by Louis Woodley
Amanda Harris stared at her phone in disbelief, not wanting to believe the message she'd just received from the Vice-Principal at her daughter's school. Amanda was on a first name basis with Mr. Kelly thanks to her frequent drop-ins to discuss the latest stunt her daughter and her band of minions had pulled.
Once again Alison was in his office. Her behavior had long been deteriorating but this time she was in serious trouble. She had blown up at a teacher and thrown a fit when she was sent to the office. Now she was suspended for the next three days and needed to be carted off the school premises. With this latest strike Alison was edging ever closer to being dismissed from school altogether.
She didn't need this, today of all days. They had a major project to be completed, and her supervisor was tired of Amanda unexpectedly leaving to deal with her daughter's continuing drama. Her absences had been noted on her recent evaluation as grounds for dismissal if things didn't drastically improve. The last thing she wanted to do was ask permission to leave because of her daughter, but tempting though it might be, she couldn't leave Alison at school.
Amanda had been raising Alison on her own ever since her husband had left her in favor of a young exotic dancer whose IQ was roughly the same as her bust size. He'd started out stuffing money into her g-string and things had gone on from there, until the day Amanda came home unexpectedly to find him stuffing something that wasn't money into what was essentially her g-spot.
Amanda was already lacking in self-confidence, so discovering her husband humping someone younger and more attractive shattered her ego. Her now ex-husband exited with the blond, never to return. Following the divorce, she had no further interactions with him other than sporadic maintenance checks.
Mr. Harris had indulged his daughter shamelessly, but when he disappeared from her life, the good times ended. Without his salary, Amanda couldn't afford to indulge Alison's every whim. Like it or not, mortgage and car payments took priority over new jeans or a purse.
Alison was 12 when her father disappeared. With the gravy train gone, Alison's natural inclination was to hold her mother accountable. If she'd only tried harder or hadn't been so controlling, then her husband wouldn't have gone looking for fun elsewhere. When her father expressed no desire to have custody over her, Alison became even more vindictive towards her mother. Driving her mother to tears became a sport for her.
Amanda would sputter at her daughter's rudeness and demand an apology, only to be blown off with a "whatever" as Alison waltzed away. And that was all that ever happened; Alison was never called onto the carpet for her attitude, which only encouraged further snarkyness as time went along.
When she was 13 she'd been caught shoplifting the earrings her mother had told her that they couldn't afford. A thorough search of her room demonstrated that those weren't the only items that Alison had applied the 'five finger discount' to acquire.
Amanda tried to lecture Alison about how disappointed she was, but the lecture was ignored. It was no big deal; everybody did it, so Mom could stop whining now. Her only regret was that she'd gotten too cocky; if she'd been more careful the earrings would be hidden away and she wouldn't have to listen to her mother's lecture. It was too bad if Mom was disappointed in Alison because Alison was definitely disappointed in Mom!
Once she realized that her mother's bark had no bite, Alison's behavior got steadily worse. She would conveniently 'forget' that she was grounded and went over to her friend's house anyway. If Mom was lucky she might actually tell her where she would be. Chores were ignored (Mom would just do them for her) and curfews were mere suggestions. She waltzed in late, ignored another maternal lecture and flounced to her room, slamming her door along the way. She learned that acting like her mother wasn't even there was particularly effective, so by 15 she'd given up the pretense of listening to her mother's attempted lectures.
Amanda lacked the internal fortitude to hold her daughter accountable for her behavior; she might as well have lectured the wall instead. Her child was turning into a monster and she didn't have to will to confront her and demand change.
So now Alison was 16 and a frequent visitor to the Vice-Principal. Her flippant attitude and smart mouth remarks had earned her detentions, as had being caught smoking and cutting classes. Each time this resulted in Amanda leaving work for another school meeting.
And now Alison had just earned herself a vacation from school. Since she couldn't be left on her own without supervision, Amanda had to grovel for unscheduled time off to babysit her troublemaker. She wasn't looking forward to presenting Mrs. Underwood with her leave request; her supervisor would likely go ballistic.
'Ballistic' didn't do justice to Mrs. Underwood's reaction to Amanda's request; 'blazing supernova' would be more accurate. Amanda wound up with all the time she needed for her daughter, because her boss decided that her services were no longer needed by the company. She begged for leniency, but was reminded of her evaluation and their need for someone whose work wasn't constantly affected by family drama.
So Amanda Harris wasn't happy as she pulled into her daughter's high school. Thanks to Alison she no longer had a job and needed to find another source of income quickly; she also wasn't looking forward being at home supervising a daughter who didn't respect her.
