Team8s and Counting

164. One Last Lesson

After hearing about the situation that happened to Dimey and Bladey's friend, Saw realized that she couldn't just deal with Ms. Feather for the rest of the school year. Whether Ms. Feather wanted to admit it or not, Saw knew that she was intentionally pushing the ideology that the only 'acceptable' families had one mother and one father; nothing else. Strangely, Ms. Feather, while clearly homophobic, never made any comments towards Saw directly, probably because she knew it was going to get her fired.

Saw only had one goal, and one goal only: get Ms. Feather out of that preschool. The question was, how? Because Ms. Feather was so good at hiding her homophobia, Saw had no idea how she was going to find an excuse to show to the head of the preschool to get her fired.

After dropping off Gaty at the high school for her work, Saw pulled into the parking lot of the preschool, and just sat in the car and thought about any way that she could expose who Ms. Feather truly was. What could she do? Ms. Feather was careful, always coating her bias in layers of "concern" for "traditional values" that seemed harmless on the surface but undermined Saw's family and many others. She couldn't stand the thought of Bladey, or any of the other kids, growing up in an environment that taught them their family wasn't "normal."

An idea formed, small but promising. She'd try an indirect approach—observe, record, and speak up at the right moments. If Ms. Feather slipped up even once, Saw would be ready to document it. Her phone was ready, with a voice recording app just a tap away.

Saw walked inside of the preschool, and gathered all of her stuff from the teachers lounge. She went into her classroom, greeted Ms. Feather with a fake smile, set up the activities for the day, and waited for the kids to arrive.

Once the kids started making their way into the classroom, Saw's fake smile turned into a genuine one, as she welcomed each of the kids one by one. All the kids were instructed to gather on the carpet and wait for both her and Ms. Feather to introduce them to today's activities.

"Good morning, class!" Ms. Feather said with a nice big smile.

"Good morning Ms. Feather, good morning Ms. Blades!" the kids said in unison. Saw smiled warmly at the kids, but her focus remained on Ms. Feather. For now, everything seemed normal. The morning greetings were cheerful, and the classroom buzzed with the sound of excited chatter.

Ms. Feather opened up the read aloud book, a staple activity of the day, and read the story aloud to all of the kids, as Saw sat and watched all of the kids' reactions to the story.

When the story ended, Ms. Feather closed the book with a satisfied smile. "Now, let's talk about the lesson here. What do we learn from the Little Red Hen's story?"

"Work hard!" one of the kids called out.

"Help your friends!" another added.

Ms. Feather nodded approvingly. "Exactly. And this also reminds us of how important it is to have clear roles and responsibilities in life, just like in a family." Her voice took on a subtle edge, and Saw braced herself.

"In a strong family," Ms. Feather continued, "everyone knows their role. Moms and dads have different but equally important jobs. It's what makes everything work so smoothly. Isn't that nice?"

Saw noticed a few furrowed brows among the kids. One boy raised his hand.

"But what if you don't have a dad?"

"Yeah," chimed in a little girl. "I just have my mom."

Ms. Feather's smile froze for a fraction of a second before she plastered it back on. "Well, every family is special in its own way, but having a mom and dad gives us the best example of how things are supposed to be. It's like... the blueprint."