Liars' Games (Project Chameleon Book 1) (24 page)

She watched him get into his car and pull away. It had been such a wonderful day, and she realized how lonely she’d been over the past year. Don’t get too used to having him around, she told herself. It can’t last.
But she wanted it to.

As she lay in bed
later, she thought about their date, about the nature park, and about her parents. Steve’s comment about Marcus learning to ski got her to thinking about her childhood and how little she’d done outside of school. She thought, too, about Marcus’s childhood so far. She hadn’t really taken him out to parks and other fun places in more than a year. She used to take him on weekend outings all the time when they lived in Boston. Steve was right. Marcus would love to learn to ski and deserved to get the chance.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CLAIRE TOOK VARIED routes to Nanny Kate’s apartment and to the school in the week that followed, watching through her rearview mirror for signs of the sedan. She didn’t see the car or the man again, but was afraid to let down her guard. Her new handler worried her, too, especially since he wouldn’t tell her what had happened to Brad. Work was so busy, though, that she had scant time to think about it.

Standing on the auditorium stage We
dnesday evening, Claire studied the disappointing group of about fifty parents sitting in the audience. She’d hoped for a much larger turnout for the first parent meeting. Steve, Frank, and about a dozen teachers stood along the sides of the room. After introducing herself and Ron to the group, Claire said, “Students here at Midland are struggling. Many have failing grades and are in danger of not graduating. Equally alarming is the fact that many students here are afraid for their safety. Some are continuously being bullied or threatened, some are exposed to drug usage or drug dealing on campus. Almost none will come forward and file complaints, for fear of retaliation. We also have a gang problem, one we believe to be our biggest threat. Some members want to leave their gangs but are afraid—afraid to leave because doing so places their own lives at risk with that gang.” She paused and looked around at the faces in the audience. “Teachers here are also being bullied into suboptimal practices and are at risk and in danger daily. There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of failing students are failing due to the conditions here at Midland.” She watched their reactions before continuing.

“We have created a plan to solve these and other problems so that our students and faculty can be safe and thrive.
This plan has required our faculty to engage in special training and to implement specific enforcement and engagement tactics to terminate undesired behaviors and improve school conditions. But our staff cannot wholly solve these problems on their own. Part of this plan requires the involvement of parents and the community. We need your support and your help.”

She paused
again, waiting for any response from the audience. Other than a few coughs, the room was silent. Continuing, she said, “One way you can help immediately is to talk to other parents of Midland High students, encouraging them to also become involved.”

“What is it you want people to do?”
someone yelled.

Claire looked for the speaker.

A plump middle-aged woman was standing up and waving her arms. “We got jobs to do. How we s’posed to help out in a school?”

“
Good question. There are many things you can do. Some could volunteer during school if they have time, others can tutor students after school or in the evening. All of you attending more of these parent meetings and talking about your concerns and your ideas for improving things will help.”

Ron stood up and walked toward Claire. He held another microphone.
He said, “We could also use guest speakers at some of our school-wide assemblies. We’re trying to open up the lines of communication between students, teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders. What we’d also like from you, as parents, is to talk with your kids. Maybe you have some real life experience you’d like to share, such as mistakes you’ve made and learned from. You likely don’t know this, but when I was in eighth grade, I was in a gang for a short time. I wasn’t a bad kid, but I was coerced into joining. I’m going to talk to the students about that experience and try to get them to open up.”

A man stood up. “I was in prison for five years. Did time for drug dealing. Clean now. I could talk to ‘em.”

“We would appreciate your talking to them. Sharing your experience with them, sharing the consequences you suffered and what you learned would be great.”

Several more parents spoke up and offered help.

Claire noticed that many were still frowning or sitting with their arms crossed. It’ll take time, she told herself.

Steve walked her out to her car after the meeting, and they stood outside talking for a few minutes about the meeting. “I think you’re doing a great job,”
he said. “It’s not easy, even for someone who’s been there for a long time, and here you’ve only been at the school less than two months. I’m very impressed.”

“I didn’t think
I could do this. I can’t tell you how close I came to giving up. And we still don’t know if what we’re doing will help.”

“No,
we don’t. It’s too soon to tell, but that fact you’ve gotten this far is amazing.”

As she got into her car, Steve leaned in and said, “And if I forgot to tell you, I really enjoyed our day together in Colorado Springs. Let’s plan something again, soon, okay? I have a funeral to go to out of town this weekend. My uncle. I told you about him the other day. But next week?”

At the second parent
s’ meeting two days later, on Friday, the turnout was larger, perhaps ninety attendees this time, not including teachers. Before the meeting officially started, Frank came and sat at the back of the room. Claire walked over and sat next to him for a moment.

“I’m glad you came. Why don’t you sit up front?”

He smiled. “This is your party. I’m just here for moral support. Go get ‘em.”

“Thanks.” She got up and walked toward the front of the room, but glance
d back once, with a smile.

After
the first parents’ meeting she and Ron had discussed many of the initial ideas proposed by parents and teachers, the most ambitious and the one they ultimately chose being a face lift of the school by employees, students, and parents. This involved painting the interior, cleaning and waxing the floors, general cleaning up of classrooms and washrooms, and trimming the bushes around the exterior of the building.

After her opening remarks Claire said,
“We need your help. We want to give the school a face lift, but cannot afford to hire outside help to do the actual work. We propose a community team building project, getting all of us involved, employees, faculty, students, and parents. By all working on this together, instead of trying to fund raise to hire outside help, the project can build team spirit, camaraderie, and pride in both our community and our school. Not only that, but by having students and faculty take part in the work, they’ll be more likely to keep it nice looking. If we can get your support and help, we can pull this off. This can be a win-win scenario for all of us.”

