Phoenix Inheritance (2 page)

Chapter Two

Renee Black stored the last of her full gas canisters in the backyard shed. There. That was enough to keep the generator going for days. Even if the early snowfall materialized and knocked out power, she and Charlie would be all set.

The old-fashioned ring tone of her cell phone echoed in the quiet air of her backyard and she tugged the phone out of the pocket of her military-style peacoat.

Please don't be Charlie's school, please don't be Charlie's school.

It was Charlie's school.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Black? This is Principal Partnope.”

“Yes? Is something wrong? Is Charlie okay?”

“Your son is fine now, Ms. Black, but we really need you to come immediately. How soon can you be here?”

“What happened?” She hated when they did this, told her to come down without telling her exactly why.

“We've had an incident. It's best we discuss this in person. Will you be able to come?”

“I'm already on my way.” She dug out the keys to her pickup from the coat. “Is my son okay?”

“He's calm and safe now.”

Now. Implying he hadn't been before.
Oh, Charlie.
How bad had it been this time? “What happened?” she asked again.

“I'll explain when you get here. Thank you, Ms. Black.”

He hung up on her. Dammit. The least he could do was give her some hint what had happened instead of making her run fifty million scary scenarios in her head on the way. She whistled for Thor and Loki. Her search-and-rescue-trained German Shepherds came bounding over from the other side of the yard. She knelt down and hugged them, noting the white on their muzzles, which struck her as especially prominent today. They were elderly dogs by regular standards and especially old for SAR dogs, as the work took a toll. Any day they could get outside and romp was a good day for them. She dreaded the coming of winter. They felt the cold so much now.

“I heard you barking at some animal, boys. What did you find?” They didn't chase squirrels. They knew better. Maybe it was the stray cat Charlie had spotted over the last few days. “I guess it doesn't matter. In the house you go!”

She pointed and they headed inside through the open garage and through the doggie door. She pulled her truck out, closed the garage door, and drove down her long, winding driveway at a higher speed than she should have. She'd made this kind of trip far too often lately.

Charlie needed routine and order. He was already on a 504 Plan—special accommodations—because of his diagnosis of autism.

She stayed hyper-alert around Charlie because if she spotted the signs of an incoming meltdown, she could head it off. But Charlie's teacher had a full classroom and couldn't do the same.

She'd asked the school for full psychological testing that might result in Charlie being classified as special ed and being given an aide who could watch him fulltime at school, like she did at home. Charlie's teacher, Mr. Lamoreux, was on her side but he kept saying the principal, Partnope, was against it. Partnope had given her an entire litany of excuses as to why they should put off testing.

“He's not that impaired.” “His grades are very good.” “His behavior chart, full of rewards, will be a big help.”

A big help?
It obviously hadn't helped today.

Every time she convinced herself her son was stabilizing, the school called again. It was one step forward, two steps back.

A text alert blared from her phone. She ignored it while she drove along the twisty corners of the back road. Only when she entered the center of Bernard and stopped at the main traffic light did she glance at the text. It was from the school too, but this time a general message informing parents the school had an early release because of the impending snow.

The light turned and, as she went through the intersection, she noticed the traffic was heavier than usual. Likely everyone was preparing for the storm.

Once she reached the school, finding a parking space was nearly impossible. She finally parked the truck on the grassy divider between the two main lots.

The office buzzed her in the front door without even asking for her name. After her many visits over the past two months, the staff knew her by sight. She ran her hand over her hair to smooth it down and unzipped her jacket. Only then did she realize she was still wearing her Captain Marvel “Princess Sparklefists” superhero T-shirt.

She bet Principal Partnope wouldn't get the joke. Add that to the old peacoat and her looking ragged because of this morning's work outside, and she'd earn Partnope's disdain again. Maybe if she wore designer clothes and shoes like half the women in town instead of her jeans, work boots and her geeky T-shirts, the principal would take her more seriously.

