Twenty Years Earlier:

In mid-August that first summer after Charlotte had moved to Boise, Carl filled out the paperwork to register her for the fifth grade at the K-6 school which was conveniently located a few blocks away from the house. It was an old well-established school and was attended by Charlotte's new best friend Lena and her younger brother Justin. A few weeks before the fall term was to start, they received a letter indicating that as an out-of-state transfer student, Charlotte would be required to take a series of state-mandated standardized exams to establish what grade and classes she would be placed in. Carl was a bit upset at the whole thing as he explained it to Charlotte. "So, even though you had very good grades at your last school but because you are new here, they require that you take some tests before school starts. So, they do their best to put you in the right class. Don't worry about it Charlotte. "

Charlotte smiled. "Don't worry Gramps, they do this every year. It's a game where they pretend that there is not a dumb kid's math class and a smart kid's reading class and everything in between. But I'm good at taking tests and stuff so nothing to worry about. "

Carl smiled. "No of course not, it's just kind of silly that's all."

Charlotte looked over her shoulder as if making sure nobody was listening. "I'll ace all of them unless you want me to tank one Gramps."

"Tank one?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Gramps, you know, do bad on purpose like some of those teams do to get a better draft choice. I could do bad on a test on purpose and get put in an easier class."

Carl chuckled. "Right then. No Charlotte, just do your best, no pressure and no tanking, right?"

"Right, got it."

A few days later, Charlotte spent an entire morning taking all of the state-mandated tests. There were five or six other new kids also taking the odious fill-in-the-bubble and short-answer exams. The proctor was a young teacher who drew the short straw and had to spend his day in a hot late summer classroom instead of floating the Boise River. Charlotte finished her first reading and vocabulary exam and noticed that there was still almost half an hour left. She looked around and the other kids were still hard at work. She stood up and bought her test package to the teacher who was leafing thru a Cabela's catalog. He looked up and frowned at the young girl. "Don't give up so early Miss, there is plenty of time left, and you know that guessing doesn't count against you."

"Um no sir, I finished everything and didn't really have to guess much." She lowered her voice. "This was really an easy test and I don't need any more time. I can go over it one more time if you want..."

About a week later, Carl received a nice form letter from the school's robot indicating that his granddaughter had been placed in the sixth grade. He was quite pleased with the results on one level, but on another knew that it was not right for Charlotte. He took the report, a couple of glasses of lemonade and some cookies to his wife's sunroom. He was glad to see that she was sitting in a comfortable chair reading on her Kindle. Carl handed Margaret a glass and smiled. "Good book, my love?"

The old gray-haired woman smiled. Carl admired her light blue eyes which were the same as when she was nineteen. "Yes, a very nice love story about an auto mechanic and a romance writer."

Carl raised his brows a bit as Margaret laughed. "Yes, you old goat, the girl is the mechanic and the boy is the writer. It's a very uplifting story. Now, what is that officious-looking form you are glaring at?"

Carl handed her the letter and she read it. After a moment Margaret frowned. "The sixth grade Carl? She's just turned ten and is already nearly the youngest in her class. No, I think that this is a bad idea."

Carl nodded in agreement. "I agree. With everything that has gone on, this is an unneeded complication and as trivial as it seems, her new best friend, you know the cute and evidently quite bright Crawford girl from down the street is almost the same age and will start fifth grade in the fall. I think that it best that we keep them together."

His wife of forty-plus years nodded in agreement. Carl smiled and said. "Good, then it's settled. I'll go to the school on Monday and sort it all out."

At 0730 Monday morning, Carl Janssen walked the few blocks from his old house to the elementary school his granddaughter would start to attend in a few short weeks. He wore the uniform of many retired combat fighter pilots, well-worn jeans, an island shirt and modern ankle-high nylon tactical boots. Upon arriving at the school's office, he was greeted amiably by the vice principal. Amongst her many other jobs, she had the onerous duty of informing the parents of students where their child was to be placed for the upcoming term. A few were advanced a class or grade, and some were held back. The portly, middle-aged woman stood up when Carl entered her office. "Welcome Mr. Janssen, it's nice to meet you in person after all these weeks of emails and phone calls."

Carl smiled thinly. "Yes, thank you, Ms. Richards. Things have been quite hectic and unsettled, but I think that as a family we have things sorted out as best as possible."

The woman looked away for a moment to compose her thoughts. "Yes, of course. It must be quite difficult for everybody involved."

Carl nodded. "Indeed, it is, but life must go on and my granddaughter Charlotte needs to start school in a few weeks. This will be another challenge you know, a new school and new friends on top of everything else."

The woman paused, opened the folder and shuffled some papers around. "Yes, of course, I have all of her test results here. Quite remarkable for a ten-year-old, especially her math and science scores. The system recommended that she start in the sixth grade, there is not much we can do past our advanced math course, but I fear that she is already moved beyond what we can offer here. Perhaps she could take math at the middle school?"

Carl shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear that your math and science resources are so limited at this time. I shall see what I can do as a member of the community to remedy that situation in the future. In the meantime, we have decided that Charlotte will attend the fifth grade with students in her own age group. She has had more than enough to deal with in the last six months. The most important thing is that she is a happy and well-adjusted ten-year-old as much as that is possible. Please place her in whatever suffices for advanced placement math, science and language. In the meantime, I shall endeavor to provide her with some extracurricular education in science and technology that you are unable to provide."