Beginnings

When Albus reports for work early Friday morning, he finds his boss on her phone.

Pocahontas (Waving him into the room): I'll make some calls and everything should be in place by the time she arrives.  I have a lot of connections in this town.  

Albus (once she hangs up): What in the world is going on?

Pocahontas: Anakin's mother relapsed.  She spent the night in the hospital and now she's on a bus to Barbieville.  The judge was happy to pass her on to the system out here.  Apparently that area's been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

Albus: How did the boy take it?

Pocahontas: He doesn't know yet.  I saw no reason to upset him when everything was still being decided.  

Albus: They've simply released her into your care?  What about all those rules regarding her being an unfit mother?

Pocahontas: As long as she doesn't live in the same house as Anakin and has supervised visits, it isn't a problem.  I do have to find her a job and a place to live - not with you, pothead.

Albus: I was going to say... Can she work for you?  

Pocahontas: No, but I'm sure I can call in some favors.  And there's always Midna.

*****

 Zenobia's studio is bursting at the seams.

Zenobia: Today we start the Openly Biased series on bullying.  I'll let each of you introduce yourself.

Suzie:  I'm Susannah Dean, elementary school phys ed teacher.

Dean: Dean Mellark, principal of Barbieville High.  Go, Spiders!

Nancy: Nancy Guinness.  I teach Sex Ed on the Middle and High School levels.

Guinness: I'm Alec Guinness, Middle School Social Studies.  I'm related to Nancy by marriage - namely our own.

Zenobia: Strangely, only the local public schools seem willing to admit bullying happens on their campus.  Several others refused to consider allowing faculty to appear on my program. (Snicker from off-camera.)  Including the one attended by my camera operator.

Guinness: Your camera operator attends a private school.  To admit such a thing could hurt the image and, frankly, income of the institution.  Of course bullying happens there - it is ubiquitous. 

Nancy: One thing that comes up often as a means of preventing bullying is the adoption of school uniforms.  I speak from experience when I say uniforms won't stop bullies.  A bully will always find something. 

Dean: Another problem in defining the term.  Where does peer pressure end and bullying begin?  My son can ignore obvious bullies, but some of his peers crumble at a passing remark.  

Suzie: Yes.  There are so many variables at play, it's almost impossible to know.  I have a group of friends in my classes who show affection by insulting one another.  The days of the obvious "Give me your lunch money" bully is ancient history.

Zenobia: And bullies are slick, too.  They don't walk up in front of the teacher and call you names - they do it away from adults and cry victim when you take a swing at them.  The one who retaliates gets in trouble. 

Nancy: I once had a student who was instigating every one of the incidents that she reported.  We only caught on when she was overheard.  She all but confessed, not knowing there was a student teacher standing right behind her.

Zenobia: So you, at the school, are powerless?  

Suzie: Of course we aren't powerless.  We just can't do it alone.  Parents undermine us all the time, usually by refusing to believe their little angel could do such a thing.  Adults don't always treat others with respect, and children mimic adult behavior. It really is an uphill battle.

Guinness: Nancy and I recently had to deal with learning that our own son was a bully.  We, and the other adults in his life, made it clear that his behavior was not acceptable. It took a united front to show him the error of his ways.  

Zenobia: And he's agreed to guest on the Reformed Bullies segment of this series.  Viewers, feel free to ask questions in the comments section.  If I must, I will have guests return to explore the issue as completely as we can. 

The outro plays over footage of Zenobia and her guests chatting.

******

Early evening, back in Pocahontas's office.

Bonnie: I'm Bonnie Carson, probation officer for Doll County.  I'll be handling Pernilla Nedakh's case now.  Do you have all the paperwork ready for me? 

Pocahontas: Bonnie, you don't need to be so formal.  We graduated together.  (Both women laugh.) I've found her a hotel room until she gets on her feet - the judge said that would be acceptable - and she'll be cooking at Sunburst. 

Bonnie: Sunburst?  That's not far removed from being in your employ, but I guess it will do.  Midna makes her employees toe the line.  (She leaves after reviewing the paperwork.)

Pern:  Thank you so much!  All the things you've do for me.... 

Pocahontas: I haven't done anything for you.  This was all for Anakin.  That boy loves you so much.  More than you deserve, from what I can tell. 

Pern (blinking back tears):  You are so right - I don't deserve his love, he's such a wonderful boy.  Will you help me be strong, for him?  Will you help me like my so-called friends back home didn't?  

Pocahontas: Of course.  But fair warning... I'm the queen of tough love. 

Pern: Tough love is probably exactly what I need. 

Workshirts and the Windigo

My goal was to have the Windigo ready for July 4th.  I've been working on it for quite some time and finally sat down to finish the project.  Before anyone gets too excited... I'm not actually making a play scale roller coaster.  Not until I win that sweepstakes, anyway.  

What I am making is the seats - just enough to trick the ole eyeballs into seeing them on a coaster.  First step, cutting the box into two halves longways.  The seats are the ends of the box and the rider's feet dangle.  Albus volunteered to be my average rider so I could get the measurements. 

Hip rails measured, the sides of the box will be removed at the pre-existing bend...  

