01 August 2012 – Crawford Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts

“You’re gonna bounce yourself right out of the car if you don’t chill out a bit,” Jeff chuckled to his daughter as the sun peaked over the hill to their east.

“Daaaaaad! I’ve been waiting for my first flying lesson since I took that Eagle Flight last year after the shuttle launch!”

“Waiting none too patiently, I might add …” Sabrina punched him in the shoulder, which was a typical response to his humor. The women in his immediate family – and in his extended one – did that to him all the time. “PARENTAL ABUSE! POLICE!”

“And just how hard do you think your friends at work and on the SWAT team will laugh at you once they learn your fourteen-year-old daughter beat you up?” she teased.

“Pretty frikken hard!” he laughed as he turned onto the airport access road. A hard right put them on another, smaller access road leading to the flight school.

“G’mornin’!” the large red-headed man behind the counter said as he stood. “Are ye ready fir yer flight, lassie?”

“Yessir!” Sabrina chirped while bouncing on her toes.

“In case you can’t tell, she’s kinda looking forward to it,” Jeff muttered.

“I wasnæ sure. Ye never can tell with teenagers.”

“If you two yucksters are finished with the comedy routine, I’d like to get airborne.”

“Shy and retiring type, huh?” Hamish asked. Sabrina glared back. “Och!” he laughed. “I’ve seen that look enough tæ know when I’m aboot t’get yelled at! Ma used to look at me da that way!”

“Oh, come on, Mr. MacDougall!”

“Mr. Knox, ye’re welcome tæ wait in our lounge while we’re out flyin’. T’is not much, but t’is air-conditioned.”

“I thank you for the offer, but I’ll go over to the airport restaurant for breakfast first. Doing stuff at this hour was fine when I was in the Army as a teenager, but it’s for the birds on a day off at forty-three, and I need more coffee.”

“Aye, but t’is a great time of day tæ be flying, ’specially today! Should be nice an’ calm all mornin’!”

“Well, you two enjoy yourselves. Princess, no buzzing the tower.” Jeff waved as he walked out. He had submitted all of Sabrina’s paperwork to the flight school the week before. Everything was ready to go.

“He does know that Fitchburg’s næ a controlled airfield, so there’s næ tower?” Hamish muttered before turning back to the young girl in front of the counter. Sabrina giggled while shaking her head ‘no.’ “Well, my young lassie, are ye ready tæ get tæ work?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Then let’s go and see if the mechanic put the propeller back on the plane.”

It was a good hour before Hamish even rolled the aircraft onto the ramp. He spent that long quizzing Sabrina about her online ground school topics and going over the pre-flight checklist with her. He then spent another half-hour on the plane’s walk-around, ensuring she did things correctly. Hamish was in no hurry, even if Sabrina was. Her appointment would take up his two-hour morning instructional slots, so they had plenty of time.

“Ye dinnæ want to trust your memory when comes to any checklist, lassie,” Hamish cautioned. “In stressful situations, they’ll save yer life by helping ye remember a critical step. They’ll keep ye from killing yerself and others if ye get complacent on ‘routine’ flights, too. They be callin’ that ‘underload’ in CRM – crew resource management. What happens when yer mind isn’t busy enough up here, and ye think ‘I can remember all this stuff.’ Næ, ye can’t, so use the checklist.

“Another saying ye’ll hear over and over again is, ‘There be old pilots, and there be bold pilots, but there næ be any old, bold pilots.’ Is where ye be going or what ye’ll be doing once ye get there as important as yer life? Both of those will still be there by the time ye arrive safely. T’isn’t a military mission where completing the mission t’is the most important thing. Landing safely at the end of yer flight so ye can go home tæ yer family t’is. Physical aptitude is important, aye, but there be times when good critical decision making is a better skill set tæ have.”

Sabrina sat in the copilot’s seat and thought about what Mr. MacDougall said to her. It wasn’t that different from what her parents kept trying to teach her and her brothers. You can be good at something, but sometimes it’s better to understand why you were doing it in the first place. She nodded to her instructor to let him know she understood.

“Alrighty, enough of the lectures. Are ye ready tæ fly?”

Sabrina bounced in her seat with excitement. Somehow, the plane didn’t jump off the tarmac.

