Scootaloo pointed to the schoolhouse clock as she stepped off her scooter. "See, guys? Told ya we’d make it.”
It was a nice morning, cool and windy. It was the sort of morning that was wasted being indoors. The parents of the school-aged foals were taking advantage of that fact by loitering outside, just past the school’s white picket fence. They chatted with the other parents and generally wasted time enjoying the weather while their kids were unable to.
Diamond Tiara and Feather stayed on the scooter, stiff as nails, and as pale as the whitewash on the schoolhouse walls. The pink filly was clamped on to the colt with all the trembling strength she could muster and wasn’t ready to let go yet.
“Whatever. Bell rings in five." Scootaloo rolled her eyes and started off towards the door. "Wimps.”
“A-are we s-still in one p-p-piece?” Feather stammered out.
“I think so,” Diamond Tiara mumbled back. "I can’t tell, I can’t feel my face.”
“I can’t either. Next time we walk." The colt breathed a shaky sigh and tried to will away the leftover adrenaline. "I don’t think I can survive doing this everyday.”
“Me neither,” Tiara agreed, nudging towards the schoolhouse door. "Plus, I don’t want to be seen around Scootaloo more than I have to.”
Feather took the hint and started towards the door. As long as he was enrolled, he might as well be on time. "Why not? You two worked together to get me enrolled, somepony must have seen you then.”
Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. "The whole point of that was to get you enrolled secretly. If somepony saw us, we would have failed." She pulled ahead of him, scanning for the other students as she walked. "You know, it might be a good idea if we went in separately.” She looked back at him. "What do you think?”
“I think your Tiara’s crooked." Feather caught up to her and poked the headpiece, straightening it from where the ride had knocked it askew. “There.”
She looked up at the ornament, then back at Feather. "You have OCD, don’t you, Feather?”
Before he could answer, there was a snickering from the schoolhouse door. A pair of foals Feather didn’t recognize were watching them, and not doing a good job of hiding it.
Tiara rolled her eyes when she saw them, one short and stout, the other skinny and tall, and both unicorns. ”Oh, come on, not these bozos.”
“Wait.” Feather automatically retreated a step when the two ran out of the schoolhouse. "What bozos? Who are they? Are they-”
The short one made it to Feather first. He was a dull greenish color, almost like bread mold, and had a mane that could pass for a bread crust. "I’ve never seen you around here.”
The tall one, dandelion orangish-yellow with pastel green mane, was only a few steps behind. "Uh, nope, I haven’t either. Are you new in town?”
“Uh, yeah?" Feather backed away carefully, looking to Diamond Tiara for a rescue from these overly friendly newcomers. The filly provided no aid or rescue to the trapped colt, and was inside before Feather could call out to her, leaving him no choice but to interact with other colts his age. “I just moved here.”
“Really? Cool!" That was the short one speaking. "How’d you get Diamond Tiara to talk to you? She doesn’t talk to anypony else, except Silver Spoon, of course.”
“Um, well…” Feather scratched his neck, trying to come up with an answer. “I guess-”
“BBRRRIIINNNGGGG!!!!!” The bell rang out noisily.
The school bell stopped Feather in his tracks, and made him jump like any unexpected loud noise would. He only barely kept himself from shouting in surprise. The other two colts showed none of the same surprise, instead looking up at the clock in a sedate, laid back manner.
“Uh, Snips, aren’t we supposed to be in class?”
Snips started nodding. "Yeah, I think we’re late, Snails.”
Snails started nodding. "Yeah, I think we’re late too, Snips.”
The two colts looked at each other and shrugged before starting towards the schoolhouse. They weren’t in much of a hurry. After a few seconds, Snails looked back over his shoulder and called out to Feather, “You might want to hurry, dude. Miss Cheerilee doesn’t like it when we’re late.”
“What?!" Feather resisted the urge to tear his hat off in frustration. "Tell me that before we’re late!" He ran past them, and into the schoolhouse, not noticing the pink-purple mare just inside, waiting to greet him. He ran past her without slowing down, searching for the two fillies that could tell him where he was supposed to be.
“Ahem,” Cheerilee cleared her throat loudly, aiming to get the blue colt’s attention. And when he froze in his tracks, that was good enough for her. "I see we have another student that likes to live by his own schedule.”
