Chapter Fourteen

Diagnosed with Love:

Chapter 14

It was 11:30am as I walked around my room in my jeans and my bra. I disliked shirts. Mostly, I slept in my bra and panties- but enough of the information you didn’t want to know.

I went over the tape I had, hoping I had more than I thought I had. I didn’t- just the short convo I got before we headed into the toy shop. I reached over and grabbed my shirt, slipping it on. I also picked up my camera bag and swung it over my neck. Patience was with mom at the office, so I got a chance to talk with her teacher alone. After grabbing my keys, I headed out the door to my car. It took twenty minutes to get to Higher Peaks from the house. When I finally arrived, I parked in the parking garage and headed inside. Many thoughts were lingering through my mind at this point- none that I would say out loud.

I walked into Karen’s office and forced a smile. “Miss Maple?”

 

“Star. You’re early,” she said, looking up from what she was doing. She flipped her notebook over face down. “I wasn’t expecting you until… well, after noon …”

 

“I was up early, so I decided to come early since you didn’t give me an exact time to come. Is that a problem?”

 

“No, of course not. Let me grab her file.” She got up from her desk and walked out the room. As she did so, I quickly glanced around, took out my camera, flipped over her notebook, and quickly took a few pictures of some jotted down notes she had. I would have to read them later. I quickly flipped the notebook back to its original position and took a small stroll across the room. There were expensive ancient statues and a hanging flat screen TV in the far corner of the wall by the door I had walked in. There were small things that caught my eye. She wondered back in the room with a manila folder with a blue tab as I looked at the paintings on the wall. “How are you today?” she asked.

“Not sure yet,” I answered.

She laughed. I personally found nothing funny. When she sat down, I eyed her. “Can we get to the point?”

 

“Right. Patience is a sweet kid, but like I said, she is making the least progress out of everyone.” She opened the folder. “There are multiple things we have noticed. She doesn’t interact with others, she doesn’t speak unless spoken to, and sometimes not even then.” She continued running her finger down a list. “She doesn’t like sharing, she doesn’t participate in group activities, she has never provided something for the class like everyone else has, and often likes being alone.”

 

“And you haven’t called us about this why?” I was already irritated with her, if you couldn’t tell.

“We’ve been trying to get a hold of her parents…”

 

“They’re useless. I’m listed as a second number. If you couldn’t get a hold of the first number, it would make sense to call the second number, right?”

 

“Well, Miss Star, when given that the child will not cooperate, we give them a certain amount of time before we ask the child be removed from our Daycare. She is getting close to that time.”

 

“So you just abandon children like that? Is this in the contract?”

 

“No, but it is how this daycare center is run now. I am now head of this place. Things are going to be changing, Miss Star. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you enroll Patience in elsewhere.”

 

I grinded my teeth together and tried to keep my cool. I couldn’t believe this. I had no paper evidence to prove anything, so I couldn’t walk away just yet. “I want a copy of the contract- the contract her parents signed and the current one.”

“But of course. It might take a minute to get my hands on a new paper copy- that room is a complete and utter mess.” She picked up a packet and headed out the room.

I’ll bet it’ll take her awhile- awhile to type a contract up. I’m not stupid. I shut the door and dug through her cabinet drawer behind the desk. I quickly eyed the names, pulling out a finances folder. Bingo. I didn’t want to take the whole thing. I mentally ran down a list of choices. There were too many papers to take a picture of them all, so I decided to take a picture of the first three pages and the last three pages, hoping that I got good information. That’s when I looked up at the computer screen and decided to check, just to be sure, and ended up finding the same folder. It was the digital version of the finances of Higher Peaks. I didn’t want to send it to my email, so I pulled my jump drive out of my back pocket and stuck that bad boy right into the Mac. I always carried my flash drive with me. Trying to be quick, I copied the folder to my jump drive and exited out of everything, making sure everything was exactly the way she had it when she left. I opened the door back up, peeking out. I sat back in my seat across from her desk, and no sooner than a few seconds later, Miss Maple walked back into the room with the man that she was with yesterday evening.

“Okay,” she said to me. “I managed to rustle up a new copy.”

She might’ve done some reediting to that new copy. Note to self: Ask another parent for their copy of the new contract. “Could you sign and date it for me? That way I know it’s the new contract.”

