Mr. Ellery distributed papers face down. "All items are complete as written," he said, and a few students glanced at Imani before they could stop themselves. She kept her face still. Being the reason a policy sentence existed was a strange fame.
She worked the quiz carefully. Near the end she found a problem that was hard in the honest way—constraints present, path non-obvious, solution real. She felt her mind stretch and land. When she turned the paper in, her hands were steady.
After class he said, not loudly, "You set a clean path on number seven."
"Thanks."
In the hallway Sutton muttered something about teacher's pet. Cole said, "You're just mad you left number four blank." Sutton shoved past. No fists. Halberd's violence was mostly social, which did not make it gentle.
Rohan walked Imani toward Latin. "My sister says upper school is worse. More polite knives."
"Comforting," Imani said.
"I mean—practice now. Document now. So later you're not surprised."
She bumped his shoulder lightly with hers. "You're weirdly good at this."
"Immigrant parents," he said. "We treat institutions like weather: prepare, don't romanticize."
Latin was a blur of declensions. Imani's mind kept drifting to the appeal language in the email—held open—like a window cracked in a house that still owned the latch.
---
The marking-period review arrived in early December as scheduled, not sprung. Same conference room, same lemon polish, different water pitcher. Dean Wexler, Mr. Ellery, Ms. Dane by invitation of Rhea's request, Rhea, Imani.
Dean Wexler began with data: quiz averages, homework completion, "peer collaboration indicators." Imani's numbers were strong. The soft category—"peer collaboration"—had a note: "assertive in whole-group settings; some peers report intimidation when corrected publicly."
Rhea's finger stopped on the line. "Who reported? In what form? Was Imani told contemporaneously?"
Dean Wexler hesitated. "Anonymous climate feedback is part of our advisory toolkit."
"Then it cannot quietly become placement evidence," Rhea said. "Anonymous discomfort is not the same as harm. My daughter correcting mathematics is not intimidation."
Ms. Dane folded her hands. "I've had Imani in seminar for five sessions. She argues with problems, not with children's worth. If peers feel intimidated by competence, the intervention is culture, not relocation."
Mr. Ellery looked uncomfortable and did not hide it. "I've observed the section. There was whispering after Wednesday in October. Some of that was about me. Some about her. I did not collect formal peer complaints. If anonymous notes exist, this is the first I'm hearing them used this way."
Dean Wexler's jaw worked. "I am trying to surface the whole picture."
"Then surface process," Rhea said. "Not fog."