Chapter 4—Tests
1
"Oh, shit!" Kira burst out without thinking. "Do they hit you?"
Anna frowned. "We got this, Kira. Raisa, why are Ursie and Magda in class with you? I thought they went to fourth grade."
"They're dumber than me," Raisa replied. "They can't read."
"Oh, boy," said Callen. "All of you stay quiet for a minute. Kira, how much more homework do you have?"
"Just my Self Defense class," she replied.
"Are you good, or do you need us to help you?"
"I'm good, Papa."
"Anya, what about you?" asked Anna.
"Just the Geometry."
"Can you do it alone?" Callen said.
"Probably."
He smiled his crooked smile at her. "Don't be slick, baby. Okay?"
"Okay, Papa," Anya said, feeling all tingly inside. She loved when he smiled at her.
"Nikolai, what about you?" his mother asked. "Is your homework done?"
"No, Mama," he said. "My backpack is lost."
Anna's eyes opened very wide. She knew exactly where his bag was. "Come, and I'll help you look for it." She stared hard at Callen before she took her son to look for his bag.
Callen reached under the table and brought it to his baby high chair, leaving it on the tray. Then he returned to the dining room and sat down. He looked at his daughters.
"Not a word to him. Ty ponimayesh' menya?"
"Da, Papa!" replied all three.
He laughed. "Get your assignments out, and start working on them. Nikolai will join you shortly," Callen said. "Raisa, you go watch some TV for now."
In another minute, Nikolai and Anna returned. She caught sight of the bag on the highchair.
"Here it is, Nikolai!" Anna said, handing it to him.
"Spasibo, Mama!" The little boy hugged his bag, causing his parents to laugh.
"Okay, Nikolai. Let me see your homework for tonight," Callen said.
Nikolai climbed up into his tall chair and pulled out his papers. "Papa, look!" He pulled the sheets apart. "I think Ms. 'Ronika got 'fused! She gived me two homeworks!" He pouted.
Kira held up her papers. "Nikolai, I got four homeworks!"
"Oh, no, no, Kira!" the three-year-old objected. "That too many!"
"It sure is!" she agreed.
"Never mind," Callen said, and his children laughed. "Guys, get done, okay?"
2
Callen and Anna sat in the kitchen.
"What do you make of all this?" he asked her.
"I don't know, but it sounds more like she is being bullied, even since first grade. Why didn't she tell us?"
"Fear of retribution more than anything," Callen replied. "Haven't Ursie and Magda been her friends since first grade?"
"I thought so, Callen. Maybe they really aren't. I think we need to talk to Ms. Horvath," Anna said. "Do you remember when Raisa began having trouble with Math?"
"No, not really. Do you?"
"Nope. It was already hard when she reached first grade." She frowned. "What on earth was she doing in kindergarten?!"
He made a face. "Horsing around?"
Anna whacked his arm. "Stop that!"
3
The next day, Tone was more obnoxious than usual, as was Jerzy.
"What's going on, Tone?" Kira asked him.
"Nothing. Old Man Blatt didn't give us Detention," he answered.
"Uh-oh," she replied. "You're probably going to miss your lunch in the cafeteria, and get stuck having it in the Office. With Jerzy." She smirked.
Mr. Goldblatt walked in. "Sorry I'm late, students," he said. "I had something to take care of in the Office."
The students nodded. "Do we have another quiz today?" somebody asked.
"Oh, no, not at all," Mr. Goldblatt said. "I brought some cards with me. Each one has a scenario on it that you have to act out. You'll each receive two cards. Whoever has the same number on their card will be your partner for the skit."
"Say what?" Jerzy asked. He stared blankly at his cards.
"What's the number on your blue card?" Mr. Goldblatt asked.
"One."
"Okay. Which girl has the one?"
Kira made a face. "I do!"
The class laughed at her.
"Oh, shut up!" she said. Then she stared Jerzy down. "WE are going to do this perfectly. Ty ponimayesh' menya?"
"What?" Jerzy asked when he heard the Russian.
Kira's jaw dropped as she realized what she had said. She laughed for a full minute. "Never mind, Jerzy," she gasped. "We ARE going to do this perfectly, no matter what!"
"Okay. Jerzy, what does your blue card tell you to do?" Mr. Goldblatt asked.
His eyes opened wide. "I have to mug somebody."
The class laughed again, but Jerzy didn't. He knew that Kira was his partner for this skit, and he was terrified of her.
"Okay. Hop to it!" Mr. Goldblatt said. He sat at his desk. "Use the space in the middle for your skit."
Kira nodded. "Jerzy, come on. It's not that hard." She met him in the middle of the classroom. "Do you want me to mug you instead?" she whispered.
"Maybe?"
She groaned. "Jerzy, come on. We are getting graded on this, and I do not want less than an A!" she growled. "Start moving!"
