Chapter Four
Parent Teacher Conference
The emergency surgery that was supposed to last one, maybe two, hours, ended up being an all-day ordeal. A bunch of medical jargon had been thrown at Cynthia and Avery, and all they had gathered was Kay's appendix ruptured during operation, and that there were other complications.
Eventually, after sitting in the waiting room for more than a few hours, Cynthia forced the two of them to go get dinner. Neither could really force themselves to eat, too worried about Kay. Hardly a word had been spoken the whole time.
It was well into the night by the time Kay was allowed visitors, but even then, she was groggy and hardly responsive from all the medications. The only thing she was able to register was that it was Cynthia with her daughter, bringing to her a fit of tears. She kept saying things like, "Thank god it's you and not Oliver" and "I was so worried they were going to call Oliver". It hadn't even crossed Cynthia's mind that they might call her ex husband in instead of her.
Sated that she was at least in stable condition, Cynthia figured it would be best to take Avery home. All day she had chastised herself for taking her from school early, but with so many unknown variables of when and how she left school, there wasn't much else she could have done.
"Aunt Cynthia," Avery began, dropping her backpack at the dining room table. "Can…can I stay home tomorrow?" She would only be missing Friday, giving herself a long weekend.
Cynthia reasoned that she probably wouldn't be able to concentrate anyways. "Sure, but you'll have to go back on Monday, okay?"
"Actually, we don't have school Monday. It's parent teacher conference day, and apparently my school takes all day for it. Something about giving parents a lot of time to come see the teachers," she explained, watching the disbelief on her aunt's face.
"You sure?"
She nodded. "I promise I asked multiple times. My homeroom teacher assured me that we don't have school on Monday."
Too tired and emotionally exhausted to dispute it, she agreed, telling her that she would see her in the morning. For now, she needed to give Steven an update and let him know that she wouldn't be at work for awhile. Once Kay was able to come home, she would need at least a week of recovery, and there was no way she was going to let that all fall onto Avery's shoulders.
Sleep was another thing she sorely needed.
With a half-assed text summary to Steven, she made her way to Kay's room. As tempting as the couch was, she wanted a bed. Her room was disorganized as it had always been, bringing a small smile to her face. Some things never changed.
The hospital around them finally began to ease into a relative silence. All afternoon it had been chaotic, with two patients at the end of the hall taking up most of the nurses' time.
"Still can't believe you suckered your aunt into a four day weekend," Kay said, forcing an even tone.
Avery rolled her eyes, looking at her mom from her chair. "Mom, that was Friday. Today's Sunday."
She shrugged, trying to not show too much pain in the motion. "I've watched enough terrible reality tv to where it's all the same to me."
Cynthia shook her head, sitting on the chair across the room. Rain beat against the window, with the occasional flash of lightning illuminating the gloomy sky. "You can change the channel, you know," she teased.
"Nurse moved the remote, and I don't remember where he put it. Besides, now I have to find out what happens to Stefan and Jolie." At that point, she was about half-serious. Part of her was invested in the stupid daytime tv program, the other half said it was only the pain meds talking.
Cynthia leaned forward, looking up at the mounted tv. "I can't believe that show is still going."
"You're telling me. It's all the same plot, though. I don't even want to know what filming for that is like."
It suddenly reminded Avery of something she had been meaning to say. "Oh yeah! Speaking of filming," she began, waiting for their attention. "I've been hearing rumors from some of the band kids that one of my teachers, Mrs. Gardner, used to be a movie star!"
Kay laughed, the sound ending in something more painful. "If she was a movie star, why is she teaching?" She asked, taking a deep breath. It was getting close to her next dosage, so everything was starting to hurt more.
Cynthia shrugged in response, keeping a careful eye on her sister. "Honestly, I wouldn't blame her. A girl I was dating—" reminders of her had been coming up too frequently as of late "—was an actress, and I got to go with her for filming once. Every five minutes you see takes about 12 hours on a good day."
Avery's face turned to disgust. "That's horrible! Who would want to do that?"
"She loved it, and I don't know how. I was bored out of my mind the whole time." How Diantha handled redoing the same scene all day was a feat all in its own. Just one week of sitting on set about drove her insane.
