Mr. Mitchell put a police tracer on the six households given to him by Jane and her friends. All person-to-person money transfers were carefully monitored by computer. The law required a clear and accurate description of all person-to-person money transfers. There was a single rejection, a sum of money being transferred from one family to another family with inadequate description. The money transfer was resubmitted with an explanation that the money was going to reimburse someone for the cost of materials used to rebuild the front porch of his house. The resend seemed to be acceptable. Without a resend, the money would stay in the hands of the police. With the resent transfer, the money went to the intended party as long as a $20 fee was paid to the police.
Mr. Mitchell was suspicious about the convenient $400 round number for a reimbursement. He used his banking connections to get a more detailed report on the financial transactions of both parties. The sender also had four other odd payments to four individuals. The recipient had odd transfers from a total of six different individuals. There was astonishment when he realized that the recipient was a teacher at the high school, and the six individuals were parents of the six kids listed by Jane as working against the gang of ten.
The net grew larger when it became clear that each of the six families was sending money all about the same time to all or almost all of their junior year high school teachers. The money transfers were disguised as payments for work the teachers had done during the summer. All of this work occurred in the households of the six families. Further, there was some sloppiness. The family that originally caused the money transfer hold was having three different porches built. One family was paying for a lot of expensive childcare. Their only child was about to enter his junior year of high school. All the amounts were on even hundreds.
The only problem for Mr. Mitchell was how to bring this to the attention of the authorities. He knew that going to the police was bound to backfire. Mr. Mitchell's investigation made the police inquiry or lack of inquiry look very bad. He was sure they would put it on the back burner.
Mr. Mitchell sent a report to the school board. The school board quickly requested banking details of all the teachers at the high school. Only the teachers of the six students got mystery payments. No teacher got a payment unless they had a student who was from a “bribing family.”
The school board was relieved that the scandal was limited to one group of teachers. They called in the teachers for a special meeting concerning the junior class. They were kept in separate rooms once they arrived at the “meeting.” One by one, they were called into a room with the entire school board and a camera. They were asked in grim tones if they had accepted any money from the family of any incoming students. It was clear that the school board knew everything. Each of the eight teachers confessed to accepting a gift but denied that this would give any favoritism to that student. They were asked if they had ever received a “gift” any other time in their career. They all said no. They were asked if they knew that their employment contract prohibited receiving gifts. They all said, “It appears that it slipped my mind.” They were asked about the stated reason for the money transfers were all to pay for labor or to reimburse them for supplies they had purchased. Did you provide labor or buy things needing reimbursement? No, they all said that the stated reason was incorrect. Did they not know that it was a crime to get a payment for which the stated reason was wrong? Yes, they knew it was a crime, but they just did not look at that part of the computer message.
The school board got signed confessions from all eight teachers and turned the matter over to the police. The police confiscated the bribe and fined the teachers an additional 25% of the payments. Each family was fined an additional 200% of the bribe, with half going to the police, and half going to the school system. Thus, if a family had bribed one teacher $400, the result was that the teacher would lose the bribe and have to pay another $100. The family had to pay an additional $800. The school ended up with $400, and the police with $900. That was the math for one family and one teacher. The amount of money involved with all of the bribes and all of the fines was staggering.
The police loved cases like this. Bring the people in, look over the signed confessions, do some simple arithmetic and the only delay is typing in the bank account numbers to decrement. People were very motivated to pay fine quickly. The inability to pay within 14 days meant slavery. The house goes away. The contents go away. The people go away. It was up to the individual to borrow, sell, or work out whatever financial arrangement was necessary. In reality, many lenders would be glad to offer loans at a high-interest rate. If the borrower defaulted, the result was slavery. Once you were processed into slavery, the lender would get full payment plus any bonus due to the total value of the liquidation sale. Considering the value of “good” families as slaves, the bonus would be substantial.
