Desperate Measures

As the last of the mothers filed into the room, Guin noticed that there were only about two dozen here. Aside from her, there were only two fillies, one about fourteen, and the other only eight. Guin had moved back twice, wanting to avoid being the center of attention. This was not only because she wanted to mostly observe, but also because the other mares kept complaining about the lack of food and wine. One thing was definitely for sure, though. These mares were all from well-to-do households. Guin was obviously the poorest one here, with the teen mother being a close second.

The teen sat down next to Guin. She was a light blue pegasus with a silver mane and tail, with soft green eyes. "You must be Guin," she said, offering her hoof. "Kurt told me I should make sure I was here today to meet you."

"Kurt sent you?"

"Seascape's the name."

"Guin." She shook her hoof. "Listen, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm just wanting to watch today."

"Fair enough," shrugged Seascape. "Probably the smartest move."

Mistress walked up to the opposite side of the group and clapped her hooves to gather everyone's attention. "Everypony, look at over here so we can begin! Welcome once again to our end-of-the-week meeting. Now, I know a mother's work is never done, so I have your weekend assignments ready, but before we open that can of cake, it's time to compare notes."

"Can of cake?" Guin asked Seascape quietly.

"The expression is "can of worms," but the committee doesn't like that because it sounds disgusting. There's a lot of language they've changed because they didn't like it. Just nod and follow along, or they'll latch onto the fact that you're dissenting."

"Let's start with you, Seascape," Mistress called. "Since you're so set on talking."

"Okay." Seascape stood up. "My son is happy, healthy, and is among the top performers in his class. When the preschool class ran flash cards on Tuesday, he was able to name every fruit from apple to watermelon." She narrowed her eyes and smirked at Mistress. "And he didn't trip over the word "kiwi." How did your son do, again?"

Mistress narrowed her eyes back. "Forty percent better than last week. You're looking at, what, a ten percent improvement?"

"Not much higher one can go than a perfect score," shot Seascape back. "He can also count to Twenty. That's way more than five."

"You may sit," commanded Mistress.

Seascape sat down. As Mistress moved on to other parents, she leaned over and whispered to Guin. "When she comes to you, say you don't know the grades yet. Kurt's just hit a downward spiral with what's been going on, so don't draw any attention to that. Try to just focus on abdicating your time, because you have no way of making yourself look good, here."

"But I'm new..."

"That's not going to protect you. Just say you haven't looked at the grades and have no plan of correcting course until you can see a problem."

"Guin!"

Guin stood up at Mistress's call. "I have nothing to report. Report cards don't come home for two weeks, and mine is still being shipped to my previous address. I can't tell you how I'm doing in school, much less how my kids are doing."

"Sounds like you haven't been paying any attention to your kids," noted Mistress. "You need to be more proactive. Go talk to the teachers and demand that they give you access to the gradebooks."

The zebra, who'd been holding a notebook similar to what the teachers used, turned two pages and stood up. "You and both of your kids took half of Wednesday off, citing "personal day." In addition, Kurt is failing math and biology, Jenny is failing science, and you are failing math and social studies."

Mistress turned back to Guin. "There you have it. Sounds like you need to be a lot less lazy. How you ever convinced somepony to marry you is beyond me. You couldn't even be bothered to cook a simple casserole. Where is your pride as a mother, hm?"

Guin sat down as Seascape stood up. "That's enough, Bitch! I'll have you know that her kids were failing before she became their mother, and she hasn't had the time to fix jack shit since her wedding. And that personal day was for a funeral, so you can shut that cock socket mouth of yours before I shut it for you!"

The eight-year old filly, at the front of the room, chuckled softly, the only sound to be heard. Guin was silent and still, having not expected to be called out for failing math and social studies, because she wasn't. She had seen her grades, and they were at eighty-two percent in math and seventy-six percent in social studies. Those were her lowest grades, sure, but they weren't failures. She also hadn't expected Seascape to jump to her aid like that. She barely knew her; they'd only met twenty minutes ago.

As Mistress continued on, moving to the next order of business, home care, Seascape sat back down. "You okay?"

"I'm not failing," Guin whimpered, almost on the verge of tears.

"If you have a B or lower, yes you are, in their eyes. B+ or higher is the minimum grade requirement for this group. Kurt actually is failing math, though. I don't know if you can help him, but perhaps you can talk to his dad?"

Guin sniffled and nodded.

When it came time for their turns, Seascape had Guin refrain from discussing home care, as the house was still in turmoil from the impacts. Seascape herself said that her home care was fine, and the only reason it wasn't great was because she was here, rather than at home taking care of it.

Then came the discussion of their sex lives, and surprisingly, no one gave Guin any mind when she said she didn't want to talk about it, with most of them assuming it was boring, and they all wanted to hear something juicy today. Even more shocking, it was the eight-year-old, Short Stack, who managed to draw the attention, as she slipped up and mentioned the colour of the cock pounding her, and it came out that it wasn't her husband, but the stallion that cleaned her pool. Apparently, this was a regular thing for her, because her husband wasn't around during the day, and was always tired at night.

Before they left, Mistress (whose real name was Blanket Stitch, Seascape had told her) gave everypony an assignment. Guin, having failed to bring food this time, would be repeating that task, and Seascape, having not attended these meetings in the past two months, was assigned to clean up, both today and on Monday when they reconvened. As the mothers all filed out, Guin stayed behind to help Seascape clean up. It was the least she could do for all of her help.