"We still haven't reset the clock on the dashboard, have we?" Anna groaned as she got her cell phone out of her purse. "Great! The battery is dead. John, what time is it?"
John pulled his phone out. "Mine's dead, too."
Anna sighed as they passed a bank. "Crap!" She saw that it was almost three. "There's no way we're going to make it in time for Elsie to get her stuff from the school. And of course, it's Friday. Oh, well. At least I can stop by and get her schedule printed out. She's going to have to wait until Monday to get her locker card and her student ID." Anna looked in the back to see that Elsie was still fast asleep.
When they finally got to Downton, they headed straight for the high school. The teacher parking lot was already empty. "Five minutes, right?" John asked as he pulled into a space and shifted the car into park.
"Five minutes." Anna grabbed her purse and got out of the car.
Well, she spent five minutes just looking for her keys. She searched every compartment of her purse as well as the glove box, the center console, and under every seat in the car.
"Are they in your tote bag?" John asked. That was where they usually were when she couldn't find them.
"Nah! Couldn't be!" She had broken that habit months ago. A few moments later, she heard a jingle and looked up. Her school keys were in John's hand.
"Where were they?" She asked, bewildered.
"In your tote bag." John said with a smirk. He dangled the keys above his wife's head.
"Gimme those!" Anna snitched them from her husband. "Five minutes start now." She looked in the back seat and saw that Elsie was still asleep. "Mornings are going to be interesting this year."
About twenty minutes later, she emerged with the schedule. "Sorry it took so long. Printer had a paper jam, and I got distracted by some paper work and-"
"Okay, okay, let's just get home and get Elsie unloaded." John said as they headed home.
"Here we are! Home sweet home!" Anna announced as John pulled into the driveway. There was silence in the back seat. Anna turned around and noticed that Elsie was still snoozing. She gently shook the girl's knee. "Elsie, wake up. We're home."
Elsie opened her eyes and looked around. She slowly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. God, that sun was bright. It took her eyes a few moments to adjust. Still groggy, she went around and got her things out of the back of the minivan. Even though it was a little after five in the evening where she was, Elsie's body was telling her it was almost one in the morning.
John led her up to her room while Anna went to call the Masons. "Well, this will be your room for the next year. I hope you like it." John opened the door but did not go inside. It was a rather simple room with not very many decorations to speak of. There was a bed with a light blue comforter and a couple pillows on it, a desk with a lamp and a small office chair, and a dark blue rug with a black bean bag chair on it. In the corner stood a large, old-fashioned chest of drawers, and there was a small, walk-in closet beside it.
Elsie took a good look around. "This is quite nice." She said as she put her luggage on the bed and began to take things out. "I think I shall be quite happy here."
"Good!" John said as he began to head to the stairwell. He suddenly turned around. "Oh, almost forgot to mention that we're having dinner with some friends tonight, so if you could be ready to leave around a quarter to seven, that would be great."
"Of course. Thank you." She replied and went back to her things.
Meanwhile, over at the Masons…..
Beryl Patmore rushed into the kitchen and turned off the timer. She got the oven mits out of the drawer and opened the oven. The top crust on the meat pie didn't even look cooked at all. She took the casserole dish out and placed it on the stove. After taking a mit off, she felt the handle. It wasn't even warm. She felt the rack inside the oven. It was actually a little cool.
"Mom?!" She hollered to the living room. "Can you come in here a minute?"
Daisy got up from the couch. "How's the meat pie coming, Babe?"
"It's not." Beryl cried. "It's still cold. Feel it!"
Daisy did as instructed. "It's ruined."
"It is? Maybe we can-"
"No, honey. There's meat and raw egg in it. This dish is not edible, even for us. And I'm certainly not feeding it to company." Daisy looked at the control panel. "You didn't hit the 'bake' button, did you?"
"What 'bake' button?"
"That one!" Daisy said, pointing to the button that Beryl should have pushed.
"Well, it wasn't my idea to get a stove that had more buttons on it than the bridge of the Starship Enterprise."
"But it was your idea to make the meat pie without any help from me." Daisy thought for a moment. "Hmmmmmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with Billy coming over tonight. Trying to impress him, maybe?"
"Mom!" Beryl flung a mit at her mother as her face turned a bright red. "He's my stepbrother. Ewww!"
Daisy laughed as the potholder hit her face. "None plead their innocence so loudly as the guilty."
Beryl's face had gotten even redder. "Anyway," She was desperate to change the subject. "What are we going to do about dinner?" She looked at the clock. "They're due in less than an hour."
"Well, let's hope that the Bates have a sense of humor and Elsie likes Chinese. Oh, one last thing: if you mention Elsie the Milk Cow at all during their visit or are rude to Elsie in any other way, I'll tell Billy some embarrassing stories about you."
"Anything but that!" Beryl was mortified.
About an hour later, the doorbell rang. It was the Bates and Elsie.
"Come on in!" Daisy said warmly.
"Thank you." Anna replied. "So, when will the meat pie be ready?"
"Um, yeah….." Daisy hesitated, "About that….."
"You didn't let Beryl try and make it, did you?" John said folding his arms.
Daisy was about to respond when they heard Elsie starting to snicker. "Your name is Barrel?" Although she did use a little more restraint than Beryl had the other evening. You're making a great first impression, you are. She thought sarcastically. But she couldn't help herself. She clasped her hand over her mouth and hope no one else saw the smirk.
"Not funny!" Beryl cried.
"Oh, this is hilarious!" Daisy replied. All the adults started laughing. "So, anyway, about dinner, I ordered us some Chinese. I hope that's okay."
"Oh, you know we never turn down Chinese. What about you, Elsie? You ever had Chinese?"
"Aye'm from the UK, what do ye think?" Elsie asked, assuming everyone else would know just how diverse the UK is.
"Oh, you're going to love it!" Said Beryl, obviously missing what Elsie was saying. "Though, it can be a little weird at first."
Elsie rolled her eyes. This was going to be one interesting year. She was about to say something when the doorbell rang.
"I've got it!" Bill said as he headed to the door with Beryl right on his heels. He opened to door to find his son on the other side. "Billy! Come on in, Son." He pulled his son into a big hug.
When the embrace ended, the older man took a duffle bag away from the younger guy. "I'll just go put this in your bedroom."
"Uh, actually, if you could put that in the laundry room, that would be great." Billy replied, inciting an eye roll from his father.
Beryl was all giggly and fluttery. "Hi, Billy." Her face got redder and redder by the minute.
That's when Daisy stepped in. "Hey, Billy, you're not expecting me to wash all that, are you?"
"No. I'll throw one sock in for ya." Billy said with a smirk.
Oh, yeah. This was going to be one interesting year.
Author's Note:
Sorry to you UK readers, but I forgot to clue you in on a few cultural things in the story. First of all, Elsie the Milk Cow is the mascot for Borden Milk, the most common brand of dairy products here in the US. Other than that, Elsie is not a very common name over here, and that's why Beryl was laughing so hard.
Second, a guidance counselor's job is to make sure that each student is taking all the right classes for what they want to do after high school. They do very little, if any, psychological counseling.
Last, in the US school system, year levels are called "grade levels." Second grade over here is equivalent to third year in the UK, so I understand.