Since the punishment for the families was financial, it largely fell on the parents. To be clear, sending a bribe and lying on the financial transfers were crimes. But at the heart of this affair, there was a child who wanted to succeed and had one or two parents who were willing to ignore the law. Flouting the law was reserved for level one and level two people. These families, who were all level three or level four, should never try a stunt like this. But there was one way that the scandal affected the students. Each of the six juniors was required to take a series of examinations under video scrutiny. Two of the students needed to repeat the sophomore year. That left two really angry students who were now humiliated before the entire student body. There were four students who knew they would not get any favoritism during the school year. Anything they did would be subjected to great scrutiny and skepticism.
At the last minute, the school board issued a surprise ruling. All eight teachers would swap places with teachers from throughout the region. Sixteen teachers were uprooted. They all had to sell their houses and move their families, right before the start of the school year. In truth, most of the teachers involved just swapped houses and furniture with their respective “partner.”
This affair was shocking for the entire school. Virtually all the teachers for the junior class were brand new to Warren G Harding High School. The new teachers were very upset about their situation. They did not trust anybody. They were angry at the whole town for dragging them from their homes, schools, and communities. They were angry at the school board and at the high school administration for allowing a bribery scandal of such size that it required such a dramatic response. They were angry at the teachers who they replaced for being willing to do anything for money. They were suspicious of all their fellow teachers. They treated all students with suspicion and were not interested in any funny business.
For the new junior teachers, finding out that the best student in the incoming class was a slave with an attitude was the last straw. They were more than willing to prohibit her from the classes they were teaching. They would have, except that the school administration and the school board were very firm. And, to the extent possible, “the slave formerly known as Jane Foreman” was to be treated as if she were an ordinary student. The new teachers were astonished that the Physical Education department had purchased the equipment to allow Jane to participate in class activities without leg shackles. The new teachers thought they had entered a crazy school. Who could imagine such a thing would ever be allowed?
The junior year for Jane and all her classmates was chaos. None of these new teachers had ever worked together before. The new teachers were trying to get new bank accounts, new phone arrangements, new furniture, and new schools for their children. They tried to help their spouse to get a new job, tried to deal with friends, relatives, and creditors who were upset that they had just left town so abruptly. Several times a day, someone put a major alert on one of the new teachers to put them into level five. It took a lot of time and energy to try to launch their lives in a new town. The business of getting the school year launched for the juniors was not happening.
During lunch of the second day of school, Jane, Deb, and Rose decided to do something to help the new teachers. They went off campus and made a call to Mr. Mitchell. He agreed to their plan. Jane, Deb, and Rose went to each of the new teachers and told them there was a meeting that evening at Mr. Mitchell's house to help them get settled in the town. They made sure that the teachers knew that Mr. Mitchell was probably the richest person in town.
All the new junior teachers arrived for the meeting. A nice buffet dinner was served for everyone. Mr. Mitchell said, “Time is short; please state your biggest concerns.” Jane and Rose kept careful notes. For issues that just required phone calls were assigned to the members of the gang of ten that were present. For issues that required contacts with banks, phone companies, creditors, and other formal institutions, Mr. Mitchell said, “My staff will take care of that.” Jane knew that meant he and his niece would deal with the issues. The teachers needed help with transporting furniture. He said he would direct his senior slaves to rent trucks to assist the teachers. Each teacher got a list of the phone numbers of the entire gang of ten. They pledged to assist the teachers with questions about school choices for their children and recommendations for local stores and contractors. Mr. Mitchell also said that each teacher with a life partner should e-mail their credentials and work history, and he would see to it that they all got appropriate jobs in the community.
The teachers were overwhelmed by the support that they were getting. Slowly, they came to realize that it was Jane's insight into their plight that caused all of this activity. Jane and her fellow students said that they were not doing this to get a reward, but strictly because they wanted to get the junior year started in the school. Since every student wanted the teachers to become members of the community of Warren as soon as possible, everyone was invested in solving their overwhelming problems.
The new teachers started to ignore the fact that Jane was a slave and decided that all the stories they had heard about how rude and difficult Jane had been must be wrong. Jane also won points by saying that they would have pitched in earlier if they had known about their problems previously.
