Sorry for the delay in updating. My Grandmother, who I lived with and cared for, died suddenly and unexpectedly three weeks ago, and, to be honest, I still feel like I don't really know what to do with myself. The majority of this fic has already been written, it just needs editing and proof reading, so it's been quite a good distraction for me at times, so, hopefully it won't be too long before I update the next chapter. And for those of you waiting for an update for any of my other fics, they will be back, unfortunately I can't say when, but I haven't abandoned them and, as soon as my muse returns, I'll be back.


Shelby woke Rachel with plenty of time to get ready the next morning, she didn't say anything about the fact she'd found Rachel sleeping under her bed again, she just asked her to get dressed in the clothes they'd picked out the night before so she could go downstairs to make breakfast. Once again she made Rachel toast and peanut butter, making a mental note to stop at the grocery store once she'd dropped Rachel off at school to pick up some dairy free milk so she had other options too.

Rachel was surprisingly easy to get out of the house and Shelby left with plenty of time to spare, it would take her almost thirty minutes to drive to Rachel's school so she wanted to give herself a bit of leeway in case the traffic was bad. Eventually she'd talk to Rachel about moving to a school closer to their home but for now, Shelby decided that moving to a new house, having to get used to a new parent figure and new rules and routine was enough upheaval for Rachel and she'd make the hour long round trip twice a day to give Rachel a little familiarity until she'd had time to settle at home.

After seeing Rachel into her classroom, Shelby headed to the school office, "Hi" she smiled as she approached the desk, paperwork already in her hand, "Rachel Berry came to live with me over the weekend" she handed over the paperwork, both confirming that she was Rachel's foster mom, and the sheet that had all her contact information on, "I'd like to change her contact details."

"Oh, good luck with her!" the woman said as she took the paperwork from Shelby, flicking through it to be sure she had everything she needed.

"I beg your pardon" Shelby's voice dropped, she might not have any biological children but she was most definitely a Momma bear and she was fiercely protective of all the children that came into her care, "what is that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you'll have your hands full with her. I think she spends more time at the time out table than in her classroom." The woman didn't seem to see anything wrong with what she was saying, but Shelby could feel her own anger bubbling inside her.

"And where exactly is this 'time out table'?" Shelby's tone of voice let the woman know she wasn't messing around.

"It's in the hall by the principal's office…" the woman was beginning to wish she'd kept her mouth shut.

"Show me?" Shelby's question wasn't a request, it was an order and the woman nodded nervously, leading Shelby down the corridor to a small table, pushed into an alcove so it was surrounded on three sides by walls. "How long does she spend here?" Shelby was furious.

"It depends how disruptive she's been, sometimes it's just the class, sometimes the whole day."

"And lunch and recess?" the woman just looked at the table. "I see, and exactly who thought that it was a good idea to isolate a child in the care system, a child who obviously needs extra help and support, from her teacher and from her peers?"

"With all due respect Ms…"

"Corcoran."

"Thank you, as I was saying, if Rachel is disrupting the class, it isn't exactly fair on her peers who want to learn for the teacher to spend time dealing with Rachel and her outbursts instead of teaching."

Shelby's eyes narrowed. "The moment she is sent to that table, you call me. I'm already planning on speaking to the principal, Rachel's social worker, and, if necessary, the school board about this. If I find out she's been sitting at that table and I haven't immediately been told about it, I will not be happy."

"We usually send a slip home and…"

"No." Shelby stood firm. "I want to know as soon as she's sent to that table, do you understand me? I want to know when it happens, not at the end of the day, is that clear?"

"Yes Ms Corcoran."

"Thank you. And if there are any other problems or concerns about Rachel or her behaviour then call me immediately, don't wait til the end of the day."

"Yes Ms Corcoran."

Shelby called Sarah as soon as she got in the car, telling her instantly, "I've changed my mind." Sarah had a brief moment of panic that Shelby had changed her mind about having Rachel, that she was going to have to find yet another home for the girl, but luckily Shelby hadn't finished, "I want to move Rachel to a different school now. She's not getting the support she needs here."

