Emerson

Chapter 7.

Reece's POV

Emerson was sitting in my car's passenger seat while I drove us to the high school. I called and set up a meeting for 8:30 am this morning. I have the principal's personal number due to the amount of times I had to come to school due to my children doing idiotic things. 

I pulled into the parking lot finding a spot thankfully up front. Me and Emerson walk inside being buzzed in. I talked to the receptionist who instructions me to head back to the all-to-familiar office. 

I knock on the door and walk in after being called in. I walk inside to see the principal, Mr. Jones, sitting on his computer typing things up. He looks over at me and stands up greeting me. 

"Oh, Mr. Stone. Nice to see you again." He stands up and we shake hands. He motions for me to sit down in front of his desk, Emerson follows my lead and sits done next to me. 

"I haven't met this Stone child yet," Jones says. 

"Mr. Jones, this is my youngest son Emerson." He and Emerson shake hands. "Emerson has recently come back into my custody. We need to get him enrolled in school." 

"Of course, I can email you the forms you'll need to fill out. Once that is done we can get him into school." He goes to type something on his computer. 

"Of course, but we have some other matter we need to take care of for Emerson's education," I tell him, he looks at me and gets out a pen and a sticky note. "Emerson is selectively mute. I would like to review what we could do for his accommodations."

"Of course, when Emerson joins I can send out an email to his teachers to let them know of this. If you find it necessary we can put him into some counseling or speech therapy." I look over at Emerson to see him shake his head. 

"We'll pass on the therapy for now," I tell him.

"Alright, we can set up some accommodations for any oral assignments as well and attach that to his file."

"Also, Emerson was homeschooled. His case worker was unsure of what grade level he would be in." I tell him. Thankfully Emerson was getting some type of schooling while with Jasmine. 

"We can take a placement test today if you have the time. It would test him on all subjects and tell us where he's at and we can customize his classes to fit his learning level."

"How long would the test take?" I ask I have a meeting in two hours that has already been rescheduled. 

"On average it takes most students around an hour." I look towards Emerson. 

"What do you think?" He looks between me and Jones for a few seconds before nodding. "Okay, we can do the test today."

"Alright let me go get the counselor and she can get us all set up," He leaves the office leaving us in silence. Jones comes back a few minutes later with a lady carrying a Chromebook. 

"Mr. Stone, Emerson this is our main counselor, Mrs. Carson."

"Hi, Emerson. Give me just a minute to get you set up on the test." Mrs. Carson sits down on a chair brought in by Jones. She types for a few minutes on the computer before she stands up and brings the computer to Emerson. She set it on the desk in front of him. "Alright Emerson, this test is designed for you to get some wrong. It will ask you questions from middle school up into early college, just do your best and take your time. We should have the results at the end of the day and I'll let your dad know the results." She looks towards me at the end. 

Emerson nods. She slides the computer over for him to begin. While he starts the test Jones asks me to come out with him. We go out and talk in Mrs. Carson's office. 

"For his file is there anything I should know regarding his mental health?" She asks me. 

"I just recently got custody of him again. He has been living with his mom for the last ten years. The caseworker said there were signs of neglect and his selective mutism."

"Alright well, Mr. Jones said you would like to not do any therapy for now. I would recommend keeping a close eye on his behaviors and if any isolating or worrisome behaviors occur and contacting a professional would be beneficial for him." I nod along with her. 

We continued to discuss different things while Emerson finished his test. He came and knocked on the door about 40 minutes later. Mrs. Carson did a few more things on the computer letting us know we could leave.  

We headed back to the house. I walked Emerson inside and watched as he walked upstairs. I walked back out and headed to work. After work, I went back home to find all of my sons minus Atlas home already. Knox and Leon were sat in the living room on their phones, Blaine was in the gym and everyone else was in their rooms. 

I went to my home office until dinner was ready. Knox does most of the cooking in the house. Knox comes and gets me for dinner, I head down and go to the dining room. Emerson and Griffin are the last ones down. We all sit down and eat dinner. 

After we get done Emerson washes his dishes before leaving for his room. 

"How did the meeting at school go?" Knox asks once Emerson gets far enough away. 

"Good, they him take a placement test so we can find out what grade level he is in. They should be emailing me tomorrow and he can start school within a few days." He nods. With that dinner is filled with Griffin telling us stories from his day at school.