With the start of school, the competition for getting on the top-twenty list in the school rankings was underway. Only about 30 kids were invested in the battle for the top 20. No one had any doubt that Deb and Jane would get the two top slots. Their ability to do well on tests, papers, homework assignments, quizzes, and lab projects was the stuff of legend.
In P.E. class, students had a rope-climbing test. A long rope was hung from the ceiling all the way down to the ground. Each student took turns putting on a safety harness and climbing up as far as they could. Jane and Deb were the only girls to make it to the ceiling. Jane stayed up a long time before coming down on her own power. She told people when she got down that she enjoyed the birds-eye view. Jane and Deb had been lifting weights during the summer. Anyone who thought that they could tackle them in the cafeteria started to rethink their plans.
Jane and Deb had decided to spend more time together at school. They stopped hiding where Jane lived. Sometimes a few students not in the gang of ten walked with Jane and Deb to Deb's house. It made things easier not to be pretending so much about their life situations.
There were some confrontations in the cafeteria. These were usually verbal. Fred Crocker loved to tease Deb for bringing in her “pet girl” to school. He sometimes made crude sexual references as to why they were always together. Fred was handsome and very charming. As the days wore on, Deb would smile and slyly address Fred as if they were close friends. Somehow, they found a way to become close friends.
Things got interesting when Deb invited Fred to some of the gang's study sessions. While the gang of ten often stated that they held no grudges and wanted to keep good relations with everyone, this was going too far. Fred was one of the kids involved in the bribery scandal. When the issue came up, he said that Kathy and Carol had joined the gang for summer school. Fred said that he and Deb were now friends, and he wanted to be accepted by “her gang.” Fred claimed that it was his father's idea to join others who were bribing the junior teachers. Fred also claimed that he always thought this was a bad idea.
Even though Deb's friends were deeply suspicious of Fred, they accepted Fred socially. They did extract a promise from Deb that she would never reveal the true ownership of Jane or any other part of the financial dealings that allowed her to have a support network at school. They told her that if this information went to wider circles, it made Jane vulnerable to attack. They also made jokes about “Romeo and Juliet” and teased Deb about how that play ended.
Fred did join the gang socially on many occasions and was welcomed to many study sessions. He came to appreciate the sheer amount of work that the gang put into their school work and how they taught each other difficult concepts. Fred's grades did go up, mostly because it was hard to shirk his homework and his studies when he was hanging out with this group of relentless students.
It all started innocently enough. Stephen Ratte got his math test handed back from his teacher. Stephen was another boy involved with the bribery scandal. He had drawn his teacher's attention by asking that his homework be rechecked now and then. The daily algebra homework hardly mattered to his grade point average. Mrs. Johnson was not comfortable with the way he always seemed to have one or two problems that seemed to be “more complete” the second time around. Before handing back the test, she photographed each page.
As soon as Mrs. Johnson got home and went into her study, she compared the image of the test she has passed out with the test Stephen had given her. There was no doubt; Stephen had finished a problem after he got his graded paper and was now trying to increase his grade based on these “improvements.” She sent her file to the school's printing device. The next day, she brought both versions of the test, the photographed version, and the returned version, to the school's administration.
The whole affair was ugly. He was brought before a “school honesty committee.” He claimed that he was not trying to increase his grade, but “just wanted to demonstrate his ability to do the problem to the teacher.” This did not make sense. Rose testified that she heard Stephen ask the teacher for a higher grade, contradicting his flimsy defense. After a week of deliberations, the committee decided that Stephen would get a zero for his test. Since this would be about 9% of his final grade, this was a serious blow to his efforts to lift his grade point average.
The worst part was that Stephen blamed Rose for “lying to the committee.” He refused to take responsibility for what he had done. He refused to see that altering his test paper after it was graded was proof positive that he had been cheating. Rose's testimony only shredded a lame excuse that was going to be rejected anyway.
More and more students in Jane's circle of friends were starting to hang out with their “best friend.” Jane was still very fond of Danny. Karen and Zach had joined the gang as a pair and stayed that way. Two more pairs formed during the summer: Rose and William, and Cathy and Peter.
