The Usual Rules

Chapter 9

Emily paced back and forth in the empty hallway biting her fingernails. Rachel had been in the classroom with Liz, her old friend and the principal, and Miss. Hathaway, the second grade teacher, for almost half an hour now. They had decided it would be less stressful for Rachel to only have as many people as necessary in the room. Since Miss. Hathaway had taught first grade as well, it was easier to just have her and Liz; which meant Emily and JJ were out and into the hall to wait. JJ had taken to texting Garcia and making plans for later this afternoon while Emily had simply begun to pace. Truthfully, they had no idea what Rachel knew. She was certainly intelligent and observant but she was ignorant due to a lack of anyone caring. Emily didn't want her to feel bad about herself.

"Sit down, your making me dizzy." JJ complained without even looking up from her phone. Emily glared at her, but complied.

"This is really not fun at all." Emily whined.

"Yeah, I never thought it would be."

"Well, you're the one that talked it up to her this morning."

"Well I was lying."

"Lying? Really? You're gonna lie to our kid now?" Emily said with an annoyed tone, but giving JJ an amused look.

"Of course if it makes her less scared, and it wasn't a total lie, I said she would be fine, and school will be fun, once she meets friends and gets settled in."

Emily grinned and took the phone out of JJ's hands, Garcia had been working on a possible case and simultaneously texting JJ. She hadn't responded in a few minutes and JJ's tapping was driving Emily nuts. "I'm sure she'll be done soon."

The two women waited – still impatiently – for about fifteen more minutes before Liz came out, a frown on her face. "We're done."

"What's wrong?" Emily asked immediately.

"She's upset." Liz sighed. "She did very well, much better than I would have expected given what you told me. She is not ready for second grade, but she is much too advanced for kindergarden. I think we should place her in first grade and with some extra help and tutoring in the mornings. She could easily catch up to second grade before the year is out if I'm right. She's ignorant, but bright, any time she missed a question, once we explained it, she usually seemed to pick it up quickly."

"Then why is she upset?" JJ asked.

"She grew more and more distressed with every question she got wrong, and she got a lot wrong, but that really wasn't the point of the test, we explained that. I kept trying to encourage her and let her know what a great job she was doing, but her father really did a number on her. She thinks she's stupid, and that you will give her back now that you know."

"What!" JJ and Emily yelled almost simultaneously.

"Miss. Hathaway is in with her now, but you should probably go in there. We're done, you can take her home whenever you're ready. We'll try starting her on monday?"

"Thanks Liz." Emily said, shaking her hand quickly and following right behind JJ as they all but ran into the classroom. Rachel was sitting in one of the front desks, trying to stop herself from crying. Miss. Hathaway was consoling her the best she could, both of them looked up as Emily and JJ entered the room. Rachel began crying harder the second she saw them and ducked her head down in shame. Emily's heart broke. She and JJ moved over to her as quickly as they could. "Thank you." Emily said, shaking Miss. Hathaway's hand as she bent to take her seat. JJ sat on the other side of Rachel and tried to reach out to hug her, but the little brunette pulled away. Every time she did that, even though JJ was in a way prepared for it, it still hurt. Being rejected by a child was always somehow worse than being rejected by an adult.