Chapter 36

The next morning Joanne was up bright and early getting ready for her day. She finished getting changed and then headed out of the master bedroom and across the hall entering Tessa's room.

She was surprised to see Tessa was already up sitting on her bed with the light on, petting Flo.

"You're up." Joanne mentioned earning Tessa's attention. "Get ready for school, okay?"

"I'm not going." Tessa plainly said.

Joanne stood in her doorway, leaning against the frame, "And why not? Are you sick?"

"No." Tessa mumbled, "I don't want to go today."

"Well honey, you have too." Joanne stated, entering the bedroom.

Tessa gently pushed Flo away and slid back under the blankets pulling them over her head, "I don't want to!" She argued, her voice starting to rise.

Joanne walked over to the bed, pulling the blankets off, "Give me one good reason why."

"I don't have to answer if I don't want." Tessa bitterly replied.

"Well you're not staying home for nothing." Joanne said, "Now get out of bed and get ready."

"No!"

"Tessa." Joanne said in a warning tone holding down her daughter's gaze, but Tessa wasn't moving. She stared at Joanne with daggers. "Fine!" Joanne said walking out of the room and back into the master bedroom. "Maureen get up!"

Maureen startled awake, sitting straight up, "What?"

"You're driving Tessa to school today." Joanne ordered, "I want you to talk to her teacher and find out if something is bothering her. She gave me attitude about doing her homework last night and now she's giving me attitude about going to school today."

"Okay, don't get your panties all in a bunch." Maureen mumbled and fell back on the bed.

"Don't get all grumpy on me." Joanne snipped, "These girls need to change their attitudes around here. I can't deal with this bitchiness for much longer."

"Maybe they're all just PMSing." Maureen said.

"I don't care what it is." Joanne said, and walked out of the room and downstairs to get her morning coffee. She could already tell today wasn't going to be a good one.

Maureen stumbled out of bed. She figured she'd go wake Haley up since she didn't hear Joanne do it, and then she'd go see what was wrong with Tessa. Maureen opened Haley's door, but before she could say anything Haley yelled back,

"I'm up!"

Maureen's eyes widened, Joanne was right their daughters needed a chill pill or something. "Okay, relax. Take a Midol."

She shut Haley's door and was just about to walk down the hall until Kylie happily greeted her.

"Morning Aunt Maureen."

Maureen smiled and spun around, bending down so she could hug Kylie, "Morning, Kylie, at least one of you woke up on the right side of the bed."

Kylie scrunched up her face, letting Maureen hoist her up. She wrapped her arms around her neck, and looked at her with confusion, "I wake up on the same side of the bed everyday."

Maureen giggled, "What I'm trying to say is. I'm happy you woke up in a happy mood."

Kylie nodded, "It's show and tell day today. I'm always happy on that day."

"Oh yeah? What you going to bring in?" Maureen asked.

"This." Kylie said holding up a black and red guitar pick, with a picture of a punked out bunny on it.

"Where'd you get that?" Maureen asked, holding it close, "Hey, did Roger give you this?"

"Yeah, when Mommy, Daddy and me stayed there." Kylie said, "I liked the bunny on it, so Mimi let me play with it, and then Roger said I could keep it."

Maureen smiled. What a sweet thing of Roger to do. "Alright babe, go get ready for school, kay?" She said setting the four-year-old on the ground.

"Okay." Kylie said, and scurried off towards the bathroom.

Maureen finally made her way to Tessa's room. The eight-year-old was just lying in bed until she seen Maureen enter the room and she quickly sat up.

"What's wrong with you?" Maureen asked.

"I want to stay home today." Tessa quietly replied.

"Are you sick?" Maureen asked.

Tessa shook her head, looking down at her lap. "I just wanna."

"That's a not a good enough reason." Maureen stated. She slipped her fingers under Tessa's chin lifting her head up so she could make eye contact, "You have to go to school today, Tess. I'm going to drive you and walk you in too."

"Okay." Tessa whispered and reluctantly climbed out of bed.

"Good girl." Maureen smirked, running her hand through Tessa's hair, before leaving to go get ready herself.

After successfully getting everyone up and out the door, Maureen and Cora drove their kids to school. Since Maureen still couldn't drive, Cora happily helped her out.

"Thanks a lot Cora." Maureen said as she hopped out of the passenger side of the car, and then opened the back door to help the kids out of the car. "I'll try and make it quick."