So, Jerzy walked around aimlessly for a moment, and then felt his skin crawl as Kira snuck up behind him. She jabbed him in the back with her finger.
"Stick'em up!" she commanded. "Gimme your wallet!" She saw his watch, and snatched it off his wrist, and waited for the wallet. Kira thought he was too slow, so she jumped him, and pickpocketed his wallet. She held up her prizes.
Mr. Goldblatt stared at them. "Mr. Simmons, you just got robbed. Why didn't you defend yourself?"
"Because I didn't want to hurt Kira," Jerzy replied.
"Oh, boy," said Mr. Goldblatt.
4
Callen and Anna got into her car to pick up Raisa together.
"Did you call Ms. Leslie to tell her we're going to be late in picking up Nikolai?" he asked as he buckled his seat belt.
"Oh, no! I forgot with all of this nonsense! Will you, please?" Anna said as she backed out of the driveway.
"Sure." He dialed the preschool center and spoke directly to Ms. Leslie. She assured him that it wouldn't be a problem for Nikolai to stay late. "Done!" he told Anna.
"Thank you, my love," she replied, putting her hand on his leg. She was used him holding her leg, so she enjoyed holding his instead.
After a short ride, they arrived at the elementary school. They signed in at the office, and then an aide took them down to Ms. Horvath's classroom. Raisa was shocked speechless when she saw her parents. Some of the stragglers laughed at her when they realized that the visitors were her parents.
"Now you're going to get it, dummy!" chortled Jorge.
"Yah," agreed Olivia. "Poor dumb Raisa will have to go to the dummy class now!"
Raisa jumped them, and knocked Jorge to the ground.
"Oh, no, Raisa!" Ms. Horvath reacted. "We do not fight in this class!"
Callen pulled his daughter off the two children, and apologized, and Anna gave them each a hand up. She also apologized to them.
Ms. Horvath interjected, "Jorge and Olivia, I will be calling your parents in a little while, so you might as well sit in the back with Raisa and play with some of the toys we have."
5
Anya listened avidly to Mr. Cohn, and followed his instructions to the letter. She successfully bisected her angle.
"I did it!" she shrieked, causing the class to laugh. "Mr. Cohn, I really did get it! Look!"
The teacher walked over to her desk, and glanced at her paper. "Kids, she really did get it! All of you need to 'get it!'"
"Okay, Mr. Cohn," the class replied.
6
"I don't see why Ms. Horvath has to call our parents," Jorge said to Olivia. "We didn't do anything. Dummy did."
"I'm not dumb!" Raisa screamed at them.
The teacher, as well as Raisa's parents, heard the entire exchange. Ms. Horvath put a call into the Office, and asked them to send Olivia's and Jorge's parents to her classroom this afternoon.
"We're good," Callen said. He was determined to find out what was going on with his child and the rest of her classmates.
About twenty minutes later, both mothers arrived, and Ms. Horvath asked them to sit by her desk.
Raisa saw them first, and pointed to them. "Look!"
At first, both children ignored her, but on a dare, Olivia turned around to see what Raisa was pointing to.
"Oh, my God!" she gasped. "Jorge, I think we're both doomed!"
7
Ms. Horvath interrupted her meeting with the parents to rearrange the chairs. She had one for each adult, and one for each child. She put Raisa between her parents, and put Olivia next to her mother, and Jorge had to sit between his own mother, and Ms. Horvath herself. She spoke to the students.
"What is going on here? Why haven't you told on them, Raisa?" she asked.
"Because they said they would beat me up if I told," Raisa said.
"No, we didn't!" Olivia contradicted. "We didn't tell that dummy anything!"
Her mother frowned at her. "Why did you call her a dummy?"
Olivia glared at her mother. "Because she is so dumb she can't even do adding or times!"
"And you can?" retorted Jorge.
"Jorge!" his mother interrupted. She looked at the teacher. "We will talk to him tonight," she said.
"That's fine," Ms. Horvath agreed. "But, first, we have to find out why everyone has it in for Raisa."
"Ms. Horvath, she is dumb. She can't do Math," Olivia explained.
"Okay. But, why do you keep calling her dumb?"
Jorge frowned. "But isn't she?"
8
Callen took umbrage. "Do you know what dumb really means, little boy?"
Both girls laughed. Callen shot Raisa a look, and she stopped.
Jorge wasn't having it. "It means you're stupid and can't learn how to do Math!"
Anna jumped on that, as did his mother. "Jorge!" said his mom.
"No, Jorge," Anna said. "Stupid means you have no intelligence, and dumb means you cannot speak out loud."
Callen followed Anna's lead. "Raisa, do you know how to write your name?"
"Yes, Papa."
Anna was curious. "What part of it?"
Raisa frowned. "Mama, I can write the whole thing. Why?"
Ms. Horvath made a face. "Then you have intelligence," she said. "It means you are not stupid."
Raisa smiled. She felt good hearing her teacher say that.
Jorge glowered. "Well, then she is still dumb!"
