Episode 13: "Chapter 13"
Original Air Date: 2.12.01
 Summarized By: Kris D.

--This Episode concludes storylines introduced on "The Practice" the evening before. It is helpful to see "The Practice" but not necessary. For our purposes, just know that Kevin hired a friend of his (Camryn Manheim's character, Ellenor Frutt) to help him with his case with Winslow. He claims he did nothing to help Milton Buttle's relationship and that his being fired was wrong. The lawyers and Kevin meet with Steven and Scott, who refuse to come to an agreement, and then with the schoolboard, who upholds Steven's dismissal of Kevin. It's also important to note that Ellenor and Harper do not get along - there is much animosity.--

Kevin is the office of his lawyers, Ellenor Frutt and Jimmy Berlutti (from "The Practice"), discussing the schoolboard's decision to uphold his dismissal. Kev wants to know if a court will overrule the school board and according to Ellenor, it happens sometimes. She believes the judge will call an evidentiary hearing. This is OK with Kevin. Kevin is afraid that she would rather not be on the case (On Sunday's episode of "The Practice" a partner in their firm was critically injured in an expolsion) but Ellenor claims she appreciates the distraction. Jimmy says that the argument they are going to base their case on is that the school acted capriciously, that it was arbitrary to fire him. They want to prove that what Kevin did wasn't so bad, within the context of the school. What this boils down to is Kevin's willingness to fight dirty, to air the school's skeletons. Kevin's response? "I would love to get ugly. Especially with Guber. Take Guber down." The lawyers exchange semi-pleased glances, and the race is on.

Act I

Scott is busy with paperwork, listening to his ever-present classical music. Steven enters and tells him to go home, that it's almost midnight. Scott wants to be prepared - he knows the judge may ask him questions and needs to be clear on the details of what happened with Kevin. Steven starts to say something then changes his mind. Scott stops him and Steven lets loose that he feels Scott should have consulted him about firing Kevin. It has been bothering Steven. Scott claims that he never meant to usurp Steven's authority, but that he knew Kevin was a friend of Steven's and was trying to save Steven from an uncomfortable situation. Steven nods and starts to walk out, but comes back saying "That really isn't true...you fired him ten seconds after you found out he knew about Buttle and the girl. You didn't have time to consider my friendship with him." At that point, it gets ugly. Scott feels accused, Steven says maybe he is being accusatory. Steven believes Scott acted out of his own sense of authority with no regard to Steven, then he brings up Lipschultz. They go round and around, the exchange getting more and more out of hand, until Scott lets the ball drop. "I only throw myself into these situations to save you the time it takes to page me. I do your dirty work, and we both know it." Steven leaves (incidentally, he picks his briefcase up from a different location than where he left it...r'uh r'oh!)

The teachers lounge has different teachers in it! Actually, one is the cheerleading coach, Tina, and the other is some young thang. They're discussing Kevin's dismissal and how unfair it is. Just as Lauren walks in, the Young Thang says, "What I want to know is who did Harry's parole officer go down on here to get him special treatment." Lauren pulls a bottle of juice out of the fridge then rounds on the chickie who dare speak ill of her fella. With faux-perk, the girl greets Lauren and Lauren immediately wants to know what they were talking about. The chick claims they were just talking about the idiots in administration. No, that's not what Lauren wants to know. What were they saying about Harry Senate? The chick claims they were just joking...Lauren wants to be let in on the joke. "Look, Lauren, with all due respect to your relationship with Harry...I can criticize him if I choose to." Really. Why is that? "Because I've been there." As the chickie sweeps out, Tina comments "She's a bitch, I admit it. But she's good company." Lauren looks midly disgusted.