Feather pulled his head to his shoulders and slowly looked back. To his surprise, the mare looking down at him wasn’t angry. At least, not visibly. Instead, she was smiling, sort of like Mrs. Cake was before forcing him into that apron. That reminded him! If he ended up with detention from being late, he would end up being late getting to Sugarcube Corner, he promised he would be there after school. He mustered up a weak smile for this new pony and let out a nervous chuckle. "Um, hi. Sorry about being late?”
She laughed happily in response. "Oh, don’t worry about that, dear. Snips and Snails are never on time, so I set the bell a few minutes early. You won’t be late for at least another four minutes." She held out a hoof. "My name is Cheerilee, we met briefly at your welcoming party.”
“We did?" Feather looked at the offered hoof. It took him a moment to realize he was supposed to shake it. "Oh, um, yeah! We did. Sorry, it’s taking me a while to get used to all the new faces." He ended the hoofshake as quickly as he could. "Uh, so, where do I sit?”
“Well, not in here." The teacher scanned the small gymnasium they were in. The polished wooden floors were due for a cleaning, but other than that, everything was cleaned up and put away until colder weather. She pointed out a small door near a collapsing set of bleachers. "The classroom is right over here.”
She started over, and Feather followed, sparing the shortest of glances back out the open gymnasium door. "What about them?”
Cheerilee opened the door to the classroom before looking outside. Snips and Snails were currently distracted by something too small to see from inside. But, whatever it was, it held their attention like glue. She shrugged. "They have three minutes to get to their chairs, or they get detention again. I should probably make a bigger deal of it, but their grades are good, and they always turn in their homework on time.”
Feather made sure to remember that. If good grades and homework kept her from prying, he would definitely make sure he had them.
Cheerilee waited for Feather to walk up to the door, and when he stopped, she pulled him inside. This left them both standing in front of a class full of foals about Feather’s age. She patted him on the back and introduced him, “Class? I’d like you to meet Feather. He’s new in town, and I want you all to give him a nice, warm Ponyville welcome!”
The hoof on his back was the only thing keeping Feather from running out the door as nearly dozen foals yelled, “Welcome to Ponyville!” at him.
Cheerilee noticed his discomfort, and looked down at him. "Oh, dear,” she kept her voice quiet, “are you hyperventilating? I know this may be a bit nerve-wracking, but try to calm down. Everypony here is really nice, for the most part. I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends.”
“Yeah,” whispered nervously, under the gaze of dozens of curious eyes, “plenty of ‘em.”
The teacher nodded happily. "Good. Go ahead, take any open seat, and I’ll make sure nopony gives you any hassle over your name.”
Feather blinked. "My name?" He looked up at Cheerilee. "What about my name?”
The grown up mare chuckled. "Well, it is a slightly amusing name, and I’m sure there will be a joke or two thrown your way, but I won’t tolerate anypony teasing you over your last name being Flank.”
As if on cue, the class burst out in giggles, especially two little fillies in orange and pink.
Of course. Feather brought a hoof to his face. Of course. How did he expect anything different? Tiara didn’t even know his real last name. Come to think of, did Scootaloo?
“Now, children,” Cheerilee warned sternly, “what did I just say? One more outburst like that and I might find a pop quiz in my desk drawer.”
The class went real silent, real quick. The only exception was the pair of colts that ran in, scrambling for chairs at the back of the classroom.
Cheerilee smirked at the rushed display. They still had a full minute to spare. "Snips, Snails, good of you to join us. You two already met Feather outside, so I won’t go through the introductions again. Anypony have questions?" She looked around for a moment. She could see the curiosity burning in her student’s eyes, but none of them raised their hooves. They would probably wait and talk to Feather on their own later. At least they had the tact not to blurt out something about his wing. Then again, most of them probably didn’t know. "No? Very well then." She gave Feather a little nudge towards the last empty desk. It was on the end, right next to a certain pink earth pony. "I’m sorry, but you might be sitting next to Diamond Tiara for a while, at least until we get another desk. Have you met her yet?”
Feather nodded. "That’s ok, she’s the one of the only ponies here I know.”
It was Cheerilee’s turn to blink in surprised. "You know her? And you’re ok with sitting next to her?”
