Dylan is Not Taking His Scheduled Exam.
It was the first day of exams and Dylan, who had organized his exam schedule with his case manager (and did not share it with me), was sound asleep.
The phone rang shortly after 8 a.m. I didn’t get to it in time, so there was a message – from Dylan’s case manager.
“I just wanted you to know that Dylan is not at his scheduled exam today. Today is the exam for first period and he is not here. He is scheduled to be in first period, which for him is U.S. History. Again, Dylan is not taking his scheduled exam.”
My heart skipped a beat. Dylan was in bed – of course – snoring away.
My thoughts raced.
Dylan didn’t even study (much) for his History exam. He said his first exam was Spanish – and then Biology on the same day. He’d studied for those instead! I’m sure he told me he was supposed to be off today. I even double-checked it with his case manager! Yes! I had emailed her last week to make sure he was really off today! I thought she said he was…. Should I wake him up? What should I do? Should I call the school?
I started foraging through my old emails, looking for the one from his case manager about the first day of exams.
Yes! There it is! He IS supposed to be home today! She said that one … what’s the date? … THREE DAYS AGO! Has something changed since three days ago…?
The phone rang again, interrupting my speed-of-light panic.
It was Dylan’s case manager.
“I’m so sorry for the heart attack,” she said. “Dylan is not supposed to be here today. He made a change to his schedule that I’d forgotten. We decided that he would take his history exam next week, on Thursday.”
I breathed. I hadn’t realized until then that I’d been holding my breath. My heart slowed a little, too.
“That’s okay,” I said. “I was a little panicked, but I know you have a lot to do.”
Up until today, she’d been darn perfect as a case manager. It was nice to know she was human, too.
And it was nicer still to let Dylan sleep, knowing he had it all under control.