Not My Daughter

The room had grown gradually quiet.

'Did you just say what I thought you said?' Kate asked, pausing with her elbows up, midway through tacking a handful of curls to the back of her head.

Susan didn't deny it. 'There are times when I feel like I'm swimming upstream.'

Kate pushed the knitting needle into her hair. 'No. Absolutely not. Do not resign.'

'I'm tired,' Susan said. 'There's part of me that would love to go back to teaching. The English department has an opening for fall. I could hire me before I resign.'

'And let Evan Brewer take over? No.'

Susan had considered that, too. 'Evan is too obvious. Phil knows he would use my job as a stepping-stone to his. Besides, there's plenty of time to do an outside search for a replacement.'

'No.' This from Sunny.

'For the sake of the kids,' Susan argued. 'This media stuff isn't good for them.'

'Are you kidding? They love it.'

'We love it,' piped up Darcy, whose innocence made Susan smile, albeit sadly.

'It's a distraction. I'm imposing my own problems on the students. That makes me a not-so-great principal.'

'Wrong,' said Lily with a ringing echo from Jess.

But Susan wasn't so sure. 'I thought I was a good principal. I thought I was a good mother-'

'You are.'

'Maybe good, but not good enough. If I'm going to be fired, I should resign now and spare us all the agony.' She turned to Rick.

Lips compressed, he shook his head. 'Not a good message,' he whispered.

'About dignity?' she cried. 'What message should I send?'

'That you fight for what you want.'

'That you believe in yourself,' Kate picked up.

'That there's more than one way of doing things,' Sunny put in and turned to her husband. 'Can they fire her for this? Actually, don't answer. She can't resign.'

If Dan had a reply, he chose not to give it. Same with Will.

'Resign now,' Kate said, 'and you'll be letting down every mother in town. You'll be admitting blame for having done nothing wrong. Know that phrase 'Don't go near the fire if you can't take the heat?' That's what they'll say. You'll be setting the women's movement back years.'

'Totally,' declared Mary Kate, but Lily's were the words that struck home.

'I remember when you were in school, Mom. Maybe I was three, maybe four, but when I woke up at night, you'd be studying. If I was sick, you worked in my room. You didn't have to tell me how much it meant to you to get a good job. I could see it. So now I'll be doing the same thing you did, only it'll be easier for me because of you. People will accept me more because of you. It's my future, and you're paving the way. If you turn back now, it'll be like pulling the yarn at the tail of a sweater and unraveling the whole thing. You've worked too hard for that. Don't? Please?'

Chapter 25

The campaign didn't end Saturday night. Kate and Sunny kept calling to keep Susan on track, and while the one call she really wanted was from Pam, she had to settle for Dan, who followed up with a visit on Sunday to study her contract.

His legal opinion? 'They can't dismiss you. You haven't violated anything in your contract, and this contract runs for another year. Correlli may choose not to renew it then, but if they try to fire you now, you can sue.'

Susan wouldn't sue. Lawsuits were often messy, expensive, and public. It would be bad for her and bad for the town. She still believed resignation might be the compassionate alternative.

Rick disagreed. Once the school week began, he e-mailed from home. A good principal loves her students. She finishes what she begins. A good principal doesn't let outside forces erode her work. And Lily joined up with her dad. A good mother fights. A good mother wants her daughter to have choices.

How fair was that? Not fair at all, but as the school board meeting neared, Susan held the words close.

***

She refused to wear black. Black might be professional, but it was the color of death. Her father had died; her grandson might die; her professional dreams might be shot to smithereens. But she was a color person, and, while moderation was in order, she couldn't squelch her personality. On that score, she and Rick had strategized. She wouldn't be confrontational; quiet dignity was better. If board members wanted to vent, she would hear them out, but she wouldn't be stepped on.

She decided on blue-navy slacks with a lighter, bolder sweater and scarf. She covered her freckles with makeup, and nixed hoop earrings for studs. Granted, the studs were bright red, but they were small-a gift from Lily at her last birthday, and precious for that.

All seven members were present when she arrived at the town hall. Creatures of habit, they sat in their usual places. Pam had laughed about this once, though she, too, was in her usual place now. Likewise, Phil occupied a chair by the wall.

Though the room was quiet, an air of tension suggested there had already been talk. Eyes touched hers only briefly. Susan caught Pam's-please, help me out-before Pam turned to the chairwoman.

'You know why we've asked you to come,' Hillary began.

'I'm not entirely sure,' Susan confessed. 'I know you're upset by the media-'

'Upset is an understatement,' one of the men said.

'We're appalled.'

'That may be so, Mr. Morgan,' scolded Hillary, sounding weary, 'but we live in the twenty-first century. I don't like the media being here, either, but this is how things work nowadays.'

'Are you saying I'm old?' Carl asked in his gravelly voice. 'If that's so, then old is good. We didn't have these kinds of crises when my children were in school.'

'We should have acted sooner,' someone else said.

'Dr. Correlli should have acted soon-ah,' corrected Duncan Haith.

There, in a nutshell, was Susan's problem. Phil's reluctance to force her out was likely what had brought this meeting about. If a majority of the board shared Duncan's frustration, Phil would have no choice but to fire her. Letting her hear the board's anger firsthand would absolve him of guilt.

To his credit, Phil said, 'We have acted. Within the school, things are under control. We weren't the ones who invited the press.'

Carl's bushy brows rose. 'No?'

'They came for Henry's funeral,' Pam said. 'They were supposed to leave after that.'

'Someone tipped them off.'

'Who?'

When several members eyed Susan, she was startled. 'I'm the last person who would want reporters around.'

'Then who would?' Carl asked.

Here was her first challenge. 'I was told it was the head of the Chamber of Commerce.'

'Who said that?' Neal Lombard asked, his moon face benign.

'The producer from NBC who showed up at my door. We were able to kill that story, but someone must have called other media.'

'That producer lied,' Neal stated quietly.