>> "Thank you Ms. Taylor, there won't be much. These have been the only thing I've gotten lately."

"It's not a problem" she nodded, making a note for herself to direct Locke's mail to her office. One more thing to take care of. Not like it was going to be difficult. And the faster they got this sorted out, the better...

>>"I want to graduate on time. So I can't just let the failing grades go by. But can I even catch up at this point?"

She nodded again slowly, typing on the computer to look at his schedule and grades.

"I am pretty sure you can. It is a matter of scheduling, and asking some of the teachers to give you extra time for assignments, but I can help you with that. If you are willing to put in the work, I am sure you can pull it off. But only if you really want to do it. It is okay if you don't, no one is going to blame you."

He looked determined. That was a good sign. And maybe all that schoolwork would be good for distraction...

He was going to have to play catch up again. At least this time there wasn’t the added pressures of dealing with medical problems and twin infants that needed constant care. Had the letters started coming when he first moved out here Locke wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure at all. It was only because Locke was happier in his life when the pictures started coming that he was only failing two of his classes. Dealing with his grief, the stress of school, and the whole stalker thing would have put him in a very dark place. ”I don’t know what college I want to go to, but at least I know what I want to go for. Sort of,” A drastic change from the last time that he had come to Ms. Taylor, claiming that he thought he was wasting his time in school. It also showed that the student who was in the office wasn’t one who just didn’t care about their grades anymore. Yes, Locke’s grades had plummeted, but could you blame him?

”If I’m stuck at the school I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about me having time to catch up,” Locke said. Most of his spare time before the letters had been spent going around the city, if he wasn’t training. Not knowing that there were more letters would also help. It was easier not to stress about the situation if he didn’t know that it was continuing. Having the police get involved, as reluctant as Locke was for that to happen, would also provide an ease of mind. The teen had no reason to doubt the boys in blue in New York when it came to something like this. Giant walking trees or mad men running into a gunfight was another matter entirely.

”Should I call this police guy or should you?” Locke asked. He didn’t have a phone of his own, which meant that he would either have to ask a friend for theirs or use the school’s.

>>”I don’t know what college I want to go to, but at least I know what I want to go for. Sort of. If I’m stuck at the school I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about me having time to catch up,”

Gemma smiled and nodded. That's the spirit...

"All right then" she nodded "I'll talk to your teachers then, and we'll work out a schedule. And of course if you need anything, just come and ask me."

She was confident that Locke could do this. He was a smart kid, and he wanted to work, even though he would have had the option to wait until the stalker was gone. He could do this, and he could definitely use the distraction.

>>”Should I call this police guy or should you?”

"I will" she nodded "I'll let you know when he has time to stop buy."

”Thank you,” Locke whispered. Two words that adults always told kids were magical, but barely were enough to capture Locke’s gratitude to Ms. Taylor. He had fully expected her to be lecturing him about his failed classes and the overall suckitude of his report card. It had been addressed of course. He would be worried about trusting her with any part of his future if she didn’t expect more out of him. You don’t want someone to advise you on future education if they don’t have an interest in your current studies. And Locke needed Ms. Taylor’s help. Kendra was the closest thing that he had to a parent, but she had done the technology studies rather than child development, which was more of Ms. Taylor’s expertise. She wanted him to succeed, was willing to take his mail for him, and was going to set up a meeting with a police officer. Most of all she wanted him to be safe. Safe meaning that he was going to stay here at the school. If he needed anything she wanted him to come back to her. It was hard to think of anything more he could need at this point, and even harder to think of asking more of her. ”Seriously, thank you,” Locke knew that some students called her Momma T, but he couldn’t do that. Dad and mom were almost sacred words to him, along with the variants of it. ”Ms, T.”



((End of thread?))