Jessy gets her grades a couple weeks later, nodding as she looks them over and copies them for Rupert.

Larry chuckes as he takes the paper. "Rupert figured you'd be getting them soon, he's in a meeting now."

"The state still trying to put stuff up around the area?"

"And maintenance is talking about flipping houses. There's a lot of places for sale around here and in Miami that could be sold for a lot more money. . .they just need a bit of work."

"Or houses that are being lived in that could use some work."

"That too." Larry laughs.

"What's the work this summer?"

"The library and the candy store. We're also looking at painting the main house again."

"Have to be after hurricane season when the fucking humidity is gone."

"Amen."

"Thanks for coming with me Sam." Jessy says a couple days later. "Rupert wants me to at least look at a vehicle of my own. I keep telling him that I don't need one. . .it's just as easy to use one of the house's vehicles the few times I need to go somewhere."

Sam nods. "But sometimes you need your own vehicle. That way you can get away in case something happens."

"If I'm near it at the time." she mutters as they pull up to a dealership where repossessed cars are being auctioned off. Sam's got another reason to be there, the House needs more vehicles. He finds several vehicles and makes a call. . . the others arriving in cars and vans to drive off the vehicles if they buy them.

Jessy is torn between a sedan and a van, Sam and the others giving her the nod for both of the and she bids when they come up, not at all surprised when they both come to her. Going to the treasurer she pays for them both and gets everything she needs to go back to the house, Looking over everything she needs to register the vehicles she puts it in the file cabinet and joins the others in the main house.

"Jessy, I'm going to the secretary of state tomorrow.' Scott says. Jessy nods in satisfaction.

Jessy grabs a number and they settle in to wait, getting called up and going over all the paperwork, writing out checks and getting the license plates.

"Are you stupid?" A woman says in a smooth as silk voice at the airport a couple days later. "No, there is no way you are going to be allowed to empty first class because you think you're special." The woman across the counter from her continues to whine as Jessy is among the first people to board the flight.

The woman tries to stop her and Jessy backhands her. "Get your hands the hell off me."

"But you don't need to be in first class." She whines. "Coach should be good enough for you." She sneers.

"I have RA you retarded cunt, my business always books first class for me because the other seats have less legroom and I'd be in agony by the time I got off the flight." She takes another step and is grabbed again.

"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID! GET YOUR HANDS THE HELL OFF ME!" She elbows her gut and gets loose.

"But I want first class to myself." She wails as she's dragged off.

"If you want the fucking plane to yourself buy yourself your own damn plane." Jessy mutters. Clapping from everybody around her waiting to board.

"Please return to your seats, boarding is delayed for the time being." one of the women behind the counter announces.

"Is she drunk?" One of the airport's police officers asks when she's put in a cell still wailing that they don't need to have other people in first class. She's special and they can just move back to coach and like it.

"Probably, she's refusing a breathalyzer but reeks of alcohol. Security cameras are backtracking her now."

"Who is that?" Police Commissioner Frank Reagan asks as a youngish woman walks into the house, getting hugs and hand clasps from most everybody.

"Jessy Michaels, she's the head of the seamstress shop in Miami as well as the librarian. She comes out summers to take classes at a textiles school in the area. The school has a branch in Miami but they've only offered the degree she was going for a couple years now. This way Jessy can get the degree here summers and go for her other degrees in Miami the rest of the year."

"Other degrees?"

"She graduated with a bachelor in library science and business and is going for a Library Science masters?" El looks over at Jessy.

"Yeeesssssss." Jessy says, rolling her eyes. "I'm partway through that and figure on getting an appointment to present my thesis this fall."

"Rupert demand you get a MBA too?"

"Yeeeessssss." El's lips twitch madly. "Go ahead and laugh, everybody else did. He handed the envelopes to the both of us, stood over us until we made out the forms, handed us checks and stamps, and dropped the appolications in the outgoing mail basket." El leans on the wall and howls as Jessy drops into a seat. "So anyway we can start them next fall." Frank bites his lip to keep from laughing, that's a parent move and from the way Ms. Michael's not really complaining she thinks of him as a parent too.

"We?"

"Xander Harris, he's a woodworker in Miami. Both of them were going for more than one degree in Miami, but while Jessy was going for the library science and textiles degrees he was taking a design degree specializing in woodworking along with the business degree.

