Zoe's Office - January 22

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe was sorting through some of the new students' files as she waited for her appointment to show up. She was unbelievably glad to be feeling like herself again, and was making a personal vow that the school board was never hearing about this bout of weirdness if she could help it.

[She's here for someone specific, but the post is open, of course.]

Comments

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen made her way up to the school and found Zoe's office without too much trouble, knocking at the doorframe before stepping inside. "Principal Washburn?"

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe glanced up and gave the woman a cordial smile. "Yes? Are you Ms. Harvelle?"

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Smiling back, Ellen moved to take a seat in front of the desk. "That'd be me. I appreciate you seein' me on short notice," she said politely, though it was obvious that she wasn't exactly pleased beneath her outwards pleasantness.

[bigdamnprincipal]

Parent's Weekend had exposed Zoe to some pretty unhappy parents, so she wasn't completely unprepared for a meeting like this. "Oh, it's not a problem at all. You said this concerns your daughter, Jo?"

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen nodded, not unused to parent-teacher conferences either - with a daughter like Jo, problems at school had been kind of a given. "Yes, ma'am. I got into town just last night and met up with Jo. Seems she had a run-in with a couple of boys who gave her a hard time."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"I haven't heard anything about that," Zoe replied. "What did the boys do?"

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

"Jo tells me two boys, Chris and Wyatt, tried to hurt her and made inappropriate suggestions as to how she might spend her time with them," Ellen said, her tone still polite for now. "I'm not entirely sure how you run your school, Ms Washburn, but I'd like to think you wouldn't take kindly to students threatening each other, much less attempting assault and rape."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"I don't take kindly to that sort of thing at all," Zoe replied. "But I'm also not a mind reader. If this happened on school grounds, then I apologize, because it certainly should have been caught by the security cameras. If not, then I have to rely on people coming forward and letting me know when things like this happen. Now that I know, I can look into this further."

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

"I don't ask that you read minds, but I'm here to come forward on behalf of my daughter," she said, so far impressed by the other woman's calm and, honestly, a little surprised that her daughter's name didn't bring up a reaction all on its own. "And it was in town as far as I understand it, at the coffee shop."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"And this incident involved two other students, Chris and Wyatt?" Amazingly enough, she might have actually been able to use those names to narrow the potential culprits down. Thank goodness there wasn't a Peter involved. "If you don't mind my asking, does your daughter know that you're here speaking to me?"

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

"She does," Ellen said. "And those were the names she gave me. I believe I heard them mentioned on the radio last night as well." For the moment, she was still inclined to believe that Fandom was odd, but not any moreso than she was used to - the student radio program could easily be chalked up to, well, students.

[bigdamnprincipal]

"They're probably students here. We don't have many teenagers on the island who aren't enrolled," Zoe explained.

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen nodded. "Makes sense," she said. "And I appreciate you looking into it. Jo seems to really like this school and I'd hate to take her out of it when she's doing well so far."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"She is doing well so far," Zoe agreed. "At least from my standards, which is how many times I've had to call a student into my office, or see them in detention."

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen smirked. "I'm not sure I want to know what the record is," she said. "Or if Jo's anywhere near it. Though I'm sure she's probably on her best behavior given the classes she's taking."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"It sounds like you don't approve of her classes," Zoe said, smirking in return.

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen sighed. "What she wants to do when she moves out is her business, whether it drives me crazy or not," she said with some resignation. "But God help me for finding her the one school that actually teaches a class in hunting."

[bigdamnprincipal]

Zoe got the feeling that this was a sensitive subject, and decided to proceed a bit carefully. "Well, from what I've seen, and what Jo has told me, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone more suitable to teach hunting than John."

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

Ellen was quiet a moment, noting the woman's more familiar use of John's name. She nodded finally and smiled again. "That's what I hear."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"He's a good teacher," Zoe said, hoping she sounded reassuring. "And the facilities that we have ensure that the class is run safely."

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

"I don't doubt it," Ellen said. Sighing, she moved to stand. "I think I've taken enough of your time, Principal Washburn. I'm in town, down at the Mauvaise Chance, should you need me."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"The apartment complex? Are you planning on staying in town?" Zoe asked.

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

"For now," Ellen said simply as she extended her hand to Zoe over her desk. "Thank you for seeing me."

[bigdamnprincipal]

"You're welcome," Zoe said, shaking Ellen's hand. "If you want to discuss anything else later, feel free to come on by."

[roadhousequeen.livejournal.com]

She nodded, smiling slightly. "Thank you. I'll make sure to do that."