Summary: Judging Amy's Maxine meets a young Carmen Sandiego.
Disclaimer: I'm just a fanfiction writer. All hail the rightful owners.
"Where are we going to put you, Carmen?" Maxine Gray lamented.
"Put me?" The child asked, a tremor in her voice.
"The Golden Gate School for Girls." The social worker explained, "Says that you are disruptive to the other children and disrespectful to your teachers. They can no longer have you around and we need to find somewhere for you to live. I am here to take you to Connecticut and find a family that will take you."
"They don't want me?" Carmen gasped.
Maxine's heart broke a little, just like it did every time.
"Who…" The child sounded close to tears, "Who said that? I thought Ms. Jefferson liked me. I was trying so hard to make her proud…" Carmen choked down a sob.
"The literature teacher?" The woman clarified, "She was the dissenting opinion actually. She wanted you to stay."
Carmen swallowed, "Oh…"
"You got along with her, didn't you?" Maxine probed gently.
The poor thing was crying in earnest now. "Yes… she… she was kind to me. She let me read the Count of Monte Cristo for my report…"
"An abridged version." Maxine clarified with confidence.
"No…" The child said in a tone of confusion. "It was the original, in French. I liked it but it wasn't as good as Les Misérables. It was better than Anna Karenina though."
This little girl could read French? "You um…" Maxine said, "You must have at least had the Tolstoy translated into English."
"No, I read the Russian." Carmen sounded like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Why wouldn't I?"
Maxine coughed, trying to get her head back on straight. "But you didn't get along with your math teacher did you? The two of you argued."
"Mrs. Graz took my work away."
"She had a right to do that if you were working on something unrelated to her class." Maxine countered.
"She teaches math." Carmen argued, her eyes flashing. "I was doing math." She slammed a piece of paper on the table. "See?"
"Well… it umm" Maxine couldn't recognize the symbols. "It certainly looks like math. What exactly were you doing?"
"I was running through a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem." The young woman explained.
Maxine didn't recognize the name, but she was sure proofs weren't in the normal curriculum. "In fifth grade math?"
Carmen sighed. "She wouldn't even read it…"
"I don't care what she refused to read," Maxine lectured, "You cannot just call one of your teachers a" she checked her notes "incompetent excuse for a mathematician who couldn't evaluate an integral if it slapped her across the face."
Maxine had to force herself not to laugh. The insult may have been totally inappropriate, but evidently, this little girl did not pull any punches.
"How about we make a deal?" The child suggested shrewdly.
"I do not make deals with children." Maxine admonished. She hesitated, "But if I did what would you have in mind?"
"Talk to Mrs. Graz." Carmen suggested. "If you think she's competent, I will sit still in her class and listen to her go over complex fractions until I graduate and I will not so much as doodle in the margins."
"And if your teacher is somehow inadequate?" Maxine asked. "I can't replace her."
Carmen nodded, considering. "Then you see if there's some way for a ten year old to take the AP Calculus exam."
"You think you could pass that?" The social worker said in surprise.
"I know I could pass that." Carmen answered firmly.
"I'm afraid it's too late for that now," Maxine answered regretfully. "We need to find you somewhere to live.
"No one's going to want me…" Carmen acknowledged quietly.
"Well you're a little off the beaten path," Maxine commented. "But you're nothing I can't handle. We'll find you a nice family…."
"Maxine?"
"Yes Carmen?"
"I've been trying to get a family to take me since I was old enough to know I was an orphan." The girls eyes were starting to well up again, "I used to copy out my notes until my fingers bled because I thought if I learned the right language or recited the right poem, someone would be interested enough to adopt me."
Maxine sighed.
"Then they told me I was wasting paper." Carmen finished. "So I stopped. That's when I realized I had it all wrong. No one wants a kid who speaks ten languages and does proofs to make the boredom go away. They all want normal children, and no matter how hard I try I'm just not normal."
"Now you listen to me!" Maxine instructed firmly, "No one is normal. It's about using the skills you have and finding someone who will appreciate…" She stopped mid sentence.
Carmen looked back inquisitively.
"I have an idea." The social worker took the phone from her desk and dialed a number.
A little hope found its way into the child's eyes.
"Hello? Listen…" She looked over at the nervous girl, "You will not believe the recruit I just found you…"