Chapter Forty-Five

Without Powers

Like most of the staff living on property, Wind had arrived the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving, very glad to be home after spending most of his holiday in Greece. But something felt strange when he stepped out into the garden.

Wondering about the strange tension that had developed, he decided to take a walk through it. But in the gardens the tensions eased; squirrels and birds were busy getting ready for the winter, and Mr. Green was busy raking the leaves in the path to get ready for school to start again.

"Good afternoon, Phil," Wind said with a smile. "Did you have a good fall break?"

"Yes, thank you. How was Greece?" he replied.

"Productive. It will take some more negotiations, I think, but I believe we've succeeded in convincing them not to move Arcadia's Constellation. We've moved on to the specifics now, and that will take time," Wind explained.

"Still, it's progress. A bit like these leaves, in a way. I rake 'em up; they come down again, and for a while it seems like I'm not getting anywhere. But little by little, the trees have gone to sleep, and I have a nice pile of leaf compost to blanket them in," Mr. Green said.

"Ah, yes," Wind said with a smile. "So it has been quiet since you've been back?"

"No, I wouldn't say that," Mr. Green replied. "Yesterday morning when I returned to winterize the irrigation system, there was a lot of activity around the dorm rooms, like there were several students moving out."

"Really? That's strange," Wind said thoughtfully. "Thank you for your work, Phil."

"Best job in the world, if you ask me," Mr. Green said, and Wind smiled as he went back to raking leaves.

As Wind walked past the Commissary, he glanced in the mirror and noticed Brenda inside with a cup of coffee and a lot of paperwork at her table. Curious, he walked over to the Swan Pond and stepped onto a lily pad, gently walking over them until a glass door appeared in the middle of one of the Commissary windows. He stepped inside, the door immediately disappearing again as if it had never been there as he stepped over to Brenda's table.

Brenda heard a growling bear and looked up thoughtfully, pausing her work until Wind finally appeared standing next to her table.

"I am so glad you're back," Brenda said fervently.

"Are we in some sort of crisis? Phil said something about students moving out," Wind asked, sitting down.

"It's the Powers family, actually. I don't know what happened," Brenda said quietly. "But I can tell you that it started with Alva Powers on Thursday, texting me on the phone that if we didn't fire Jennifer at once, he would remove his children."

"Thursday? That's very strange timing," Wind said, baffled.

"Yes, well, when I explained to him that we can't just let someone go without just cause, he had me send their transcripts to Northwestern and Salem," Brenda explained. "By Friday morning, he was moving them out."

"I see," Wind said.

"Oh, but that was just the start of it. By noon, all of the other Powers were doing the exact same thing. I had texts, Net-Owls, and even quite a number of real Owl Mails show up with letters demanding that she be fired or else, asking for transcripts, and moving their children out upon receiving them."

"What about the Masons and other related families?" Wind asked.

"So far, only members of the Powers family itself have moved out," Brenda replied.

"That's very strangely specific. They don't normally split like that. They usually act as one group," Wind said, Brenda nodding at that in agreement. "Have Jennifer come into my office first thing tomorrow morning. I am certain that she knows something about this situation that we probably don't."

Jennifer sent Radiance and all of her things to the school, leaving only her cloak and a fresh change of clothes for when she got up on Monday morning. She was quite relieved when Lucky was already at a booth with her laptop and a small thin briefcase.

"It's okay, Jackie, I can do most of my work here as easily as I can anywhere else," Lucky said. "Besides, it's the first of the month, so I need to start with the paperwork for the cafe anyway. Don't worry about it, you're not obligating me. I want to help. It's my paying it back in a way, you know? You did the right thing." Lucky reassured her. Jennifer smiled at that, then nodded.

"Well, text me, Owl me, or call me if there's an emergency, Lucky," Jennifer said.

"I already promised Lunette I'd call her first," Lucky said. "You've got other stuff to take care of."

"Yes, alright, Owl me second then," Jennifer said, and Lucky nodded at that. Then Jennifer went up to the counter. "Goodbye, Sally! Jenny! Billy! Carlos! And everyone else!" Jennifer called out, getting a reply. "See you in a couple of weeks."

"See you then, Jennifer!" Sally said warmly, and Jennifer stepped to the back so she could take her Portkey out.

It was so nice to get back to the school again, and she was more than ready to get back to work for that last final push before the holidays, because there were projects to finish and bells to practice for the Christmas concert. She longed to see how Truman's Thanksgiving went, not to mention Kay's Thanksgiving Dinner at Raymond's house. Eagerly she went straight to her classroom, letting Radiance out of her cage.

"Good morning, Severus! It's so good to be back," she greeted the Rogue Painting, and he gestured a greeting. But as she turned and looked at the shelves, she noticed that a handful of her student's projects were missing... one of them was Angela Power's project, Jennifer realized, and the two others belonged to her older cousins. "I suppose they took my advice," Jennifer murmured out loud. She had been so glad to get back on campus, she had nearly forgotten the altercation, but it came flooding back when she saw the missing projects. She heard a couple of notes played on a violin, and she glanced up to see the portrait looking at her questioningly. "It's a long story, really," she replied, feeling a bit guilty that her standing up to Alva had caused her to lose several of her students... no. Despite her regrets, if he didn't think that she was a capable teacher, those students had no business being in her classroom. When Quintin had a teacher that wasn't right for him, Severus had gone so far to speak to their school board and would have even moved him to a different school to make sure that his education was taken care of. As a parent, Alva should have wanted the same thing for his children, and if he had felt she was inadequate, then it was his job as a parent to move them somewhere that better suited their needs.