The filly in question snapped her head around when she heard that, and Feather couldn’t help but snicker. "Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Take your seat then." Cheerilee walked over to her desk. Behind it, the dark green chalk board was covered in drawings of clouds, rain, and snowflakes. "As some of you may know, Silver Spoon is out for the week, visiting family in Canterlot. In the meantime, Feather will be using her desk. Unfortunately, she brought her textbooks with her so she could keep up with her studies. Is anypony here willing to share theirs? It will only be for a few-”
Diamond Tiara’s hoof shot up.
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "Really?”
The pink filly scrunched her eyebrows together. "What do you mean, ‘really?’ I’m sitting right next to him, isn’t obvious that I share my books with him? Who else is he gonna share with, the wall?”
Cheerilee’s smile twitched for a moment. Leave it to that filly to be snickety about an act of kindness. But, she was being uncharacteristically generous by offering to share, so it could slide. But just this once. "The only thing left is for Feather to remove his hat, and we can get started on our lessons.”
Feather stopped cold, just short of crawling into his chair. "What? Why?" He looked around. Half the other students were wearing clothing of some kind, and at least three were some variation of hat. "Other students are wearing hats.”
“They aren’t pegasi,” Cheerilee pointed out. "Pegasi foals are not permitted to wear clothing items during school hours. It’s a safety issue. I know your circumstances are a bit special, but the rules should apply to everypony. Inexperienced fliers shouldn’t be dealing with loose clothing articles to get tangled up in and drop on others.”
“Well, that’s stupid,” Tiara said flatly. She leaned over and shoved Feather’s saddlebags of his back, prompting gasps from most of the class. "He can’t even fly. Doesn’t that technically make him an earth pony?”
The teacher brought a hoof to her face as the entire class started talking in hushed whispers. Leave it to that pink brat to start something. she thought bitterly. She cleared her throat to get the student’s attention, but to no avail. Upping the game, and the noise level, she grabbed a ruler from a drawer and whacked it against the desk a few times. "That’s an interesting point, Miss Tiara, we can discuss it during study hall." She looked at each student individually. "Anypony care to keep her company?”
The class was was silent, except for Feather, who muttered, “jerks,’ under his breath.
Unfortunately, his new teacher’s ears were better than those of his classmates. "Looks like Feather does,” Cheerilee said with a sigh. "Anypony else?”
The silent students all shook their heads.
“Good." Cheerilee turned her attention to the newcomer as he pulled himself into his chair with all the enthusiasm of a wounded turtle. "Now, Feather, how did your last school handle clothing items?”
He shrugged. "I could get my dad to sign something? I think that’s what we did before.”
Cheerilee nodded slowly. "Have that to me in the morning, and I will make an exception for today." She sighed heavily. "Now, if our little morning drama is out of the way, the learning can begin.”
She picked up a pointer stick and indicated the pictures on the chalkboard. "I’m sure all of you can tell me what these are, but can anypony tell me how they are made?”
“Ooh! Ooh!" Scootaloo, sitting in the middle of the class, next to her friends, shot her hoof up. She waved it wildy, saying, “Pick me! Pick me!” with her gestures as she whispered it aloud.
Cheerilee smiled at the enthusiasm, holding back a chuckle. She already knew what the pegasus filly was going to say, but she called on her anyway. "Yes, Scootaloo?”
“Rainbow Dash makes them!" Scootaloo leaned back in her chair, crossing her hooves proudly. "She’s head of Ponyville’s weather team.”
It was the perfect lead in. "That’s right, Scootaloo. She, and other ponies like her, work together to make sure the rest of us get to enjoy the full spectrum of weather here in Equestria. Today, we will be getting an inside look at our weather, and the delicate magic that goes into making it, day in and day out." She pointed up. "Please welcome our special guest, weather expert, and teacher for a day, Rainbow Dash.”
Every student in the class looked up, some faster than others. One faster than any of them. All they saw was a cloud, drifting near the ceiling. It certainly wasn’t the most normal place for a cloud, but there was no sign of anypony.
Cheerilee cleared her throat. "Rainbow Dash?" She was supposed to be waiting up there. Did she leave? "Excuse me," she raised her voice a little, "Rainbow Dash?"
The cloud shifted a little, and a little bit of sky blue poked over the sides, the hooves of a sleepy Pegasus rolling around in bed. "Five more minutes," came the soft, muttered reply.
