August 25, 1982

Stevie didn't know why she was nervous she's done the open house for years, but she was nervous. Maybe it had to do with her baby-baby being there. She herself was dressed in a black maxi skirt, her black wedges, and a plain white teeshirt. She was pretty much back to her normal waist size save for a little bit of pudge but she was feeling good overall. Freya wanted to dress up for the open house, she had dressed up for her kindergarten open house as well because she wanted to "impress" her teachers so Freya's outfit of choice was a grey and white handkerchief dress. It was a tank top so she did have a little white jean jacket with her but it wasn't over her shoulders and she was wearing a pair of white t-strap sandals. Stevie had her put her blonde waves half up and half down with a grey bow. Luna on the other hand was wearing a light pink short sleeve onesie with green froggies on them and a pair of green pants that had a frog face on the butt. 

"COME ON LET'S GO!" Stevie calls up the stairs grabbing her own jean jacket and throwing it over her shoulders. It was 95 degrees out but the A/C would be on full blast in the school and the school had a tendency to be too cold in the summer and too hot the rest of the school year. 

"So what time frame is yours?" Barbara asks leaning against the banister with a dish towel drapped over her shoulder. She and Jess had been a God Send the first couple of weeks adjusting to Luna, but they'd be leaving in just a matter of days.

"5:45-6:45...well let's be honest and say 7:15 it always tends to run longer." Stevie sighs.

"I'll have dinner ready and waiting for you when you walk through that door." Barbara smiles.

"Thanks mom." Stevie grins as Lindsey and Freya come bounding down the stairs. 

Stevie hadn't told her co-workers that she had given birth. The only ones that knew where their immediate family so they were sitting in Stevie's office before their scheduled meeting time and Rebecca walked by but did a backtrack when she saw them and her eyes immediately zeroed in on the sleeping baby in the carrier. 

"Oh my gosh, when was she born?" Rebecca asks.

"August 9th." Stevie smiles

"And her name?" 

"Luna." Lindsey answers that one.

"Oh she's so sweet. I want to hold her so badly but I don't want to wake her up." Rebecca pouts.

"You'll have first dibs if she wakes up." Stevie tells her.

"Good, I was just heading to the gym if you guys wanted to come." Rebecca smiles.

Stevie nods and they all stand up and make their way to the gym where students and teachers were all gathering. Lindsey and Freya found her friends and Stevie made her way up to the front where she poured herself a glass of lemonade and made some small talk with her co-workers before their allowed time and then the superintendent gathered everyone's attention.

"Good Evening, thank you all for coming out here tonight to get to know us and your student's new teacher. I see a lot of new faces out there so let's get started. I'm Dr. Teresa Mallton, I'm the superintendent of the school. We are a K-8 school, so we aren't included in the Santa Monica Public School System, though we are a public school. I'm the new superintendent as this is my first year, and I still really don't know all of the staff members yet. Soon though as we get back to work this week and we officially open our doors on August 30th. So I'm going to hand this over to Mrs. Mettner." 

"Yes, Hello I'm Heather Mettner I'm the K-5 principal here at the school. I want to extend a giant welcome back to all of our returning students and a welcome to our new students. As you can see we have a line up of teachers and staff behind me but before we get to them we want to go over our mission statement and some of our back to school policies. There have been some changes so we want everyone to pay close attention." 

The presentation took about twenty five minutes, and the staff members had to stand up in that line for the whole of the presentation and just by eye scanning the crowd Stevie could tell they weren't feeling it. 

"Alright, so let's introduce our teachers. They've all kinda segregated themselves into their jurisdictions so we'll just start down on this end." Heather walks the mic over to the Kindergarten teachers. 

The three kindies go, the three first graders, the three second graders, and the three third graders as this was only a meeting for the lower elementary school 4-8 would be the second section. And finally it was the specials-music, art, phys ed, and then it got down to Stevie.

"Hello, my name is Stephanie Nicks-Buckingham, but my students call me Mrs. B, or Mrs. Buck. I never make them pronounce my whole hyphenated last name. I am the on staff SLP for K-3. SLP stands for Speech and Language Pathologist. So I help students with their speech patterns if they have a stutter we work with them to do practices to help them get through the stutter and so on and so forth. I come into the classes during scheduled times a week and I take the kids and I work with them." Stevie explains.

"And I'm Rebecca McQuire the head of the speech department." Rebecca shrugs. She hated these things. 

"So we're opening the floor up to questions then." Heather takes the mic back. 

Lindsey raises his hand and Stevie hands the mic to Stevie.

"What?" 

Heather just motions her head to Lindsey.

"I don't know his question." Stevie states.

"I'm trying to get you to acknowledge him is all...Go Ahead." Heather smiles.

"Yeah  hi...Lindsey Buckingham here Steph kinda filled me in on the lotto aspect you're incorporating but why." 

"Steph?" Dr. Mallton cocks an eyebrow.