"No problem." Cora smiled, "I'll be down at the coffee shop. Meet you there when you're done?"

"Sounds good." Maureen smiled, and began to head for the school, not even noticing Tessa was dragging behind as the other kids ran for the building. She turned around to see Tessa taking her time walking up the sidewalk with her schoolbag dragging behind her. "Hey, lets go there missy."

Tessa looked up, shrugging. She walked a bit faster, but not fast enough for Maureen, so the diva picked her up and balanced her on her hip.

"Listen Tess, did you do something bad at school?" Maureen asked, watching as Tessa shook her head, "Well then why don't you want to go? You're acting as if this is a prison or something."

"Because." Tessa simply answered, laying her head on Maureen's shoulder, not giving her anymore information then that.

"All right." Maureen said and traveled into the school, heading down the hall and towards Tessa's classroom.

Maureen stopped at the door, spotting a young redhead sitting behind the desk, confused since this wasn't the teacher Maureen remembered. She knocked once, before speaking, "Hi, Mrs. uh…I'm sorry, I don't think we've meet."

The teacher looked up, smiling. "No we didn't. I'm the new third grade teacher. I just transferred here halfway through the school year."

Maureen nodded smiling, "I was going to say, the last teacher looked nothing like you. You are definitely twenty times younger than Tessa's other teacher."

"I'll take that as a compliment." The teacher said, "I'm Mrs. Adams, Kate Adams." She introduced herself, putting her hand out to shake Maureen's, "And you must be Mrs. Jefferson."

Maureen's smile widened. She loved when people called her "Mrs. Jefferson" it gave her pleasant chills. It for some reason made her feel that much more connected with Joanne.

"Yes, Maureen Jefferson." Maureen grinned. The teacher turned around to take a seat, and Maureen couldn't help but check her out. "You can't be the teacher Tessa mooned."

"Nope," Mrs. Adams giggled, "But I have heard all about that." She said with a smirk, "Tessa is quite a character."

"I bet." Maureen smiled, holding Tessa close as she took a seat in front of the teacher's desk. "I actually came here to talk to you about her."

"All right." Mrs. Adams said, "What can I do for you?"

"My wife was worried that maybe she hadn't been doing well in school? I know you've called a couple times about incomplete homework. Is she struggling?" Maureen asked, looking down at her daughter who was paying no attention to anything she or the teacher were saying.

"She is doing great." Mrs. Adams said. "Besides not handing in her homework, which I don't understand, you're daughter is very smart."

Maureen proudly smiled at the comment, but waved it off, and added, "How about the kids at school, does she get along with them?"

"Yes." The teacher replied, "She has tons of friends. She even hangs out with some of the kids in the fourth grade. Especially that boy Cohen…Ryan Cohen. They seem to be best friends."

"Yeah, they are close." Maureen said, "I don't understand why she doesn't want to go to school all of a sudden."

"I'm not sure." Mrs. Adams said, "I can't think of anything wrong. She hasn't even been in trouble. I think the mooning was the last incident." She joked.

Maureen cracked a small smile, "That's good." She focused her attention back to Tessa, "What do you say Tess, you think you can stay here for the rest of the day?"

"No." Tessa mumbled.

"Come on, it'll go by fast, and then you'll get to come back home and see me." Maureen smiled.

Tessa sighed, pulling away to look Maureen in the eyes, "Fine." She pouted, climbing off of Maureen's lap. She sulked as she walked all the way to her desk and plopped down.

"Don't you want to go out for recess? You still have ten minutes?" Mrs. Adams said, looking at her watch.

Tessa simply shook her head and pulled her books from her bag. Maureen watched her, her heart melting. She didn't know what was bothering her daughter so much, but it made her heartache causing an unconscious pout to form on her own lips.

"You know what." Maureen said standing up, "I'm going to take her home."

"Are you sure?" Mrs. Adams asked, "If you do that she's going to think she can stay home all the time."

Maureen paused to think about the situation, but when her eyes landed back on Tessa she caved, "I know, but I don't want to leave her like this." she said, looking back at the teacher, "Hopefully things will change tomorrow."

"Okay, if that's what you want." Mrs. Adams smiled.

"Tess, come on." Maureen said earning her attention, "We're going home."

Tessa's face lit up, and she quickly shoved her notebooks back in her bag and jumped out of her chair, grabbing Maureen's hand.

"Nice meeting you." Mrs. Adams waved.

"You too." Maureen said, and the two of them headed out of the classroom and back home.