There was a swift knock on the open door, and Jennifer looked up to see Brenda standing there.

"I see you're finally back," Brenda said with a thin smile that made Jennifer immediately wonder what sort of trouble she was in. "Wind would like to see you in his office as soon as possible. I assume you know what this is about?"

"I can probably guess," Jennifer admitted, giving Radiance a quick treat before accompanying Brenda out the door.

Jennifer could tell from Brenda's expression that she was dying to ask her about what exactly prompted the exodus, but since Jennifer didn't have even the faintest idea how Wind was going to react, Jennifer decided that it was probably better to keep it to herself until she knew the answer to that question. She found her mind transported back to how many other times she had been escorted to that office when she was a child; at least now, it was a more friendly audience. Still...

Before she knew it or was even really ready for it, they had arrived to find the doors open. Jennifer peered in to see Wind sitting at his desk with his head propped up, staring at what appeared to be one of several letters in front of him.

"Ah, Jennifer! Good morning. Please come in," Wind said with a smile. Jennifer wore an expression as if she were going to her own funeral. He had seen that expression on her face before; it was on the day she had turned Steve Mason into a cactus. "Please close the door for me, Brenda, thank you," he added. Brenda, looking quite disappointed, closed the doors on her way back to her office. "So! Jennifer! It would appear that the Powers are having a bit of a boycott." Jennifer frowned in apparent confusion.

"Boycott?" she asked.

"Yes, a protest. All of the sudden, they've decided that your presence is so disruptive and detrimental to the school that they are demanding that I either fire you, or you hand in your resignation," Wind explained, slightly encouraged by her apparent surprise. "They have lodged a complaint with the school board stating that they believe you are an incompetent teacher, and they have no intention of having any of their children attend or making any financial donations to the school until you have left it."

Suddenly Jennifer couldn't contain herself and broke out laughing in disbelief. Once she got going, she really had trouble stopping. Wind could do nothing but wait it out, intently curious as to what it was that was so funny.

"Did they really put that in writing? Seriously? Can I get copies of all of it? I really want to send it to Jim and Lunette, because they are both probably going to find it extremely hilarious," Jennifer said, catching her breath. "I can't believe Alva's ego is so big that he would do something that incredibly stupid! Those poor kids! Then again, those poor schools, having to put up with their parents! We should probably warn them all... I promise I'll cover any losses to funding caused by them leaving, Wind, honest," she added, then grinned when he gave her copies of both the complaint and all of the letters they had sent.

"When you say, Jim, who do you mean?" Wind asked, trying to make sense of what Jennifer was going on about.

"James Buchard... I think he went to school here," Jennifer explained.

"Yes, indeed, but I didn't know that you knew him," Wind said with surprise.

"Yes, he's one of my lawyers, actually. I have him looking into some of the legalities of this school, and on how to break this school away from that testing trap once and for all. You don't mind, do you?" Jennifer asked.

"No, of course not, considering I already asked you to help me do just yet that. But I have yet to understand what about this situation is particularly funny," Wind replied.

"Well, it's because the story he just fed you and the school board is the exact opposite of what happened on Thanksgiving," Jennifer confessed with an apologetic smile. "When we ran into each other at the Lions football game, I'm the one who told him that if he didn't respect either me or my profession then he had no business putting his children in my classroom, and if he thought so little about me being at Whitebridge, he should pull his kids out, and so should any other Powers that felt the same way."

"Did you threaten him, Jennifer?" Wind asked searchingly.

"Not exactly," Jennifer said. Wind gazed at her fixedly. "Although there is a slight possibility that he might have interpreted the conversation in that way... but I didn't... not precisely. I did lose my temper and tell him to get his family out of the school, though, I'll admit that," she added. Wind shook his head at that. "But although I can say that I very much regret that Angela and her cousins will not be in my class, I do not regret what I said to him. If he doesn't have any respect for who is teaching his children, then his children are better off at a school where he does respect who's teaching them. My husband and I wouldn't let my child stay in a classroom that wasn't right for him; he was moved. And I really don't want children in my class when their parents don't want them to be there, because that's not fair to either the teacher or the student."

Wind leaned back in the chair, gazing at her thoughtfully as he considered her last point.

"All right, Jennifer. Thank you for letting me know what happened. Make sure you get those copies to your lawyers just to be safe... also, it might be a good idea to make sure Jim attends the next school board meeting too, if he has the time," Wind advised.

"I've just caused you a lot of headaches, haven't I?" Jennifer acknowledged apologetically.

"Let me worry about my job, and you concentrate on your own. Just do you what think is best for you, your students, and this school, and I'm sure it'll come out all right," Wind reassured her gently. "You had best finish getting ready for class."

"Yes, alright. Have a good morning," Jennifer said, despite the fact that he very seriously doubt it would be.

"Yes, good morning, welcome back," he replied with a thin smile.

Jennifer stepped out the door, letting herself exhale in relief. But as she stepped around the corner, she nearly ran into Brenda, carrying some trivial paperwork for Wind to sign. She was extremely curious about what she had missed, and was very much wondering why Jennifer looked so relieved.

"He's probably ready to see you now, Brenda... excuse me, I need to run these to the Owl Mailbox real quick before class," Jennifer explained, hurrying out the front doors before Brenda could ask her directly. Brenda hurried into the office only to be sent straight back out again to fetch Wind a headache potion.