Amanda was a frequent enough school visitor that Mrs. Church in the office knew her by name. She commiserated over the behavior of children today as she prepared a visitor's pass for Amanda.
"It's a shame; when I was her age if we wound up in the Principal's office he'd take his paddle to our backsides. And if my mother ever had to come to school because of me, you'd better believe there was a hairbrush in my future. We all knew 'get it at school and get it at home' was her rule. It seems like the kids today could use a good butt-warming on a regular basis. Well, don't let me keep you; I 'm sure Mr. Kelly has plenty for you to discuss."
She didn't bother to ask if Amanda knew her way to Mr. Kelly's office; she'd been there often enough she could find it blindfolded.
Indeed Mr. Kelly had plenty to say and none of it was complimentary. Her daughter was unrepentant about the hissy-fit she'd thrown. She'd been called out for not submitting yet another report. She'd been informed that she would receive a zero for it, further torpedoing an already sinking grade. At first she'd claimed not to care before setting off on a rant that earned her another trip to the office. Her comments calling the teacher a "clown" and "disgrace to the teaching profession" were mentioned.
Thanks to her stellar track record, she was now on the fast track to the 'Alternative School'... the dumping ground for the district's problem kids. Her next offense would likely punch her ticket for her transfer, but for now she was 'only' suspended.
Amanda glowered at her daughter, who appeared unimpressed with the implied threat. Apologizing for Alison, Amanda thanked the Vice-Principal for his time and promised that (somehow) she would get Alison to straighten herself out.
Once in the car, Amanda ventilated at Alison about her irresponsibility, but got no reaction from her. Even the news that her mother had lost her job couldn't pierce Alison's shield of apathy. Mom could always find something else to do; something that paid more would be preferable. When they got home, Alison promptly disappeared into her room after theatrically slamming her door. Ear-splitting music soon blasted from her room.
Amanda slumped onto the couch, feeling utterly defeated. How had things gone so wrong? Alison was behaving worse than ever, and now she was going to have to conduct a job search with a surly teenager under foot.
The next couple of weeks were rough. The job search wasn't going well, particularly since her former employer declined to give her a good recommendation. She signed on with a Temporary Agency just to generate some income; it was a short-term solution at best. Some days she was answering phones or doing typing; when no work was available she was pounding the pavement seeking gainful employment.
Naturally her daughter had been no help whatsoever, refusing to accept any responsibility or provide any assistance around the house. It wasn't her fault that no one wanted to hire her mother. The fact that having a job equaled food and shelter didn't factor into her thinking process. Between the menial work she was able to find and Alison's continued attitude, Amanda was nearing the end of her rope.
That was when she found the advertisement looking for a temporary assistant. It only promised two to three weeks employment but the hourly rate was good. A company was looking for someone with "strong organizational skills who loves a challenge and isn't afraid of hard work." Well, at least it was offering a few weeks of steady employment and hopefully a glowing reference at the end. With nothing to lose, she called and set up an interview for the following day.
Mark Bryant had no idea what he was getting himself into when he posted the ad looking for a temporary assistant. As the owner of an engineering firm he was logical and analytical and expected neatness and order.
His wife had handled the administrative side of the firm until her death several years ago. He had turned to a series of administrative staff to keep order since then. Unfortunately, the latest had been more focused on her upcoming wedding than her actual job.
It was only after she left for her honeymoon (submitting her resignation on her last day of work), that he realized what an absolute hash she had made of their records. If she had been trying to sabotage him she could hardly have done a better job. Paperwork was misfiled, records were commingled, and there were numerous billing issues.
He needed help desperately, so he called on his son, Mark Jr., to help him post a 'Help Wanted' notice on the various electronic platforms. As they say, the rest is history.
Amanda wisely turned her cell phone completely off; she didn't want any calls from the school about Alison while she was interviewing for a job. She was greeted by the owner of the company who invited her into his office.
Her first impressions of him were favorable. He was probably in his fifties with patches of silver in his hair. She understood his frustration at the chaos he was currently forced to endure. She assured him that she was fully capable of rectifying those mistakes and putting procedures in place to keep them from reoccurring.
The interview went well from his perspective as well. He was impressed with her background and experience in straightening out financial messes. And once he explained the problems he faced she was able to come up with a rough plan on the spot of how she would personally tackle them. Overall she seemed like an excellent candidate to clean things up around the office.
But first they had to deal with the elephant in the room. With her solid background why had she suddenly left her job without other employment lined up? Amanda took a deep breath and gave him a brief synopsis of the trouble she'd been having with her daughter and how it had cost her last job.
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