Sabrina’s eyes widened when Hamish told her she would handle everything from this point on – start-up, taxiing, and the takeoff. Hamish noted some slight hesitation when she first reached for the control yoke of the Cessna, but that wasn’t uncommon for students. However, once Sabrina finally got her hands on those controls, that disappeared as she talked herself through the start-up checklist.

True to his word, Hamish let Sabrina handle the takeoff. His hands rested on the controls the entire time, but he didn’t need to make any inputs himself. Instead, he spent a few minutes pointing out various landmarks before starting his basic instructional program.

Students who’d taken lessons with Hamish as their instructor wrote numerous testimonials over the years about how patient he was with them. Even two who washed out praised him for the same thing. Sabrina talked with a few former students before meeting Hamish and picking him as her instructor. Sabrina impressed Hamish during that initial meeting. She wasn’t shy about asking tough questions, which drew a snort from her father when Hamish mentioned it.

Visibility was excellent with the wing mounted above the fuselage, but Sabrina commented on how quickly that changed in turns. Finally, after thirty minutes on a northwestern course, Hamish told Sabrina to turn back to the southeast. After crossing over Fitchburg Airport, he gave her a slightly different heading while they continued to chat.

“Do ye recognize where we are, lassie?” he asked his young charge.

“Well, that’s 190 over there, and that looks like the Route 117 interchange…” she muttered. “Are you gonna have me barnstorm my house?” she asked with a mischievous grin.

“I can see I’m gonna have tæ work harder tæ get anything past ye!” he laughed. “But, næ, I’m not. The FAA doesnæ have much of a sense of humor aboot that – or anything, really.”

Sabrina blushed while continuing to scan the terrain below.

“I cheated a bit,” she admitted. “I’ve been studying satellite imagery of the area since Dad booked this lesson for me.”

Hamish laughed again. “T’is næ cheating, Sabrina. Studying the area or areas ye’ll be operating over is never bad. Things look different from a few thousand feet than they do at ground level. So, for the extra credit question: what do we need tæ avoid given where we are?”

“The ground,” Sabrina answered immediately.

“Och, ye have yer father’s sense of humor, dontcha?”

“As Mom would say: ‘Unfortunately, yes.’ In all seriousness, Fort Devens and Moore Army Airfield are to our left, stretching between our ten and seven o’clock; restricted airspace. If we stay west of Route 70 while south of Route 2 and well west of the Nashua River while north of it, we should be fine.”

“Ye have studied the area, then?”

“I’d rather not have some F-15 out of Westover or Otis splash us on my first flight.”

“An armed special ops Black Hawk from Moore chasing us would be more likely, lassie, but that’s something I’d rather avoid, too.” He looked at his student again. “Ye’re doing vurry well. How do ye like it?”

“I’d never land if I had the choice.”

“Sorry, næ mid-air refueling capability on this aircraft. Næ bathrooms, either.”

“Yeah, limiting factors.”

“Right, so that brings up another topic fer discussion: distractions. Ye’ll be multitasking almost constantly up here. Ye’re constantly evaluating fuel status, weather, terrain, other air traffic, and yer own endurance on some level when ye’re out flying. Different priorities come and go depending on where ye are. Fer example, Boston’s Class-B airspace is vurry busy, and næ a place I like tæ take students until the end of training, generally. There be too many demands on yer time in there. Even out here it can get hectic on a nice day like this. That’s especially true when the gliders are flying in and out of Sterling.”

Hamish showed her how to announce her intentions on the Unicom radio so that other pilots would know what she was about to do. He then showed her how to waggle her wings as they passed over her house three hundred feet above the ground. Sabrina saw four people waving up at her from the driveway – her mom, Alex, and her grandparents, she figured. One person stood there with their hands in their pockets, and she didn’t have to guess who that was. After the flyover, they climbed and turned west.

Hamish let Sabrina simply fly, having her make only minor course adjustments. However, she needed more coaching in keeping a constant altitude. Even flying VFR – under visual flight rules – Hamish required new students to check the altitude and attitude indicators often since the body’s senses don’t notice minor changes well. It is also essential for pilots to stay within proscribed altitudes depending on where they are or risk drifting into another aircraft’s airspace. Nevertheless, Sabrina smiled when he told her to make a slow descent toward the summit of Great Quabbin Hill.

“My dad’s parents are at the fire tower, I’m guessing?”

