Every Dream Inside My Soul | Joanne

Chapter Fourteen

"Hi, pleased to meet you both. I'm Miss Buttercross but, please, call me Helena."

Joe and Dianne were in school ready to meet with Emelia's class teacher as they had planned.

"How's she settling in?" Dianne asked. Joe could tell she was nervous; Emelia had seemed absolutely fine, but the whole move over had been a massive change for all of them.

"She's doing well. She's a very sociable child, and the other pupils have really taken her under their wing. She's learning the routine and I don't foresee any problems. In fact, I think we're at a point where she could be attending full-time."

Dianne couldn't help but smile. Her little girl meant everything to her and she was so proud to be her mama.

"We've drawn up a timetable. I don't know if this works for you, but if Emelia was in school until 2 for the rest of the week and then she could try her first full day on Friday."

Joe nodded. "That sounds good to me. Di?"

Dianne shrugged. "Well, I'm going to be away with work all week. So it's up to you. You're solo parenting. Do you think she'll manage?"

"Of course she will."

Helena smiled. "Perfect. Would you be OK to explain this all to Emelia as well? The other children understand why she's not here on full days just yet, so we'll just need to avoid any confusion. And, obviously, she'll be here for lunch. We've already taken payment for school dinners this term, so she'll need a packed lunch every day."

Joe made a note on his phone reminding him to make sure he had plenty of things in for Emelia's lunches.

"And, academically" Dianne began, "how's she doing? Compared to the other kids?"

Miss Buttercross pulled out a paper file. "I got copies of the end of key stage papers she tried at home. She did well, just as we'd expect for her age. I think there must be some differences in the curriculum between us and her old school, but there's nothing she can't catch up on."

"Is there anything we can do to help outside school?" Dianne asked.

"Just keep doing little bits with her. She's got her reading books to be trying, I'll send her home with some spellings to learn over the next week as well. If you can help her just with reading in general, and some counting or using money, she'll be fine."

///

"Well, how was your day?" Dianne asked as Emelia walked with them out of the front doors of the school.

"It was good. I finished my dragon story."

"Hey, Emelia" Joe nudged her, "was it roar-some?"

Joe could feel the disappointment as Emelia rolled her eyes. "you're not funny."

He pouted. "That hurt my feelings."

Emelia giggled and reached out to hold both his hand and Dianne's. They made their way back towards their house down the main road, Joe carrying Emelia's pink backpack over his shoulder. On the way, Dianne pointed out some words on signs to help Emelia with her reading just like the teacher had asked. Joe deliberately got them all wrong, shouting out silly answers which made both of his girls giggle.

"OK, peanut. We should probably stop and get some food." They had reached a small supermarket. Dianne grabbed a basket and turned to Emelia. "Stay with me, please. It's busy."

Emelia nodded and walked next to Joe down each aisle.

"Right, do you want to choose some snacks to go in your lunch?" Dianne asked. "There's biscuits? Or breadsticks? Raisins? You choose."