Page 16 of Beyond Perfect

“Actually, I didn’t. He found the guy all by himself.”

“That’s even better.” Jackson sat back, thoughtful. “I’m going to intervene in Math. He and I will meet and he can tell me about his final project. I get together with individual kids a lot so he won’t think he’s being singled out.”

Maisy’s heart warmed. He was so good with all the kids and knew how to help them.

“Annie and Maisy you can go next.” Jackson kept his eyes on Annie and avoided looking at Maisy.

“Quentin’s passed Language Arts with a 75.”

“And he got an 80 in Social Studies.”

“That’s terrific.”

Physical Education was pass fail and Hal Hanson reported Quentin passed that. Since the school was exempt from regents exams, Quentin would leave Pathways in the fall.

“Next?”

Maisy spoke up. “I’d like to talk about Frankie Pecorino.”

The school’s psychologist spoke first. “I met with him. He has four demerits. More than any other kid. However, he got the last one over that mess with his brother Freddie.”

Jackson said, “We’ve only got two more weeks to go.”

“When was the last time a student didn’t pass and went on to juvie, Jackson?” Hal asked.

“Our first year, so that would be six years ago. We didn’t have any experience in this kind of school, and we lost one.”

Gemma frowned. “What happened to him?”

“I’m afraid he’s in jail now.”

Silence.

Maisy offered, “Would you consider deleting Frankie’s last demerit due to circumstances? Then he’ll surely make it.”

Jackson had a strict policy against this. The last time he’d done that was with the boy they lost. “I’d rather not.”

“I don’t think he should either.” The math teacher.

Most of the other teachers agreed with Jackson’s decision.

Gemma finished, “Then let’s be extra careful to make sure we don’t lose Frankie.”

“Fine by me.” The science teacher smiled at Jackson. Maisy caught something in her gaze. “You’re the miracle worker who got this program off the ground.”

He smiled back. Then his gaze snagged on Maisy.

Unfortunately, she was watching him with unabashed approval. And she stayed behind when the others left.

“I didn’t single you out, Maisy.”

“I know. Thank you. However, you and I have to meet about the wedding. We’re giving them a shower/rehearsal party. And we’ll need to be together about other things our role in the wedding necessitates.”

A beleaguered sigh. “All right.”

“Can we meet tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure. We’re off school, but I usually come in on weekends to catch up on things.”

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