Running on Insulin

Chapter 60

Jenna POV

Samantha was pretty quiet on the way to school.

"Any idea where you want to go for lunch?" I asked.

Samantha shrugged.

"I've never heard of that place. Do all the servers work in gestures?" I asked.

"What?" Samantha said.

"I've never heard of," and I shrugged. "So I was wondering if the servers also communicate with gestures."

"I. What?" Samantha was confused about what I was saying. But she caught on and smiled.

"Well, where would you like to eat lunch today?" I asked again.

"I don't know," she said. "Where do you want to go?"

"Hmm. I don't know either. I guess I'll think about it before I pick you up for lunch," I said.

"Okay," she shrugged.

We pulled into the school parking lot, and I found a spot. Samantha looked around.

"You okay?" I asked.

"It's weird parking and not just getting dropped out front."

"I bet," I smiled.

Samantha grabbed her back pack and I walked with her into the school. I gave her a hug and told her to have a good morning before she went off and met up with her friend Jill, who'd met us outside the school.

"Good morning, Mrs. Joseph," Ms. Tracey said as I walked into the office. "Everything alright?"

"Good morning, yes, thank you. For the most part everything is fine," I replied. 

"What can we do for you?" she asked. 

"Well, yesterday was our adoption hearing, and so Samantha is officially our daughter, I thought that might need to be changed on some of her school records." I said. 

"Congratulations! Did everything go alright?" she asked. 

"For the most part, yes. But there are some issues that I think need to be addressed because of some things that came from the hearing."

"Sure, what can I do to help?"

"Well, for starters, her - uh - former father? whatever we would call  him, has requested that Samantha come visit him, supposedly to say goodbye, on Thursday morning, so she'll be away from school tomorrow as well."

"Alright. I'll make sure to note that," Ms. Tracey said. 

"But I'm concerned about Samantha. When she found out that she has to go up to visit him, she considered running away. I'm worried she may have some issues at school from this, her behaviour may be affected. She's already a very sensitive child. We're dealing a with a lot of psychological abuse, and a whole host of other issues. I know it's asking a lot, but I need your staff to, I don't know, keep a closer eye on her for the next few days? Even after the visit to the prison?"

"Can't you skip the visit?"

"I wish. No. We can't. He sent a lawyer to the hearing yesterday. If we don't bring her up to the prison, he'll contest the adoption. Despite the fact that he didn't fight losing his rights. It's a mess, and it's messing with Samantha's mental health. We're doing the best we can, and we'll be working harder with her therapist. But if it's possible to sort of, keep tabs on her?"

"I understand.  We'll do our best."

"Now, I'm also taking her out for lunch today. I know, lunch is an hour, I will have her back for class, but I suppose I should sign her out?"

"Sure. Samantha's lunch is at 12:30, so she needs to be back by 1:30. 1:25, really, to give her time to get to class," Ms. Tracey said. 

"Can I ask you something? I don't know if you'll even know the answer, but can I?"

"Of course," Ms. Tracey said. 

"Has Samantha been alright? I mean, have you had any issues with her? Has she been sent to the office or had any problems with her teachers or her peers?"

"No. She's been a good student.  She was quiet on the first day. Spoke to no one. Not even her teachers, but since then, she's been engaged and her teachers seem quite happy with her so far. She hasn't had any trouble, she hasn't been any trouble," Ms. Tracey said. 

"Okay. Great. Thank you." I said. 

"Anything else?"

"I don't think so," I said. "We're about to start the paperwork to change her last name, but that's probably something that can wait?"

"Oh, yeah. We'll wait on that until that's official.  We'll see you at 12:30, then?"

"You will," I smiled. 

I drove back home where Josh and Tyler were sitting in the kitchen talking. 

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked, coming into the kitchen and pouring myself another cup of coffee.

"Not much," Tyler said. "Just chatting, really. Thinking about music, that sort of stuff. Kinda getting an idea of where to go with what I've been writing. I mean, I've been working on the whole thing since Blurryface, and I know where I want it to go. I  have it all laid out, I'm working, and we're just chatting about it right now."

"Awesome," I smiled. 

"How was Sam when you dropped her off at school?" 

"She was alright. A little surprised that I still want to take her for lunch, because she thought we were upset she wanted to run away."

"Poor kid. I'm worried she'll try to run from school," Josh said. 

"Me too," I said. "I asked if they could just, sort of keep an eye on her, and a bit of what was going on."

"Good. So are you still taking her for lunch?" Tyler asked. 

"Of course," I said. "I said I was going to, and I'm going to. I just have a few hours to kill between now and her lunch."

"Where are you going to take her?" Tyler asked. 

"I don't know. She doesn't have any ideas, and I need to go somewhere close to the school."

"Why not just go to, like, McDonald's or, like, Taco Bell?" Josh smiled at Tyler, who smiled back at him. 

"I'll probably take her to McDonald's. What kid doesn't like McDonald's?" I laughed. 

"Good plan."

"Tyler," I said. "We should probably talk about getting the paperwork done to change Samantha's name, if she still wants it."

"We should, but..." he stalled. "Can it wait until after tomorrow?  I kinda feel like anything before that just, I don't know. Jinxes it?"

"I know what you mean," I said. 

The three of us chatted for a little while longer before I got ready to go pick Samantha up for lunch.