"Peter, keep an eye out for a phone call or letter from the airline. Some fool woman tried having everybody removed from first class because she was special. .." Sounds of disgust prove everybody's listening. "She grabbed me when I started to board, telling me coach was good enough for me. I told the stupid bitch that the business always buys a first class ticket for me because of my RA, that's I'd be in agony by the end of the flight thanks to them cramming them in like sardines back there." Everybody who's ever flown nod and sigh. "Dumb cunt grabbed me again as I took another step and I elbowed the bitch right in the gut. Security dragged her off but the flight was delayed a hour while they investigated to determine charges against her. The airline was supposed to be giving out apologies to everybody for our problems. . .not that I see it happening. I gave this address and phone number as a place I could be reached for the next couple months."

"But she could have gone into coach . . ." The stupid bitch wails in front of a judge a couple days after the incident.

"Why should she?" The judge snorts. "She had just as much right to first class as you did. You had no business demanding first class be emptied for your personal use. And you certainly had no business putting your hands on that young woman. If you think you're so special that you need the plane to yourself. . .buy a private plane."

"Not likely now. . .she's just been hit with divorce proceedings." The bailiff snorts after she's dragged wailing out of the courtroom and back to jail.

"Really?" The court stenographer purrs.

"Yep, she married an older man with a lot of money but her alcohol abuse and rampant stupidity has been enough. She's gone. . .he packed up her shit and it's waiting in storage for her when she gets out of jail."

"couldn't happen to a nicer moron." The stenographer snorts as she covers her machine. "I notice she refused to take a breathalyzer. . .if you haven't been drinking you don't have anything to hide."

"Yes, and security footage shows her in multiple bars on the concourse before she went to the counter."

The apology arrives at the New York House a couple weeks later.

Jessy arrives back at the Miami house a week before she has to sign up for her classes.

"Did you get your masters?" She asks Peter as they walk into the cafeteria.

"Yes, you were in Boston while I was there."

"Oh that was a disaster. Some fools called in a tip to the police about the expo. They came in and shut everything down . ..then were stunned to find out it wasn't drugs. . .it was fabric."

"How the hell do you get drugs from textiles?" Xander asks down the table.

"No damn clue. They impounded the plane we arrived in. . .because they were sure we were transporting drugs. Drug dogs scoured the entire plane but found nothing. They didn't want to let us leave. .. they were trying to keep the situation quiet. It didn't work. . .we were all calling the media and blogging. The police finally had to let us go when the mayor asked if they had found anything. The hotel canceled the reservations of everybody involved. . then were stunned when no drugs materialized. They tried getting everybody to come back to the hotel but by then everybody was so disgusted at what had happened. The organization has banned Boston from any further expos. The hotel is blubbering about losing so much revenue but if they hadn't fucking canceled the reservations. . ."

"They wouldn't have lost the revenue." Rupert rolls his eyes. "You can't have it both ways people."

"Exactly. They're working on where the expo will be now. Boston is stil* pointing fingers trying to blame somebody else for what happened. Because it's not just our expo that pulled out thanks to their stupidity. Because if it can happen to us. . .it can happen to them."

Jessy sorts through her mail over the next couple of days, walking through the triple the size of the old one library and shaking her head because she can 'see' more room. Rupert chuckles and pats her shoulder.

Scott brings in the handtruck with the boxes and bags of books and other supplies for Jessy's university classes.

"Did you finish your thesis?"

"Yes, and I sent it to my advisor before I left New York." He nods in satisfaction.

"Are you stupid lady?" Sam asks scathingly in the courtroom. "No. . .I didn't get everything I wanted. My father is still dead, my brother is still dead. That little bastard was strutting around like he's the man. . .he's not the least bit sorry that he killed two people when he went in like Rambo. He's just sorry he's being punished. Him behind bars for the rest of his life isn't what I want. . .because the state has to take care of him now. If I got what I wanted, he'd have been shot just like my family." The judge gives the moron's mother a look but she continues to wail.

"I'll never be able to talk to him again."

"Bullshit. I can't talk to my brother and father all you have to do it go to the prison to visit him."

"The only reaason you convicted my baby is because they were white. If they were black he'd got away with it." she howls as she's dragged out of the courtroom.

"The apple didn't fall far from the tree." Speed snorts the next day at lunch.

"His father is just as self-centered." Ryan mutters. "You should have heard the complaining whenever I had to give any of the family a ticket. They were going to sue. They were going to go over my head and get me fired. Then wailed like a siren when the bosses told them to grow the fuck up. Moron only joined the department because Mommy dearest told him to. . .she was sure this would get them out of tickets now. . .everybody knows cops protect their own. They'd never pull her over now."

"Bullshit." Frank mutters.

"Yes, bitch wailed like a siren when she was pulled over after her son joined the force. Woman screamed like a siren when she was told we don't excuse tickets. How could we do that to her? She was going to lose her license if she got more tickets."

"God forbid the bitch obey the traffic laws." Maxine mutters as she comes over to the table with her lunch.

