(Untitled)

[isstillincharge]

Christa sat behind her desk and stared at the file before her. It belonged to a first grader by the name of Joanna McCoy, who had shown great aptitude on several tests the school gave at the beginning of each school year. The little girl was smart but also seemed withdrawn at times, which was way her teacher had brought it to Christa's attention

Comments

[hesdead_jim]

Leonard knew the divorce was having a lot of repercussions, not just with himself but with Joanna, and Jocelyn. Try as he might to make sure it didn't affect his daughter it was impossible. Her whole world had been flipped, just like his.

He'd moved away from the family home, a way away from it. Close enough to see Joanna on occasion, but far enough to not be around things that reminded him of Jocelyn. The home he had wasn't anything to brag about, considering how much he had lost in the divorce, but it had a spare room for the rare times Jocelyn let him have Joanna for the evening, so they could have real father/daughter time together.

He'd taken the afternoon from work to go to the meeting at the school. He'd heard Jocelyn wouldn't be there so had jumped at the chance to be there for his daughter, for whatever it was he was needed for. He waited outside the room until he was told to enter, hovering by the door for a brief moment before fully entering.

"You asked ta see me?"

[isstillincharge]

When Doctor McCoy walked in, Christa smiled at him and stood from her desk. "Thank you for coming, Doctor McCoy," she said as she held out her hand to him. "I'm Christa Pike and I called you in because I wanted to discuss some of Joanna's test scores and a few concerns her teacher and I have."

[hesdead_jim]

He took the offered hand to shake it, though his look was utterly perplexed as she spoke. "I know she has high results but she doesn't cheat or anythin', if that's what yer goin' to go at," he had to defend her, in preperation.

[isstillincharge]

"We know Joanna didn't chest," Christa said as she pulled her hand back and allowed it to fall to her side. She then motioned for him to sit before doing so herself. "There are times when Joanna seems withdrawn and doesn't want to participate in class. Besides your divorce from your wife, has anything happened with her?"

[hesdead_jim]

"Oh..." he sat down, eyebrows both raising before lowering, his breath releasing in a long, slow exhale. "No, no, I don't think so. She's not-- she's not handlin' the divorce well but otherwise, nothin' I know of." And now he felt like a failure, because if she had issues, why wasn't he noticing? Yes, he barely saw her in comparison to how much time he used to, but he still should notice.

"I ain't just sayin', but she's a Daddy's girl. We don't get ta spend much time together anymore." Maybe it was that. He didn't know.

[isstillincharge]

Christa nodded as he spoke. It wasn't uncommon for children not to take divorce well. She didn't want the little girl to get to the point where they couldn't help her. Joanna was bright and had a solid future in front of her if she got the help she needed.

"Do you think her mother would allow you to see her more? We could try that first and if spending more time with you doesn't help, we can maybe have the school therapist speak to her," she suggested.

[hesdead_jim]

"I can try. She's not exactly willin' to let her see me as much as she does now but if she knows it's affectin' Jo, she can't really argue it..." he mused out loud, lifting a hand up to his chin to stroke and touch, letting out a sigh quietly.

[isstillincharge]

Christa nodded her head and pressed her lips together in thought. "If you want, I could have a word with her about it. It might sound better coming from me," she offered.

[hesdead_jim]

"No, no thank you. I'll mention it to her," he didn't know how he would, but he had a feeling that she would react slightly better should he say he spoke to the school about this. She would take it as an offence against her mothering skills either way; it would be better that he offended her than a stranger.

[isstillincharge]

"Sounds good," Christa said before she made a note in Joanna's file to do a bit of followup with Leonard in the coming weeks to see if he had spoken to his ex-wife or not. "Now onto the other thing, Joanna's teacher was wondering if she could give your daughter some work third graders are working on. If Joanna doesn't understand anything, she doesn't have to do it but we don't want her to get bored."