Page 18 of Booth

“You do that and I’ll sue you and the school.”he told him that it would be too late by then that Thad would be so far behind in his studies that he’d never catch up before the end of the year.“You think so?He has to study every night because of you.”

“Then I think you have your answer when it comes to putting pressure on a young man that does very well without it.”He put the phone in the cradle and got up to leave.When the phone rang again, he ignored it.There was no way he was going to get sucked into this argument again.He also made another decision while sitting there.Going out to find the principal of the school, he asked to talk to him.“I’d like to give you my resignation.I’ve had enough.”

“No, Booth, don’t let one parent make you lose your place in this school.I’d have your back.I know that my son took the Spanish test that you did at the beginning of the year.And without him having to worry about the grade, he’s been buckling down and getting his work done because of you telling them that they all did all right, but not great.He didn’t want to be one of your all-right students.You do know that the history teachers did the same thing?They wanted to see how much they retained from the year before, and it worked to get them all in gear when they were told that there was a lot of work to be done to catch up.Don’t leave because of…Thad’s a good kid.Don’t make him suffer because of his parents.”

“I’m giving you my two weeks’ notice, Jim.I’ve recently gotten married, and I miss my family too when I have to be in bed by nine at night on school nights.I’ve enjoyed having this summer off without teaching summer school.I think that my family did as well.I just don’t want to do this anymore, where I get called to the carpet for doing my job to the best of my abilities.”He told him to take the rest of the day off and to think about it.To talk to Dee about it.“She misses me, too.I just can’t do this anymore,and feel good about myself when things like this happen.I don’t even want to finish out the rest of the school year.It’s early enough that you can find someone to replace me easily.”

“I don’t know what to say to make you want to stay, Booth.You’re a great teacher, one of the best we’ve had.Hell, you are the best teacher we have here.And I’ll talk to anyone who denies it.”The secretary told Jim that he had a phone call; it was the Sawyers again.“Tell them I’m working and will call them back tomorrow.But also make it clear that I’m backing Booth up one hundred percent on his decision to not make the paperwork public.”He turned back to him.“Please talk this over with someone.Your parents or your wife, but don’t leave today.We need you here.”

“I’ll talk to my parents and my wife but I see them telling me to go with my gut and my gut is telling me that things aren’t going to be—did you hear that they’re making their son study nightly for hours because I won’t give them a grade that I don’t have?I didn’t grade them.I never wanted anything to come back on the—damn it, Jim.This is their fault.All this stress that they’re putting on Thad could have been avoided if they had just done what I wanted and not bothered with the stupid tests.It makes me question everything that I’ve done this year, and it’s only six weeks into the quarter.”He looked around the office before speaking again.“You’re a great principal, Jim.One of the better ones we’ve had here in a decade since I’ve been teaching.What are you going to do when they go to the board and they demand that I show them…I don’t even have the papers anymore.I destroyed them when I was finished with them.”

He was going to do that as soon as he got home and was in his office.He’d never had so much trouble from a stupid thing that he’d been doing since he’d gotten out of college.Even his college professors had done the same thing to only see what was retained from the class the year before.

Once he was in his classroom again, he decided to stick it out for the rest of the day.It would be hard pressed to have anyone come in so late in the day, and he gave the two classes he had left a reading assignment that they could do.It wasn’t an easy day for him, but he did reach out to his parents to talk to them about what was going on.

“You’ve been unhappy for some time now.I know at least since the year before last.You just didn’t have the heart in it like you did before.”He said that he’d been trying too hard to make himself like teaching, but that the Sawyers had just been the straw that he needed to break the camel’s back.“I know the Sawyers, too.They’re like that with everything.Have to be the first at it, or they would call foul.The wife is worse than the husband.I’ve always wondered how their kids were fairing.Makes me feel sorry for that little boy more than anything.No, son.If you want to stop teaching, you do it.And with our love and support.It’s not like you couldn’t go find a job doing any of the million and one things that you’re good at, too.”

“I just don’t want to go to work anymore and leave Dee at home.I miss her something terrible when I’m at school.”Dad laughed and told him there was that, too.“I’m thinking that with her blessing, I could just quit now and not have a single bad thought about leaving them unprepared.I’ve had enough.”

“Of course you have.You’ve been in some kind of school setting since we put you in pre-school when you were five years old.Maybe in a couple of years you’ll feel better and want to go back, but it doesn’t matter if you do or not.You wouldn’t be able to give your best when you teach because you don’t want to be there anymore.”Booth agreed with his parents.“It’ll be nice to have you be able to stay for football games that we all get together and watch, where you don’t have to be in bed at the first sign of darkness, too.”

He decided to talk to Dee too while he was at the school.When she burst into tears, telling him that she was almost ready to beg him to call off most mornings that she missed being around him all the time, it was decided.He wasn’t going to be working anymore.Unless it was something that he could do to help one of his family members, he wasn’t going to be having a classroom full of kids around anymore.He was also going to start sleeping in, too.

“I got so used to you being right there where I needed you that when you left for school, it was like you took a large part of me with you.And I hated it.I hated myself for thinking that I could convince you to be a stay-at-home husband with me.”He said he would have, too.But the Sawyers were just the push that he needed.“Jackson Sawyer?I’ve met him.He’s a pushy sort of bastard, isn’t he?And his wife is ten times the worst kind of person.Everyone is dumber than them, I got the feeling that’s what they thought anyway.”

