Chapter Five

By the time Jayden had wrangled Tiffany back into the dining room, Tiffany’s two teammates had cleaned up the spilled food and were now on their knees with scrub brushes. Jayden pulled up a chair beside Elijah, sat down, and pointed to the third scrub brush. “I believe that belongs to you. In case the three of you haven’t been formally introduced, this is Tiffany Jordan.” Jayden pointed at the redheaded girl.

“If you ever do something like this again, I’m going to shove your face into the food you throw on the floor,” Ashlyn growled.

“And I’ll hold you down while she does it,” Carmella added.

“That’s between you three,” Jayden said. “Tiffany is here for shoplifting and for cyberbullying. She posted a picture of a classmate wearing only a bra and panties that included a nasty comment about only ugly girls wearing granny panties. Tiffany, this girl right here with the pink in her hair that will either be cut off or dyed to match the rest of her hair is Ashlyn Causey. She’s here for a third DUI in the past two months. And the other one is Carmella Ruiz, who was caught shoplifting. Now, y’all feel free to visit while you get the stains up off Miss Mary’s floor, and then we’ll go to our cabin and talk about rules.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Carmella and Ashlyn said with so much venom that Jayden should have been nothing but bones and hair on the floor.

A full ten seconds later, Tiffany dropped to her knees and muttered, “Yes, ma’am.”

Elijah motioned for Jayden to follow him outside. She hoped that she hadn’t gone too far with her discipline on her first day. He could always fire her if she had, she thought as she pulled a paper napkin from the dispenser in the middle of the table, wiped sweat from her forehead, and stepped around the three girls. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to check on your progress.”

Elijah was sitting on the park bench when she arrived, and he patted the place beside him.

She sat down and wiped even more sweat from her forehead. “It’s hotter’n hell out here. Do you think I was too rough on them?”

He shook his head. “Not one bit. I wanted to tell you that, but not in front of the girls. It’s a lot harder to tighten the reins later than it is to let up on them once the girls begin to figure things out. Did you ever have to deal with a kid throwing their food on the floor before today, and did you make someone else help clean it up?”

“Oh, yeah,” she answered. “I doubt that these kids can do much of anything I haven’t seen or dealt with before, but I seldom have the backing of an administration. If I’d told a kid that she had to take the slop bucket to the hogs, I would have had six or eight sets of parents and grandparents filing a lawsuit against me personally, the school, and the school board. Making the teammates help clean it up will make them all responsible for each other. It’s a good lesson to learn.”

“How did Tiffany do with feeding the hogs?” Elijah didn’t really want to talk about hogs, but he couldn’t figure out a way to start a conversation about Jayden.

“She dry-heaved when she caught a whiff of their perfume. I’m glad you’ve got all kinds of animals here. The girls are going to love gathering eggs and baling hay for the cows. Which reminds me, who does all this work when you don’t have little lawbreakers around?”

“Henry and I do pretty good during those times,” Elijah answered. “Why? Are you looking for a full-time job?”

“No, sir!” Jayden threw up both hands. “There’s not enough money in the world to keep me here or to bring me back after the first of August.”

“I said that once upon a time, too.” Elijah flashed a bright smile toward her. “But the place kind of grows on you.”

“It can’t grow that much.” Jayden got up and headed back inside.

“Oh, but, darlin’, it can,” Elijah muttered as he headed toward the barn.

Jayden helped Mary spray the trays with hot water and then load them into a commercial dishwasher. “I’d tell all my secrets to have a dishwasher like this in my apartment. I wouldn’t have to do dishes for a week at a time.” She lowered her voice so only Mary could hear. “Do you think I’m being too rough on them?”

Mary shook her head. “Honey, here at first, you’ve got to put up those walls that Henry told you about. Later, you can be their friend, but not this first week. I don’t think any of us would have handled that as slick as you did. Now, it’s time to give them the good cleaner so they can finish that job.” She nodded toward a bottle that said “Stain Remover” on the label.

Jayden took it off the shelf and carried it over to where the girls were still on their knees. “See if this works any better.” She sat down in a chair at the next table and watched them.

“How do we use it?” Tiffany asked.

“For cryin’ out loud.” Carmella jerked it out of her hand. “Are you too dumb to read the label?”

“Don’t get all high-and-mighty on me. We’ve both been caught shoplifting, so you aren’t a bit better than me, and Ashlyn is a drunk so she’s damn sure not any better than I am,” Tiffany shot back at her.

Carmella looked down her nose at Tiffany. “Let me show you how this is done. First you read the directions. If the words are too big for you to understand, then you ask someone for help.”

“You are a bitch,” Tiffany hissed.

Carmella ignored her, sprayed the stain remover on the floor, and ran the scrub brush over it. “Pay attention to how I’m doing this, and you do the same thing.” She handed the spray bottle back to Tiffany. “And, honey, you better not call me that again. A demerit would be a small price to pay to get to wipe up this floor with your red hair.”

Virtual flames shot out of Tiffany’s eyes when she sprayed a section of the floor and began to run the scrub brush over it. “I need rubber gloves.”

“Did you have gloves when you dumped the tray?” Carmella asked.

“My hands are going to be ruined,” Tiffany whined without answering the question.

“Well, duh!” Ashlyn held up her hands. “I’ve already broken three nails and chipped the polish that I just had done yesterday on the rest of them. And it’s your fault, so don’t bitch about your hands.”

Carmella groaned as she looked at her own ruined manicure. “I wouldn’t do this for my best friend.”

“Neither would I,” Tiffany agreed, “but they’d do it for me without bitchin’ all the time about it.”

“Why?” Ashlyn asked. “Because you probably took the fall for them. Well, I’ll be willing to bet a hundred dollars that when you get home, all those friends will have deserted you. They won’t want to be around someone who spent time in boot camp instead of going to parties.”

“I’ve got friends. I just didn’t rat them out,” Tiffany declared.

“I’m so sure they appreciate that a hell of a lot,” Ashlyn said. “What are they doing right now? Huh? No answer? I’ll tell you what your friends are doing. They’re out having a wonderful summer while you’re in here, and when you go home, they won’t even know your name.”