Steeling herself for yet another confrontation, she opened the front door to the school office. Dorothy, the office manager, smiled at her. “Good to see you, Ms. Black.”

Dorothy, impeccable as always in a pretty sweater, seemed glad to see her. “Good to see you too. Where's Charlie? Is he okay?”

“He's fine, Ms. Black. He's been asking for you.”

“Thanks.” Not for the first time, Renee wished Dorothy ran the school. Charlie liked her and listened to her. “What happened? Where is he?”

Dorothy pulled a pencil from behind her ear and pointed with it. “He's in the conference room over there. He promised to draw me a picture of Thor.”

“Great. Did he mean my dog or the superhero?”

“You know, I didn't ask. But I'd love either.”

Renee turned to the conference room but Principal Partnope came out of his office and intercepted her.

“I'd like to talk to you first, before you see Charlie. This was a pretty serious incident.”

“I just want to make sure he's okay, thanks.” She pushed open the door to the small conference room. Charlie sat there with a supply of crayons and blank paper in front of him. He smiled and ran over to her. She hugged him tight.

She drank in the sight, smell and feel of her son, his dark unruly hair, his brown eyes, his favorite Batman T-shirt and the whiff of peanut butter on his breath.
I love you, kid.

Yes, she definitely needed this hug before talking to Partnope. She knelt down to look him in the eye.

“I like your T-shirt,” he said. “Is it new?”

“Just came yesterday. Along with your new Batman Beyond shirt.”

“Awesome.” But he stared at the floor instead of at her. He shuffled his feet. “I did something really bad, Mom. But it was their fault. They were mean to me.”

“What did you do?”

“I hit Mr. Revis,” he whispered.

“Who's Mr. Revis?” she asked.

“Our substitute teacher this week.”

“Right.” Mr. Lamoreux was out for several weeks after having broken his leg.

“What happened?” she asked.

Charlie waved his hands. “He was really mean. He tricked me!”

Mr. Partnope poked his head into the room. “May we talk now, Ms. Black?”

“All right.” Now that she'd seen Charlie, she could deal with whatever this was. “Charlie, I'll be right back. Are you finishing that drawing for Miss Dorothy?”

He nodded. “Yes! I promised her I'd finish before school gets out.”

“Good.”

Once in the principal's office, Partnope sat behind his very official desk. He looked like a bureaucrat with his thinning hair, thin red mustache and conservative tie. She preferred Mr. Lamoreux, who sometimes wore loud ties and shirts that broke the mold.

“Would you please sit down?” Partnope asked.

Renee thought about standing but decided since Charlie admitted he'd hit his teacher, looming over the principal and taking out her frustration with the situation was the worst thing she could do.

“That's an interesting T-shirt, Ms. Black.” His gaze flicked over the shirt. It featured Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, in a red, blue and yellow costume with her energy power blazing at her hands. Hence,
Princess Sparklefists
.

“Thank you, it's one of my favorites.”

“Interesting.”

“I think so.” She took a deep breath. She wouldn't rise to the bait. “Why did Charlie hit his teacher? What happened?”

“I'm glad he admitted it. A lot of kids don't.” Partnope laced his fingers together. “First of all, you should know that we take any assault on a teacher extremely seriously.”

She nodded. “Of course. Was the teacher hurt?”

“No, I don't believe he was injured at all. Still, we might have to suspend Charlie.”

She took a deep breath. She wanted to protest because she was sure Charlie's impulse control issues had caused him to overreact, but it would be far better to hear this out first.

“Could you please tell me what happened?” she asked again.

“Mr. Revis gave the students a surprise quiz today.” He paused.

She nodded but what she wanted to do was say that didn't they know Charlie
hated
surprises? She'd talked to all the school officials about it, including Partnope. Teachers were supposed to give him advance warning of any quiz. “And Charlie failed this surprise quiz?”

“It wasn't that kind of quiz,” Partnope said.

