Chapter Two tc \l2 "Chapter Two

"I understand, Ms. Parker.  It's quite normal for my students to be brought for discipline and responsibility, in fact, last year this school became strictly for girls with checkered pasts."

"It's Ms. Parker."

"Excuse me?" Ms. Harper asked.

"It's just Ms. Parker, my husband divorced me six months ago." Mother explained quietly.

"I see; just around the time Elizabeth started acting out, behaving poorly."

"Well, yes, you think she could be acting this way because of the divorce?"

"It very well could be, or, perhaps, the other way around." Ms. Harper whispered, suggestively.

"I don't understand quite what you mean, Ms. Harper." Mother replied.

"She means I drove Daddy away!" I interrupted.

"Liz, hush up, that is not what Ms. Harper means, is it?"

"I merely meant that she could have sensed the stressed marriage, and acted out to keep your attention.  Then, your husband left anyway, so the trouble escalated." Ms. Harper said coldly.  What she didn't say was, "and your husband couldn't handle the pressure of a trouble kid." but she was thinking it.

"I'm sitting right here, I wasn't acting out against anything, I was having fun, and I'm not a trouble kid!" I exploded, shooting up out of my chair.

"Liz, sit down!" Mother commanded while Ms. Harper looked somewhat unsettled.

"NO!  I'm fifteen, I have a driver's permit, I drink coffee, I stay out until midnight, and I'm old enough to date.  I am not some child who's starved for attention!  Stop treating me like one." I shouted.

"Well, I believe you were right on the phone.  She is a spirited one, but don't worry, that can be fixed.  So, tell me, Liz, what is it you will miss most of all?" Ms. Harper said when I sat back down, directing the last question at me.

"My book." I answered, averting my eyes.

"I beg your pardon, but we have a library her larger than most high school gymnasiums.  We have books about and from almost every culture, and in many languages, so surely you can find it here." Ms. Harper gloated.

"You don't have it."   

"Well, how do you know, you have not looked?  Come now, what's the title?  I have a list here of every book in our library." She said, pulling a drawer of her desk open, and lifting out a book thicker than my suitcase.  She looked up at me, expectantly.

"You don't have it." I repeated.


"What's the title?" Ms. Harper urged.

"No library has it." I countered, starting to enjoy the game.

"Well this is an extraordinary school, with an extraordinary library, with thousands upon thousands of books, many or which very old and very rare." She said, leaning forward over the desk.

"It's new." I replied, lazily.  This wasn't a war, or even a battle; this was just me, mocking the enemy.

"We order every book on the best buy booklist every year, for 50 years."

"You don't have this one."

"How can you be so sure?"

"It's not a best buy."

"We also buy 20% of the books published." Ms. Harper argued, slightly blushing now.

"Not this one."

"Well then, where is it?" She asked, giving up.

"In the car.""Why isn't it with your belongings if you treasure it so much?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Because Mom said not to bring it.  It's a four hour drive, I needed something to do."  Mother watched Ms. Harper and I in our little tug-of-war of rapid-fire statements.

"Ms. Parker, why can't she have her book?" Ms. Harper asked, turning towards Mother.

"Well, uh, um, I thought it would interfere with her studies." Mother whimpered.

"Reading is encouraged here, not outlawed.  What is it about this book that is so special?" Ms. Harper asked.

"I wanted Liz to get a fresh start, without this crazy hobby distracting her." Mother tried to explain.

"Ms. Parker, will you leave us a moment?  Elizabeth and I can have a chat while you retrieve that book for me.  Is that alright?" Ms. Harper said sweetly.  Mother nodded weakly and left with the strange maid woman who had silently entered the room.  Once the door closed behind her, Ms. Harper stared at me crossly.

"Good match, I'd call it a draw, wouldn't you say?" I said, diplomatically.

"Excuse me?" She replied, her cross stare turning blank.

"Our little tug-of-war just now.  You did very well; you outlasted almost every other teacher or principal I've met."  I performed the soft little golf-clap that usually pushed resisters over the edge.

"This is a game to you?" She asked.

"I like to think of it more as a challenge to overcome." I replied.

"This book,"

"Yes?"

"What's in it?"


"Stories."

"I see.  What kind of stories?"

"My stories."

"What about"

"Adventure."

"And?"

"Magic."

"What else?" 

"Love, danger, and mystery."

"And?"

"And exotic places, far off lands, mystical stars, and lots of other things."

"Is that all?"

"That's about it."

"They sound interesting."

"They are."

"May I read one?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's my book and they're my stories."     "It's not nice to be stingy."     "It's not nice to ask for things that don't belong to you."  Ms. Harper opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it again, obviously at a loss for words.  "That put a cork in her." I thought smugly.

"You know, Liz," she hissed my name, "if you stay here, your Mother will be four hours away, and you can become a new woman."  Ms. Harper stood, turned around, grabbed a book off the shelf, and turned back towards me.  "Many a trouble making girl have come through those doors and left through those very same doors with straight A's and a scholarship to one of the best universities this country has to offer.  Don't you want that for yourself?  Look," she said, opening the book and spinning it around for me to see.  It was a logbook showing a chart of names, crimes, grades, and the universities those names later attended.