Several students started snickering.
"Rainbow Dash," Cheerilee repeated, "class is starting."
The cyan hooves lazily pulled back behind the cloud, and a wash of spectrum-hued tail flicked over the other side. "Aw, I don't wanna go to school, daddy. I want to go flying."
Cheerilee sighed. "Class? Would any of you like to wake her?" There were no volunteers, so she started looking for a student to call on. Of the pegasi, Rumble was the only one that could fly well enough to fly inside safely. Of course, there were a few unicorns that could nudge her awake. Dinky in particular was showing great promise. Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, would probably launch her through a window.
She was about to call on Rumble to fly up and wake the sleeping guest when she noticed that Apple Bloom was furiously working to fold a piece of paper. After a few folds, the page took a roughly triangular shape.
Seeing the filly's plan, Cheerilee decided to just let the young earth pony continue. After a few more folds, it was starting to look more and more like a paper plane. The filly kept on folding until the nose and wings were squared off, then threw it straight in front of her.
The plane flew in a wide loop, up and over the students, to disappear behind the cloud.
"Snrk!" The sleeping Pegasus, sat up with a start when the plane hit her snout. "Huh, what? Who threw that?" As the weather pony remembered where she was, she looked over the edge of the cloud and down at Cheerilee. "Oh, hey. When does class start?"
"Several minutes ago," the teacher answered with a smirk. "If you were a student, you'd be joining Tiara and Feather for study hall."
Rainbow pointed at her. "But I’m not, so we're cool, right?"
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow.
"Right?" Rainbow asked again, slowly.
"If you’ll lead the students out to the grounds after I explain today's lesson, I'll consider it." Cheerilee looked back down at her class. "Today is the start of weather week. There will be hooves on demonstrations, group activities, and science projects to look forward to. Today, our entire class will be held outside, so gather your things and follow Miss Dash. There will be lots of fun, learning, and cold lemonade to look forward to."
Rainbow hopped off her cloud and slowly descended to the floor. "Alright, kiddos, who's ready to see how awesome weather can be?"
"Me!" Scootaloo shouted, jumping out of her chair before anypony else.
The rainbow Pegasus tussled the filly's mane when she reached her. "Yeah, I thought you might be. But, this isn't gonna all fun and games, you know. I’m supposed to actually teach you foals something."
"That's ok!" Scootaloo looked back at her classmates as they gathered their bags and school supplies and stood up from their desks. "Get a move on guys!"
Feather groaned as he got up. He could have just stayed standing, instead of going through the hassle of taking his bags off, sitting down, and putting them on again. The other students were happily chatting away as they headed out, but Feather just sighed as he followed the crowd. His first day of school wasn’t turning out the greatest. Public embarrassment first, then tack on detention. The only positive was that he would have somepony he knew nearby, instead of being alone with the teacher.
As the students walked through the gym, Feather felt something brush along his saddlebags. He looked over to see Diamond Tiara walking next to him. He looked away with a muttered, “hmph.”
“Oh, come on." Tiara bumped into him. "Everypony gets detention sometimes.”
“It’s not that,” he started.
“This is about the name,” she finished. With a shrug, she added, “You should have told us your last name, then we wouldn’t have had to make one up.”
“You could have used something other than Flank.”
Tiara blinked as they exited the gym, letting her eyes adjust to the sunlight. "It works, doesn’t it? Besides, it sounds good, alliteration or something, it was in last weeks lessons.”
Feather rolled his eyes. She would label somepony with a silly name like, ‘flank,’ just to show off how smart she was. "My real last name is Steel.”
“Feather Steel?" Tiara snickered. "Wish I would have known, that’s way cooler.”
They remained silent the rest of the way out to the playground, their conversation dying out as Feather fumed. As they neared things like sandboxes and other playground staples, they noticed a few things out of place. There were clouds floating next to the jungle gym, tethered by a sparkly purple thread. Jars of rainbow striped liquid sat on a picnic table. And most surprising, there were wooden crates of perfectly pristine snowflakes sitting under the shade of a nearby tree. Each crate had glowing blue symbols written on the corners, apparently some sort of magic markings that let the contents ignore the current temperature.