Sarah could tell something had upset Shelby, she knew that the woman was willing to fight for the best interests of the children in her care and something had fired up the woman's will to fight. "Okay, can I ask why?" Shelby had been so certain that she was going to keep Rachel at her current school, that she wanted to give her some level of familiarity as she adjusted to yet another new home.

"Do you know about the time out table?" Sarah didn't know what Shelby was referring to so she explained, "they say Rachel's disruptive, joked that she spends more time at the timeout table than in her class. I made them show me the table. She has to sit alone, sometimes all day, at a table in a corridor that has walls around three sides. Sometimes she even spends lunch and recess there. I'm already planning on making a complaint to the principal, but Rachel needs to be in an environment where she's going to be supported. I do not condone her disrupting the class at all, but neither do I think isolating her will help. She's already been through so much, making her sit on her own for hours at a time is not the solution."

"Absolutely not, I'll make sure to investigate this too, but of course, if Rachel can get better support at another school then I'll support your request to move her. Do you want me to look up…"

"I'll make some phone calls later, speak to some people and see what I can come up with, you're coming round later in the week?" she knew Sarah usually popped round during the first week of a placement to see how both Shelby and the child in her care were getting on.

"I plan to, yes, I'm not sure when yet but…"

"No, that's fine, I'll have a plan to run by you by the time you come round" Sarah smiled, Shelby was always proactive, always wanting to do the best for the children in her care. "And you should know, I've asked to be called if Rachel's sent to that stupid table. Would I have your support if I took her home? Or if I sat and worked with her?"

"Of course. As long as you were acting in Rachel's best interests which it sounds like you are, I would support that. However if you took her home, I'd suggest you ask for some work for her to do."

"Noted. Thank you."

Shelby drove home when she'd finished her conversion with Sarah, taking out her laptop and, straight away, beginning to research schools for Rachel. She already knew most of the schools near to her home so she started making phonecalls. She'd made a list of questions she wanted answering, asking about how they dealt with children with behavioural issues, how they'd support a child who was, quite possibly, behind with their education. She explained that Rachel had moved schools fairly often and that consistency and routine hadn't been a big factor in her life until now and wanted to know how they'd work with her on that.

There were two schools that got Shelby's approval, one even suggesting that Rachel could be assessed to see if she'd benefit from additional one to one support. Both schools had space for Rachel, so Shelby made appointments to visit both the schools the very next day.

It was just before 1pm when Shelby got a call from Rachel's school to tell her the girl had been 'removed' from her first class after lunch, and, without a second thought, Shelby got in her car and drove to the school.

She asked to be taken to Rachel and her heart broke when, even from down the corridor, she could hear the girl sobbing at the table, her head resting on her folded arms as she cried. "Rachel" Shelby knelt by the table, keeping her voice soft, "Rachel, can you look at me?"

Rachel shook her head, she was going to be sick. Shelby must be so mad with her, nobody else had ever come to her school, usually she just got punished when she got home, Shelby was definitely going to send her back now. "I'm not angry" Shelby told her, "I'd like you to tell me why you're sitting here."

"Bad" Rachel mumbled into her arms.

"You're not bad" Shelby told her, "what happened in your classroom?"

"Stupid."

"What's stupid?" Shelby asked calmly.

"Me."

"You aren't stupid Rachel. Did the teacher ask you to do something you didn't want to?" Rachel nodded, "is it something that's too hard for you?" Rachel nodded again. She didn't understand. Everyone else knew what they needed to do, and she'd tried to be good, she wanted Shelby to keep her, but when she'd raised her hand to ask for help, the teacher had told her to put her hand down and get on with her work, and then she'd been yelled at when she hadn't done anything, but she didn't know what to do and she hadn't been allowed to ask for help, so she'd yelled and thrown her pencil and book on the floor and been told to leave the class.