In court. The school's lawyer (who I will say now was a fun addition to this chaos) is making her opening statement. She claims that a teacher knowing of conduct that is possibly hurting a co-ed and does not come forward, that is conduct "unbecoming a teacher", which is grounds for dismissal. Ellenor steps in and says that the school's lawyer is misleading the court - that instead of being fired for *action*, Kevin was fired for *inaction*. They argue semantics for a few minutes, snark a bit at each other, and the judge claims he needs an evidentiary hearing. Since it was Scott who made the initial decision to fire Kevin, they're going to start with him. The lawyers go back to their groups and the school's lawyer (who has a completely unspellable last name) wants to get together to go over their testimony. Scott agrees and Steven does also, but he is gruff and cold and turns to leave without waiting for an answer.

Lauren and Harry are walking the halls discussing the trial. Marilyn swings in and Harry explains to her that Guber will be taking the stand. We also find out that Marla is circulating a petition against Kevin's firing. Just at that moment, Ellenor disrupts the little party. She introduces herself as Ellenor Frutt and Harry, not to let a prime opportunity pass him by (no matter how juvenile it will make him seem) says "The new wrestling coach?" Heh. Nope. She hands Lauren a subpeona and says it's just a formality, that she's only covering herself just in case. She asks Harry if he has a joke to go with that and Harry says he does, but that he'll wait until she's gone. As she's walking away, Harry calls "Seriously. If there's anything we can do to help Kevin..." She appreciates that. 

Awww. The coffee house where they first met. Milton wants Lisa to testify on Kevin's behalf but she claims he was an ass to her so, though he put his ENTIRE CAREER on the line for them, she doesn't want to help them. Selfish bitch. Milton wants her to help Kevin, then, because Kevin is *his* friend and she says she'll think about it. Think fast, he warns. He also wants to talk to her parents. Lisa looks at him, I'm sure wondering if his hair is curled just a little too tight this day.

In Steven's office with the laywer lady...we'll call her RED since I have no idea what else to call her...she's coaching them on the upcoming trial. She wants them to speak calmly and with objectivity. She continues on, saying that Scott did what was best for the school...he wasn't being vindictive or--Steven cuts her off, turning and beginning a rampage of his own. "What if he's cross-examined as to why he acted outside of the scope of his authority." Red looks completely bewildered at this turn of events. "He's the assistant principal. The fact that he took it upon himself to fire somebody--" He starts to break loose right about then, Scott trying to defend his actions and Steven getting louder in his accusations. Red tries to intercede "Is this the anger we plan on not having in court?" Louisa yells from the doorway and lets them know that Miss Frutt wants to speak with them. Ahem. Red tells her boys to shut the hell up (in a nice lawyer way) and invites Ellenor in. Ellenor drops the information that she's been passing out valentines--er, subpeonas to Harvey and Lauren and she wanted to stop by and make a concillatory gesture. They do a little lawyerly bickering when Ellenor gets right to it. Looking at Guber she says "I will hang him out like laundry. Dirty laundry. You do not want to go there." Steven gets in her face and tells her he's not intimidated. She's not either, buddy. Red tries to get them to knock off the "chest-thumping" and we get to hear Red's name. "Miss Gallupagamus, I am not trying to intimidate anybody." She claims she's trying to give them a nice way out and Red declines. "And that's unfortunate. Well. I do love what I do."

Act II

Apparently Winslow is a liberal arts school, because yet ANOTHER TEACHER is teaching literature. e.e. cummings, to be exact. And one wise student claims e.e. cummings is full of hot air, a bunch of goofy words. The Chickie!Bitch teacher from the lounge walks around engaging said student in discussion. A rather frightening looking (but harmless) boy in the front row checks out her ass. She catches him and they have a little discussion that ends with her referring to her ass as 'honey' and that if he wants a girl with a honeyass like hers, he has to be smart. Wow. These guys really know how to inspire their students, eh? (An aside, I guess we're supposed to believe this is one of the other 6 teahcers who beat Lauren in the poll)

Milton is in the lion's den, facing Lisa's parents. He doesn't really try to defend himself, but does remind them that when he first starting dating (::cough::: damn euphamisms...you were screwing like bunnies, you perv, not dating), he thought she was a Harvard student. He also claims that he loves her, he thinks she's loves him back, and would like their permission to continue seeing her. Whatever.

