Page 35 of Heartfelt Goals

“You aren’t even giving it a chance. I promise you will like this place.”

“You said that about tofu.”

“You eat tofu.”

“Because it’s put in front of me, and I don’t want to starve.”

“If you don’t like tofu, you should have said something.”

“I don’t likeschool, and that phrase isn’t getting me anywhere.”

The two glared at each other mutinously only to see the front door to the private school open about twenty feet from them. A woman poked her head out and smiled gently, waving them forward.

“Are you Kendall?” she asked in perfect English, causing Kendall’s mouth to drop open in surprise. “Mr. Lafreniére called and said you might be nervous.”

“Of course he did,” Kendall muttered hotly, not bothering to hide her dislike of Dustin and his interference. “He’s mucking up everything in my life.”

“Kendall!” Laurel hissed in shock at how venomous her sister was being toward the person she was now married to. Dustin was genuinely trying to help.

“Yes,” the woman continued, taking a step toward the car. “He also said you were probably too smart to go to school and that I would need to work hard at keeping you entertained,” and she smiled at them. “C’mon in. My name is Libby, and I’m one of the teachers in your class. Mrs. Laughlin is with the class in the computer lab.”

Kendall harrumphed and looked at the woman warily.

“It’s up to you,” Libby invited easily. “We’re doing programs right now, and this afternoon, we’re dissecting song lyrics.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes – and you get to pick the artist or the song.”

“So if I suggested Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’…”

“Nope. Someone already picked that song.”

“Say whaaaat?” Kendall gaped, shocked, and glanced at Laurel who shrugged, fighting back a smile. “You’re kidding.”

“No,” Libby smiled easily. “School only works if you want to pay attention, so we make it fun and relatable.”

“Finally,” Kendall sighed dramatically. “Finally,someone who understands…”

“Shall we go inside?” Laurel asked gently, laying a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “I promise you will like this, and I spoke with Dustin about this school this morning before he left. He agreed that if you don’t like this one, then we’ll find another school for you to attend…” Kendall looked at her about to speakwhen Laurel held up her hand. “But you have to go to school. There is no debating that.”

“I guess we’ll go in,” Kendall muttered, walking forward and Libby smiled easily, nodding.

“This is a small, private school, and we want you to feel like you fit in – so you get to pick your locker. We’ll work on designing a schedule of classes for you and then select a few electives together. I promise that this will be nothing like you’ve ever attended before – because you will be the one to select what classes you take.”

“What?” Kendall gaped coming to a stop, and Laurel almost bumped into her.

“Yes,” Libby smiled encouragingly and waved them in. “You have to start with the basics, but each teacher is different. We have them broken down into auditory, visual, hands-on learning – and you get to choose. So long as you are making progress, we keep it as your choice. If you fall behind, then we look at your studies to see where and why you are struggling.”

“I don’t understand,” Kendall whispered, looking scared again.

“So, for example, I like to learn bydoing,” Libby smiled, nodding. “So in my classes, we are doing geometry… and to do so, we are first dissecting a cake into segments and looking at what a fourth, a quarter, a third looks like – and then we’ll be doing addition and subtraction,” Libby paused, meeting Laurel’s eyes – and Laurel immediately knew this was the right place for Kendall, feeling so grateful that Dustin had found something so creative for the little girl.

“Did you say… cake?” Kendall asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Libby chuckled. “It’s quite messy, and once we are done moving around our segments repeatedly and have crumbs everywhere – we make cake pops as a treat for learning and applying what we’ve done.”

“Okay – um – yeah. I want to take a geometry class like that.”

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