The many, many talks, discussions, and warnings finally began to shake up Raisa. She was understanding what her family had said. She took umbrage to what Jorge said.
"I am not dumb!" she shouted at him. Nobody chastised her.
Anna was becoming more and more concerned. "Jorge, how do you know she is dumb? Did she tell you?"
"No, lady! The kids told me and the other kids way back in preschool. She was dumb back then, too," he said in spite of himself.
"Jorge, that's rude. Please address Raisa's mom by her right name, which is Ms. Kolcheck," Ms. Horvath said.
"You know this how?" asked his mother.
"'Cause she acted like a jerk," Olivia put in. "She used to run around the classroom during some of the lessons Ms. Veronika taught us."
"And Ms. Leslie!" Olivia put in.
Callen frowned. "And Ms. Leslie," he repeated. "What did she do there?"
"Same thing," Jorge offered.
9
Callen looked at Anna. "How come we weren't told?"
"I don't know, Mr. Callen, but from what I heard, Raisa didn't behave in first or second grade either. By the time I got her in September, she couldn't read the operational signs."
Callen made a face. He had seen that on his daughter's homework. "Ms. Horvath, what did she do last year?"
"Nothing, from what I've seen and heard. She does sit down in my class, but she does absolutely no Math work at all," replied the teacher.
The adults all looked at Raisa.
"Why is that?" asked her own mother.
Raisa wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
"Raisa, ty dolzhen otvetit' svoyey materi," Callen said sternly. (Raisa, you need to answer your mother.)
"Nyet, Papa!"
"Otvet' svoyey materi!" he growled at Raisa. (Answer your mother.)
"NYET!"
"Ms. Horvath, we apologize for Raisa's rudeness. We will deal with the rest of this at home," Callen said calmly.
"I understand, Mr. Callen," said Ms. Horvath.
"From what we have heard from you and the children, we have a pretty good idea of what's been going on," Anna said. "We will be talking to the preschool, too."
"Do you mind if I ask the kids a question?" Callen said.
Ms. Horvath shook her head. "No. It's not a problem."
"Thank you," he replied, turning toward the two children. "Guys, why have you been beating on Raisa all these years?"
"We don't beat her!" Jorge said.
"We understand that," Anna said, "but there's more than one way to beat a person. Not all of it has to be physical."
Ms. Horvath stared at her pupils, as did their parents. "What has been going on, please? And Raisa, you are as much at fault as they are. You never said a word in your own defense. Why didn't you tell someone?"
11
"Because they said they would beat me up if I told anyone," Raisa said.
"But—" began Jorge.
"Do. Not. Say. A. Word.," said his mother. "Not one word. You did say it because I have heard you threaten your brother and your cousins, and it has to stop now."
"Raisa, you're a tattle-tale at home," said Anna, "so why didn't you tell on the school kids?"
"Because we—" began Olivia.
Her mother glared at her. "You. Did. Not. You better hope you didn't!"
"She did! She did!" Raisa cried. "They all did! They called me dumb every single day, even in PreK!"
"Raisa, why didn't you sit and listen to your teachers?" Callen asked.
"Papa, ty tupoy? Ya ne khotel, chtoby deti i uchitelya znali, chto ya nichego ne znayu. Ya vse yeshche ne znayu." (Papa, are you dumb? I didn't want the kids and teachers to know I didn't know anything. I still don't.)
Ms. Horvath didn't understand a word of the Russian, so Callen translated it for her. "Raisa, you do realize that smart teachers will know you don't know anything any time you move around the classroom? If you really don't want anyone to know that you don't know anything, don't move!"
"Don't move?"
"Yes," Ms. Horvath said. "As long as you or anyone else moves around or goes to the bathroom or gets a drink, then I know that you don't know what I have taught you."
"Oh, brother!" Raisa sighed as she fully realized that the jig was up. "Damn."
12
"Mama, why are we doing this again?" Kira asked.
Anna smirked. "Because it needs to be done. Why are you asking?"
The teenager groaned loudly, and slouched in her chair. "I hate these!"
"I know you do, baby," Anna said, "but it's the best way we have to discipline you guys. It's much better to get feedback from you kids than just blindly put you on punishment…unless you'd rather that?"
"Where's Papa?" Anya asked.
"At work today—"
"Mama, I gots to peedoo," said Nikolai.
"So, get up and go!" Kira barked at him.
"You know what?" Anna said. "Take him yourself. This meeting can wait for you."
"Oh, no, Mama!"
"Kira Lynn, watch your step," Anna warned. "Take him, or you will wind up with a punishment." She waited until her son and daughter left the room. "Okay. Papa and I found out what has been happening with Raisa," she began.
"What did Papa and you find out?" Callen asked, coming up behind her. He leaned on her head, and she reached up and scritched his head.
"Nothing," Anna said. "Will you go get Kira and Nikolai out of the bathroom, please?"