This scene switches back and forth, from the IEP and back to the girls.
Rosalie POV:
"Ok, this makes me sound like a bad teacher…" Auntie Renee started to Esme as they walked back into Daddy and Esme's house together. "…but I'm gonna be out the first day back, because I have to attend Nessie's IEP. So, the principal's subbing for me,"
"Oh, Renee, don't blame yourself, it's just that Carmen, the speech teacher, and Mrs. Stanley planned it that way. That's nice of the principal to help out," Esme answered. I just gaped at them in shock. Oh no, this couldn't be happening! I tried to pretend nothing was wrong, and said, "Alice, did you have a great time at Disneyland?"
"Yes, I did! Did you?"
"Yes!" We lugged our bags upstairs and we sat on my bed, well, now our bed.
"Alice, I'm worried about tomorrow! Auntie Renee's not our teacher tomorrow, Mr. King is subbing, and you know what that means! More time with him!" I pretended to throw up in my hands and she made a disgusted face.
"Don't worry. Mommy will protect us," she said, brightening up.
Luckily, Auntie Renee was there for a few minutes before Mr. King came striding in like he owned the place. Well, he sort of did, but he was wrong in the way he treated me.
"Okay, class…I'm gonna be out until noon, because I'll be at an IEP, and Mr. King was nice enough to substitute for our class. So, I'll see you all tomorrow!"
"Bye, Mrs. Swan," we said in unison.
I gave her a longing look, but she missed it. I had to fight the urge to run after her out of the classroom, and instead, I held onto Alice's hand and never let it go.
"Hey, guys!" he said in a fake cheery voice that gave me a chill from the back of my neck to the bottoms of my feet. "You may call me Royce. I'm not a regular principal, I'm a cool principal,"
His eyes were fixed on mine, and I squirmed on my spot on the floor next to Alice. She squeezed my hand in support.
He started to call roll, and I timidly raised my hand but kept my eyes down when he called my name. Alice did the same thing.
"Let me see those beautiful eyes, Rosie," he said in a teasing tone. To any other person, it would've seemed perfectly fine, but to me, it gave me the creeps.
Renee POV:
I took my seat between Carmen and Nessie and waited for her speech teacher, Karen Newton, the other aide, Clara Crowley, and her third grade teacher, Mrs. Stanley to come in. For some reason, I felt doubtful, but I knew everything at the IEP was going to be fine. Eleazar sat on the other side of Carmen, and later, Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Newton came in the room. We were ready to begin. We started with introductions.
Mrs. Newton, who was also her counselor, shuffled the papers. "Karen Newton, Speech and Language Pathologist,"
"Jennifer Stanley, General Education Teacher,"
"Clara Crowley, Morning Instructional 1:1 Aide,"
"Renee Swan, Afternoon Instructional 1:1 Aide," I introduced myself.
"Carmen Weber, the subject's mother,"
"Eleazar Weber, the subject's father,"
"And me?" Nessie asked, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm just the kid," Everyone laughed at that, including Nessie. She was so cute.
"All right, let's get this party started," Carmen said, rubbing her hands together and looking at me with a devious look in her eyes. I returned the look. We both hated some of these stuck-up professionals trying to make Nessie a person she wasn't and thinking she didn't want to, when it was actually part of her disability, and she couldn't. Also, Jennifer's daughter was stupid, according to Bella, and Karen Newton's son was a big gossip, and my best friend's son hated him. Clara Crowley just didn't understand Nessie, which made Carmen really mad.
Alice POV:
I could tell Rosalie was afraid, because her hand was trembling in mine, even though Mr. King was nowhere near us. But his gaze was on both of us, not just her. She was blinking her eyes really fast and trying not to cry. I was thinking of our escape, when he called our names.
"Alice, Rosalie, my lovely ladies, come on up," he said, grinning a sick grin. "Sing a song that you learned from Mrs. Swan for us,"
"I can't do it," Rosalie whispered, gripping my hand so tight that it hurt.
"I'll help you," I whispered back and then helped her up. She took shaky steps to the front of the room, and I stood next to Mr. King so she wouldn't have to, but just as I predicted, he moved to the other side of us, so he'd be next to her.
"Breathe," I whispered.
She was biting her lower lip so hard that I thought I saw blood.
"Girls, sing 'Twist and Shout'. Renee said she taught you that a few weeks ago,"
"Well, shake it up, baby, now," I started, and nudged Rosalie.
"S-shake it up, b-baby," she said, her voice cracking. "I-I'm sorry, I-I c-can't,"
"Twist and shout," Mr. King continued, moving his body towards hers, while I subtly pulled her away from him while singing. "Twist and shout,"
"Cmon cmon, cmon, cmon, baby, now," He was following us now.
"Come on, baby," I sang, while shielding Rosalie from his attempts. I made a motion for Maggie to come up and distract him.
"Come on and work it on out," he belted.
"Work it on out," Maggie echoed, but he still looked at us when we went to the back of the room. I took off my sweater and wiped Rosalie's tears away with it.
"We have to get out of here!" she said lowly through her tears. "I can't take it anymore,"
A shiver went down my spine as I felt him looking at me too. "Yeah, me neither. Let's find my mommy,"
We escaped by bolting out the back of the door while he was busy singing with the rest of our classmates.
Read and review, please! Up next: The run-in with Esme and the IEP really heats up!