“Of course.” She took out a pen and did just as I asked. As I watched the man’s actions, she handed me both, the new and old contracts. “Look over them and call me if you have any questions,” she said, as if knowing I’d definitely have questions.

I took them and nodded, got up, and made my way out of her office to the parking lot garage. I got in the car and headed home. I took the long way to see if Terrence was there. I saw his car out front, so I kept driving- I didn’t want to get Cas in any more trouble than he was already in…

I pulled up to the house and into the garage. I made my way to my room where I could think. I took out my laptop and my camera and hooked them both up, looking over the pictures and the finance files. I couldn’t believe my eyes. $520,000 of the money they received was spent on personal use. The charges to the company’s account showed everything as I looked through the digital file. I skimmed through what I had of the paper copy, and it turns out the paper copy was saying something totally different. The personal charges were changed to doctor visits and furniture expenses- same prices, different labels. There wasn’t a URL at the bottom of the printouts, which made me think it was copied, edited, and printed.

I started to work on my story. I pulled out the pictures I had taken of Patience last week with her inside the daycare. The furniture wasn’t the best, but for the price is says they ‘spent’ on furniture on that paper, they should have better things. They didn’t have enough chairs and tables for all the kids anymore and the ones they did have needed paint badly. The toys looked like hand-me-downs and garbage. The place didn’t look as if they were spending as much as they said they were. The truth was: They weren’t.

I scanned my pictures onto my computer and went straight back to work. I had to remember to get a new contract copy from one of the parents to compare the two. Who knows, maybe they didn’t tamper with the new contract. It would give me less to write about them.

I stayed up all night getting my story laid out just the way I wanted it. I saved what I had on my jump drive and stuck my jump drive into the slit I made in my teddy bear for safe keeping. I know I had hurt him when I cut him, but it’s the only place safe that I could think of that no one else would look. This particular black little jump drive held completelyconfidential information. Yes, that included my digital diary, the most confidential piece of work to mankind- which should be woman kind, but oh well. No use complaining. Don’t get me started on me.

Anyways, I placed Danté back on my bed, smoothed out the fur on his head, and kissed his cold nose. Danté had actually had my first kiss. Okay, so it was multiple kisses. I practiced on him over and over until I felt I had perfected it. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Mom walked in on me one time. She still thinks it’s hilarious. I don’t. Tip: If you’re going to practice kissing your teddy bear- or any other stuffed animal- you should probably lock the door.

I turned out my light and climbed in bed next to Danté and quickly fell asleep.

Sunday morning was finally here, one day left until school. I was playing Solitaire when my phone started to vibrate on the table. “Star here,” I said as I picked it up, hit the send key, and placed it on my ear, propping it up on my shoulder.

“Hey, Sunshine,” a cherry voice greeted me.

“…Sangoya…” I was surprised to hear from her but definitely happy. “I’m sorry…” The last time I had seen her, I had angrily left her at the lunch table after a quarrel between us two… I missed hearing her voice…

“Don’t worry about it. How was your weekend?” she asked me.

I wanted to say, Like crap! I haven’t seen Cass all weekend! Knowing that’d cause a problem if I did say that, however, I decided against it. “It was interesting. Patience’s teacher and her accomplice are stealing money from her daycare’s budget. I’m trying to get my story on it done. I’ve got proof and pictures as well as a recording. Hopefully, I can do more than just get it published in the school newspaper…”

“Whoa, back up. How do you even know this?”

“They were slightly whispering in front of the toy store.”

“That was smart,” she said sarcastically.

“My point exactly. I have to find a copy of the new contract so I can look it over with the one she gave me as well as the old one and try to write down the differences and add them to my story too.” I sighed. “I have a lot of work to do…”

“I’ll get you that copy- I know some people.”

“God, thanks, Sang. I love you!”

“I know. Anyways, I’ll get it and send it to your email soon- so be on the lookout.”

“Thanks again, Sang”

“What are best friends for? Your ticket to popularity?”

 

I laughed. “Shut up.” She laughed too, then followed by her ending the call. Sangoya had always saved my butt, always. It was almost noon now… I had been up since four this morning… time for a nap…