Address to Die For by Mary Feliz

drive you.”

Chapter 7
    The organized person will save time by getting to know the most influential and important people in any organization: the front office staff, the custodian, and any security personnel.
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    From the Notebook of Maggie McDonald
    Simplicity Itself Organizing Services
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    Tuesday, September 2, Midmorning
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    I ran from Tess’s BMW toward the school. The woman I’d seen in the office earlier met me outside the front door.
    â€œMrs. McDonald?” Now that she was out from behind the front counter, I could see that she was, indeed, covered head to toe in canary yellow. Her feet sported yellow high-tops. A yellow bow secured her ponytail. Shorter than five feet tall, she looked like a diminutive Big Bird.
    â€œIt’s Maggie,” I said. “Is Brian okay?”
    â€œBrian is just inside. He’s fine, Maggie. I’m April Chen, the assistant principal. I wanted to fill you in before you see Brian or Miss Harrier.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œI talked to Brian. You requested that he be put in either eighth-grade math or in the seventh-grade algebra class? And in band?”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œBrian went to his first-period class this morning. He figured someone made a mistake with his schedule because band wasn’t on it. He asked the other kids what to do and they told him they’d show him to the band room.”
    April held up her hand to keep me from going inside. “You have to hear this, Maggie. Before you see Brian and Miss Harrier, you have to know he didn’t do anything wrong.”
    â€œBut, he said—”
    â€œFive minutes with Horrible Harrier, and any kid would confess to having started the Civil War, but don’t tell anyone I said that. If I ran the zoo, things would be different around here.”
    I swallowed hard and nodded. April looked over her shoulder toward Miss Harrier’s office and continued: “The music teacher didn’t have Brian on her class list, so she called the office to correct Brian’s schedule, asking to have him placed in her band class instead of theater. She told me that he wanted to move into advanced seventh-grade math in place of basic math skills.”
    â€œBasic math skills? What’s that?”
    â€œWhat it sounds like,” April said.
    â€œThat can’t be right.”
    â€œThat’s what Brian said.”
    â€œDid he have an attitude or something?”
    April laughed. “I asked him that. He said that this was his first day and way too early in the year to be showing attitude. I like your kid, Maggie. He’s a good one. I wanted you to hear that before—”
    Miss Harrier flung the office door open so hard it banged against the front of the building. Her face was scrunched up, as if she’d swallowed a lemon. She stood with the posture of a drill sergeant and the tension of a volcano about to erupt.
    â€œApril, thank you. I’ll take it from here. Follow me please, Mrs. McDonald.” Harrier stomped back into the school office and nodded to Brian, who looked miserable and small, slumped in the chair outside her personal domain. “Brian, join us if you please, now .”
    I clenched my teeth and my fists to keep my thoughts from turning into words, or worse, actions. I normally steered clear of conflict, but where my kids were concerned, all bets were off. There was really no need for Harrier’s stern “now.” Brian was right outside her office, for heaven’s sake. If he’d dawdled—and he was a world-class dawdler, like most twelve-year-old boys—it would have taken him two seconds instead of one to reach her desk.
    Miss Harrier invited us to sit in the scratchy upholstered chairs in front of her desk. She plucked two business cards from a wooden file on her desk and put one in front of each of us. Neither Brian nor I picked them up.
    Harrier shuffled papers on her desk and