My daughter “went to school” every morning — then her teacher called and told me she’d been skipping for a whole week, so I followed her the next morning.
My fourteen-year-old, Sienna, isn’t a bad kid. Sure, she gets moody the way any teenager does, but she’s never once been the type to skip class. Not even a single period, let alone an entire week.
So when the school called Thursday afternoon, I picked up immediately, already braced for something about a group project or a missed permission slip.
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“This is Mrs. Carter, Sienna’s homeroom teacher,” the voice on the line said. “I wanted to check in. Sienna hasn’t been in school all week.”
I almost laughed, the statement sounding genuinely impossible against everything I knew about my own daughter.
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“That can’t be right,” I said. “She leaves the house every morning. I watch her walk out the door myself.”
There was a short pause on the other end.
“No,” Mrs. Carter said gently. “She hasn’t attended any classes since Monday. I wanted to reach out before this became a bigger issue with the attendance office.”
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My stomach dropped straight through the kitchen floor.
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That evening, when Sienna got home at her usual time, she acted completely normal. Complained about a history assignment. Asked what was for dinner. Rolled her eyes at me twice during a completely unrelated conversation about laundry.
I studied her carefully, searching for some crack in the performance, and found absolutely nothing.
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The next morning, I didn’t confront her. I didn’t call the school back either.
I waited.