“Ye must not be any fun tæ buy presents fer,” Hamish groused. “Are ye gonna be a detective or some such?”

“No, an astronaut.”

Hamish had her call out their intentions on the radio once more. After a low pass over Enfield’s Lookout Park, where she waggled the wings again, Sabrina banked while pulling up. She brought the aircraft into a tight yet smooth turn. Hamish looked over and raised an eyebrow after they returned to level flight. Sabrina noticed the look and blushed again.

“I asked for high-fidelity flight simulation software and controls for last Christmas, and for my birthday in June.”

“So, what’s our base course back tæ Fitchburg then, Amelia Earhart?” Hamish asked as he glanced down at the plane’s compass.

“Um … I don’t know how to figure that out …” she admitted.

“At least ye’re honest about what ye don’t know. This is the VOR, VHF omnidirectional range,” Hamish said while pointing at one of the instruments. “Line us up on zero-five-zero on this, then read the compass. Once ye have the compass heading, keep us on that, regardless of what the VOR does. That should bring us close tæ Fitchburg Airport. We’ll go over how tæ use VORs in-flight next time, lassie.”

“Ground school covered VORs, DMEs, and VORTACs, but plotting courses in real-time isn’t something I’ve done.”

“T’is one reason why ye map out a flight plan beforehand,” Hamish responded, holding up theirs, “so ye don’t have to fumble with a sectional chart in flight. Today was about getting ye introduced to the physical part of flying. Most of the mental comes later. Don’t worry, lassie, ye’re way ahead of where most folks are on their first lesson. Are ye havin’ fun?” Sabrina nodded that she was. “And that’s what’s important right now. Ye’ll worry over some of the stuff we’ll do down the road but, what’s important is that ye keep feeling that flying is fun.”

Hamish let her fly until just south of Fitchburg before taking back the controls for the landing. He had Sabrina read off the checklist for landing, stressing the absolute necessity of following them at all times again. Hamish told Sabrina to keep her hands and feet on the controls and let him make the inputs. He wanted her to feel what he did as they landed. He also talked her through watching her airspeed, how to enter the pattern, watch for traffic, and a thousand other things.

‘Head up and stick on the ice, Sabrina’, she thought to herself, equating the lessons with those from hockey: be ready for anything.

They taxied to the flight school hangar. Sabrina waved to her father, who stood inside and off the apron. Once it shut down, she bounded out of the plane and leaped at Jeff.

“Well?” he asked after putting his daughter back on the ground.

“AWESOME!”

“I cannæ tell, but I think the lass enjoyed herself,” Hamish chuckled while shaking Jeff’s hand. “Mr. Knox, ye’ve got yerself a natural stick-and-rudder pilot here. If the lass was allowed tæ get her pilot’s license before seventeen, it’d be a question of how young she’d be when she did get it. Sabrina, let’s go intæ the office, and I’ll show ye how ye would log those flight hours. We’ll keep a separate, unofficial logbook for ye since ye cannæ get a student license fer two more years.”

The four weeks before school started passed quickly, but Sabrina’s parents didn’t give her or her brothers time to be bored. Instead, they helped with yard work and other minor projects around the house. They also helped their mother finish setting up her classroom at Devens Regional High School. Sabrina also took another two flying lessons.

She would ride to school with her mother and brothers this year rather than taking the bus as she’d been doing. After eight years of school at the same place – Lancaster’s Rowlandson Elementary and Burbank Middle shared a large building – the route to school would be a new one for her. Keiko would also bring Tommy Jones to Devens Regional High School since he lived right next door.

The first day of school was, as usual, barely controlled chaos. Keiko mentioned that student drop-offs at the high school were much worse when the Army’s guard shacks had been present. Finally, three years ago, they relinquished the plot west of the Nashua River to the Town of Shirley. Sabrina could see the stout barrier of the Hospital Road gate in the distance past the football stadium. Alex and Ryan drifted away from Sabrina and Tommy, who were, after all, freshmen and lower forms of life. As other freshmen arrived by bus and car, the new high school students waited to see who they knew.

“Hey! Rocket Girl!” someone called out. Sabrina grinned and greeted a young African-American boy as he approached.

“S’up, Shawn? How was your summer?” Sabrina asked while bumping fists.

