Chapter 3 - Two Hundred Dollars
Sarah counted the money at their kitchen table that evening.
Forty-three dollars in cash.
One hundred and eighteen in checking until Friday.
Rent due in nine days.
Electricity due in four.
Ben needed new shoes.
Emma watched from the hallway without speaking.
Sarah did not know she was there.
On the table lay the glossy brochure Emma had pulled from her backpack.
VANCE ACADEMIC ADVANCEMENT.
Accelerated mathematics instruction.
Exclusive exam preparation.
Three sessions weekly.
$200 monthly.
At the bottom was a logo.
Northbridge Student Success Foundation.
Sarah picked up the brochure.
“Where did this come from?”
Emma entered.
“Ms. Vance.”
“When?”
“September.”
“Why didn’t you show me?”
Emma shrugged.
“Because we don’t have two hundred dollars.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Emma immediately regretted saying it.
“Mom, I didn’t mean—”
“No.”
Sarah looked at her daughter.
“You’re right.”
Emma sat down.
Sarah took her injured hand gently.
“Did she ever threaten you?”
Emma hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
“What did she say?”
“She said students who aren’t committed shouldn’t expect her to be committed to them.”
“When?”
“After I said no the first time.”
“Anything else?”
Emma stared at the table.
“She changed my quiz grade.”
Sarah stopped.
“What?”
“I got an eighty-eight.”
“How do you know?”
“She wrote eighty-eight on the paper. Then online it became seventy-six.”
“Did you ask her?”
“She said I must have calculated it wrong.”
“Do you still have the quiz?”
Emma nodded.
Sarah stared at her.
“Get it.”
While Emma went upstairs, Sarah turned the brochure over.
There was a website and an email address.
She searched the foundation on her phone.
A polished website appeared with photographs of smiling students and scholarship announcements.
Board members:
Melissa Vance — Program Director.
Gregory Bell — Educational Advisor.
Sarah went cold.
She scrolled farther.
Northbridge Student Success Foundation had donated $38,000 to Westbridge High during the previous year.
New technology.
Student activities.
Teacher-development initiatives.
The same principal who had defended Vance was listed as an advisor to the organization collecting her tutoring fees.
Emma returned carrying three tests.
Each showed one grade on paper and a lower grade in the online portal.
Sarah photographed everything.
The doorbell rang.
Aunt Laura stood outside.
Sarah nearly shut the door.
“Please.”
Laura looked exhausted.
Ben was upstairs playing video games.
Emma stood behind Sarah.
Laura saw her.
“Can I come in?”
Sarah opened the door only because Emma was watching.
Laura entered and placed her purse on the counter.
“I spoke to Bell.”
Sarah laughed bitterly.
“I bet.”
“He’ll keep Vance out of the classroom during the investigation.”
“And after?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always know.”
Laura looked at Emma.
“This isn’t something she needs to hear.”
Emma’s expression hardened.
“She hit me. I think I need to hear it.”
Laura seemed ashamed.
“Fair.”
Sarah placed the tutoring brochure on the table.
“What is Northbridge?”
Laura’s reaction was small.
But visible.
“That’s a nonprofit.”
“Bell is its educational advisor.”
“Unofficially.”
“Vance charges children she grades two hundred dollars a month.”
“It was approved before I became director.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Laura sat down.
“Sarah, listen carefully. Northbridge is connected to powerful people in the district.”
“Are you warning me?”
“Yes.”
“Or threatening me?”
Laura looked hurt.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
Sarah leaned forward.
“From whom?”
Laura said nothing.
Emma’s phone vibrated.
She looked at the screen.
Unknown number.
A message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE KEPT YOUR HAND DOWN.
Emma went pale.
Sarah immediately took the phone.
Another message appeared.
ASK MAYA WHAT HAPPENS TO GIRLS WHO LIE ABOUT TEACHERS.
Laura stood so quickly that her chair scraped the floor.
“Give me that.”
Sarah pulled the phone away.
“Why?”
Laura’s face had lost all color.
“Because I know who Maya is.”
Sarah stared.
“Who?”
Laura looked at Emma.
Then back at her sister.
“A student who filed a complaint against Melissa Vance last year.”
Emma whispered, “What happened?”
Laura did not answer.
Sarah’s voice lowered.
“What happened to her, Laura?”
Laura looked toward the window as though checking whether anyone stood outside.
Finally she said, “The complaint disappeared.”
Sarah’s stomach turned.
“Complaints don’t disappear.”
“This one did.”
“Who made it disappear?”
Laura’s eyes filled with something Sarah had never seen in them before.
Fear.
May you like
“I signed the form.”
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