Scott is on the witness stand. Oh, dear. "We feel our teachers, all of our teachers, have a duty to look out for the students. Mr. Riley's silence here was unconscionable." There's a *lot* of lawyer speak in these scenes with five dollar words, and this transcript is getting *really* long already so I'll shorten it WAY up for you. Riley BAD BAD! Ellenor gets up and starts listing Winslow's nutbags - Harry Senate and his gun/Dana Poole, Tina getting 15 students to fondle themselves for a cheer competition, a woman who still teaches that may be spanking her students for sexual pleasure, a bigot who tells girls to wear bras for the good of the country, a manic-depressive who leaves violent love notes to her kids about suicide. And the kicker..."Lauren Davis - if she were to testify today that you sexually harrassed her would she be lying?" He made overtures but as soon as she let him know that his advances made her uncomfortable, he desisted..."Do you still continue to sniff her hair?" Oh, man. And Ellenor proves she is one hell of a cut-throat lawyer with "Have you ever received a massage from a prostitute?" Oh, hell. Red is in the background screaming objection. The circus has officially begun.

In a crowded hallway, Scott is asking Lauren where in God's name Ellenor got the idea that Lauren felt sexually harrassed. (Probably because it CAME OUT of Lauren's mouth a few weeks ago but...poe-tay-toe, poe-tah-toe, am I right? <g>) Lauren denies it. "People here knew that you asked me out (aside: because she :::cough::: announced that to the lounge, too) and that...maybe I was uncomfortable but I never, ever told anybody I felt harrassed." Lauren's word is good enough for Scott, so he immediately implicates Steven. Lauren and Red watch stunned as the two face off in the hallway. Red interrupts saying that Ellenor bluffed; she probably got a little info on Lauren, let them know she had subpeonaed here, and then played Guber on the stand. "Like a cheap harmonica." Steven says. The boys are about to come to blows when Red asks to see them in private. Lauren looks quite relieved that it's all over when they walk away and then she sees HoneyAss, also known as Jenna.

I guess Lauren heard about Jenna's HoneyAss comments and wants to know if it's a good idea to be telling her students that the smart boys get the cute girls. Jenna looks perturbed - that's not what she said. What she SAID was that smart kids get the girls with the good asses. Then she saunters away, leaving Lauren a bit stunned. "Oh."

Red has the boys in an office and basically tells them that if they continue to bicker like 3 year olds, the judge is going to sense the dissension and it'll kill the case. So they better start acting like adults before the next session, or else. She leaves and tells them to show up in court after lunch as grown-ups. "So. What's going on?!" "What's going on with you?" "I told you!" MEEEEEOW! I think they missed the "grown up" part the first time, as they start yelling at each other again. Good old Louisa, though, she didn't miss it and sticks her head in the door and reminds them to grow up. When the settle down, Steven admits that he feels guilty for firing Kevin and--well, that's where his anger is coming from, what about Scott? According to Scott, it's Steven's popularity. He knows he's the dreaded VP, was never really liked as a kid, so the job is perfect for him. And Steven is adored. Scott gets sick of being the bad guy every once in a while- can Steven just let him be sick of it? Yes. Scott asks if they should give Kevin his job back and Steven says no. They're going through with this. Par-tay.

Act III

Now it's Kevin's turn in the hot-seat. He regurgitates the story - how he told Milton to end it, Milton said he ended it, he found out that they were still seeing each other, yaaaadda yaaaada. On cross-examination it gets interesting. Kevin believes that Milton's trust in him should count for something - that it's important to keep a confidence. Red proves that it had little to do with a confidence because a) Kevin found out by walking in on him, and b) Milton lied to him about breaking it off with Lisa. She brings up the fact that he lied to Steven "I covered for Milton" and wants to know, theoretically, if Lisa's parents came to him and wanted to know if he knew anything about their daughter being in a relationship, would he have lied then, too? "I probably would have continued to cover for Milton, yes."