“Not bad. We spent a good chunk down in Alabama, where Dad’s from, then another chunk in Carolina where Mom’s from. Not one of my cousins knew what I was talking about when I started yapping about hockey, though! All they kept talking about was football! You?”

“Hockey camp out in Colorado in July, then flying lessons through August.”

“Nice! Who’s your buddy?”

“This is my friend Tommy Jones. Tommy, this is Shawn Hurt, a friend from youth hockey.”

“Good to meet you, Shawn. When did you first run into this one?” Tommy asked while nodding at Sabrina. Shawn laughed.

“Funny you should put it that way. We crashed into each other during a peewee hockey game years ago. High school will be the first time we’ve played together on the same team, though. You?”

“I moved in next door to her when I was two. You grew up around here, then?”

“Over on Littleton Road in Ayer. Mom and Dad met at Fort Jackson when they were both stationed there. Mom left the Army when she got pregnant with me, and Dad transferred here to the 646th MP Company in 2004. He got out four years ago and got hired by Littleton PD. My brother and I have been in the Ayer schools until now. Hey, here comes one of my friends from Ayer. Yo! Wheels!”

“S’up, Slick? How ya been?” asked the blonde girl in a wheelchair as she rolled up to the group. Ice blue eyes swept over Sabrina and Tommy. “Who are these other ambulatory humans here?”

“Erica, Sabrina Knox, and Tommy Jones. Guys, this is my friend Erica Thorisson.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” Erica replied.

“Here comes one of our other friends,” Tommy commented as Naomi approached. “Naomi, these two folks are Erica Thorisson and Shawn Hurt. Erica, Shawn; Naomi Taggert.”

Tommy’s eyes swept appreciatively over Naomi’s new clothes, and the figure hinted at underneath them. He saw Shawn do the same thing. Erica glanced at her watch.

“We should find the gym” she said. “It’s almost time for Freshman Indoctrination, I mean ‘Orientation.’”

“I’ve been in and out of this place since I before could walk,” Sabrina mentioned. “I know where it is. Plus, it’s not like there aren’t a couple of hundred freshmen heading that way, too. I’m sure we’ll find it easy enough.”

“Yeah, but if I want to be anywhere near you guys, we need to get there pretty quick,” Erica pointed out. “It’s not like I can climb the bleachers.”

“If you let me carry you, you could sit up there with us.”

“Thanks, Slick, but you’ll have to show off your manliness another day. Don’t drag your knuckles on the linoleum, by the way. The custodians hate having to buff out the scuff marks.”

“You’re so pale, if they try to turn off the lights for a video presentation, they’ll have to cover you up to block the glow, you rolling glacier.”

“At least they’d be able to see me in the dark. They’d probably trip over your dusky self.”

Sabrina and Tommy nearly spat their drinks out at the exchange. Naomi’s eyes widened in shock.

“This shit is mild, kids,” Shawn laughed. “You should hear us when we get going.”

Four friends found seats in the first row of the gym’s bleachers to sit near Erica. School staff looked confused when confronted with a student in a wheelchair. They tried to say Erica had to move, that she couldn’t block the aisle or the spots in front of the first row. Sabrina cocked her head at one of them.

“Are you going to provide chairs for the rest of us, so we can sit with our friend while you stick her in the corner over there?” she asked the sputtering, blustering man dressed in athletic wear. “That won’t foster the welcoming, community mentality the principal will likely talk about in his welcome speech, will it? Stashing her away by herself?”

“You know that was the hockey coach, right?” Shawn asked in a whisper while the older man stalked away, grumbling under his breath.

“He can get bent,” Sabrina responded in the same manner. “‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner.’”

“What?” Shawn chuckled.

“A quote from an old movie Mom makes me watch all the time, Dirty Dancing. The line seemed to fit.” Sabrina could see the coach cast disapproving looks her way from time to time out of the corner of her eye.

Don Atwater, DRHS’s principal, strode to the center of the court and faced the bleachers. While he droned on and on about inclusiveness and being kind to one another, Sabrina tuned him out. She was sure most of her classmates also did. It wasn’t that Sabrina disagreed with the message; she heard the same message throughout middle school. She was sure many of the Class of 2016 would ignore it and be their usual, cruel selves soon enough. That one of the staff started to do the same thing to Erica didn’t bode well in her estimation.

