?” Mia should’ve known when she’d seen her in the hallway.

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised. Her husband is on the board. The Hudsons have a vested interest in preserving Harbor Youth Academy’s outstanding reputation—as do we all. It isn’t seemly for one of our teachers to be wrestling around with a reporter. It makes you look unhinged.”

“I understand.” Mia had thought Ruth would’ve given her the benefit of the doubt. “And I promise nothing like this will ever happen again. I’ll apologize to the board and to Ruth.”

“I’m not sure that’s good enough. Mrs. Hudson has requested Tennyson be transferred to Jane’s class.”

“But…” Mia didn’t finish her thought. Jane had a way with all the kids, and Mia would never raise a concern over her competence. It was only that Tennyson had his challenges, and he and Mia