Shelby saw a worksheet on the table, frowning when she saw the tear marks on it, "is this what you need to do?" she asked. Rachel nodded and Shelby looked at the sheet, twenty simple addition questions, "okay, why don't you come sit with me and we'll do it together?"

Rachel sniffed and finally lifted her head, seeing Shelby knelt on the floor, "really?"

"Of course" Shelby rummaged in her purse for tissues, taking one out and handing it to Rachel, "if you don't know what to do I'll help you."

"Okay" Rachel slipped off the chair, Shelby sitting down on the floor with her back to the wall, leaving space for Rachel to sit beside her.

"Okay?" Shelby asked and Rachel nodded, "so, this first one is 31 plus 12. Let's ignore the first numbers for now and just look at these two" she covered the three and the one with her finger, so if you hold up one finger…" Shelby waited for Rachel to do it, "and then I add two more" she held up two of her own fingers, "how many fingers have we got together?"

"One, two, three" Rachel pointed to each finger in turn, "three?"

"Three, that's right, so write a number three here" she gestured to the right spot on the page, frowning but not saying anything when she noticed Rachel wrote the number backwards. "Well done! Now we do these two, if you have three fingers" once again Rachel held up three fingers, "and I add one more we've got…"

"One, two, three, four?"

"That's right, so write a number four here" Rachel's tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on writing that number, "so this is a four then a three, do you know what number that is?"

Rachel mumbled "four-three" under her breath a few times before looking up at Shelby, "forty three?"

"That's right" Shelby held up her hand for a high five, Rachel beaming with pride as she clapped her hand off Shelby's, "now let's try this next one. 22 plus 47…" She talked Rachel through the first row of questions before letting Rachel take over, asking her what the numbers were and how many fingers they needed to hold up. Rachel's grin growing with each question Shelby praised her for, and even when she got one wrong, Shelby wasn't mad, simply told her, "I don't think that's quite right, shall we try again?"

"We've finished it?" Rachel seemed surprised when she wrote in the last answer.

"You have, you did really well!" Rachel held up her hand for a high five, something Shelby was only too happy to give. It was something so simple but Rachel seemed so happy.

"I never finish anything" Rachel whispered.

"Hey" Shelby said softly, "listen to me. You understood this when I explained it to you didn't you?" Rachel nodded, "so maybe you just need a little extra help sometimes, maybe you just need things explaining to you a little differently, that's okay. It doesn't make you stupid, it just means you learn differently to other people and your teacher should be helping you with that. And I promise that I will do everything I can to make sure you get the help you need to learn."

Shelby was surprised when Rachel asked if they could do more, Shelby happy to oblige, she'd pick a number, Rachel picked a number and then Rachel added the two together.

"Rachel, have you bothered to… can I ask who you are?" the woman walking down the hall asked when she saw Shelby sat on the floor with Rachel, "that child is being punished and…"

"Shelby Corcoran" Shelby stood to her feet, "Rachel's foster Mom. I asked to be called when she was 'punished.'"

"Yes well, she's very disruptive, she needs to learn that she can't cause disturbances in class."

Shelby felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, "has it ever occurred to you that her 'disruptive' behaviour comes from frustration that she doesn't understand the task she's been asked to do?"

"If that's the case then she needs to ask for help, not throw a tantrum and…"

"You wouldn't let me!" Rachel scrambled to her feet and pushed past Shelby, not wanting Shelby to think she'd been bad.

"Rachel!" the teacher scolded but Shelby held up a hand to stop the woman, crouching in front of Rachel and looking her in the eye.

"Tell me the truth" she said to Rachel, "what happened?"

"I wanted to be good" Rachel felt tears of frustration pricking at her eyes. "I put my hand up because I didn't know how to do it."

"Okay, and what happened when you asked for help?"

"She didn't let me" Rachel pointed to the teacher. "She said I had to put my hand down and get on with it and then she yelled because I didn't do it and I, I got mad. I just want to be good."