The sound of a phone vibrating on the table caught Avery's attention. Reaching for her phone, she pulled up the text message. "I'll be right back? My section leader is here and said she wanted to give me something. Probably whatever I missed on Friday."
Once she was out of the room, Kay looked back to Cynthia. "Speaking of her, what do you think Diantha's up to now? Don't know if she's made any new movies, but not like I've ever bothered to check."
"First off, I've already had enough weird reminders of her, thank you. But, I don't know. Don't know, don't care," she answered, hoping she would drop the subject.
She shrugged, adjusting how she was sitting, silently begging for her nurse to come give her next dose already. "Hey, while I'm thinking about her teachers, I need a favor."
"What?"
She looked unsure, but maybe that was also the lack pain meds. "Normally, I probably wouldn't care too much. Avery's a good student, but…could I ask you to go to parent teacher conferences for me on Monday? Like…yeah, she's a good student, I usually call it 'brag about my kid night', but I just want to make sure she's really settling in. It's her second new school, and I just want to make sure she's doing okay. Not just grade wise."
There was no way she could say no to that. "Yeah, that's no problem."
"You're the best, Cindy."
She laughed through her nose at the nickname. Avery was more likely to use it than her, but they were the only two people she would ever allow to use it.
The door opened, bringing Kay's nurse and Avery, who was now carrying a large bouquet of flowers. "Special delivery, miss Kay," her nurse said in his deep, soothing voice.
"Mom! Check it out! This is from my section!" She said, bringing it over to the side table.
She was almost at a loss for words. "That's so sweet of them. How did they…?"
"I texted my section leader on Thursday telling her I would be absent, and why, and she said she wanted to do something for you. She also got the band to sign this card!" She said, handing her the large, handmade card.
"Sounds like you've got a good group of friends," The nurse said, walking over to the monitor, checking a few things.
Maybe it was the combination of medicine that was wearing off, pain, and the touching gesture from a group of kids who barley knew her child, Kay found herself tearing up a bit. "I knew I picked a good school district," she said, trying to play it off…
Walking through the halls of Easton High School, Cynthia found herself feeling more out of place than she had imagined she would. The layout was odd, and it left her feeling turned around at times. Thankfully, Avery had zero trouble navigating the school.
Part of her also felt bad for not knowing the kinds of questions she should have been asking the teachers, but at least none of them had anything negative to say so far. Kay had been right. It was fairly appropriate to call it "brag about my kid night".
"Last one?" Cynthia asked, looking down at her niece.
She nodded. "Yeah, Mrs. Gardner. She's my lit teacher. The one I said was a movie star," she joked.
Turning down the hallway, Avery kept the lead, taking them to where the hallway then turned to a T.
With the door being closed, the two waited outside, leaning against the blue lockers. "How do you think you're doing in this class?" Cynthia asked, as she had before the others.
Avery shrugged. "Okay, I think? We've only had a few tests so far. As long as I repeat a lot of what she's said, I think I get pretty good grades. Progress report was an A, so…" she trailed off.
The door cracked open, and the sound of voices talking filtered out. The sound of a certain laugh caught Cynthia's attention. The pitch and way the sound moved was eerily familiar. But the person she was wanting to connect it to wasn't likely to be there as well, she tried to reason.
Then again, this was the teacher who had rumors of an acting career, and Gardner…
She forced the thought down as she pushed herself off the lockers. The other parents left, thanking the teacher for her time. The sight of the teacher who followed them out brought Cynthia to a half, her shoes making a loud click.
"Hello, to…" Diantha's greeting died on her tongue at the sight of Cynthia, who was staring at her, eyes wide with disbelief. "Oh, dear lord." For a moment, it didn't feel real. There was no way it was Cynthia standing in front of her.
Avery looked on, not sure why her teacher and aunt were staring at each other. The silence between them was tense.
"Cynthia?" Diantha finally asked, once she was sure that it was in fact not some sort of delusion.
"Diantha," Cynthia replied, forcing herself to be more calm.
The use of first names told Avery most of what she needed to know. "You know each other?" She asked.
Diantha nodded, slowly. "Yes…it's just….it's been a few years."
"Thirteen years," Cynthia filled in.
Her tone was enough to tell Avery that she wasn't exactly pleased to see her, and she was starting to connect the dots. Her hands began to shake as she struggled with figuring out what to do or at least say.