Sabrina also saw her mother glancing over from her spot along the wall. Keiko was disappointed when Carl Hammond, the principal who hired her fresh out of graduate school, retired two years ago. While her mother tried to keep Sabrina and her brothers from hearing her opinions of Mr. Atwater, it was inevitable that they would. Keiko acknowledged she held Mr. Hammond in particular regard; he and his wife still came to the house on Hilltop Road to visit, especially since he retired. But, on the other hand, Keiko was less than impressed by Don Atwater’s leadership abilities. He had his favorites, and Keiko didn’t fall into that category.

At lunch, Sabrina’s group of freshmen sat together at an open table while taking in the scene around them. She recognized some of her former classmates from Burbank Middle and waved to them, but there were plenty of kids from other towns she didn’t know.

One of the unrecognized freshmen sat huddled by themselves at a different table with the hood of their black sweatshirt pulled up. ‘Keep away from me’ radiated off that person in waves. Those who didn’t pick up on that non-verbal message received a hateful glare to go with it. They quickly found other places to sit.

“What’s that person’s deal?” Sabrina asked. Erica and Shawn looked over.

“Black Ruby,” Erica answered with disdain. Shawn shuddered.

“Who?”

“Ruby Sepulveda. Angry, wants to be left alone most of the time, you name it,” Shawn replied. Sabrina rose and headed toward Ruby’s table, causing the eyes of her friends from Ayer to goggle.

“Hi, Ruby,” Sabrina offered. Ruby glared back, though Sabrina was unimpressed.

“What do you want?”

“I wanted to say hello and ask how you were doing. I haven’t seen you since we left Big Steps Preschool eight years ago. We used to be friends.”

Ruby’s eyes softened briefly in confusion but soon returned to normal glaring.

“We must not have been very good friends because I don’t remember you,” she spat.

“I’m Sabrina Knox.”

Again the eyes changed for a moment, this time widening in surprise.

“Well, thank the Lord!” Ruby exclaimed with mock joy. “Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes has returned to brighten my days on Earth! Isn’t that just great? All my troubles are banished forever!”

Sabrina’s face began to color, but not in embarrassment.

“Go away, little girl,” Ruby continued. “I don’t want your friendship or your pity. I especially don’t want to hear more stories of your perfect family or see more pictures of it.” But, unfortunately, Ruby misread Sabrina’s reaction to her comments.

“Does the truth hurt, little girl? Can’t stand to hear how life isn’t all sweetness and light? You have no idea about the kind of pain I carry.” She waved dismissively at Sabrina. “Go away before you get hurt.”

“You can kiss my frikken ASS, Ruby!” Sabrina growled. “Don’t tell me how I feel or how my FATHER feels! I know it’s not the same as what your family went through, but don’t try to tell me that day didn’t cost him and his friends, either! I lose my dad for a week every frikken July 15th! He still beats himself up twelve years later for ‘not doing enough’ for your sister. He spends most of that week sitting on the back deck staring off into the distance, but at least he isn’t crying for that whole week like when we were younger. Do you know how often I’ve sat with him while he listens to Pearl Jam’s Indifference over and over? He sits down to talk to your mom every month at one of the Dunks they own together and, half the time, she has to reassure him he did all he could that day.”

“Mom doesn’t own a Dunkin’ Donuts…”

“Maybe if you’d pull your head out of your ass once in a while, Ruby, you might notice these things. Your mom doesn’t manage a Dunkin’ Donuts; she co-owns five with my father.” Ruby sat blinking like an owl while staring at her classmate.

“I came over here to say hello to a friend I haven’t seen in years. Too bad all I found was a sad, petty little bitch instead. I was going to offer you a spot at our table over there, to offer you a chance to make some new friends. But, of course, you can stay over here being lonely and miserable if you prefer. Honestly, I don’t give a shit anymore.”

Sabrina started to walk away but turned back to the table and gave Ruby a hard stare.

“Oh, and if you ever try flashing your pathetic little claws at me again, I will frikken plant you. Have a nice day.”

“Erica, what’s wrong?” Sabrina asked later in the day.

“My next class is upstairs in 207, but I don’t know how I’m gonna get up there,” Erica replied, frowning. “I mean, the elevator’s right here, and I know I’m allowed to use it, but you need a key to call the car, and I just realized I haven’t gotten one from the school yet. So I’ll be like twenty minutes late for that class by the time I go down to the office and get one.”