With Deb now having Fred as a “best friend,” this left Sarah and Becky as the only members of the gang of ten that did not have a “best friend.” Sometimes Sarah and Becky held hands to show they each had a best friend as well. It was a good joke, but there was some truth to it. They both wished they had someone who shared their burning desire for education whom they could call a best friend.
The fall dance for the juniors was a grand affair. Jane was able to attend with Danny. Danny was very handsome; many of Jane's friends wanted to dance with him. This was Jane's special night of the season. It was wonderful she was able to attend with all of her friends. Sarah and Becky managed to find dates. No one cared that these were temporary relationships.
Kathy and Carol told Deb that they needed to deliver news in total privacy. They went to a corner of the athletic field where there were no monitoring devices. They told Deb that Fred was preparing to frame Deb for cheating. They warned her that he would plant the answers to tomorrow's chemistry test on her just before the test started. Deb laughed at them, but Carol was insistent that she be on her guard.
Sure enough, at recess, right before the chemistry test, Fred came over to give a large and inappropriate hug. Deb was quite alarmed. She hurried to the restroom and took off all her clothes in the stall. She found two copies of the test answers tucked into her clothes. She ripped the answers up into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet. She searched her clothes once again, put them on, and came over to the sink. She asked a boy combing his hair if there was anything hidden in her hair. He looked carefully. Deb looked at herself carefully in the mirror. She was ready for the test.
Sure enough, two teachers pulled her out of the test. They took her to the bathroom and searched her from top to bottom. She stood there thinking this is what a slave being sold must feel like. The teachers looked very confused. They looked like they were certain that they would find evidence hidden in her clothing. Deb was angry and very confused about Fred and his intentions all along.
Fred looked alarmed when Deb was returned to the test. He waved the teachers over. You could tell that he was certain that she had hidden slips of paper in her clothes. The teachers shook their heads and looked like they should be tearing his clothes apart, not Deb's clothes. Of course, Fred had memorized the answers. This was not his lucky day. Some of the test answers were written down incorrectly, and his memory was faulty. Further, seeing Deb back at the test so disoriented him that he did poorly on the part of the test he was not cheating on. While Fred did not fail the test, this was not his shining hour.
When the school day was over, Deb did not want to speak to Fred at all. She just said, “This is over.” And it was.
That night, Deb made sure all of Jane's clothes were off and chained her to the bed. Deb then took off her clothes and snuggled close to Jane. Jane said, “This is not right. I know you are very angry with Fred, but I cannot be a substitute. If your parents come in here, everything you have worked for will be over. I do not know what your issues are. Please find another way of expressing them tonight.”
Deb was still crying. She stayed in bed for a few more minutes before she got out. Deb put on her PJ's, slept on a small pad on the floor, alternating between light sleep and crying.
Over the next few days, Deb was very difficult. She kept talking about how Fred was determined to bring them all down from the beginning. She just had not seen this coming. Her friends tried to warn her that Fred was trouble, but Deb did not listen. While the breakup healed the rift between Deb and the rest of the gang, it was almost too painful to discuss.
What happened that Saturday pushed thoughts of betrayal into the background. Stephen Ratte deliberately drove his car to run down Rose, Deb, and Jane. Deb and Jane survived; Rose was killed. Rose pushed Deb away and used the leash to swing Jane away from the impact. Rose lived for three more days, long enough for her to learn that she was the only one who was seriously hurt, that she had saved other lives, and that everyone loved her deeply.
The funeral was very hard for everyone. At the viewing, Deb and Jane approached the open coffin with a small chair. Jane was wearing an especially long leather leash. At the coffin, Deb took the leash and put it into Rose's hands. She placed the chair next to and behind the coffin. Jane sat there for the duration of the funeral. She was silent while others gave eulogies. When the coffin was closed, the leash stayed in Rose's hand.
Rose's family left the funeral building first, and then eight members of the gang of ten carried the full weight of the coffin. Jane followed the coffin, as she was still attached. When the coffin was placed in the hearse, she crawled in next to the coffin and held the coffin on the way to the cemetery. At the graveside, Sarah used a large knife to cut the leather leash. Half the leash was buried inside the coffin. Jane stood in place with half a leash dangling from her neck.
