The Deal Part Deux.

Belle sits in the hall outside the nursing school dean's office. Her head is spinning with thoughts.

"Wow I'm really cute. I mean really. I don't see how any guy resists me. I wonder why I'm here. I wonder if I'm in some sort of trouble for missing classes. I wonder if I can still get that pink sweater on sale."

The office door opens and the dean says "Mrs. Brady?"

Belle sits as if she hadn't heard him.

"Mrs. Brady?" the dean says a little louder

Belle still sits. She looks around and sees the dean. She smiles at him and turns away, as if he wasn't talking to her.

The dean is confused. He steps in front of Belle, makes eye contact and says
"MRS. BRADY!"

Belle looks confused then it hits her, "OH you mean me! That's right I'm Mrs. Brady! Oh wow I thought my husband's grandma was here, and I was a little ticked that she got to go ahead of me.."

"My office, if you please, Mrs. Brady" the dean tries not to lose his temper.

Belle looks at the office door. "Yeah, that's your office. But I don't know how pleased I am about it, it's kind of drab.."

"Please, go into my office Mrs. Brady." The dean says through clenched teeth.

"Geez, you don't have to be rude. I'm going." Belle flips her hair and sashays into the office.

The dean follows, trying desperately to resist the urge to just grab Belle from behind and strangle her.
The dean closes the door and sits behind his desk. He stares at Belle for a few seconds before he starts to speak.

In those few seconds, Belle's mind begins to wander . . .
"Wow this office is nice. A little too much wood, but I guess he likes it that way.
I wonder if those shoes I bought last week will look good with the skirt I'm buying later. Ooo is that candy. I like candy. Do hedgehogs sleep? I've never seen one sleep, but that doesn't mean they don't..."

"MRS. BRADY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?" The dean was done trying to be nice.

Belle looked at him "Were you talking to me? I heard you talking I just didn't know who you were talking to and I thought it was rude to listen if you weren't talking to me..."

"There's no one else in the room, so who else would I be talking to?" The dean asks

"Well I thought maybe you were thinking out loud. I do that sometimes. Like when I am thinking about my life and how happy I am to have my beautiful baby Claire. Would you like to see some pictures of Claire, I have tons of them, Oh wait those are pictures of me...I'm so pretty, I just think..." Belle babbles

"MRS. BRADY!" The dean has lost it

"What? Why do you keep yelling at me?" Belle asks

"Because you aren't listening to me. I keep trying to tell you that you are dangerously close to being kicked out of this school." The dean says

"Kicked out!" Now Belle pays attention "Why would you kick me out? I want to be a nurse!"

"Well evidently not bad enough to actually go to class." The dean opens Belle's file and shows it to her "You haven't been to half your classes in over three months. You show up for a test here or there, but then you don't bother doing any of your lab work. How do you expect to pass and graduate Mrs. Brady."

"But it's not my fault!" Belle starts to pout "I had to rescue my daughter. She was kidnapped."

"Ah yes, the famous Claire." The dean turns a few pages "She seems to be the main excuse you use. Let's see, Claire is sick, Claire was kidnapped, Claire had a bad hair day, Claire might be lonely. I think you need to decide if you want to be a nurse or you want your life to revolve around your daughter."

"You can't do that!!" Belle starts to blubber "You can't make me choose between my daughter and being a nurse. It's just not fair."

"Mrs. Brady, life is not fair." The dean says "We all have to make sacrifices in our lives in order to have a better life."

"But I don't like sacrifices." Belle whines "They are icky and smell bad and I don't think the church wants us to do them."

"Mrs. Brady, I am getting very tired of this little dumb blonde act" The dean is annoyed

"It's not an act." Belle says "I really am a blonde. It says so on the box."

"Okay Mrs. Brady, this meeting is over. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to turn in your student ID and leave the school." The dean closes Belle's file.

"What? You're kicking me out of school?" Belle is shocked

"Oh NOW you're paying attention. Yes Mrs. Brady, you don't seem to want to put in the effort and time it takes to be a nurse." The dean explains "You don't want to go to class, you skip labs, you haven't turned in even one assignment, how do you expect to graduate?"

Belle sits in silence for few seconds, then opens her purse and pulls out here cell phone. She dials a number and waits.

The dean sits watching this and is confused. Belle talks to someone for a few minutes then hangs up. Before the dean can ask what that was about, his phone rings.

"Dean's office" He says "Yes, this is the dean. Yes. . . yes. . . well you must understand how these things work . . .yes. . . . yes but there are rules . . . yes, I see. . . but there are laws to consider. . . .I understand but if everyone could just. . . well of course I know you aren't EVERYONE but still. . . . I mean even you obey the law. . . well yes that's true. . . .but I just can't. . . well yes that is quite a bit. . .how many buildings? Well that is quite generous, but still . . . and a new gym with an indoor pool? I just don't know if I can. . . and how much to the administration's retirement fund? But still in good conscience. . . yes I do have 2 daughters. . . yes they are 9 and 11 but what does that have to do with . . . oh, well now when would that be? Yes, that's fine. Goodbye."

The dean hangs up the phone and looks across the desk at Belle who is furiously texting someone on her phone. He sighs and pulls a piece of paper out of his desk, signs it, and applies the school seal.

"Here you are Mrs. Brady." He slides the paper across the desk to Belle "Congratulations you're a nurse."

"Neato!" Belle beams at the diploma "I can't wait to show this to Shawn! He still hasn't passed cop school or whatever he has to do to be a cop."

"Yes, fine, you may go now Mrs. Brady." The dean didn't even get the words out before Belle popped up and bounced out the door.

The dean picked up his phone and called his home. "Emma honey, it's daddy. Guess what? No...guess again....no, even better. Okay I'll tell you, next weekend you and Katy not only get to go see Hannah Montana, you get to go backstage and meet her in person!"

The squeal from the other end of the phone, has dogs looking up all over town.
"Yes honey, daddy had to make a deal he's not proud of, but Mr. Kriakis said it was all taken care of. Yes, honey just like that."