"You are good Rachel" Shelby reassured her, "you did really good work with me here. It's not your fault that you didn't understand it until I explained it to you." She stood and turned to the teacher, "if she didn't understand the work in the classroom, what makes you think that she's going to understand it when she's sitting out here on her own? What makes you think that leaving a seven year old child crying in a corridor on her own will, in any way, benefit her education? It took me less than five minutes to explain the worksheet in a way that Rachel understood, and she's completed it all."

"Mrs Co…"

"It's Ms Corcoran, and I don't want to hear your excuses. I'd like you to get some work for Rachel to do this afternoon so I can take her home and work with her in a more productive environment, and rest assured, once I've had time to calm down, I will absolutely be making a complaint to the principal about the way you've been treating a vulnerable child."

The teacher didn't say anything, she just turned and walked away and there was silence for a minute or two before Rachel whispered, "Shelby?"

"Yeah?" as she always seemed to do, Shelby knelt down, it was a way of showing Rachel she wasn't a threat, she was giving Rachel the upper hand by making herself smaller than the girl.

"Are you mad?" Rachel whispered.

"Not with you" Shelby said honestly, she wondered just how long this had been going on, how long Rachel had been being singled out and 'punished' when all she needed was a little extra help and support. "I'm angry that you haven't been helped when you needed it, that you've been struggling and that you've been let down by a lot of people, but I'm not angry with you Rachel, I promise."

"Okay" Rachel had never had anyone stand up for her before, Sarah was nice to her but she didn't see her very often so she wasn't always around to stop people being mean. But Shelby was different, she hadn't been angry, she hadn't shouted at Rachel and she kept telling her that she wasn't bad. Rachel still didn't believe what she was saying, and there was a part of her that wished Shelby wasn't so nice to her, so she wouldn't be so sad when she had to go away again.

"Come on" Shelby said softly, "let's go get your things, we can go home and work there for the rest of the day, it'll be more comfortable than sitting on the floor." She stood in the doorway to the classroom as Rachel collected her belongings from her classroom, glaring at the teacher as if daring her to say something. She took the worksheets the teacher gave her and signed Rachel out at the office before leading her out to the car, making sure she had her seatbelt fastened and, sending a quick text to Sarah before she got into the car, 'Need to talk about Rachel's school, can you call me ASAP?'

Shelby sent Rachel upstairs to change into something more comfortable once they were home, "you get changed, I'll get us a snack and then we can look at these sheets together." She took a moment to remind Rachel that she wasn't mad, before letting her go to change, replying to the text she'd had from Sarah, suggesting she could come round after 4pm to talk in person, that was fine by Shelby, it would give Shelby and Rachel time to do her schoolwork before she came over.

The work sheets Shelby had been given for that afternoon were spelling and reading, and, as Rachel became more and more frustrated with herself, something became obvious to Shelby. Rachel couldn't read. Or at least she couldn't read at the same level as her peers. "Can you write your name here?" Shelby gestured to the space at the top of the paper.

Tears gathered in Rachel's eyes as, after a moment's silence she admitted, "I don't know how to. I'm too stupid."

"You are not stupid, if nobody's taught you how to do that then it isn't your fault." She pushed the sheets away, "let me find you something else to do." She took out her phone, finding some worksheets for younger children online and sending them to her printer, printing off two copies so she and Rachel could both do them. "let's start with this one" she said, picking out a sheet that had faint letters printed on it, arrows showing how to form them, "this is how you write letters" she told her, "we can practice all of the letters for a little while and then we can practice your name."

"Really? You'll really show me how to write my name?"

"Sure I will" Shelby nodded, let's do this a couple of times, then we can write your name."

Shelby smiled as Rachel copied her, working through the letters, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. She waited for Shelby to do each letter first, wanting to be sure she did it right. Shelby corrected Rachel's grip on her pencil once or twice, she herself was left handed but luckily Rachel didn't seem to pick up on that, Shelby didn't want Rachel thinking she had to be left handed to do it 'right', not if her instinct was to use her right hand.

They worked through the alphabet, lower and uppercase, twice, before Shelby grabbed a blank sheet of paper and put it in front of Rachel, "Okay, so first of all you need an upper case R, do you know which one that is?"