Diantha, meanwhile, was trying to work out the mental math. Avery had been 3 when she last saw her, but she had the Jenness last name. With her being with Cynthia, it worried her that something might have happened to Kay, and that Cynthia was now married.
There were hundreds of questions she now had, and it killed to her to know she couldn't ask a single one of them. "Yes….thirteen…." she began, ungracefully. "Why don't you two come in?"
To some degree, it was fascinating to Avery. Never once had she seen her teacher so flustered. She was always so poised and proper. To see her like this was an experience she wouldn't forget.
Sitting behind her desk, she invited the two of them to sit in the chairs in front of her.
Cynthia noticed very quickly how neat and orderly the room was.
"I…I hadn't slightest idea that I was teaching your niece. Is…everything alright with Kay?" That was, hopefully, a safe enough question.
Arms crossed, Cynthia sat back in her chair, trying to keep as much distance between them as possible. "She's in the hospital right now. Appendicitis."
Her blue eyes widened. "Oh, goodness! My condolences. I hadn't known."
"She's getting better. I'm just helping out until she's able to come home," she told her, point blank, leaving silence to follow once more.
For the two of them, it was surreal seeing the other. It was hard to not just stare at one another, taking in what had all visibly changed in their time apart. Facial features had matured, hairstyles had changed, and both their clothing styles were nothing like they had been in their 20's —a thing that was probably for the best, regardless.
For Cynthia, the feeling was quickly growing bitter. It had been years since she last allowed herself to really think about Diantha. Sure, in her talks with Skyla and Kay, those memories had been dug up a bit, but nothing like this. To be faced with her, still lacking an explanation for everything, was bitter.
Diantha, on the other hand, was tapping into all her old acting experience to not show how much just it was shaking her. She felt her hands wanting to tremble as she dug her nails into her palm. It took more than everything she had in her to not display how emotional she was wanting to get over it.
"So," Avery began, breaking the tense silence of their staring match. "How's my grade?"
Embarrassment washed over Diantha. "Right! Yes!" She turned to her computer, pulling up the grade sheet. Looking between them and her screen, she found it most easy to talk when avoiding eye contact. "Avery is doing wonderfully. Her last test grade was a little lower than normal," she observed, making sure she was correct in saying so. "But I plan on dropping the lowest grade at the end of the semester, so it's not likely anything to worry about." Now she had to look at them again.
"Otherwise," she continued, "she's a joy to have in class. She's one of my students I can always count on to have an answer if the rest of the class doesn't have one."
As brief as it all had been, and it had been the quickest meeting yet, Cynthia couldn't stand another second of it. "Well," she began, looking to Avery, "that's all your mom sent me to do, so let's get going." Standing, she gave a curt, "Thank you" to Diantha. She had been tempted to leave without even that. Maybe even rub it in that she was leaving without an explanation, but that would have maybe been too callous.
Following them out the door, Diantha kept a safe distance. "It was…lovely seeing you, Cynthia? I wish the circumstances were…different," she said, regretting some of her choice in wording.
Cynthia nodded, but said nothing else.
She stood in the doorway, watching them walk away. Cynthia said something to Avery, and she could only imagine what it might have been.
"Wait a minute, was that….?"
She looked over to see Augustine approaching.
It meant that parent teacher conferences was finally close to over if he was coming to see her, but all she could do was resume looking ahead. "Avery Beecher is Cynthia's niece," she told him. "I'm teaching my ex girlfriend's niece, Augustine. I once held one of my students when they were a baby. When she was learning to walk, her first steps were into my arms! I remember because I made her entire family jealous! H-How am I supposed to remain impartial now?" How she hadn't seen the resemblance?
"Hey, it's-" she cut him off.
"I should have realized! H-her whole face is Kay when she was sixteen! Her shade of blonde —of course she's related to Cynthia!" She was visibly shaking at that point.
Augustine watched his friend basically short circuit. While she rambled on, he tried to think of something to comfort her with. However, it was the first time he had ever had another teacher in this situation…
"You could have warned me that your teacher was my ex girlfriend," Cynthia said, looking down at Avery. Though, in all fairness, she felt she should have put it all together sooner.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Cynthia! I didn't know! Honestly!"
Cynthia forced herself to laugh, not wanting to get mad at her niece for something she had no control over. "Your mother is going to love this."
