Plié and Clout

Chapter 24: (Parent?)-Teacher Conferences

Aha- a Friday post the day after a Thursday post even though my posting schedule exists? correct. Enjoy 2310 words of Steph sassing Jilly's teachers. 

yeet,

-rabid

***

STEPH

"Jilly, you go to school there, how does this whole thing work?"

She looks up from her homework. "It's not like when you were in Flint, it's a little obscure," She stands up and hands me three sheets of paper. "I scheduled you for all five of my core classes right in a row, that was because you have games on the rest of the conference days. Yesterday, and all day tomorrow. But today, you were free."

"Alright, makes sense." I scan the sheets.

Jilly takes the top one off of the pile. "This is your schedule. Each conference is fifteen minutes long. Just parents or guardians, no students." She taps the classes in order. "You're suggested to go to all the core classes. For you, that means you're going to algebra, classic lit, ancient history, german, and then physics."

"Is the german lady going to only speak german at me," I tip my nose at this, "because I'm not Fen. Maybe I should bring like half the team next time. Just roll up with fifteen guys like 'hey, what's up' I'm sure they wouldn't be suspicious at all."

She snorts. "Don't do that."

"Alright, yeah," I look at the next paper, "okay, I feel like it would've been cool to give me the 'what to expect' paper like a week ago."

"Yeah, I mean, sorry about that one."

"Alright, so I know I'm an in-town parent figure, but what are all the boarders doing?"

"Oh, they're doing video calls," She shrugs. "You'd have to do a video call if you were on the road, but thankfully, you're not."

"Alright, okay," I check the time, "I should get going."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"Alright, okay, I'll be back in two hours."

"Awesome," She says. "WAIT."

I whip around. "What?"

"You've got too much," she points between her collarbones, "too much skin."

"Aye, shoot," I button one more, "I forgot to finish."

"Now you look formal enough. Shoo." I sling my coat over my shoulders and then off I go.

Crawford, to be honest, is a big scary set of buildings. It reminds me of Harvard Yard. Massive library surrounded on two sides by boarding houses and on the other two sides by classroom buildings.

I park and then realize that I appear unprepared and novice compared to most of these people, which is not something I'm used to in professional situations. Normally everyone knows exactly what's up with me and doesn't give me the 'ew, who are you,' look. I get a couple of weird stares from parents that look way more important and business-man-ey than me.

I am only 23, of course.

"Hey, I'm looking for three hundred and four?" There's a guy directing parents around, he points down a long hall and I nod, starting off.

Three hundred and four is the math classroom. It says Dr. Olson outside. I have five minutes before the meeting starts, so I pull out my phone and noodle around for a second or two.

"Sagamore?" Her math teacher pushes open the door. Two parents with high collars and very scary businessman look about them strut out in military fashion. I stand up and they give me a glance up and down, then keep going.