He handed over a sheet of paper that started with
Read this over fully first
, and included all kinds of instructions about drawing shapes and writing sentences. It was busy work but work Charlie knew how to do. It wasn't until she reached the last sentence that she knew why Charlie thought they'd been mean to him.

“It says at the end that no one has to do any of the problems.”

“Yes. The very first instruction was to read the paper fully and the last instruction is that they don't have to do any of the work. This is a test we give to make sure students follow instructions and read their papers fully.”

“How many students in third grade read this all the way to the end?”

Partnope's eyes narrowed. “Only two.”

“And after Charlie did all the work and got to the last sentence and realized he didn't really have to do any of it, he lost his temper?”

“Exactly.” Partnope nodded. “He rushed to the front of the class, screamed at Mr. Revis for tricking him, kicked him in the leg and ran out of the room.”

Renee rubbed the bridge of her nose. Of course, Charlie would see this as being tricked and react. The whole quiz
was
a trick. Still, he shouldn't hit anyone. But his reaction was entirely predictable and could have been avoided by letting him know beforehand.

“What happened after he ran out of the room?” she asked.

It was Partnope's turn to take a deep breath. He cleaned off his glasses. “Charlie ran out of the school, toward the road.”

“Toward the road?”
The elementary school was located on one of the town's busiest streets.

“He was out the door before anyone could catch him. We did get to him before the road.”

“How did you get Charlie inside?” she asked, hearing the hoarseness in her voice.

“Dorothy called to him. He slowed down. Then she asked him to come back and sit next to her for a while.”

Dorothy. She had no way to repay the woman for this. “And he did?”

“Yes, he listened to her. And then she asked him for a drawing because she knows he likes to draw. Once your son was settled, we called you. Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“I understand your concern.” She tucked her hands into her lap, having no idea what to say. She was frustrated at the school for a situation that could have been avoided, worried about Charlie for running outside and just completely sick to her stomach because she had no idea how to stop it from happening again.

As bad as it had been at school so far, she'd thought he was at least physically safe there.

“I'm so glad Dorothy was able to reach him, and I understand why you wanted me to come so fast. What now?”

“As I said, assaulting a teacher is a serious offense, as is running out of the school. Neither of those things should happen. I'll have to talk to everyone involved and make a decision,” Partnope said.

Plunge in, she thought. “Isn't Charlie's autism a consideration? If anyone had checked with me about this assignment—” she held the quiz in front of her, “—I could have absolutely told them he'd have a bad reaction. Or they could have looked in his IEP.”

“Charlie has some control over his reactions or he wouldn't have stopped for Dorothy. He is quite willful. He's responsible.”

“I understand what he did. I'm just looking for the best way to prevent it from happening again.” Renee ground her teeth. Again, she got the feeling Partnope thought all her son needed was discipline. Renee knew discipline. She'd trained her SAR dogs for years. Charlie's problems were beyond simple discipline. He lacked the ability to think before acting under stress.

“My son and Dorothy have built up trust over the four years he's attended school. She notices the little things and knows how to get to him.” Dorothy could have told them not to give Charlie this unnecessary and ridiculous quiz.

“Charlie's going to have to learn to respect his current teacher. What does his father say about all this?”

“I really don't feel comfortable speaking for his father.” Partnope wasn't the only obstacle. Daz was resistant to the idea of full psychological testing too.

Daz only had Charlie two weekends a month, sometimes less if Daz was pulled away by work. That included last month. As a result, Daz hadn't seen Charlie's worst meltdowns. Daz thought she worried too much. He didn't get all the phone calls from the school.

“In a case like this, we do like to get the opinion of both parents, whenever possible,” Partnope said.

“Absolutely, which is why I'll discuss today's incident with Mr. Montoya.” But she needed to have the conversation with Daz, not the school. Maybe she was paranoid but it sounded like they wanted to go over her head, which meant they didn't trust her with Charlie. Maybe that was why they kept stalling despite her repeated requests for full psychological testing for special education services.