Anne had had enough of the library for today. Nothing that she had found linked sweet potatoes to anything that was going on with Hermione. Not that she wasn't surprised by this, but it was so hard to cope with the fact that she had hit yet another dead-end. She just wanted a hot cup of tea and a good book. She needed to get her mind off of her daughter. It was not doing anyone any good for her to be doing all of this research if she was not going to be coherent enough to determine what any of it meant in the end. She just needed some tea, perhaps with honey.
Anne sat her notebook and her jacket on the table. She had finally broke down and bought a second binder so that she could split up her notes some. But that could wait, she needed some tea. She put the kettle on to boil and set about finding her favorite cup. She grabbed a stool and climbed up onto the counter. It just had to be there. Her favorite cup could not have disappeared. Her grandmother would be absolutely disappointed in her if she knew that one of the two things that she had left Anne was now missing. She had to find that teacup.
She was still searching through every cupboard and drawer when she realized that Hermione was home from school and was standing next to the stove where the kettle was whistling away. "Careful 'Mione, that is way to hot for you to be messing with." At this Hermione stalked over to the table and sat down. Something was quite obviously wrong with her, and Anne was not so far gone looking for the cup to notice.
"What is wrong dear, what happened at school today?"
"Well, I did what you suggested and went to have a meeting with the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues." Hermione looked up at her mother, and Anne felt unsettled to see that her tears were about to brim over.
"Yes dear, and what happened?" Anne had a feeling she knew what had happened, her brilliant daughter had probably been shot down again and had been told that she had been sticking her nose in places it did not belong, but she wanted to be sure before she went and had a private meeting with this Vice Principal in charge of financial issues.
"Well, - sniff - I went during the morning break, and Ms. Rose came with me - hic! - She said that it was a very good idea to see where all the money went to since I was so curious. - Hic! - And, she wanted to make sure that I was told the truth and not simply sent away like any other nine year old would be."
Anne had liked Ms. Rose since the moment she met her at the meeting before the school year even began. She had always been made out to be such a mean and spiteful woman, but with Hermione she was absolutely wonderful. "Maybe we should invite her over for dinner one night, your Ms. Rose that is; she seems like such a nice person."
At this, Hermione's sniffling burst out into uncontrollable sobs. "YOU CAN'T," she sobbed. "BECAUSE SHE WAS FIRED TODAY!" Hermione continued to cry uncontrollably and it was all Anne could do to calm her down enough to drink some tea.
After a few minutes Hermione was composed enough to tell her mother what had happened. "Well you see, we were in the office of the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues and I was showing him all of my charts and graphs so that he could see that I was not some simple nine year old. It was going so well. Granted, he had not answered any of my questions, but he was at least listening to me. I though I was doing such a good job and, I wanted Ms. Rose to be proud of me, to show her that I could do it. But when I turned and smiled at her, that mean old Secretary started shouting about how she had put me up to it."
"He said that it had been long coming and that trying to weasel her way into the school's finances was the last straw. Mummy, what did he mean? Ms. Rose was just there to make sure that I was treated fairly. She wasn't being a weasel. And, I liked Ms. Rose, she was the nicest teacher ever, and now she is gone. And, he still didn't tell me where all the extra fundraising money went to."
Anne had heard enough, she knew there was no way that Ms. Rose had any ulterior motives when she offered to go with Hermione to the office. This was the last straw, but not in Ms. Rose's teaching career. Tomorrow would be the last day that Hermione went to a public primary school. She could not believe that someone would have the audacity to yell at someone in front of her young daughter. Hermione was smart, that was not news to anyone who knew her, but to yell at a teacher, a favorite teacher at that, and to fire her in front of a student. That was absolutely uncalled for, and the entire school was going to hear about it.
As Anne tucked Hermione into bed that evening she promised her that it would all be taken care of at the PTA meeting the following night.