She set herself to the task first thing Thursday morning, and it was an awakening. Everyone she called thought Susan was a good principal, but the editorial in the Gazette had many on the defensive. I talk with my kids. I watch them. I know what they're doing. The implication was that Susan did not, and that to side with her was to side with a bad mother.

So Pam fine-tuned her approach, and, in doing so, discovered her own strength. Lady of leisure that some accused her of being, she often had coffee or lunch with other parents and therefore knew them better than, say, Kate or Sunny might. This allowed her to make her calls more pointed.

Okay, Lisa, remember the rough patch you went through with Trevor? You thought he was on drugs. He kept denying it, but you weren't sure you believed him. He got through it, but in hindsight, what do you think? Was he experimenting? You asked all the right questions. And so did Susan. Is she any different a mom from any of us?

Hey, Debbie, you have a daughter. She didn't want to look like a nerd, so she refused to study. Who talked her through it? Don't you owe Susan something for that?

Zaganackians were complacent. It was up to her to rile them up.

Kate didn't have a business degree, but she did have common sense. Since PC Wool was her livelihood, she kept a list of her customers. She had never used it for anything personal before, and did feel a moment's qualm. She was, after all, one of the town's bad moms.

But was she any worse than others whose kids hadn't always followed the rules? Was her daughter any less good a person because the rule she broke had created a life? Who would be affected by it, beyond Mary Kate and her family? No Mello was asking for handouts. They would take care of their own.

Resentful of those who would judge, Kate worked up a head of steam, then e-mailed every Zaganackian who had ever placed an order for PC Wool. She worded it like a party invitation. Knitters love knitters. Come support our own Susan Tate by rallying around her at the high school auditorium on Wednesday evening. It starts at 7. See you then.

There was nothing subtle about the message. She guessed that if her bosses at Perry & Cass knew she was using the list, they would not be happy. But she wasn't happy with Tanner Perry.

Besides, would he ever know? She seriously doubted it. His nose was stuck up too high for him to see what the town wanted. Even Pam was defying him now. That alone was reason for Kate to join in.


***

Left to her own devices, Sunny might have stayed under the radar. Her own daughter was pregnant, and while she and Jessica were on the same page now, the girl's condition wasn't something Sunny wanted to flaunt.

Then she got Kate's e-mail and, soon after, a customer mentioned talking with Pam. If Kate could speak up, so could she. And Pam? Pam embodied Respectability with a capital R.

Increasingly the idea of standing up for Susan held merit. Wasn't it one step removed from standing up for herself? She had stood up to her mother with amazing success. No one had ever said respectability required invisibility.

So she began talking with customers who either knew Susan or had kids in the schools. You're a mother, just like Susan. Have your children never disobeyed you? Does that make you less good a mother? And then, even more shamelessly, You'll want to be supportive. This is a rough time for Susan. You know about the baby, don't you?

The more she talked, the bolder she grew-because people were actually listening. Rather than being a liability, her own daughter's pregnancy seemed to give her legitimacy. I know what I'm talking about was the message.

It was definitely Empowering.

Susan wasn't as plucky. She was worried about Lily, worried about the baby, worried about her job. As grateful, even touched, as she was when she learned what Pam, Kate, and Sunny were doing, she was still frustrated. She had always been her own best champion. Now she was in an awkward position.

She decided that an e-mail to the parents was the way to go. But begging them to sing her praises wasn't her usual style.

"Maybe it should be," Rick said that evening. "If you don't toot your own horn, who will?"

"My friends. Lily's friends. They're all into it. An e-mail from me is something else, not to mention that I can just hear the guys on the school board. 'She's using her position to coerce parents to support her. They'll show up out of fear that if they don't, she'll take it out on their kids.' I'd be using my position to help myself."

"It's done all the time."

"Not by me."

"Then let's pick words you can live with," he suggested, and together they drafted a message alerting parents to the upcoming meeting: My earlier e-mail has kept you abreast of what we're doing in school to help our students deal with the current crisis. In light of the recent media coverage, the school board has decided to hold an open meeting to give you a chance to weigh in on the debate. If you'd like to give us an update on how your child is doing and tell us if you're satisfied with the steps we've taken, please plan to attend.