"Of course not." Ryan snorts.

Jessy leans in Rupert's door a couple weeks later, Dexter looking over at her. "Sorry to interrupt. I got an appointment to defend my thesis next week."

"That's early."

"It's pretty basic. . .I wrote about what I'm actually doing. Same thing I'll be doing for my MBA." Rupert nods in satisfaction.

Jessy slumps into a seat in the main building the next week, giving the people watching her a thumbs up before she falls asleep. Joyce snickers and a couple hours later nudges her awake.

"Hard presentation?" Willow asks as she stumbles to a seat in the cafeteria.

"No, the ones before me ran long though." Everybody who's seen the time for their presentation come and go nod. "Since mine was a basic library science and I already run a library they just looked it over, asked a couple questions, and shoved me out the door. They wanted to go home too." Snickering around her. "So I'll get the official results in a couple weeks."

"Midterms?"

"Next week. They wanted to get them all in before the tests." Everybody who's went to grad school laughs and nods.

Rupert nods in satisfaction as he sees the last of the paint for the main house delivered. The other supplies have already been delivered and everybody but Jessy is busy scrubbing getting ready to paint. Everybody knows if you're taking classes you get a pass in something like this. Otherwise Jessy would be right there with the others.

"Tests?" he asks as Jessy stifles a yawn.

"Haven't got the grades back yet but I'm hovering around the A-/A range." Giving into the urge she stretches and yawns. It's been raining for the last few days thanks to the latest hurricane brushing the coast and she's not the only one yawning.

The rest of the semester passes by slowly and Jessy takes her finals, putting her books up in the room in her home Rupert had made for them. Everybody's busy painting and she heads to the main house, heading to the cafeteria to help get food ready. With everybody painting they're eating at the same time.

"Jessyca Maree McDonald Travers." The head cook says slowly, her hands on her hips as Jessy pulls on a hairnet and washes her hands.

"I just finished my finals and put my books away." She nods in satisfaction. "Start putting out the trays." Jessy grabs the stacks of trays and puts them on the tables along with silverware. The salad and pizza bars are filled next. The cook looks around in satisfaction. "Go yell it's time to eat."

"Dinner." Jessy bellows down the hallway, repeating it over the intercom. The others start trooping in as they finish up what they're doing, grabbing trays and filling them.

"Finals?" Rupert asks.

"Finished and put my books away, that's why I'm here instead of in the library." Rupert nods in satisfaction. He looks at her and she fills her tray. "Have you heard back officially about your Masters?"

"Yes, I've got it. Nobody's going to make any comments about favoritism or irregularities presenting it now. And you know damn good and will somebody will. Because they think they're all that." Everybody in earshot nods.

"Supplies?" Wesley asks after everybody's eaten and are just sitting in the cafeteria.

"Should be arriving tomorrow. Recycling?"

"The truck is due in a couple days. Soapmaking supplies?"

"Was arriving when I walked to the library after lunch." Jessy calls. "Leatherworkers and seamstress buildings orders are due tomorrow. Cheesemakers day after tomorrow along with the candy building." Rupert and Wesley nod in satisfaction.

"Paint?"

"We're nearly done, by lunch tomorrow."

A week later all the supplies have been delivered to various buildings and the recycling has been taken away. Jessy is at the mall getting the last batches of books, DVDS, music, and whatnot for the year with Amara and Doug.

"No Mr. Wells?" the bookstore owner asks.

"Fell and hurt his ankle. The doctor wants him to stay off it. So he's busy doing paperwork." The owner sniggers. "Yeah, a fate worse than death. Especially with how much crap always seems to show up at the end of the year."

"Oh yes, I know that very well." The store owner sighs as everybody starts getting books.

"Good afternoon Ms. Michaels. Mr. Wells called me and told me you'd be picking up both orders." the clerk at the comic book store says when she walks into the store. Dialing Andrew's phone, Jessy starts listing the new stuff, adding it to his order. At the House Rupert chuckles.

After a late dinner they arrive back at the House. Locking up the van and truck. . .there's not a damn thing that won't wait until morning they take golf carts to the main house. The next morning Jessy drops Andrew's boxes outside his apartment before dropping her schoolbooks and supplies at the library.

"Thanks for picking everything up, Jessy." Andrew says when he comes into the cafeteria.

"Did you get your books for next semester?"

"Yes. Also signed up for graduation and got enough supplies for next semester and both of us next fall." Rupert nods in satisfaction.

Everybody heading home heads off the first week in December, the others settling in to the quieter House when the employees with families in the area are off for two weeks. Grumbling Xander is busy going over notes for his business plan, Rupert nodding as he looks over his shoulder.