The receptionist opened a hallway door, leading to another part of the front office. The school could definitely rival the size of her sons high school, it was almost frightening. Mary really wondered how Jake survived here.

The population was more dense so it was a given that this school would be bigger since multiple elementary schools would join together for 7th and 8th grade.

The receptionist waved her on to an open area where a couple of school employees were sitting at their respective desks.

"This is Mary Atkins. She's here to see Mr. Conley.

" And with that she turned around and left Mary standing there, feeling a little awkward in the quiet atmosphere.

One of the younger ladies stood up and gestured to follow her.

"I'll take you to his office.

" She took Mary down a hallway with wooden doors all closed, nameplates hung beside each one. Finally one labeled: Henry Conley, Advisor for H-L. The lady knocked on the door before slowly opening it, revealing an older man behind a mahogany desk.

"Mary Atkins is here to see you.

"

The man got up, walked around the desk, and held out a hand for Mary to shake.

"Yes, hello, Mr. Doug Duncan has called me quite a few times regarding Jake Hollander. Come in, have a seat.

" He welcomed Mary into his office, which was spotless compared to the previous school she had went to.

The lady who showed her the way quietly left and he shut the door before going back to his chair behind the desk.

"I've been told that you're his current foster mother?

"

His only foster mother, Mary wanted to correct him, but settled for a polite nod.

"Yes. I'm in town with my eldest son for college visits so it's a good time for me to take a look into Jake's past. His therapist has come to the conclusion that he may have had an older brother or maybe an older boy he looked up to. As you know, we're looking for his birth father, so if he really had a brother, that could help us tremendously.

"

Mr. Conley nodded before grabbing a folder out of a nearby filing cabinet.

"Yes, Doug has called before, asking about boys with similar last names in the years before Jake came. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything like that.

"

"Oh well. It was a long shot.

" She glanced at the folder.

"Is that Jake's file?

"

He tapped it.

"It is. His school records. Just what classes he took, grades, teachers he had, disciplinary action taken against him, those kind of things.

"

"Disciplinary actions?

" Mary's eyes widen.

"He wouldn't have that would he?

"

Mr. Conley gave a short nod.

"He had excessive tardies and absences. Students receive detention to discourage students from ditching.

"

"Even when it's the parents fault?

"

He grimaced.

"Most parents don't want such things on their student's permanent record.

"

She frowned.

"Then you can't hold it against him.

"

"That's the way it is. Of course, we send this information to a truant officer who works in the field and speaks with the parents. He reported Jake's mom to the police a few times, but they have bigger fish to fry(1). But if you want to know about his academic performance, I can tell you that he didn't slack at all. He had straight A's even after missing so many classes. He's a very talented kid.

"

Mary's clenched fist relaxed at hearing how bright he is.

"Yep! That's the Jake I know! Very outstanding! He was allowed to skip a few math levels at his high school now.

"

"That's nice to hear.

" He smiled.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help, but I'm glad to know that he's doing better.

"

Mary felt kind of brushed off. She glanced back down at the folder, then looked him in the eyes.

"Did his records state how many times you reported his mother to child services?

"

He hesitated.

"We actually never made a report for him. Jake did well at school.

"

What did that mean? She frowned.

"I'm sure he was still receiving beatings. Bad beatings. I've had others tell me that he would bruised all over. Isn't it weird that none of his teachers thought anything of it?

"

"Each teacher only gets 50 minutes a day with each class. With seven classes to teach, I'm sure it's hard on them to pay attention to each kid.

"

Mary stood up in frustration.

"I'm not just talking about a bruise. I'm talking about multiple. As in, he was covered in them. As an advisor, you don't meet with your students? Not once?

"

He looked up.

"I'm an advisor for last names that start with H all the way to L. It's a lot of ground to cover between both grades. Sometimes these things happen. Kids can just slip through the cracks. It's not like he spoke up and came to tell us what was going on.

"

"He was scared!

" Mary raised her voice and pointed at the folder.

"You even had the nerve to give him detention and still claim that you didn't know what was going on?! You said so yourself that you had a truant officer make a visit, yet he didn't mention a word about what the boy looked like? How starved he was?! Even now he's still considered malnourished. I couldn't imagine what he looked like when he went here.

" Before he could give her one more excuse, she turned away and decided to leave. She opened the door with gusto, then slammed it hard behind her, not caring about decorum.

She went through the hallways and walked out by the nearest exit. As soon as she felt the warm SoCal sun on her face, she pulled out her phone to call her husband.

"Hello?

" His warm voice made her tears fall loose. She sniffled just a little, but he was able to hear it.

"Mary? Did something happen? Are you okay?

"

She dabbed the corner of her eyes.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just a little emotional. I didn't realize how overlooked Jake was. No wonder he hates being the center of attention. He's not used to it. Gosh Wayne, you wouldn't believe what I was told today.

" She then proceeded to give him a rundown of her school visits.

"My god.

" Wayne mumbled.

"I thought I had it bad, but Jake...he was ignored for too long. We really need to speak to Doug about why Jake wasn't pulled sooner. Someone has to take some responsibility somewhere.

"

Hearing her husband wanting to get some justice for Jake made Mary feel lighter.

"Right! Exactly. Doug sounds a busy right now, but he's gonna have to make time for this. For us. For Jake.

" She sighed.

"As for Jake's brother or friend, there were no leads at either school. Everyone's been telling me that he didn't have any friends. That he was always alone.

" Her heart felt like it was breaking.

"I guess I'll check with the neighbor to see if he found out anything.

"

"Wait. Are you still at the middle school?

" Wayne said suddenly.

"Yea, I haven't even gone back to the car yet.

" Mary replied.

"Why? Did you think of something?

"

"Sort of.

" He paused before coming out with it.

"You should make a trip to the sports field. Wherever they have the batting cages.

"

Mary felt enlightened, but then frowned to herself.

"But he was never officially on the team. Noah told me that Jake wouldn't have been able to get his mom to sign the release form that would allow him to play.

"

"But the Coach still let him use the cages.

" Wayne pointed out.

"That's how he became so good. He must have had a decent relationship with the coach to get permission.

"

Mary grew excited.

"Oh, right! I've never heard Jake outright tell us about it so I forgot.

" She laughed to herself.

"I forgot that he wasn't just born this good. I'll go check out the field to look for the batting cages. Hopefully a coach of some kind will be there.

"

"They should. Baseball is in season. The only reason they wouldn't be there, would be for a game.

"

"Thanks honey! I'll call you after!

" Mary hung up and started to make her way towards the gym and fields.

1-to have more important things to do (just in case you don't understand American idioms.)