Stephen was declared an adult. He was fined $300,000. Not having that amount, he was sold and never seen in Warren again. Half of Stephen's sale price was distributed to Rose's family. The entire legal process, from start to finish, was just accounting entries. After Jane's and Deb's medical expenses were taken care of, the police kept the rest of the sale price.
The emotional toll was devastating. Everyone at the school was affected. There were a series of meetings at the high school to try to make sense of the sweep of events in the junior year. Jane often spoke about the need to change from an attitude of greed and entitlement to an attitude of hard work and service to the world. She said that we can all make a better world if we consciously think about how to help others.
The death of Rose was very hard on William. Rose was his girlfriend. He reached out to Sarah in the aftermath. Sarah returned his affection. Often Sarah and William spoke of “our Rose,” as if Sarah included herself in William's prior relationship with Rose.
The next shift was complicated. Deb started to approach Cathy. Cathy had been the partner to Peter. To everyone's surprise, Cathy and Deb became partners. If truth be told, Jane was the least surprised. Since she lived with Deb for such a long time in such intimate circumstances, she could tell that the affection Deb had for Jane was more than Jane ever felt like returning.
Sometimes Cathy slept with Deb, which made Jane think of how she and Danny had made Deb uncomfortable the previous year. Jane was very happy that Deb and Cathy were in love; this made Jane's daily life a little less stressful.
For those keeping track, this left Peter and Becky as unattached. They too paired up. Now, for the first time, the nine surviving members of the gang of ten each had a close partner. Only Jane had a partner outside of the gang. At no time did anyone speak of the gang of nine. It was always “the gang of ten,” a permanent memory of Rose.
Jane organized a major charity event in Rose's name. With the financial assistance of countless donations and the backing of Mr. Mitchell, a Christmas party for about 100 slaves was organized at the high school.
This was a major event. Countless volunteers came to help. A key part of the event was the distribution of much better clothing. All the pants needed to be altered to insert inside-the-leg zippers to be useful for persons with leg shackles. Everyone needed to be measured weeks ahead of time.
The event took place at the high school. The P.E. department was used to receive everyone. Volunteers helped to make sure all the slaves got showers, got groomed, dressed, and prepared appropriately. Many of the slaves had not been able to look presentable in decades.
A feast was prepared in the school kitchen. Students served the slaves with the greatest of dignity. Skits, songs, and comedy helped fill the evening once the stomachs were filled. It was a great evening for all. This sort of public charity was almost unknown, even more so since it was charity devoted to slaves. Many people in town predicted disaster for a Christmas party for slaves. The evening went very well. Every volunteer left feeling much better and unsure why that was so. The slaves were all given small gift bags with items such as grooming supplies and simple music players. They were grateful for the evening, the food, the gifts, the clothes, and the dignity they received that night.
And yes, people remembered the name Rose Chang, in whose name there was an annual event from then on. Each year, Mr. Mitchell noticed he needed to do less and less of the organizing until the event could go on without his personal support.
The Junior Prom was an event to celebrate the junior class and have some fun. Unlike previous dances and events, this was much more formal. It was a practice run for the Senior Prom, which was, of course, the big event for a high school student. More and more, Jane's fellow students referred to themselves not as “juniors,” but as members of “Jane's class.” They were fiercely proud of Jane and turned to her for ideas and leadership.
Jane took a leading role in planning the junior prom. One of the themes of the prom was making sure all of the class could participate. She set up a cost structure that pushed more of the financial weight onto the wealthier families, and less onto the poorer families. Arrangements were made so no one would be excluded due to the cost of the ticket or the cost of the preparation.
Jane was gorgeous at the event itself. She wore a beautiful long black and gold skirt. She wore a simple chain around her waist to symbolize her captivity. Her chest and back were painted with double-headed gold eagles with a black background. Her lack of any shirt or top was striking but not that unusual for formal dances. The chain and the design made her a symbol of dignity and school spirit. The school colors were gold and black. The beautiful double-headed eagle design painted on her body was acclaimed as perfect for the yearbook.