Sabrina also frowned before an idea popped into her head. Glancing up and down the hall, she pulled her key ring from her pocket before inserting one of the keys into the elevator’s control panel.

Erica heard a buzzer sound from above her inside the elevator shaft. The buzzer grew louder – and closer. The keyway Sabrina had used was marked ‘Firefighter Operation.’

“What are you doing?” Erica hissed.

“Getting you upstairs,” Sabrina answered.

“Getting us in trouble is more like it.”

The doors opened, and Sabrina removed the firefighter’s key, silencing the buzzer.

“Come on,” she said before rolling her new friend into the car. Sabrina even wheeled Erica in correctly, backing her into the elevator, so Erica wasn’t staring at the back wall on the ride up.

“Hold it right there!” a voice called out after they emerged on the second floor. Sabrina turned to see Mrs. Haversham, one of the history teachers, striding toward them. “Unauthorized use of the elevator is grounds for detention!” Sabrina’s eyes narrowed.

“She’s authorized. It’s in her IEP. I helped her out because the office hasn’t given her a key yet, in apparent violation of that document. I’m shielding the district from an ADA violation while I’m at it, too.”

“Don’t get smart with me, young lady!”

“Sorry, I thought that’s why we were here, to get smart,” Sabrina retorted. “Erica, any relevant quotes from the Americans with Disabilities Act you want to share with Mrs. Haversham?”

“Not really,” Erica replied with disdain. “We’re going to be late for class.”

Sabrina turned Erica’s chair toward room 207 and walked away, leaving Eleanor Haversham standing in the hallway.

“Well, that was fun,” Erica laughed ruefully. “How are we getting in trouble tomorrow?”

“I don’t know what’s in store for tomorrow, but I’ll be back to help you downstairs after your class. I’m sure we’ll get another detention for that.”

Sabrina sat in the outer administration office two hours later, waiting for an after-school meeting with the assistant principal. She was pissed off. Spending her first afternoon after high school in the office instead of hanging out with her new friends was bad enough. Mrs. Haversham’s attempt to bring her into the assistant principal’s office without either of her parents only added to her anger. If the woman tried to lay another hand on her, Sabrina would feed her that hand up her rectum.

The door to the hallway opened. Keiko held the door while Erica Thorisson and a woman Sabrina assumed was Erica’s mother entered. None of the three looked happy. Finally, Keiko stepped up to the desk.

“Hi, Keiko,” the senior admin assistant, Mrs. Latham, said in a tired voice. “Terrific first day, huh?”

“Hello, Nicole. It was a good day until I learned I needed to attend a meeting with Eleanor Haversham regarding my daughter.” Keiko looked at Sabrina. “What is she accusing you of?” she asked in Japanese.

“They haven’t given Erica an elevator key like they’re supposed to,” Sabrina answered in the same language, “so I helped her get to class. Mrs. Haversham saw us getting out of the elevator and raised holy hell.”

“‘Helped her’ how, exactly?” Keiko asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Dad gave me a firefighter’s elevator key last year. He told me only to use it in an emergency.”

“This instance might not qualify as an ‘emergency,’ but that is a discussion for another time.” Keiko turned to Erica and the other woman and switched back to English. “Dixie, this is my daughter, Sabrina. Sabrina, this is Erica’s mother, Mrs. Thorisson.” Dixie Thorisson hugged Sabrina.

“Thank you for helping Erica, Sabrina,” she said. “Where is this slack-jawed idiot, then?” Sabrina and Erica stifled chuckles, as did Keiko and Mrs. Latham.

“I didn’t hear a thing…” Nicole Latham muttered before walking to a door and knocking. She stuck her head in, said something, then waved everyone over.

“Sabrina, as difficult as it might be, do not react to anything said in that office,” Keiko whispered in Japanese. “As your mother, let me handle this.” Sabrina nodded wordlessly.

When the four women stepped into the assistant principal’s office, Phil Lanier rose to welcome them. Keiko smiled as she respected him, but she ignored Eleanor Haversham. She had no use for the woman. Someone must have filled Dixie Thorisson in on the people representing the school because she did the same.