“How you gonna get the money to pay for all that?” a parent asked.

“Great question. We’ve already spoken to a couple paint store managers and owners. Two of them have generously offered to donate supplies, including paint, brushes, rollers, drop cloths and other materials needed. We also talked to one of the major hardware chains and they agreed to donate mulch for around the exterior of the building. We were hoping, too, that parents and teachers might also have some extra supplies at home, like brushes, rollers, roller pans, ladders, rakes, trimming tools, etc. that they could bring in and use or loan to students to use.”

“I’ve got a painting business,” a man said. “I’ll help, as long as you can get some of those lazy kids to help. I’m not doing it for them.”

“Thank you. Our goal is to get everyone involved—students, teachers, and parents; especially our students. Most of our staff have already volunteered to help. We’ll be proposing the plan to the students on Monday. We must get at least twenty-five percent of the students to volunteer, or we won’t go forward with the plan. That’s something we all agreed on. We plan to do this over a weekend, so it should not interfere with most work schedules. A few of the local pizza places have agreed to provide pizzas for lunch. The superintendent and I have agreed to provide soft drinks and hot dogs for everyone working. Perhaps some of you can volunteer to head up the food committee and we would love for some of you to bring a dish, cookies, chips or other food to share. We can make this fun.”

“If that’s true, you can count me in.” At least twenty more parents
chimed in with their commitment.

“Thank you. That will be wonderful.” Clair
e wrapped up the meeting with a few timing details and initial assignments, then thanked everyone again for coming and for their support.

She drove home, thinking about the meeting and about Steve.
He’d called her earlier in the day to say he was still out of town, but asked her out again for the following week when he would be back from his trip. For the first time in months, she wasn’t worrying about anything.

Over the weekend, Claire packed Marcus in the car and drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park. She’d been too busy lately to give him the kind of attention he needed. Since he’d recently indicated an interest in science, she figured he’d enjoy getting out and learning about nature. The thought of the stranger who’d been watching them was an added reason to get out of town for a while.

At the
student assembly on Monday, approximately one-third of the students seemed enthusiastic about painting and fixing up the school from what Claire could tell. They would have a better idea of participation later in the week, as she’d given all teachers a sign-up sheet for homeroom classes. They would start getting students to sign up and commit to volunteering for the project beginning Tuesday morning.

After the assembly, Claire went to Mr. Owens’
s classroom. She’d spoken to him about her talking to one of his math classes. She slipped into the room and waited in the back while the teacher finished speaking to his students.

By way of introduction, Mr. Owens said, “
Ms. Constantine is here this morning to talk with you about something related to math, but don’t worry, you won’t be tested on it.”

“Thank you, Mr. Owens.” Claire walked to the front of the room. “Have any of you ever heard of Game Theory?”

No one responded, other than with shuffling of feet and books.

“Well, basically Game Theory is a mathematical analysis of any situation involving a conflict of interest, where the person analyzing is trying to find the optimal choices that, under given conditions, will lead to a desired outcome.”

Students were looking at her with a dazed look on their faces.

“Have any of you ever played checkers or poker or tick-tack-toe?”

Almost everyone nodded.

“All right, then. You have
actually already had some exposure to Game Theory. I won’t bore you with the background of the theory, except to tell you it was first explored by a French mathematician. During World War II military strategists used game theory to help them win the war. After that, the theory was picked up by people in the social sciences.”

Six students in the back of the room began whispering. Three students near the front were texting on their mobile
phones. Someone on the left side of the room let out a wolf whistle. Claire couldn’t tell where that came from. All she knew for sure was that she was losing the students’ interest fast.

L
ooking closely at the students, she recognized many of them. Some she had dealt with in her office for some problem or offense, some others were students who had been on suspension for drugs found in their cars during the police department’s search.

That gave her an idea. It might not be the wisest thing do, however,
but it might get the idea across.

“Have any of you ever heard of the famous game known as the Prisoner's Dilemma?”

The whispering stopped, and the students turned to look at Claire. She’d captured their interest.

“In this game two players are partners in a crime
. They have been captured by the police. The police have evidence to convict the two for auto theft, but not for their suspected robbery. Each suspect is placed in a separate cell away from one another. Each is offered the opportunity to confess to the crime.

“If one of them confesses to the robbery and the other does not, the deal was that the confessor would go free and the other would incur a ten year sentence in prison. If both confessed, then each would be given a reduced six year prison sentence.”

A few heads nodded. Students were sitting up now, clearly interested.

“
If neither suspect confessed, they would both be convicted of car theft and receive a three year sentence.”

One student said “So they are better off promising each other to not confess.”

“Not really. You see, even though keeping silent offers the lowest dual sentence for both, for each individual criminal, their best outcome is to shoot for freedom and no prison sentence, and therefore to break any made promise and confess. Each criminal must assume that the other will be tempted by the chance of no prison sentence and will therefore confess. The solution is that the criminals will look after their own best interest, will confess, and take the police department’s deal.”

Several students nodded.

“There is a simple mathematical game theory logic for this behavior. Each criminal has two choices, either remain silent or confess. If criminal one confesses and two remains silent or confesses, criminal one receives either zero or six years in prison. But if criminal one remains silent, then criminal two remains silent or confesses, resulting in either three years or ten years in prison. This is also true for criminal two. The choice is either zero or six on the one hand, or three and ten on the other.”