"Me, he means me...this is my husband." Stevie chimes in.

"Oh, okay, so as everyone here knows the Lotto is a political gamble that chooses your spouse. Before I worked here I was a government official, and I wanted to implement the lotto to prepare the students for it. But instead of partners, each job in the classroom will be lottoed off. Each one of our teachers has been instructed to create a classroom chore list and each week a new student will be lottoed to do that job. I simply just want to prepare students for the future is all. Because tell me this Mr. Buckingham, what did you know about the Lotto when you and Mrs. Buckingham were paired." 

"Honestly, I only knew what my parents told me when I was in High School and Stephanie and I had planned to wait to tell our kids about it until they were closer to being of age but now that you're implementing it in the school it's forcing us to talk about it with her and I don't know if I'm comfortable with it." Lindsey shakes his head.

"Yeah I agree, especially because over in England, we don't have the Lotto so we knew nothing about it until we got here and we met the Buckingham's and I know now that it's a controversial topic so why would you bring it into the school?" John McVie pipes up.

"You know you two are going to get us in trouble right." Christine states.

"Sorry love but it's a fair point." John shrugs. 

"It's still in trial if it doesn't go like we plan we'll re-evaluate everything. I just think it's imperative for students to start leaning about it at a younger age." Dr. Mallton explains. "Another question ma'am?" 

"Yeah for the speech pathologists, how do you know which students to work with, is there an application?" One young mother raises her hand.

"No," Rebecca shakes her head.

"Mrs. McQuire and I pretty much do nothing the first few weeks of school, except formulate little standardized tests that all of the teachers give to their students the first two weeks of school. It tests reading level, speech patterns, colors, so on and so forth. And then we take the data that is gathered from the students and we see who's struggling and then we sit down with the parents and we come up with a plan that goes into effect in October where I'll go into the classroom and I'll start pulling kids for sessions." Stevie explains.

"And when she's not here, I do it." Rebecca nods.

"Doesn't that embarrass the kids though?" The same mother asks.

"Honey I can't answer that because I don't know. But what I do know is that my daughter will be starting first grade this year...and when I go into her classroom and pull students Freya will even start working with them because she knows and she doesn't tease them about it, she doesn't ridicule she just helps. I don't know what goes on in other classrooms though." Stevie shakes her head.

"And how long have you been doing this?" 

"Oh jeez, over a decade. I worked for five years at the Bessie Carmichael Elementary school in San Francisco they offered me a renewal after my initial five years but Lindsey and I didn't want to stay in San Francisco so we moved here and I got a job here. I've been here now for...this'll be my ninth year because Freya will be seven in February." Stevie explains. 

"Mrs. Buckingham is one of the best SLPs out there. And I'm going to put her daughter on the spot because she had Freya saying Mama Water Please at what two years old?" 

"Three but, yeah I worked with her from as soon as she started talking everyday for maybe like two hours and by the time she was two she was putting sentences together. I'm good at my job and If I end up with one of your children I can guarantee all of you that they are in good hands." Stevie nods.

Soon the families are dismissed to venture to their class rooms and when Lindsey, Freya, and Stevie walk into Freya's classroom Luna is wide awake sucking on a bottle in Stevie's arms. 

"Hello who is this little munchkin?" The teacher beams.

"Freya Buckingham." 

"Freya Buckingham it's nice to meet you, my name is Mrs. Anderson. And who's with you? I know  your mom very well but who are the other people?" She inquires.

"This is my daddy and my little sister." 

"What's your sister's name?" Mrs. Anderson questions.

"Luna." 

"Luna that's such a pretty name. Why don't you go look around the classroom so I can talk to Mommy and Daddy hmm?" Mrs. Anderson questions.

"Okay." She smiles running off.

"Congrats on the baby," Mrs. Anderson smiles.

"Oh thank you. Speaking of the baby, and we can talk about it closer to Halloween but, would she be allowed at the party. Lindsey works nights and I work during the day so the baby is never going to be alone but Freya wants him to come so bad. She absolutely adores when Lindsey comes in and I had to tell her that he might not be able to this year because of Luna and it made her really upset." Stevie looks between her husband and the teacher.

"Oh of course this little lovebug is always welcome. My husband and I are trying cause our two years are almost up and I can't wait until I have one of my own." She smiles. "Now, is she bussing this year or..."

"No, nope. I'll bring her here and take her home. She knows that she stays in Mommy's office until eight when she can go outside for recess and she knows to wait until five minutes after the bell before she can come to my office. Her teacher last year would walk her to my office, but if you don't want to, she does know the way." Stevie explains. 

"Alright I was just wondering." 

"Occasionally I'll pick her up if Steph has a meeting or an appointment but usually Steph takes her." Lindsey nods. 

"Yes and Christine McVie and John McVie are also able to take her if something arises." Stevie nods.

"Great, I'm going to go mingle. Feel free to hang around." Mrs. Anderson grins.