Rainbow led the class to gather in a large group in the center of the materials. As the guest teacher checked on her gathered supplies, Feather looked around for Tiara and Scootaloo. He didn’t see either of them. In the bustle, he must have lost track of them.
There was a poke on the right side of his saddlebags, and Feather looked over, expecting either an orange or pink filly. Instead, there was a brown colt in a garishly bright beanie. "Hey, those look heavy,” the colt said with a snicker and another poke. "How many points of strong back perk do you need to haul those everywhere?”
Feather moved so he was facing the other colt, moving his saddlebags out of poking range. "Uh, what?" He didn’t understand any of that past the word heavy.
Before the other colt could say anything to clarify, Rainbow Dash called out to the students, “Hey, kids!" Her voice cracked on the last word, but it got everypony’s attention. She brought her hoof up to her mouth and cleared her throat with a sheepish smile. "Sorry,” she muttered, before speaking up again, “Welcome to weather week!" Confident that her voice would hold up, she started explaining her lesson plan. "This week, You will be learning about weather, duh." She smiled at the students’ collective snickers. "This will include the types of weather, how weather is made, and how it is controlled.”
She pointed up at the sky. Two lightly colored, color-matched pegasi were pushing a large cloud along. "Those two are part of the weather team. Right now, they are gathering and dispersing clouds for some light rain we have scheduled for tonight.”
Feather stared up at them as they worked.m The weren’t in any great rush, instead just lazily pushing the cloud along as they talked between each other. A chunk of cloud broke off, and one of the weather ponies broke off into a wide loop to go around and retrieve it. To any other pegasus, it wouldn’t have been very impressive, just the most efficient way to go back for something, but to Feather, it was like watching his dream fly by out of reach.
“Some day…” he muttered quietly, thinking no one could hear him.
There was one pony that did, though. Standing just behind him after making her way through the crowd of students, Scootaloo stopped in her tracks. She nodded to herself when she heard his muttering, and silently confirmed, “Yeah, someday.”
“Attention students!" Rainbow yelled over the students. The momentary lack of activity and group setting were starting to cause conversations and distracted foals, so she had to keep things interesting. "Today, we are going to study lightning and thunder!”
Cheerilee cleared her throat it wasn’t exactly loud, but it seemed to carry well enough that it stopped Rainbow in her tracks.
“Uh, I mean, today, we are going to be studying the things that make lightning and thunder. Heh, gotta start small, I guess." Rainbow looked over at the teacher for confirmation, receiving a silent nod. Taking that to mean continue, she started walking towards the jungle gym. "Everypony, come meet a cloud.”
Rainbow reached the jungle gym and flew up to the tethered cloud. She pushed it groundward and started splitting pieces off. Cheerilee walked up to the cloud and faced the students. "Pegasus students, When I call your name, please step forward." She reached up and tried to grab one of the cloud pieces Rainbow was separating. It stayed intact for a moment, but soon wicked into her fur and became nothing but water droplets. "As you can see, We will need your help handling the clouds for your fellow students.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, but held a hoof up in counterpoint. "But, go slow. Pegasus magic lets us handle clouds, but use too much force and you’ll cause anything from rain to, um… Vapor, uh, let’s just say the clouds will break apart.”
“Loss of Vapor Cohesion?" A voice asked from the back of the student crowd. Feather groaned and tried make himself disappear into the crowd as a familiar purple unicorn trotted up with a wagon full of crates. Each cloud held a fluffy white replica of Rainbow's cloud, and the librarian parked the wagon close to the weather pony. "There, I think I brought enough for everypony. How's class going?"
"We've barely even started, Twi," Rainbow answered. "But, thanks, I thought I was going to have to split up the only cloud I brought."
Cheerilee cleared her throat. "I hope I'm not interrupting, but we have a class to teach.” Jumping straight back into things, Cheerilee waved forward one of the younger pegasi. "Aileron, would you please come take a piece of cloud from Ms. Sparkle? You will be grouped with Apple Bloom and Bottlebrush."
Feather watched as a white pegasus walked up to Twilight. She reached into a crate and pulled out a chunk of fluff the same color as him. "I'm using a spell to let me handle clouds," she explained as she offered the confused colt his cloud. "Rainbow will explain more about it later."
"Next," Cheerilee called, "we have Feather. You will be partnered with Button and Dinky. I'll point them out for you after we get through here."