Jessica Hanning – 2 counts of armed robbery – 9.8gpa – Harvard

Theresa McFloy – Attempted murder, resisting arrest – 9.4gpa – Yale

Kathryn Jones – 2 counts of arson, attempted robbery – 9.5gpa – Julliard

Melanie Ward - Animal cruelty and mutilation – 9.9gpa – SIUE

The log went on and on.  I flipped the pages farther and farther back until one name caught my attention.  Carol Parker – Indecent exposure to authority – 10.0gpa – Princeton.  "Indecent exposure to authority?" I laughed.

"She showed herself to a teacher." Ms. Harper explained.


"Oh." I looked further and found another name I recognized.  Marilyn Harper – indecent exposure in a public place, arson of city property, possession of illegal substances – 9.9gpa – MAC.  "You?  I would never have figured you for someone who streaked, set fires, and do drugs.  Cool!" I said in awe.

"I was young once too, not so very long ago.  I accidentally set fire to a trashcan when I lit a joint in the park, and when the fuzz came, I flashed them and ran.  That was the entire extent of my run-in with the law.  How about you?" Ms. Marilyn Harper laughed.  She had a deep, rich laugh, like a singer would.

"Well, let's see; trespassing, shoplifting, I set fire to the school records in the office, I hacked into the school database and changed grades for five dollars a pop, and used the chemistry lab to get a teacher into a near coma, so we wouldn't have to take his stupid final, and I blew up the lab in the process.  That's the extent of my run-in with the law, so far." I laughed.  My crimes sounded so totally cliché of teen rebels.

"I see.  Well, I guess we're lucky to have you here, I suppose." Ms. Harper said.

"Huh?"

"Well, you must be very intelligent if you could hack into an encrypted computer system, and you must have an extensive knowledge of chemistry, much more advanced than an average freshman.  So you see, you could accomplish a great deal here, Elizabeth Marie Parker." Ms. Harper explained, standing.  Mother had walked in sometime and was standing behind my chair.  "Ms. Parker, please, have a seat.  Elsa," She said, gesturing to the maid.  "Some tea for our guests."  Elsa nodded and left, closing the door behind her.

"Now," Ms. Harper said, turning to Mother.  "Let me see that book.  If you're going to have it here, I must inspect it."  Mother handed her my book and I glared strongly at Harper.  She opened the front page and scanned along, then looked up at me, and continued flipping through the book.  She closed the book and handed it to me with the faintest hint of a smile.

"I hugged the leather bound book to myself protectively.  It gave me comfort just having it.  Grandpa had given it to me just before he died and I felt him near every time I opened the book.  He loved the stories almost as much as I did and the book had been a tradition of ours since before I can remember.  We made up the stories together, and after he died, I added some of my own as a way to talk to Grandpa.  I learned to read, write, and live by that book.

"Interesting.  How long have you had that book?"  Ms. Harper asked.

"Longer that I know." I answered.

"Well, I guess you may keep it here, but hear me, don't let it interfere with your studies, Okay?" She warned.

"Okay."

"The teachers will take it away from you." She continued.

"I understand."

"Do you really?"


"Yes, I get it.  They'll take it away, they'll read it aloud, I'll be known as a freak, and they'll probably never give it back." I said.

"Good.  Now I feel you actually are listening to something I said.  Ah, Elsa, finally.  Sugar, Ms. Parker?  Elizabeth?" Ms. Harper asked as the maid came in with a tray of silver and china dishes.

"Uh, yes, thank you." Mother nodded, taking the small china cup and saucer from Elsa with an unsteady hand.

"And you, Elizabeth?" She repeated.

"I take honey and vanilla in my tea, please." I replied with my best manners.  Ms. Harper made a funny face and nodded to Elsa.  Mother shrugged in my defense.  Elsa returned moments later with a bottle of honey and another of vanilla.  "Thanks."

"Yes, ma'am." Elsa said, nodding stiffly.  I took my cup and the two bottles and added a little of each until it was just right.

"Well, I guess greasy bread would sound strange to you.  We all have our own personal preferences for everything, I suppose." Ms. Harper said.  I tried to sip my tea quietly, but ended up slurping because it was so hot.

"That brings me to my next point." She said, watching me.  "Here, girls not only learn to be good people and upright citizens, but they also learn to be proper young ladies." She emphasized that last word.  "All our students learn to sit, stand, walk, talk, eat, drink and be perfect ladies.  They come in as girls in all different stages of dress and undress, but they leave here as women with diplomas, college plans, and manners under classy, tasteful clothing.  Personally, I am really looking forward to this transformation for you, Elizabeth Marie Parker."

"Uh, great.  Gee, Mom, you forgot to mention that in the car." I laughed nervously, straightening up in my chair.

"Yes, well, I didn't want you to try and make a run for it." Mother teased.

"Well, would you look at the time? It's almost noon!" Ms. Harper exclaimed, standing up to walk Mother to the door.  Elsa followed along silently and I listened to the sounds of hushed voices, and the sharp clip of high-heels on marble.  From this chair, right here in Ms. Marilyn Harper's office, nothing else mattered.  Forget Dante's Hell, Ms. Harper's School for Girls was a hell unlike no other.