Finding Mayhem

by Layla Frost

My first week working from home had been a wild success. Well, minus that Monday. After staying too long at the cookout, my redecorating plans fell behind schedule. I’d been fortunate that Alice’s aunt had left behind a beautiful wooden desk in the corner of the living room. Since that sucker was too heavy to move, I’d tried to set a nice background. Tried. There was only so much I could do when even the wallpaper was ugly as sin. Every student I video-chatted with that first day had roasted me like a marshmallow over Ward’s fire pit. I didn’t care. That kind of joking was how teenagers showed affection and acceptance. Like hazing. I was pretty sure. Maybe. Hopefully. That was what I told myself, at least. After that first day—and a ton of cleaning—things had slowly begun to settle. The students seemed to prefer the virtual meetings. I got follow-up emails from students who’d ghosted me. At the request of one student, I’d created a messaging number so I could text without having to share my actual phone number. I’d expected to be inundated with inappropriate or prank messages, but I hadn’t. Well, not yet. Instead, it’d opened another avenue of communication that the kids felt more comfortable with. I loved being a school psychologist. It wasn’t a job I’d fallen into or settled for. It was something I’d wanted to do ever since my own high school psychologist had helped me after my parents died. I had, however, been fortunate to find a job at a great independent school fille...