Rachel sang the alphabet, pointing to each letter in turn, stopping when she got to the R, "this one?"

"That's right" Shelby smiled, "so do one of those."

"Just this one?" Rachel pointed to the Upper case R, "not this one?" she pointed to the lower case one.

"That's right, when you write anybody's name, you always start with an uppercase letter." Rachel nodded before carefully forming the letter, tracing her finger over the letter on the practice sheet before drawing it in the top left corner of the clean page. Looking up at Shelby for approval once she'd done, "great job!" Shelby high fived Rachel, knowing how much the praise had meant to the girl earlier. "Now you need an a."

"I know that!" Rachel grinned, "it's the first one."

"That's right, it is!" Shelby patiently spelled out Rachel's name for her, Rachel tracing each letter with her finger before carefully writing it on the page. "That's it" Shelby told her as she finished the l, "that's your name."

Rachel frowned and drew her finger underneath the word she'd written, "r-a-c-h-e-l" she said slowly before looking up at Shelby, "really? It says my name?"

"It says your name" Shelby nodded, "you wrote your name all on your own!"

Rachel frowned, "you helped me."

"You did the writing though, you wrote your name, I just told you which letters to write."

"I wrote my name" a smile crept onto Rachel's face, "I wrote my name!"

"You did, and you did it because you're smart Rachel, you just need a little extra help to realise how smart you really are."

"I'm not stupid?"

"No" Shelby said firmly, "at lunch time you didn't know how to write your name. It's not even dinner time yet and you've already learned to do it, you've learned so quickly because you're a clever girl."

Rachel looked down at the page again, almost as if she couldn't believe what she'd done. "Can I write it again? Without you telling me the letters?"

"Of course, you can write it as many times as you want."

By the time Sarah arrived, Rachel had filled the sheet with, not only her own name, but, after asking what else she could write, she'd attempted several simple words Shelby had suggested, most of them were spelled wrong but to Shelby, that didn't matter, Rachel was practicing her handwriting, today she was learning how to form the letters correctly, spelling could wait for another day.

"Rachel" Shelby said softly as she walked into the kitchen with the social worker a little while later, "Sarah and I need to talk about some things. If you want to stay here you can, but if you want to go up to your room or if you want to find something to do in the playroom then that's okay too."

Rachel nodded and slipped from her chair, feeling her heart sink, knowing Sarah was here to take her away. Shelby missed the look of disappointment on Rachel's face as she turned to make tea for herself and Sarah and she felt slightly relieved that Rachel had chosen to leave, not wanting the girl to be embarrassed when Shelby asked Sarah, "Did you know she can't read or write?"

Sarah was shocked, "she… no, I knew she was a little behind, that the school has trouble with her concentration but nobody's ever mentioned it, carers or the school."

"I'm not happy with the school she's at" Shelby told Sarah, handing over a mug and then sitting down at the kitchen table, "I've got appointments with two other schools tomorrow, but how feasible would it be for me to homeschool her until we can move her?"

"That would depend completely on your concerns about her school." Sarah said as she sat opposite Shelby.

Shelby sighed. "I got a call to say she'd been taken out of class so I went in. She was sitting at that stupid table, I could hear her sobbing before I could see her, it took me thirty minutes to drive there and she was still crying when I arrived. She was sitting at that table, sobbing, because she didn't understand the task that was set. She raised her hand to ask for help, the teacher didn't give her that help, she just told her to get on with it, Rachel got frustrated and, from what I understand, had a tantrum and was made to leave, because by some ridiculous logic, a child who can't understand the work in a classroom is obviously going to understand it when they're upset and alone in a corridor."

"Do I want to ask what you did?"

"I calmed her down, I reassured her that she wasn't bad or stupid and then I walked her through the worksheet, and you know what? She finished it! She was so proud of herself, she said she never finishes anything. All it took was five minutes of my time as I sat with her, explaining what to do and letting her count on my fingers and she got it, she finished the sheet with no issues and she even asked for more to do."

