Mary approached the office and found a woman near the same age, yet she looked exhausted with hair falling out of her tight bun. Mary knocked on the open door to get her attention. "Hello, I'm Mary Atkins. Are you Principal Lambert?"
The haggard woman looked up from her stack of paperwork and tried to focus on Mary. "Mary Atkins? Oh. Right. The foster mom." Mary felt a sting in her chest, but brushed it off. "Just take a seat anywhere you like."
Although the principal said 'anywhere', there was only one available seat that didn't have papers or any type of clutter on it. Mary chose the one clean seat and the principal started pushing papers aside so they could keep eye contact over the desk.