She gave date, time, and place, and sent it out Thursday night, knowing that she was taking a risk. If her guess was wrong and the letters in the Gazette were representative of town sentiment, she was toast.

Susan hadn't run the e-mail past Phil. When he showed up at her office Friday morning looking like he'd lost his best friend, she wondered if that had been a tactical error. He sank into a chair, his legs sprawled. For a split second, she feared he had lost his job.

She wasn't far off. "You have to help me here, Susan," he began, sounding as weary as he looked. "I'm under pressure. The school board wants you out."

"The whole board?" Susan asked in alarm. Surely not Pam. Or Hillary, or Henry.

"No. But a majority. You know the ones."

"Before next week's meeting?"

"They don't want that meeting. They don't believe the parents should decide. They think what happens in our schools should be determined by the people in charge."

Susan was incensed. "Like George Abbott and the Gazette? Like those anonymous citizens whose letters he printed?"

"I understand why you're bitter. You haven't gotten a fair shake. I do believe you've done a great job."

"Tell them that, Phil. Fight for me."

He sighed defeatedly. "Neal Lombard called. Your e-mail didn't go over well. One of the parents told Evan, who told Neal, who told Tom, Duncan, and Carl. That's four of them who want you fired, and they want me to do it. If I say no, that's four of them who'll vote to fire me. I'm fifty-eight, Susan. I can't start looking for a new job now. So I can fire you, and you can sue me for wrongful dismissal, in which case my career's hurt anyway. Or you can resign."

"Because my daughter is pregnant," Susan said in disbelief. "If those men found my e-mail threatening, they must be afraid of the crowds it'll draw."

He sighed again. "It doesn't matter. I just need you to resign."

She actually felt for him. A friend, he had given her career a major boost. But weren't they both being railroaded? "I can't, Phil."

"Sure you can," he coaxed. "You're young. There are lots of com munities looking for a good high school principal. You'll find another job."

"That's not the issue." She was thinking of Lily now. It's my future, Mom. You're paving the way. "I can't resign. Not before that meeting. If it turns out the parents disapprove of me and the job I've done, you'll have my resignation by the end of the evening. That's the best I can do."

It wasn't good enough for those school board members whose bluff she had called. They didn't fire Phil; not yet. They simply went to Plan B, which entailed moving the open board meeting from Wednesday to Thursday.

Pam was furious. Having declared her allegiance to Susan, she argued forcefully with the board in a conference call Friday afternoon.

"Thursday night is impossible," she said. "Susan will be in Boston for Lily's surgery."

"Ms. Tate doesn't have to be there," one of the men said.

"Of course she does. This is a referendum on her."

"Let her change her plans."

"Would you have her postpone critical surgery-you all, who are obsessed with her being a good mother? Why not hold the meeting the week after next?"

"It has to be next week. We've waited too long. Unless you want Correlli fired first."

Pam did not. Once they fired Phil, they would fire Susan, and if Neal Lombard had his way, they would elevate Evan Brewer. Even with Hillary and Harold on Pam's side, the opposition would win.

"Hillary, this is blackmail," she complained.

"Yes," Hillary said. "Threats are counterproductive, Mr. Morgan. What about holding the meeting Tuesday night?"

Pam could live with that. She could get a phone tree telling people of the change.

"Bad night," said Tom Zimmerman. "Rotary Club meeting."

"Thursday is worse," Pam argued. "Perry and Cass is holding its biannual staff meeting, which means half of our parents will be there. Besides, they're using the auditorium."

"Why can't we hold our meeting where we usually do?" Tom asked.

"In Town Hall? That's way too small."

"We've held open meetings there before."

"This one involves too many people. There has to be a better place." But the middle schools didn't have their own auditoriums, the elementary schools only had gymnasiums, and the churches were all small and tight.

"We could use the Perry and Cass warehouse," Duncan Haith said with a dry chuckle.

Pam ignored him. "Tell you what. I'll agree to Town Hall as long as we have mikes and speakers in every room there. That's the kind of crowd that'll come out for Susan Tate."