Hooboy. Marla, Lauren, Tina, Jenna, Harry and Harvey are in the lounge. Marla wants Tina to sign a petition to save Kevin's job and believes it will give her "peace of mind". Harry makes some random joke about Marla being a nutburger and Marla tells him to bite her ass (but not in so many words). I guess this offends HoneyAss (who is probably just sensitive about her own assets) because she rolls her eyes and stalks out of the lounge. Marla chases after her. Tina, who has now decided to be buddies with Lauren, asks if she'll be testifying against Guber. "No." Is all Lauren says. "Oh. You wanna talk about it?" Tina laughs and leaves the room. Harry, playing the sensitive male, decides to try to talk to Lauren, who would like nothing less than to talk to *him*. "It's OK for you not to talk but for me..." She interrupts. "Alright. Jenna." Harry goes, "Oh." Busted, dude. Lauren then starts to tell him the story about what Jenna told her male students but she changes her mind. "Never mind?" Harry's incredulous. After a moment of silence, the guilt overwhelms him. "I slept with her. Isn't that what's bothering you?" No. "It was two years ago..." Lauren goes on about their mutual pasts and doesn't expect him - Harry turns and looks at Harvey who is, by all accounts, immersed in his paper. But we all know that looks can be deceiving. Harry asks her once more if she's angry and she's not. So he walks away. Lauren watches him go, now obviously upset. "Fine."

BACK in court - Lisa is on the stand. She claims that Kevin asked her to go to the counselor to make sure she wasn't being exploited. She then drops the big bomb - her parents now support her relationship with Milton Buttle. 

Back as school, Red tells them that this new information via Lisa will destroy their case. Scott and Steven don't get it but...she advises that they give him his job back. Steven says NO! "He didn't just indict himself. It affects this school, the profession of teaching. It's not a small matter. It isn't trivial." Based on Steven's passion, Red wants him to make the closing argument at the trial. Steven has a moment of debate but steps up. He'll do it.

Doyle's. The group is having a pretty uncomfortable drink together. They have intermittent conversation about what's happening. Marilyn throws it into a tailspin when she asks "Harry, how did you get away with kissing Dana Poole." Harry chokes on his drink, looks at Lauren, who only looks down at the table. Tension, kids. Tension.

And it doesn't end there! Harry and Lauren enter Lauren's place. Harry tries to talk to Lauren again, saying he's not used to her clamming up. "You think I'm a clam now, wait until we get into bed." She doesn't want to fight, she claims. Harry says "I slept with my mother, did I ever tell you that?" You slept with your mother? Lauren falls hook, line, sinker and rushes to his side, concerned. "Not really, but I figured if you thought I did then sleeping with Jenna Miller wouldn't seem so bad." Ouch. Lauren tells him to sleep at his own place and he can't believe she's punishing him for sleeping with someone before her. She says it's not about Jenna...then what? "It's Valentine's day, dammit." Valentine's is tomorrow, according to Harry. "So? You could at least be warming up to it. You don't just throw it into drive on February 14th, February 13th can be a very--I don't want to spend the day before Valentine's day obsessing over Jenna Miller." Fine, so he'll stop obsessing over her. "Now you're laughing at me." Does he look like he's laughing? "No. But you don't look like you're smiling when you're smiling. You are completely incapable of showing your emotions. THAT is another thing." She stalks off and slams her bedroom door. Poor Harry. Poor Lauren. Damn sweeps.

Milton and Kevin are still at the bar. Kevin knows that the outcome is in the judge's hands. "Well. This time tomorrow..." Milton then apologizes. He says he was willing to put his own career on the line but he had no idea he would be costing Kevin his job, too. How sweet.

Closing arguments...Ellenor goes over her case and lists all the nuts again; Harry, Mrs. Walsh, Harvey, Marla, Scott the Shampoo Fetishist, Tina, Steven...waaah. She claims it's disproportionate to the offense. Maybe if they're going to teach children fairness then they should start with the schools. Now it's Steven's turn. Ellenor objects to something he says but the judge overrules. 