Everyone wanted to dance with Jane. Danny restricted the honor to anyone from the gang of ten. Deb and Cathy came over to dance with Jane. They wore matching long skirts; both of them had a very large rose painted on their chest and midsection.
The anxiety about grades ended when the school year rankings were finally posted. Of the 11 students in the summer school program (not counting Rose), they all did very well. All 11 ranked in the top 15. It was hard to imagine that the class rankings would change much by the end of the senior year.
There was no summer school after the junior year. There was a single, private meeting where books and study materials were distributed. The students were all on their own. There was no formal class and no teacher. To succeed, they needed to support each other and teach each other.
One thing that was frustrating for Jane was her inability to travel anywhere without being on a leash. This was the law. The only exception was if she had a gold collar. She asked Mr. Mitchell, and he said that there was a minimum age of 24 before an application could be permitted.
Having some contact with her parents and her brothers was a comfort to Jane. When she tried to send messages to her family in her sophomore year, Jane got a gruff message from someone named “Jim” saying she was sending too many messages. It said, “One message per month, or no messages at all.” Jane decided to send a message on the 20th of each month. It was easy to remember since her birthday was May 20th.
After a while, things got better for her family. Her parents, Robert and Ruth, got better “jobs.” Robert was now managing a small business establishment. Ruth had a job at a slave “orphanage” that cared for children who were considered of value but did not have parents that were permitted to care for them. It was an unpleasant establishment, and Ruth did her best to help as many children as she could. All of them needed much more care and attention than the team of helpers could provide.
In the spring of her junior year, all contact from her family stopped. Jane was heartbroken. She asked Mr. Mitchell for help. He did a search using their slave numbers and determined that they were all alive and still in the same place. Every few weeks, he repeated the search and got the same results. She ached for some way to reach out and help them, to pull them from their awful situation.
During the junior year of high school, most college-bound students start learning about the different post-high school education opportunities available to them. The range of opportunities is always based on financial reality, student interest, geographic considerations, and many, many other factors. Some preliminary forms are filled out. The family goes through a rigorous financial examination.
Jane could not apply directly to college. Jane discovered that she needed to start communicating with families that would want to purchase an educated slave as a companion for their son or daughter at the college of their choice. This was much more like applying for a job than applying for college. A family wanted personality, academics, compatibility with their kid, and excellent teaching experience. Jane's main job would be to attend classes with her new owner, and later help her new owner make sense of the classroom material. A slave could also help a college student cope with complex social interactions, attend meetings or events that freed up the owner for other activities. Depending on the situation, the slave might also be an intimate companion.
Jane made a short video of her friends attending math and science classes and then going over the material with them afterward. She tried to show herself to be a good tutor without giving out any answers. She tried to be professional, but not boring. It was tricky to get the right approach.
Jane worked hard on a major essay selling herself as a “college companion.” With Mr. Mitchell's help, this material was placed on an open data file that was available to anyone searching for someone with her profile.
During the summer, Jane used a camera to document her way of leading some of the study sessions. She decided that a tape of a long study session was more interesting than the highly edited tape she had previously made. It was so hard to figure out how to advertise yourself for sale. She kept hoping that Mr. Mitchell would not lose any money on her.
Jane knew that each day brought her closer to being a High School Graduate. She knew that she would be purchased by somebody far away who would plunge her into a new world totally different than her own. She found herself reading books, essays, and poems by those who had to venture into very new experiences all by themselves. Many people in history had left their communities and taken a ship across an ocean to travel to a new land all by themselves. These stories brought her sadness and strength.
She had lost her immediate family in a horrifying night raid on her house. Now she was losing everything else, but especially the community that she had helped construct, and which was constructed around her. To lose Rose was unbearable. To lose everyone else was unthinkable. Yet, she knew that a new family, a new education, and a new life was waiting. There was little she could do to control it. In fact, the only thing she could do to control it was to try and learn about different potential purchasers and attempt to market herself better to anyone she preferred. Jane knew that this was discouraged. She tried to craft her “promotional material” in a way that might attract the kind of people she wanted. It was all a gamble. Her destiny was outside of her control.