Chapter Three: Catching Up with the Glews

Meredith

"I talked with the two principals, and was able to convince them to let you stay over for the weekend." Sophie looked at Trent and Zillah through the mirror as she made her way along the winding road leading up to Clarion Academy.

Trent yawned, "got to love teachers' convention weekend!"

"Got to love November, four days off from school!" Meredith looked over her shoulder and gave Zillah a smile. She knew her friend had been busting her butt to get her homework done the entire ride up to Connecticut.

Upon getting back from their New York City adventure, the Glews had been doing everything in their power to make Zillah's life feel more normal. Sophie had to contact the Louisiana Department of Child Services or something like that and convince them that Zillah was their paternal cousin. Meredith didn't really know how she did it, but after several hours of being on the phone with them she started to get results. Of course by that point Sophie was really annoyed with them, and when she's annoyed she starts snapping her fingers and she changes the tone of her voice. Meredith would swear that the air in the room literally changed. After a while the people on the other side of the line bought her story. Oh, and by the way that's likely how Sophie was able to convince Lyra and Skylar's principals to her kids stay three nights at their school for free.

Back to Zillah! Their next step was signing her up for school. That in itself was a chore. Luckily for everyone, North Jersey schools don't start until after Labor Day and run through the third week in June. So, that bought Zillah enough time to get tested by their school's child study team.

Technically she's old enough to be entering eighth grade, but since she ran away during fifth grade she's missed out on a lot of work. Sophie talked to the people over the middle school and told them Zillah's story. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Of course Meredith and Trent weren't allowed to be present during the meeting, but when Zillah left the meeting, Meredith was able to take a peek and saw all the case managers whipping their tears from their eyes. Zillah was upset as well, but she was able to regain control of herself after a while.

As a result, Zillah basically got to skip sixth grade. So, instead she was taking sixth grade English and math after school with a tutor and seventh grade English and math during her elective periods. Meredith was ecstatic to learn that Zillah was placed in her English and math classes. As for science and social studies, she's had to do a couple of big projects and turn those in to meet the sixth and seventh grade requirements for promotion.

After they got all of those things settled they worried about changing minor things. Sophie moved out of the master bedroom, and gave that to the girls. This way they would share the master bathroom, and not have to worry about Trent walking in on them or leaving a mess. Besides that Zillah had privacy issues, due to her bad experiences with foster homes, so this arrangement gave her some time to adjust.

So, there they were, it was almost the end of the first marking period. And now they were finally going to get to spend some time with their friends. Yeah, they got to post on each other's walls on Facebook, but it wasn't the same as hanging out in person.

"I finished my social studies project." Zillah held up a set of baseball note cards on the Age of Discovery explorers. "All I have to do now is hand in my journal questions and take the test on that unit. You'll help me study on the way home, right?" She gave Meredith her puppy dog face.

"Sure, I'll sit back there with you and Trent can sit in the front." Meredith shifted her grey eyes toward her brother, "okay?"

He shrugged, "okay." Another yawn escaped his lips, "are we almost there, I'm starving."

"Yes, another couple of miles, Sweetheart." Sophie changed the tone of her voice, "now remember you, three I want you to be on your best behavior. I know that this isn't your school, but you still have to treat it with respect. Otherwise they might not let us visit again. Understood?"

"Yes, Mom." I took a deep breath and prayed that nothing went wrong.

"Yeah, I know." Trent sounded miserable. Meredith knew how he felt. Bad things happen, and most of the time they had no way of controlling the situation.

"Sure, Sophie, thank you for diving us. Can I keep my project in the car?" Zillah was crushing pieces of scrap paper and tossing them into a plastic grocery bag.

"Sure put them in your back pack and place it under my seat. I'm going to be filling the back with the fabric order my boss is having me pick up in the City." Sophie pulled up to a long drive way. She looked at the sign outside the gates, and then slowly made her way up to the parking lot.

After they parked they went into the main building and into the Office. It took about ten minutes but they meet Miss. Douglas, the principal, and were told to wait for Lyra.

Sporting a maroon leotard and tan dance leggings, Lyra practically ran into the office from her ballet class.

All three girls squealed and all talk at once while they were bouncing up and down from excitement.

Ms. Douglas cleared her throat as she gave Lyra a hard look, "Dignity and decorum, dears."

Lyra bit her lip and took a breath, "I am so pleased to see all of you again."

Meredith exchanged a look with Zillah and then giggled, "we are pleased to see you again as well."

Lyra rolled her eyes, "come on, let's get your stuff." She noticed Trent, "hey, you did grow a couple of inches."

Trent scratched the back of his head, "yeah, now we're almost the same height."

Lyra than gave Sophie a hug, "thank you Miss. Glew for bringing everyone up here."

"You're welcome Lyra; now let's get everyone settled in."