Susan goes home after the planning meeting and is greeted by her daughter Sam. Sam is a sixth grader who has been involved in the Virtual Mentoring program at Poplar Hill School.

As told by Samantha Ramey.

"Hi, Mom. How was your meeting at school this afternoon?"  I could tell Mom was tired by the way she plopped her bag down on the table.  She lifted the stack of mail in the basket and sifted through the envelopes.

Rolling her eyes, Susan sighs heavily. "It was okay, I guess. It's hard for me to get used to how disorganized they all seem to be. The Showcase is only a couple of weeks away and they are only marginally ready."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She paused her reviewing of the mail to answer. "As usual there are hardware compatibility issues. Ms. Reineke has a new jump drive that she couldn't get to work today. I'm concerned that there may be more technical issues as the other presenters send in their specifications. I don't know what made me get involved in all of this stuff anyway!"

"You know why Mom - me!” I said with a grin.  “I'm glad that you have gotten your company involved with the mentoring project. It was really dull until we got to talk to real scientists."  That should make her feel better.

She smiled.

I continued, "I wasn't real sure about the whole virtual mentoring thing. I thought that it would be too hard. I thought that they would think that I was stupid because of my poor spelling…"

"I told you that your teachers would let everyone know about your learning issues, and…”

“I know, Mom.  I just get tired of people treating me differently or expecting me to be able to do less.  It's frustrating, you know.  I mean -- to know something, but not be able to write it down the right way or to misunderstand the question because I didn't read it the right way!"

Mom walked around the table to give me a gentle hug.

"I know, honey,” she said.  “That's why they are letting you IM your mentors instead of email. You get immediate feedback and can ask questions as you go along. Of course, IT security would have a cow if they knew that we had downloaded that software on the company PCs!"

I shrugged my shoulders.  "I guess the IM makes everybody look like they can't spell. Dr. Collins at your work still can't get the hang of it." 

I laughed at the thought of Dr. C peering through his computer screen, trying to decipher my messages.  Mom smiled again.

"Yeah, it's amazing how slow some PhDs are," she replied

"So, Mom, what do you have to do for the Showcase?"

"I really don't know yet. I just got a copy of the guidelines at the meeting. I'm meeting with Ms. Reineke again tomorrow afternoon after I've had a chance to look them over."

"That's great!” I responded.  “I need to work on my project, so can I stay after school and just ride home with you?"

I think Josh is going to be staying late, too.  We’ll leave that part out.  I wonder if I should tell Mom about Josh and me … maybe later.

"Sure that will be fine,” she said. “We should be finished by 4:00 pm."

"Maybe I can get Ms. Todd to sign me out of art to go work in the computer lab. We've been working on the presentation during class but I don't have enough time to work on my assignment. I sure wish they would just let me bring my disk home and work on it. But, oh yeah, we have a PC not a Mac. It wouldn't do any good anyway."

She frowned a bit as she opened the refrigerator door.  "I know, I know, “she began.  “It's a shame that you have to stay after school to get your stuff done. I wish I could do something for you. We are fortunate that your uncle could afford to give us that computer, anyhow.  Maybe I could get an old computer from work.  I could always approach your teachers next year about letting you bring a laptop to school to do your work."

I shook my head. "No way!” I answered.  “People will think I'm a geek … or worse. I'll just keep staying after school."

Mom sighed and rolled her eyes again. "Okay, whatever you want. Go work on your homework while I start supper and look over the papers for the Showcase……"

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