"If Miss Frutt thinks the issue truly is about Kevin Riley and his actions, then why is she bringing up Harry Senate, Marla Hendricks and everybody else. What she's done here is try to lower the standards of the high school teacher. Demonstrate to the court that they're a suspect group of people. That we should, come on, drop our expectations. And once we do that, once we get realistic about who and what teachers really are, then how can you fire Kevin Riley. Honesty isn't that big a deal, is it? The list of nuts that she reeled off, we all have our flaws, no question. But we all have one thing in common - we put the interest of our students first. Kevin Riley didn't. He prioritized a personal friendship. Did it warrant him getting fired. I like Kevin. Good teacher, good coach, good guy. But he's not honest. He lied to me about this affair. He lied. Simply put, end of the day, he's not trustworthy. Harry Senate is. Marla Hendricks, Scott Guber. I can trust every one of them, I don't trust Kevin. Not to be straight with me, not to be straight with the parents who put their kids in our care. And given that, how do I keep him? Contrary to what Miss Frutt would have you believe, people have high expectations of us. A teacher was sleeping with a student, he found out about it, lied about it, allowed it to continue, even if I could forgive that kind of dishonesty, I certainly couldn't tolerate it. If I could - why the hell should any parent trust me?"

Harry's on the phone talking about the court case. He hangs up and chases down HoneyAss Jenna. He wants to know what she told Lauren - Jenna is amused. She tells him that Lauren insinuated that Jenna didn't know him well enough to criticize him and Jenna just told her otherwise. Jenna says that if Lauren's jealous, Harry should just tell her the truth - there was no emotional involvement, just tons and tons of sex. Marla walks by and says that's not what he should tell Lauren. Marilyn finds Harry and wants to know what he's heard and he says that the judge is out, but they should know the verdict in an hour.

Kevin is pacing the hallways like a caged animal. He wants the verdict now. Steven walks up and tries to make some kind of peace but Kevin tells him to go to hell. "You want to throw me up against a wall now? Share one of your profundities? That's your big strength isn't it, Steven?" He snarks a bit more, tells him that the students got hurt but hey, the autocracy is still intact. The Jimmy comes out to tell them the judge has made his decision.

And it wasn't an easy one. He wasn't sure which way he was going to rule, until he got a visit from his 17 year-old daughter. Surprise, surprise, he finds in favor of the school. Kevin is still canned. 

Down in the dungeon, Lauren comes down to talk to Harry. She thought Kevin was going to win, Harry just talked to him and he's on his way over to pick up the last of his stuff. Lauren notices a box, looking like a child's block, sitting on his desk. She asks what it is and Harry tells her it's her Valentine's present. She doesn't believe him but it is...he thought maybe later she could pop his weasle. Lauren looks unamused but sits down. The box is actually a jack-in-the-box and as Lauren turns the crank we here tinkly "Pop Goes the Weasle". The box pops open revealing a stuffed bear with a picture of Harry grinning, ear to ear, taped over its face. It wears a little heart that says "Squeeze me". Harry says that he knows how to show his emotions. Smiling like a little girl, Lauren squeezes the bear. It squirts water in her face - it pees on her. Harry drolly adds "I have limits but..." She starts to say something but he tells her to stop, he's going to quit while he's ahead. She sorta smiles (and I stress "sorta") and Louisa sticks her head in the door to let them know that Kevin and Milton are upstairs getting ready to leave.

The teachers share an emotional goodbye in the hallway. They claim they'll see each other, still, because their friendship was mostly after hours anyhow. Lauren says she's thinking of doing Easter since Thanksgiving was such a big hit. Everyone hugs each other and the boys turn to leave. Everyone is choking back tears, it seems. As they walk out, Steven watches from his office, separated from his teachers. Scott is with him, in the background. 

Fade to black.