“I’ve only ever spoken to them at class meetings, and then it was for me to praise their son to the highest limits.They even asked me at one point if there was a way for me to tutor their son so that he could excel better.I told them that he was already making an ‘A’ in the class and that was all that was needed for him to pass.I have a feeling that after today’s phone call with them, the poor boy is going to be studying even harder than before.”He felt better about leaving after talking to his parents and Dee.“I’ll be home tonight and we’ll celebrate in some way with each other.”

Since he was quitting in the first quarter of the year, he decided that there was nothing in the room that he wanted to take with him.He was finished, and even if he decided that he’d start teaching again in the same school, he’d need to start fresh.The things that he’d put in his room recently were things that he’d been using for years, and there were only the two posters that he’d hung that were new.Yes, he was going to leave here today and not return.He’d had enough to last him all the years that he’d been teaching.

~*~

Sitting in the most uncomfortable chairs that she’d ever sat in, Doone kept an eye on her mom.She would lash out at the woman with the kids if she didn’t keep reminding her that they had nothing to do with how she was raising them.The kids were the worst ones that she’d ever seen, in that they were sitting in the toy area, tearing pages out of books that had been there for the last few months they’d been coming to the Welfare office.Putting her hand on her mom’s leg again, she huffed at her but kept her mouth closed.It was all they needed right now was to get into trouble over some snotty-nosed kids that should have been in cages rather than let to roam free all over everyone that was in the waiting room.

“The least that someone could do is to make it so that she has to pay for all the damage.”It wasn’t loud, her mother’s voice, but she knew that the other women in the room had heard her.“There is no point in having them disciplined when we all know that this is the way they are at home.”

“Lady, are you talking about my kids?They ain’t doing nothing wrong.If they wanted to keep the books nice, they shouldn’t put them out where kids can get to them.If I want to keep my shit in good condition I put it up where they can’t find it.”She snickered a little before continuing.“’Course they manage to find that shit too and tear it up but it’s only a few pages.The story will be better for it if they don’t want to tape them back together.”

“Books are expensive.”Another woman chimed in that the books in question had been there for months and nobody had done anything to them but for her children.“If they were my kids I’d be putting them in a corner with a good bust to their asses.Ain’t no reason for them to be acting like they were savages.”

Doone rolled her eyes and looked at her mother.She could tell that she wanted to engage with her word or two, but she only shook her head and said no.They had this appointment and didn’t want to be kicked out because she’d said something.

“I’ll keep my mouth shut, honey.I know how important this appointment is for us.”Her mom was right.This appointment was for her to be able to get the food card for herself and be able to take some of the burden off her for a bit.“You were good at coming with me.But I know how important this is for the two of us.”

Doone didn’t live with her mom, but she was there often enough to be a part of her apartment.The government subsidies housing had saved her a bundle when her mom was able to qualify for it.They just needed a bit more help with food, and then her mom would be set up for the rest of her life.No matter how short it was.

Meggie McFarlen had been diagnosed with cancer in her lungs three years ago.She’d been doing all the right things since they told her that she only had about a year left and had shocked the doctors into believing that she was some kind of medical phenomenon.It had helped that Doone had a friend who had helped her along with a little vampire blood, just enough to make sure that the cancer didn’t return, but what really helped too was her ability to walk three miles a day and to keep eating well.That was what was costing her so much, the eating well thing.

Not that she’d deny her mother anything, but fresh over canned vegetables were expensive.But she’d work her two jobs just to be able to see the look on her face when she went to the doctor’s office and they told her that the cancer was gone.Neither one of them ever said why it was gone, but with Mom having a second chance, she was doing everything in her power to make sure that it never came back on her again.

“Meggie McFarlen?”Mom stood up and was nearly knocked down again when the mother of the kids said she’d been there before she was.“Yes, you were, Donna, but I told you the last time you were here and showed up several hours before your appointment that didn’t mean that we could see you then.Your appointment is for three-thirty.You’ve been here since eleven o’clock.I told you then that I had other clients before you.Come on, Meggie.Let’s see what we can do for you.”

Mom asked if she could go back, and when permission was given, Donna said they’d better not be making one appointment into two and getting ahead of her.Doone said nothing but picked up her mom’s purse and went into the lobby with her mom.Christ, some people were too entitled to be around normal people.

Sitting next to her mom in the tiny office, Doone felt the closeness of the room squeezing her.Taking a deep breath, she told herself this was for her mom and she could bear it when the woman who was in charge sat in her overflowing desk with barely room for the large water bottle that was on her desk, with the oversized fan too.

Since Doone was there only as her mom’s ride and to carry things around that she might need, she tuned the two women out with their talking.She didn’t completely ignore them, but zoned out enough to wonder where she was going to end up on her shift tonight at the hospital.She’d been a multitask person for years now and knew her job better than most of the staff who seemed to change nightly.

She had a good job that paid well if it were just herself, but she’d been caring for her mom for the last five years.And while she didn’t mind helping her mom out, she was exhausted all the time from working so much and not getting the rest that she needed.Today would help a great deal in that she could perhaps quit one of her jobs and just work like a normal person for a change.

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