“Mrs. Thorisson, this meeting is between another family and us. So I’m going to have to ask you and your daughter to wait outside,” Eleanor Haversham ordered.

Dixie glanced at Mrs. Haversham before looking at Phil Lanier and raising an eyebrow.

“I specifically invited the Thorissons, Mrs. Haversham,” he clarified as he walked around his desk. “Let me move that chair so Erica has more room to maneuver.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lanier.”

“Now that we’re all here, Mrs. Haversham, would you please explain the issue you have with these two young ladies?”

“Students are not allowed to use the elevator,” she stated in a haughty voice. “Miss Knox became disrespectful when I caught them stepping out of it.”

“Able-bodied students are not allowed to use the elevator,” Erica shot back before either mother could respond. “How else am I supposed to get to my classes on the second floor? Sabrina had to help me because I haven’t gotten a key to the elevator yet!”

“Miss Thorisson…” Mrs. Haversham began.

“…is quite correct, Mrs. Haversham,” Phil Lanier cut in. “This school and this district could be found in material violation of her IEP due to that fact.” He held up a small, sealed envelope with Erica’s name on it and addressed the wheelchair-bound teen. “You should have received this yesterday with your schedule and locker combination, Erica. Unfortunately, the paperclip was too loose, and the envelope fell between two of the desks out in the office and onto the floor beneath them.”

“Thank you, Mr. Lanier,” Dixie said as she took the envelope. “Now that Erica has the key, I am satisfied.”

“There is still the matter of Miss Knox’s insolence,” Mrs. Haversham sniffed, clearly unhappy at Erica Thorisson’s lack of respect – or punishment. “She had no right to speak to me in that manner!”

“‘Congress shall make no law…’” Sabrina muttered under her breath in Japanese. Keiko made a curt motion with her hand.

“What was that, Miss Knox?” Mr. Lanier asked in an encouraging voice. “I’m sure it was relevant to the conversation, if I know your parents.”

Keiko rolled her eyes but motioned for Sabrina to answer.

Sabrina cleared her throat.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

“Tinker v. Des Moines also comes to mind, sir.”

Phil Lanier raised an eyebrow and cast a bemused smile at Keiko.

“Quite right, Miss Knox. As you mentioned, you also have to consider the Tinker Test concerning free speech in public schools. However, I don’t believe your dissent rises to that level. In any event, I commend you and your parents on your education so far. I’m not sure many other freshmen could recite the First Amendment from memory or quote case law relevant to this type of situation.”

“Mr. Lanier!” Eleanor Haversham hissed. Phil Lanier held up a hand to stop her coming tirade.

“Mrs. Haversham, Miss Knox will be given detention per current policy for unauthorized use of the elevator.” He now held up his hand to stop the angry statements from the other side of his desk. “In any event, this brings your involvement in this matter to a close. I am sure you would like to return to your classroom and gather your things since school has been over for nearly a half-hour. Have a good evening.”

Eleanor Haversham’s face clouded at the summary dismissal. She snarled at the four others in the room, and she stormed out. She tried to, in any case. Special hinges on Phil Lanier’s door kept her from slamming the door on her way out.

“Well, this promises to be an interesting year! Now, Miss Knox, you will report to this office tomorrow during fifth period for in-school detention.” Four angry faces scowled back at him. Then, finally, he smiled and handed a sheet of paper to Keiko. Keiko looked it over and passed it to Sabrina.

It was Sabrina’s class schedule. She had study hall tomorrow during fifth period.

“During your time here, you will draft an outline of a report on the First Amendment and Tinker v. Des Moines for me. Once the outline is completed, I will consider this matter closed.”

Sabrina blinked at the assistant principal in disbelief.

“Sabrina, while your decision to use the firefighter’s key may be questionable in this instance, assistance freely given to a friend and the defense of the rights of a fellow student is not. However, I must assign some punishment in this case. Otherwise, every student in this school would have a precedent they could point to if they find themselves in a similar situation.” Phil sighed. “In any event, I have kept the four of you from the rest of your afternoons for too long. I hope you all have a pleasant evening.”

The ladies smiled back and prepared to leave.

“Keiko, a moment?”

Keiko smiled and nodded to Sabrina.

“We’ll keep her company in the outer office, Keiko.”

“Thank you, Dixie.”

When the office’s door closed again, she turned back to Phil, who waved her back to her chair.