Feather groaned. He just had to get stuck with foals he didn't know. He grudgingly walked up to Twilight and held his hoof out for a cloud.
The unicorn smiled warmly as she pulled his clump of cumulous from her crate. "How are you doing Feather? Enjoying your first day of school?"
"Yeah," he mumbled, in a manner far from convincing, "it's great."
Before Twilight could pry any further, Cheerilee called the next student. "Rumble? Your group will be Diamond Tiara and Sweetie Belle."
Feather grabbed his cloud and moved out of the way as a grey pegasus colt flew out of the crowd. He was slow, but precise, as he hovered to the crates and swirled the last of the cloud in the first crate around his hoof like cotton candy on a stick.
"Showoff," Rainbow chuckled.
Rumble landed near Feather as Cheerilee called another student. "Hi," he said, sitting down, "you're Feather, right? I'm Rumble. Want to see something cool? My brother taught me a neat trick you can do with clouds."
Feather looked around. All the grownups were occupied handing out the remaining clouds, and the other students were focused on them. "Sure, why not."
Rumble grinned and slipped his other hoof inside the cloud, tight against the first. He started rubbing his hooves together furiously, like you would rub a hoof on carpet to build up static.
Feather started to get a little worried as the cloud turned grey, light at first, then darker and meaner. "Um..." His fur started stand on end, tingling from the buildup of energy. "Are you sure you-"
A sudden thunderclap caused several students to cover their ears. Cheerilee and the two guest teachers looked around for the source, checking to sure the students were ok as well. Everything seemed alright, except, Twilight noticed, for two colts away from the main group. Rumble's cloud was gone, and Feather was letting his drift away.
She started over to them, and overheard Rumble apologizing for something. "I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to do that," he said, "are you ok?"
Twilight knew the answer to that before Feather lied to the other colt with a, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just surprised." Young as he was, Feather couldn't hide the pain in his voice. It was just the equal youth of the colt he was talking to that let him get away with it. He was shaking, and his legs were tense, tightening like he was fighting the urge to curl into a ball.
Twilight made it over to Feather as he started walking away, hiding a limp. She placed herself in front of him. "Feather, what happened?"
"Nothing." Feather kept his eyes on the ground as he tried to walk around her, but his saddlebag bumped into her side.
Twilight felt nothing but a slight tap, but Feather recoiled from the touch, tripping and falling over with a strangled cry of pain. "Feather!" Now she was worried. Feather seemed like a tough colt, the kind that didn't like to share what troubled him, but how much pain does a colt have to be in to collapse?
She kneeled beside him as Cheerilee came running up. "Twilight, what happened?"
"I don't know." She ran a hoof along Feather's mane. "What happened, Feather? Let me help you."
Feather clamped his eyes shut. He didn't want her help, didn't want her prying into his life, but... "It hurts," he squeaked out. He squirmed under Twilight's hoof. "It hurts a lot."
Twilight pulled her hoof away, slowly starting to piece it together. A thunderclap could only be caused by lightning, and lightning, near Feather? She brought her hoof to his saddlebags. Finding a dark spot along the edge, maybe a scorch mark, she carefully started pulling.
Feather whimpered as the cloth stuck to the burnt flesh and fur underneath. From what Twilight could see, it wasn't a large burn, but it was a nasty one. She stopped pulling at the bag. She didn't want to make things any worse for the colt. "Cheerilee," Twilight whispered, "I'm going to take him to the hospital."
The teacher nodded. "That's probably for the best. I'll stay here and try to keep the students calm." She composed herself, and turned around to face her students with a smile. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash had managed to keep most of the attention focused on her with tricks involving pieces of cloud, but there were a few students whose gazes were wandering in Feather's direction. "Everypony, please follow me to the picnic tables. We'll take a break, set down our things, then get back to learning."
As she led the students away, Cheerilee glanced back. Twilight was emptying the crates from her wagon, and laying down a padding of cloud. A tap at her leg brought her attention back forward.
Rumble was looking up at her. "Is Feather going to be ok?"
"He'll be fine, Rumble," she reassured the colt, watching Twilight haul the other student away. This had to be the worst first day of school she had ever witnessed, and she was not looking forward to the inevitable meeting with an angry father that would surely follow. "He'll be just fine."