A Change of 'art

When she is invited into school to discuss her daughter, 'Anna', Mrs Regan, a severe, hard-as-nails Cockney, assumes it's more bad news. When she eventually gives her daughter's year head, Miss Stimpson, an opportunity to speak, it is conveyed to her that far from her daughter being in trouble again for one of her endless list of misdemeanours, such as vandalism, rudeness and general disruption, Mrs Regan hears something that leaves her in a state of shock. Miss Stimpson, a recent recruit to the teaching staff, instead tells the angry mother a tale of a quite excellent, model student whose grades are well about average and whose subject teachers are very impressed with. In particular, her art teacher counts Anna as one of the best students in the entire school. With that in mind, Miss Stimpson informs a shell-shocked Mrs Regan that her daughter has been chosen to go on an all-expenses-paid school trip to Rome the following term. As the meeting ends, and Miss Stimpson prepares for her next appointment, the previously acerbic Mrs Regan candidly asks the well-spoken Miss Stimpson why she continuously drops the 'H' in her daughter's name,' Hannah. The horrified teacher cannot answer, and once Mrs Regan leaves the room, she frantically picks through her papers to find that the two students' mothers she has appointments with are similarly named. Hannah Regan and Anna Keegan. One is an excellent student, and one is a tearaway with a nightmare of a mother. As she sits, head in hands, quietly sobbing, she hears a knock on the open classroom door. 'Hello, I'm Mrs Keegan. I'm Anna's mother, and I'm here for a meeting.'