Chapter 17: Chapter 17
She’d had students before on the autism spectrum, but Ira was a little different than any of them, and she remembered someone mentioning in a training that, “If you’ve met one kid with autism, you’ve met one kid with autism,” which meant that none of them were the same. She was finding that out, but Ira was precious, so smart, and an excellent artist. She just needed to figure out how to reach him. Hopefully, this meeting would help.
She passed Cutter in the hallway and waved at him. It looked like he was coming back from dropping his kids at PE. Glancing at the clock, Ru saw she had about three minutes to make it to the office. Her lips were dry and had been bothering her for the last hour or so, so she definitely needed to grab some lip gloss, along with her student notebook for Ira, a pen, and a bottle of water.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Cutter asked, stepping into the doorway.
“Good,” Ru called over her shoulder, pulling her purse out of the bottom drawer of her desk. “And you?”
“Drowning,” he admitted. “Teaching four subjects is really hard.”
She remembered he’d only taught math before, and gave him a sympathetic look as she dug through her purse. Where was her lip gloss? “It’ll get easier.”
“I sure hope so,” he replied. “Is everything okay?”
Ru realized she was frantically looking through her bag. “Oh, yeah. It’s just… I have an IEP meeting in a minute, and I can’t find my….” She cut herself off. He didn’t need to know what she was looking for.
“You have a what?”
She looked at him a bit puzzled. How could he have been teaching for longer than her and not know what an IEP meeting was? “An Individual Education Plan meeting. For Ira.”
“Oh, right,” he said, nodding. “We called them… something different at my old school.”
Ru nodded, but she thought he still should’ve known what an IEP was. Surely, he’d had a student with special needs before. Regardless, she couldn’t find her gloss and needed to get to the meeting so she looped her purse over her shoulder, grabbed the other items she’d set aside, and headed for the door. Cutter stepped out of the way as she got there. “If I can help with anything, let me know,” she said as he fell into step beside her.
“Thanks,” he said, and she could tell by his expression he’d likely take her up on it.
“Ms. Roberts!”
The sound of Jane’s voice grated on her last nerve as Ru stopped and spun on her heel to see what her team leader could possibly need. “Yes, Ms. Owen?”
“I need you to move your car.” Jane’s smile was fake, as usual, and plastered on her face.
“What’s that?” Ru asked, not sure she understood.
“Yeah, my brother will be here in a minute with the new cubbies he built for my classroom, and your car is in the perfect spot for him to unload. So… if you could just move it, for a few minutes, that would be great.”
Ru’s eyebrows arched. Why did he need to pull into a parking spot for that? “I have an IEP meeting. Right now.”
“Well, it’s really very important. I’m sure Mrs. Long won’t mind if you’re a few minutes late.”
Jane was a stickler for being on time herself, and she couldn’t imagine she would ever be late to an IEP meeting. It wasn’t just Mrs. Long who’d be waiting—it was the parents, the diagnostician, the special education teacher, and likely a few other specialists. “I don’t have time,” Ru replied, taking a few more steps toward the office.
“Ru, I need you to move your car!” Jane shouted after her.
Still frazzled, Ru turned to face her, crossing her arms, mimicking the stance the other teacher had taken. “And I told you, I don’t have time.”
“Tell you what, you go on to your meeting,” Cutter said, giving her a gentle nudge toward the office, “and I’ll run out and move your car.”
Before Ru could argue or even agree, Jane was gushing. “Oh, thank you, Cutter! I’ll go let my brother know he can go ahead and bring it up.”
Fuming, Ru spun back around and continued on her way. She hadn’t even called him yet and wanted her to move her car? She tried her best not to get too upset at Jane because they had to work together, but sometimes, she wore on her last nerve, and right now was one of those times. Thank goodness it was Friday.
Ru walked into the conference room. “So sorry,” she said, not even glancing at the time.
“No, you’re fine,” Mrs. Long smiled. “We’re just waiting on the speech teacher, Mrs. Flores, and she’ll be back from the copy room in a moment.”
Ru said hello to Ira’s parents, a nice couple in their mid-thirties who were always willing to do whatever they could to help their son, and took a seat. She set her belongings down in front of her and rested her purse on her lap while she searched for her lip gloss. She finally found it right next to her car keys. Car keys, she thought. How was Cutter going to move her car if she didn’t give him her keys? She turned to look over her shoulder at the door, wondering if she had time to run them down to him, but Mrs. Flores was coming in, and the meeting was starting. Oh, well, Ru thought as she applied her lip gloss. I guess Jane will just have to find another solution.
The meeting lasted a little over half an hour, and when it was over, Ru had to rush off to get her students from the music teacher. She was in a good mood; they’d come up with some solutions that should help Ira. She saw Jane in the hallway, on her way to retrieve her class from art, and she was smiling, which surprised Ru. She thought she’d be angry at not getting her way with the parking spot.
Returning to her classroom, Ru got her students started on their math assignment before taking a moment to look over her notes for Ira, who seemed to be much more calm now than he had been earlier in the day. She knew how much he loved music, and she’d even requested he be evaluated for music therapy services, which she thought would really help him. This truly was going to be the best year ever.