"Did you speak to the teacher?" Shelby gave Sarah a look and Sarah raised an eyebrow, "what happened?"

"She tried to tell me Rachel was disruptive. I asked if it had crossed her mind that Rachel was disruptive because she got frustrated when she didn't understand the work. She told me Rachel should ask for help and that's when Rachel said she tried to do just that. She said she was trying to be good. I don't, I've had a lot of kids, you know that, and I'd say without a doubt that Rachel wasn't lying when she said that. I told the teacher that Rachel was a vulnerable child and she should be supporting and helping her, and I asked for some worksheets we could do at home this afternoon so she could learn at the kitchen table, not on the floor in a corridor. The worksheets were literacy ones, it was obvious Rachel was struggling to read them and, after I asked her to write her name on one, she admitted she didn't know how, so we've been practicing" she said, handing Sarah the worksheets they'd done together. "She's seven years old and she only wrote her name for the first time this afternoon."

Shelby and Sarah spoke for a little while longer, Shelby told Sarah about the phone calls she'd made earlier that day and found that Sarah knew both the schools that she was considering sending Rachel to, and she'd worked with both of them in the past. That meant she was able to give Shelby a run down of pros and cons of both schools, but her ultimate recommendation was for the first school Shelby was meeting with, and, if she was honest, that was the school Shelby was leaning towards to and she decided that, if the meeting went well, she'd cancel her meeting at the second school.

Once Sarah left, Shelby made her way upstairs, Rachel wasn't in the playroom so Shelby guessed she was in her bedroom, "Rachel" she frowned slightly when she saw the messily packed bag on the bed, Rachel sat in the corner, knees pulled up to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks. "What's wrong."

"Thank you for letting me live here with you" Rachel whispered, "I'm sorry I was bad."

"You…" suddenly it all clicked for Shelby. "Oh Rachel! You are not bad Darling, and you're not going anywhere, that isn't why Sarah came over. She's gone now, she's gone and you're still here, you're staying here. I want you to stay here."

Rachel frowned, "but you asked Sarah to come and take me away."

"No" Shelby sat on the floor in the middle of the room, "I asked Sarah to come over so I could talk to her about what happened at school today. What your teacher did was wrong, if you don't understand something your teacher should help you so you can learn things, because now you know how to add, you'll be able to try on your own next time won't you?" Rachel nodded, "so, if it's okay with you, I'm going to speak to teachers at two different schools tomorrow to see if they'd be better for you, and, I wanted to ask Sarah if it would be okay for me to teach you things here until we can get you into a new school."

"Really? You're not sending me away?"

"I'm not sending you away, and I'm not sending you back to that school either. Tomorrow, you and I will go, together, to another school to see if that will be better for you, I want you to get the help you need, I want you to have a teacher who's going to help you when you don't understand, not punish you. And then, when we wait for everything to be sorted out with your new school, you and I can do some work here like we did this afternoon."

Rachel looked up at Shelby, "do you think I'll have friends at the new school?"

"Of course you will, I know it's hard to be moved around a lot, to always be the new kid, but hopefully this will be the last time you have to move and you'll be able to settle in this school."

"Nobody likes me in my class" Rachel admitted, "because I'm bad and I have to move a lot."

"You're not bad Rachel, you get angry and frustrated sometimes and that's okay, we just need to work on better ways for you to deal with those feelings. And hopefully you won't have to move any more, you'll go to your new school and you'll come home to this house."

Shelby wanted this to work as much as Rachel did, she wanted her to get settled in a school that she wouldn't have to leave until she moved to high school. She wanted her to have a home she wouldn't have to leave until she left for college. She wanted Rachel to feel safe, to feel loved and she wanted Rachel to learn that, no matter what she did, no matter how badly she behaved, no matter how many mistakes she made, she would still be lo ved, she would still be wanted. She knew it wasn't just something that would happen overnight, but Shelby was willing to do all she could to try and make Rachel believe that she was good, she was wanted, and most importantly, that she was loved.