Mary returned to the hotel after an hour drive. She made calls to her husband, Doug, and her eldest son. Wayne's call was a quick one to tell him that she safely made it back to the hotel, and to not go easy on the boys when he gets home from showing houses. Her call to Doug went unanswered. He must still be busy…on a Sunday night too.
Her call to Zeke didn't last long with her asking the questions and him giving short replies. She couldn't decipher what he thought about the school on the first day. They made plans to meet in the office tomorrow morning after breakfast.
Monday morning arrived after a long nights sleep. Mary followed the itinerary that Zeke had planned out with the coaches, sitting with an academic counselor, a financial aid officer, then went through a full tour of the school before sitting in a class with Zeke. Afterwards she joined him and some of the baseball players and coaches for lunch in the cafeteria. She was thoroughly impressed with the whole ordeal, and even thought it was on par with Stanford University.
The afternoon was spent at their practice field, watching her son trying out for the team. Zeke held his own, even though he didn't look as buff as the college students. In the evening, Zeke sent her away so he could spend more quality time with just the team. Which makes sense because he won't have his mom with him when he goes to college. Plus, the guys are probably more well behaved with adults around, so he wanted to see what they would be like unsupervised.
Mary found herself alone for dinner and decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. There, she spent the night looking into prior information that Doug and Dr. Moore was able to pull up. Tomorrow she should have enough time to visit both of his prior schools, but if one has to be put off, she could make another trip the following day.
Tuesday morning, Mary first made a stop at UCLA to pick up Zeke and transfer him to USC.
"Well, what did you think?" She asked as they sat through Los Angeles traffic. "Did they impress you?"
"Their offer was a little short of my expectations." Zeke replied honestly. "Apparently they've already dealt out most of their available scholarship money. They said they could give me partial for the first year, and as long as I prove myself, I could have a full ride starting sophomore year." He glanced out the car window. "So no…not really impressed."
"Zeke, I shouldn't have to keep telling you this, but money won't be a problem."
"It's not just about money, Mom." Zeke looked at her. "The scholarship offer shows their sincerity. If they're offering me a full ride, it's like they're telling me that they think I can change their whole program. UCLA only offered part, so that telling me that they think I'm good enough but not a game changer."
"I thought you said they dealt all their monies out?" She asked. "You are visiting these schools at the last minute. There's bound to be limited scholarships left."
"Mom." He pulled out his cellphone and started to tap on it, pulling up an article related to a high school player committing to UCLA. "This is kid just signed this past weekend. Full ride. I'm sure a school this big and powerful could come up with the money to cover me, but they chose not to."
Mary was stunned. Her son really thought things through and even did his research before speaking ill of the school. "So UCLA is a no go?"
"Stanford is definitely ahead of them. They offered a full ride and are closer to home."
Mary swelled with happiness and wanted to call her husband right away, but managed to hold herself back. "Well, there are two more schools to see on this trip. Keep an open mind."
"I will."
They arrived at USC, where Mary was able to meet the head coach and the host player taking Zeke in. They made plans to meet up tomorrow for the school meetings once again.
Mary then set off, back to Jake's old neighborhood. By the time she reached the elementary school, it was noon, so she decided to give Doug a call.
"Yes?" He answered mindlessly like he didn't even check to see who was calling. Talking could be heard in the background making it feel like he was in a crowd.
"Hi Doug, it's Mary." She told him why she was calling. "I'm at Jake's old elementary school, about to go in. They aren't going to give me a hard time for poking around, will they?"
"I've called early this morning." Doug replied. "I even spoke with the principal personally. She's got all the information on all his old teachers and what he was like in school. If you do come across any problems, just call me. I'll have my phone on me all afternoon, but if I don't pick up right away, just call again until I do."
"Thank you so much Doug, I appreciate all that you do." Before hanging up she thought about Sunday's trip to his house. "Did you guys know that Jake and his mom didn't live in that house all his life? I spoke with a neighbor man, who told me that he remembered them moving in when Jake was a toddler."
Doug sighed. "No, we don't really look into places of residence too deeply. Especially when they lived there for ten years. I can have someone look into their old residence but it'll take some time."
"The neighbor told me he would ask around too."
"Great. Hopefully something will come up for either of us." He rushed to say his goodbyes and quickly hung up.
Mary shook her head, dismayed with Doug's sudden hang up. It sounded like he was extremely busy all week. Maybe he was getting a new case like Jake's? Her heart sunk at the thought of there being another kid having to fend for himself against his own parents.
She tried to clear her head and dispel the thoughts. Her focus was Jake for right now.
She had parked in the school's small parking lot, and got out to take a better look. The school seemed to have the same rundown look as the houses that surrounded it. It looked bleak. She could never imagine sending her kids to such a depressing looking school. A learning environment should be clean and bright, not surrounded by trash and dead trees.
She gathered her nerve and walked up the pathway to the front office. She was greeted with a single receptionist, who was texting away on her phone. "Excuse me?" The receptionist looked up. "Hi. I'm here to meet with Principal Lambert?"
"Yea, just go on back. Her office is the only door open. Can't miss it." The receptionist pointed down a hall that could certainly use a new paint job.
Mary frowned at her attitude, but did her best to not get upset. She moved down the hall and found that the receptionist was accurate to say she couldn't miss it. The principals office door was the only one wide open, while all the other offices were dark and closed off.
