Creed of the Leviathan II

23 | E

Emmanuelle

Marissa and I nervously watched Dom through the glass window. He was put in a separate room from us for the tests. A teacher assisted him and provided him with instructions. A psychiatrist was also present and observing him from the corner of the room, scribbling away on her notepad.

"Stop biting." Marissa pulled my hand from my face. I was not even aware that I was biting my nails until she mentioned it.

"Why does she have to be here again?" I whispered.

"We always have a psychiatrist present during the tests, to observe the student's behavior. Mainly their reaction to the interaction, the tests itself and the stress that the time limit could cause. But also, their body language." The headmaster, who was watching Dom with us, answered before Marissa did.

I drew in a deep breath, giving Marissa a look, she immediately understood. "He'll be fine," her reply was reassuring.

"And time," the teacher hit the timer, "Very Good!" She clapped her hands. My son smiled and closed his workbook, like she told him to. "Okay, are you ready to see your mommy?"

"Yes, ma'am." He answered, just how I taught him. Once the teacher hit the timer it felt as if I was finally breathing normally again. He was brought over to us, after which the staff went over his work in yet, another room. After waiting for what felt like almost over an hour we were called into the headmaster's office.

"The results are positive. Dom didn't score a hundred on these, however, he did score above the average, which passes him." She laid out his paperwork in front of me, to see.

Marissa and I both showed signs of relief. "We're happy to hear that."

"This is a list of all the subjects as well as the extra-curricular activities that he will be taking and participating in. We have three school trips planned for this semester."

My eyes scanned the document that was made up really well; it concluded details about every activity, school trips, even the standard subjects and points for completion. It stated who the class teacher was, and the names of all the other teacher's that would be in charge of their class, whether it was for a particular subject or activity.

"This is very informative," I pressed my lips together, ready to ask the one question I should have asked as soon as we contacted the school, "How much is tuition? I couldn't find that information on your website."

She smiled, turning over the document. "On the back we have an overview of all costs for this year."

My eyes widened at the list. The tuition fee alone was more than my rent in New York. "Wow," I said out loud, only to immediately regret this. "Can this be done through installment payments?"

She looked at me confused, "Well, that won't be necessary, at least for this year. Mr. Mulaney has already covered all the expenses. He called in this morning and said to contact him once the results were in. Dom can start his classes today." Her smile was wide and comforting.

"What?" My mouth fell open, "He covered the tuition?" I looked at Marissa, who was as surprised as I was.

"Yes, and the expenses for every activity included have been covered too. For the entire schoolyear, which is the total amount seen here." She pointed at the digits at the bottom of the document— the total of all expenses combined.

"Huh," I gulped.

"That's," Marissa peeped at the number, "We're glad that's covered, then." She nodded.

"Can we introduce Dom to his new environment?"

"Of course," I stood up, and they did so as well. We followed her to his class, a well decorated room that looked like a child's paradise— but with educational purpose. He reacted well and was excited to join the twelve other children. I stayed until he was settled, then I slipped out of the room.