“I’m sorry this even had to happen, Keiko, especially on our first day.”

“Philip, she could have made a different choice.”

“Maybe, but don’t be too hard on her, either you or Jeff. As I said, standing up for someone else is rarely wrong, nor is it easy when you’re standing up to someone in nominal authority over you. It has to be known that she is being ‘punished’ for the reasons I stated earlier. Otherwise, I would have people such as Eleanor Haversham beating down my door if I failed to do so.”

“I am not happy that a fellow union member opposed me in a meeting with administration, nor that she was here in the first place.”

“I can see why you are displeased in both cases. Don’t forget, though, you were here as a parent, not a union member.”

Keiko sighed and nodded, unhappy with the truth of the matter, but she could not deny it.

“Give this to Sabrina, please.” Phil held out another small envelope like the one he gave Erica. “Sabrina is now an authorized user of that elevator, so long as she’s helping Erica or another disabled member of our school community. You know, it’s too bad my memory has been failing of late, because I might forget to record her detention if I’m not careful.”

“Thank you, Philip.”

Sabrina stared out the windshield with her arms crossed across her chest as Keiko drove home. Her father would pick the boys up after soccer practice.

“You seem displeased, Sabrina. That could have been much worse.”

“I got detention on my first day of high school, Mom! Tell me how it could be worse!”

“You could have been suspended,” Keiko replied.

Sabrina’s mouth opened and closed like a guppy’s as she tried to come up with a suitable response.

“Sabrina, Mr. Lanier could have made your ‘punishment’ even more unpalatable. Instead, he was impressed by your coming to Erica’s aid and for standing up for her. This helped your case. He set your punishment so low as to not discourage such behavior in the future.”

Sabrina turned back to the windshield with her arms still crossed but looked less annoyed.

“I will again mention balance to you, Sabrina, in the sense that you must try not to be disrespectful of adults when coming to the aid of your friends or classmates. I am not saying you were to Mrs. Haversham, but you could inflame others with the wrong tone of voice in some cases. I am proud of you for coming to Erica’s aid in any event. I know her mother appreciates what you did, also. Unfortunately, other people can be cruel to those perceived as ‘different.’ Mrs. Thorisson told me Erica has suffered more hurt from her classmates’ treatment after her accident than from the accident itself. You have already proven yourself a good friend in their eyes.”

“Sabrina?”

The conversation at the lunch table between Sabrina and her friends stopped instantly. Her friends glared at the person who called out to her. Sabrina looked up to find Ruby standing behind her, and Sabrina’s face hardened.

“I want to apologize for last week. Can we talk?” Ruby asked.

Focused on Ruby, Sabrina missed the surprised looks on her friends’ faces. They had never heard the girl say she was sorry for anything before. Sabrina nodded and waved Ruby toward the hall outside the lunchroom. Once seated on the broad sill of a hall window, Sabrina indicated Ruby should go ahead.

“As I said inside, I’m sorry for what I said to you last week, Sabrina. It’s taken me this long to realize why what I did was so shitty.” Ruby looked out the window at the playing fields in the distance. “I was still livid when I got home that day. Mom asked me what made me mad since it was worse than she normally sees from me. She LOST IT when I told her that I blew up at you. I swear I’ve never seen her that angry, even when I’m at my worst.”

“It’s been a while, but I always remember your mom as being really nice.”

“She is, but I make it tough for her. This past week forced me to finally look at how I’ve been acting, at how I’ve been treating Mom and everyone else.” Ruby lowered her eyes. “It was pretty tough to admit to myself what an asshole I’ve been and how long I’ve been one.” Ruby sighed.

“Mom and I talked for hours every night after school, and all day Saturday and Sunday. Of course, there was a lot of yelling and tears, but we were both too stubborn to stop until everything was out in the open once we started.

“After we both left Big Steps, I started to hear whispers of what Lily tried to do for me and the price she paid. I guess that’s what caused me to become such an angry person.” Ruby began sobbing now.

“Do you know I don’t remember Lily, Sabrina? I can’t remember a single thing about her! There’s no image in my head that doesn’t match the pictures of her that Mom keeps around the house! I don’t remember my big sister, the one who died for me!”

Sabrina gathered Ruby in her arms while she continued to cry. Both girls’ tears soaked the other’s shirt.