My Mistake
Chapter 18
By Samantha Jenkins
In which we return to the school, lunch, and a nap...

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Joyce Paskly watched the five cars all pull into the school’s parking lot. She recognized the superintendent's BMW, and Jackie’s Avalon. She didn’t know who the other three cars belonged to, but she knew what this was about. She watched as two patrol cars pulled up behind the line of five cars. She stood at her window watching as every one piled out of the cars and started walking toward the front door, with Mr. Gallagh in the lead. There was a knock on the door and then it just opened.

“Joyce, Dave Gallagh is here.” Mrs. Johnson said.

“I know, and I know why he’s here. Send him in when he comes into the office.” Joyce Paskly said.

***

We walked in the school in the middle of a class switch. When several of Jen’s class mates saw her, they came over, but were stopped by Mr. Gallagh.

“Girls keep going to class. You can find out what is going on after school.” Mr. Gallagh said. Officer Dave Mullin walked up to us.

“Boy am I glad that you showed up, Mr. Gallagh, I thought that I was going to have to do this my self.” Officer Mullin looked at the two street units that had come in with the group. “I have a GCR filled out, vandalism of school property, and if I could tack general stupidity on there, I would...” Officer Mullin looked at the group.

“Alrighty. let’s do this.” Mr. Gallagh said, turning and heading toward the office. When we got to the office, Officer Mullin opened up the door so that we could all file in, and then he came in. Mr. Gallagh walked right up to Mrs. Paskly’s door and just opened it. I watched at Joyce Paskly looked up a stack of paper on her desk. She stood. “Joyce, What happened this morning?” She watched as I walked into the office behind mom.

“I don’t want that boy,” She pointed at me. “Running around my school dressed like that. He’ll cause a disruption and will eventually get kicked out of the school because of it.” Mr. Gallagh looked at her.

“Joyce, No she won’t, and besides, the Johnson ruling states that we don’t have a choice as to letting her attend as her. Not that the choice was ours before that, we learned from the Johnson ruling. I know it happened before your time, but that is no excuse for you to be ignorant of it. It’s been in all of the policy handbooks for over a year, and you just came in last year, and signed a statement indicating that you had read the handbooks.” Mr Gallagh produced a piece of paper, which I assumed was the statement stating that she had read the handbooks. I knew that most people just signed paper like that without ever actually reading it. Even the students in the school had to sign one for our student handbooks. Most of us never actually read the things, just signed the papers and got it over with.

***

Mom, Jennifer, Katie, Susan, Dr. Franklin, and I were all sitting at the table at the Max and Erma’s at City Center, waiting on our food to arrive.

“I can’t believe that Mr. Gallagh laid into Mrs. Paskly with us standing there like that.” I said. I had never seen any adult just tear into another with kids around like that.” Susan looked at me.

“Morgan, you should be lucky you haven’t seen a lot of what I’ve seen in the court system then. ”Custody battles are sometimes the worst when it comes to two adults acting like kids. I’m still trying to get my head around her thinking that she stop you from attending because you ‘Were an abomination to society and should be locked away in an institution...”

“Frankly, I’m the only one who can do that...” Dr. Franklin said. “And I don’t think that it would be in Morgan’s best interest. I think that she would be much better off attending school and then going off to college.” Dr. Franklin smiled. “Morgan, do you know how long it’s taken me to rise to being the top of my field?” I looked at her.

“25 years. if you want to get to where I am, you need to start now. Although I can’t think of a better person to become the new head of the field than someone who has gone through it.” Mom and Susan looked at Dr. Franklin after sitting their coffee cups down. I just looked at her and blinked. I could see where she was coming from, In twenty-five years I would just be on the verge of 40, and in the prime of life when my career took off.

“I’m serious about this. I had done some research on this for a paper a year ago. That is what led me on to the fact that I want to help people that are like me. I’ve known that I’m different than most boys my age for a while.” I paused when the waiter replaced my empty Sprite glass with a full one and gave me a funny look.

“You’re not a boy.” He said shaking his head and returning to the kitchen. We all watched him go and then broke out laughing.

“The world is my stage, and I’m going to have fun with it.” I said, sipping my Sprite. “I knew I wasn’t quite a boy.” I said. Dr. Franklin seemed to have a slight smile. “But at the time I didn’t think that I was a girl either. At the time I didn’t know the difference between a boy and a girl, physically, but from my research I learned that there were physiological differences between boys and girls. I knew that boys were supposed to like sports, something that I never cared for; and girls liked dolls and such. At younger ages, girls use their imaginations more, which I did. I always liked role playing, but I always tried to be the damsel in distress. I’m just not right...” I said letting the thought trail off as the waiter approached with food.

***

I walked into my room and collapsed on the bed. I was exhausted from the events of the day. I was so exhausted that as I was laying on the bed I fell asleep, and woke to Katie gently shaking me.

“Hey sleepy head.” she said, with a smile. “Your mom said that dinner is done. Come on, lets wash up.” Katie said, offering a hand and a smile. I sat up and realized that my hair was rather disheveled so I walked over to the dresser and picked up the brush and started brushing. Katie walked up behind me and took the brush out of my hand. “Do you mind?” she asked. I shook my head. Katie started to brush my hair and finished with it, leaving it down.

“Lets go eat.” Katie said, laying the brush on the dresser and taking my arm, and we left the room.

 
To Be Continued...