...and turned into the overhead safety rail.  

Albus claimed I was tickling him when I measured the overhead rails on him.

His shoulders didn't sit even (because I was tickling him?) so I went with the 3.5 inch height.  The remaining flaps get folded over to make the coaster's suspension bar.  I used denim scraps to line the seats but quickly discovered cardboard wasn't a good choice for the safety rails.

So I used the only ribbon in the sewing box that was long enough to serve.  They're permanently attached behind the shoulders, but the crotch "snap" is just taped to the underside.  This is not a recommended procedure for human roller coasters.

Careful placement of the backdrop and camera...  here they go!  Click click click up that first hill.

Corkscrew!  The loop is coming, Albus, are you ready? 

I finished the upholstery with colored tape, braided the bit that passes between the legs, and the Windigo is ready for flight.  It ain't purty, but it does the job.

And then there was this.  My nephew finally wore out his Kansas map shirt.  A cheer rose in Barbieville when the muscle guys saw the fabric.  They knew it meant new work shirts for them!  The poor guys are so limited on what they can wear besides military shirts.

Brent wants to know why Albus is giggling.  "I've got Jeanie's brother on my butt." Albus says.  "He lives in Topeka."  Dean says, "Me, too!  Well, it says TOP."

If they want the maps to be upside down, they can just wear the shirt backward.  The fabric is basically flopped over the shoulders and closed up the sides.  Nancy got a dress out of a larger leftover scrap.  Poor thing's had to wear Ken clothes since her arrival...  

By the way, if anyone is wondering about the wallpaper on my computer...  here she is.  

Also, a big thanks to all my doll peeps who gave advice on finding clothes for Nancy and my big guys.  I didn't ignore you, I promise...  I just gotta be frugal when I can! 

Story Three: Tanner's Fight

Tanner's mother is called into school because he's gotten into a fight and is suspended for three days.

Principal Dean: The other boy used ethnic slurs against Tanner's stepmother and stepsisters.  While I understand his anger, we can't condone fighting.  The other boy got the same suspension as well as punishment for the bigotry.  

Candy:  His father adopted those girls, so they aren't his stepsisters.  They're his sisters now.  

Tanner:  He said Dad adopted them because no - um - black children know who their fathers are.   He even said Taylor and Nikki were --   

Candy:  I can imagine what he said.  (To Dean)  You're supposed to call Pike or Rose-Grace.  I don't have custody.

Dean: I tried them, both were in meetings.  You're on the list after them.  

Candy (resigned):  Oh, that's fine, then.  I was just confused.

Candy texts Pike and they meet outside the grocery store he manages.  She lets Tanner explain the situation before chiming in. 

Candy: I think he was right to do it.  Defending his little sisters and step-mom.  

Pike: With his fists?  

Candy: I have a flight to London tonight, so I'll leave it to you and Rose-Grace.  (to Tanner)  Don't be mad if they ground you, all right?  It's their job.  

Tanner: You're nuts, Mom, but I love you anyway.

Fred:  Why we having a family meeting?  Is somebody else getting married?

Finnick: Tanner got suspended for fighting.  

Tanner:  I punched out a racist.  Totally worth getting in trouble. 

Pike: No one's denying Tanner was right in defending his family.  We have to stand up against this kind of thing, whether it's about race or religion or...  

Rose-Grace: But by resorting to violence, Tanner, you just proved them right.  They think we - and anyone who defends us - is less than they are.  We have to rise above the urge to break their faces.  Trust me, I'm familiar with that urge. 

Finnick: The guy hates anyone who isn't a perfect healthy white Anglo-Saxon Protestant dude.  

Stacie:  So what is a good way to deal with jerks like this guy?

Rose-Grace: First of all, you have to remain calm. Sometimes people are honestly ignorant.  Sometimes they mean what they say differently than how you hear it.  Always give them the benefit of any doubt you may have.

Nikki: Yeah, some of my friends make fun of the stereotypes.  Like Claudia pretends to love math and Courtney talks like Speedy Gonzalez.  It's funny because we know how dumb stereotypes are.

Rose-Grace: Right.  And remember a few years ago, the new student who was honestly surprised that Courtney's family has been in this country since before the first World War?  He didn't deserve to be yelled at or beat up. 

Taylor: And we prove the haters wrong.  They want to believe I'm dumb so I make sure I get good grades.  They want to think me and my friends are (side glance at Freddy) Never mind.  

Stacie: So they're jerks, but we gotta do all the work?  

Rose-Grace:  Sadly, that's the gist of it.  The world's a much better place now than it used to be and that's because of others who did all the work.   

    

Mayor's office, 8AM the next day

Rose-Grace:  Kyra, this is my stepson Tanner.  He'll be doing a little community service work for the next few days.  What sort of project do you have for him?

Kyra: If he's at all computer literate, he can help me with digitizing the archives.  

Tanner: I still don't see why I couldn't stay home.  You could have even saved a little on Freddy's day care by having me watch him. 

Rose-Grace:  Playing with your little brother all day is hardly a suitable punishment for getting into a fight at school.  Even if you were defending my honor.