Preacher Sam by Cassondra Windwalker

Author:Cassondra Windwalker [Windwalker, Cassondra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733599412
Publisher: Black Spot Books
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

Parker’s skinny thighs shifted against Sam’s in the hard plastic seats, although he maintained an impressively defiant expression for a first-grader. Sam was beginning to wonder if Parker’s teacher was going to have more interesting news than he or Dani had bargained for. He also wondered what chairs the teachers sat on. The ones designated for parents across the plastic folding tables festooned with the names of various tables were clearly child-sized. Was this a deliberate attempt at intimidation, at putting parents in their place?

More likely they just had way more child-sized chairs available than adult, since they were an elementary school and all, Sam chastised himself silently. Dani’s paranoia was rubbing off on him.

Sure enough, she tossed him an arched eyebrow as she perched as far forward in the wee chair as she could. Sam shook his head at her.

“Be nice,” he whispered.

“Of course I’m going to be nice,” she hissed back. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m the good cop. You’re the bad cop.”

“I never agreed to that!”

“Are you sure? You have to read the fine print.”

Sam swallowed his retort as the ever-charming Mrs. Palmer slid into her chair with an officious rattling of paper. The set of her jaw unexpectedly sent a surge of pity through Sam. He wouldn’t want to have to face an unhappy Dani himself. Certainly not at the end of a long day of seven-year-olds and expectant parents. That was too much to ask even of the Wicked Witch of the West herself.

The beleaguered teacher passed a stack of papers to Dani. “Here are some of Parker’s assignments from the last quarter. You can see that his scores are firmly in the middle of the pack. He starts out with a lot of enthusiasm, and he certainly has the creativity to excel, but it’s the lack of dedication that holds him back. He seems to lose interest in assignments that require more than a few minutes’ concentration. His grades are acceptable, of course, but he has the potential to do much better.”

Dani made a show of flipping through the pages, but Sam knew that her laser focus was entirely centered on Mrs. Palmer. He made a stab at bad cop.

“That’s pretty typical for a seven-year-old, isn’t it? Losing interest in schoolwork?”

Mrs. Palmer pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t say so, no. Kids this age are usually eager to prove themselves, and I’m afraid school only gets harder from here. If Parker doesn’t learn good study and work skills now, he will falter badly as he moves through the higher grades. Intelligence and creativity can’t substitute for work ethic.”

Dani’s head snapped up at that. “Book reports, country reports, animals reports—these are just regurgitations of whatever kids can find on Wikipedia. Is it surprising that he gets bored halfway through? It looks to me like the real issue is that he isn’t being challenged enough.”

Sam wasn’t sure if he was dismayed or relieved that Dani had completely forgotten she was playing good cop.

“Mrs. Geisler, I’m not the enemy here.

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