Brian O'Conner sighed as he climbed out of his car and began his walk up the path to his 11-year old son Jack's school. He was working with his brother-in-law, Dominic Toretto, in the garage when he got a phone call from the school asking for his wife, Mia, and himself to come down immediately. Mia was busy as it is now rush lunch hour at the Toretto café, so after explaining to Dom what was going on, Brian made his way to the school.
Pulling open the door to the reception area, Brian walked in and made his way over to the desk, "Hey, I got a phone call about twenty minutes ago asking me to come down here".
"What's your name?" the African-American female receptionist asked.
"Brian O'Conner," Brian answered.
"Oh, yeah, Jack's father. Well, let me inform Principal Jackson that you have arrived," the receptionist said. Just as she was about to leave, a suited man in his thirties stepped out of his office. "Never mind," the receptionist said as she saw the man.
"Hi, I'm Principal Jackson. You must be Mr. O'Conner," Principal Jackson introduced himself as he and Brian shake hands.
"That's right. You called me about Jack?" Brian asked.
"Yes, that's right. Where's your wife?" Principal Jackson asked about Mia.
"Oh, she's too busy. It's rush lunch hour at our restaurant," Brian explained.
"That's all right. If you will step into my office, I will explain everything," Principal Jackson said pointing to his office. On his way to Principal Jackson's office, Brian saw Jack sitting on a chair nearby. He looked up at his father with a shameful look on his face and his clothes and face have been dirtied up a little, so Brian took a lucky guess of what happened although he wishes that this isn't the case. As soon as they arrived, Brian and Principal Jackson took their respective seats.
"Now, Mr. O'Conner, I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but I've brought you down here today as there has been an incident involving Jack and another child," Principal Jackson started explaining.
"What sort of incident?" Brian asked with a frown on his face.
"Well, we haven't quite got to the bottom of it as Jack is refusing to talk and the other child is a little banged up at the nurse's office, but one of the teachers found Jack getting into a physical confrontation wtih the other child at recess today," Principal Jackson explained further. "And that resulted in the other child getting a black eye and a broken arm".
"Jack? My Jack did that?" Brian asked with now a more surprised wide-eyed look to which Principal Jackson nodded.
"I'm sorry, but I think you have made a mistake. Have you met Jack? He would never do anything like this plus he's only eleven," Brian respectfully attempted to disagree.
"I'm sorry, Mr. O'Conner, but no mistake has been made. Jack has always been a good student, but you have to admit, we all have moments where we act out of character. I think this was Jack's first moment," Principal Jackson said with regret.
"Who was this other child?" Brian asked.
"I can't disclose that information due to confidentiality reasons," Principal Jackson replied.
"Jack'll tell me anyway, so what does it matter?" Brian asked with a little bit of frustration.
"If Jack wishes to tell you, then it is up to him, but I'm not at liberty to say," Principal Jackson said.
"So, what happens now?" Brian asked.
"Well, because of our zero tolerence policy on fighting, we will have to suspend Jack for the rest of the week," Principal Jackson explained.
"That's a little bit harsh," Brian once again respectfully argued even if today is Thursday and the day Jack will only miss is Friday.
"Rules are rules, I'm afraid, Mr. O'Conner," Principal Jackson said once again with regret.
"I'd like to take Jack home now then," Brian said.
"I will tell Jack to get his belongings together and you can pick him up at the entrance. I am again sorry for this, Mr. O'Conner, and if by chance you can figure out what happened and what caused Jack to behave as he did, you can give me a call," Principal Jackson offered.
"Thank you," Brian said as both men shook hands.
As soon as Brian picked up Jack, the car trip on the way home has been quiet with Brian making subtle hints to try to get Jack to talk as he still had that shameful look on his face. Even when they got home, Jack refused to talk and went upstairs to take a shower then sulk in his room. For a moment, Brian considered to be the angry parent and demand that Jack talk to him about what happened, but he decided against it as he can tell that Jack is really upset and painfully regrets about what he had done, so he is waiting until Jack is finally comfortable enough to talk.
Later at dinner time with the rest of the family (Mia, Dom, and Dom's wife, Letty Ortiz), Brian sees that Jack is still upset as he barely touched his food, so he found a way to make him talk.
"So," Brian started the dinner discussion. "I had to go to Jack's school because there was a fight between him and another kid. And he has been suspended for the rest of the week," Brian announced to the rest.
"WHAT?!" Mia asked a little louder than usual and then looked at Jack. Compared to the rest of his family in Mia's opinion, Jack was the "good one". "Well, young man, do you want to explain yourself?" Mia asked her tween son in a stereotypical strict motherly manner, but Jack remained silent.
"Let's slow down, sis," Dom calmed Mia down. "Buddy, what happened?" he asked his nephew.
"Yeah, whose ass did you kick?" Letty asked with her mouth full as Mia kicked her legs for saying the "a" word. Now, the questions are beginning to overwhelm Jack and finally motivated him to finally state what happened.
"Chuck Javers," Jack answered Letty's question.
"The kid who has been bothering you since Kindergarten?" Brian asked as he and Jack have talked about Chuck Javers before. After his father asked, Jack nodded. "Whatever happened to ignoring him like we talked about? Or at least insult him back? Did he start the fight?"
"No," Jack said kind of embarrassed of the fact that he started the fight.
"Then, why is today the day you decide to beat him up?" Mia asked.
After a deep sigh, Jack finally said, "You know how he's always mean to me and I just ignore him? Well, today, he wasn't just mean to me. He was mean to all of you behind your backs".
"You mean he was saying bad things about us?" Dom asked as Jack nodded. "What exactly did he say about us?"
"First, he said that Aunt Letty is a biker chick wannabe and should just kill herself doing motorcycle stunts," Jack started his list of which Letty choked on her food a little bit upon hearing what Chuck said about her, but managed to wash it down with her beer.
"Then, he asked me if I saved my place in the prison visitors' room because he says that bald and buff guys like Uncle Dom always end up back in prison and will die there," Jack continued where Dom reacted the same way Letty did.
"Then, he asked if I had brothers or sisters because he said that Mom seems "very popular" with a lot of guys," Jack continued putting the air quotes around "very popular". Mia silently gasped and looked down at what she's wearing to see what Chuck meant about her being a slut.
"And finally, he said that Dad went from being a cop to a auto mechanic because he is a dirty old loser," Jack finished his list and the others got that look of complete understanding of why Jack did what he did. "As he said each of those things, I got angrier and angrier although I really try not to. And after what he said about Dad when he turned around, I pounced him which is how he got a broken arm and I punched him in the face which is how he got the black eye. So, I'm really sorry I got in trouble and got suspended," Jack finished his story as his shameful look is back.
"No, sweetie," Mia finally said in her sweet motherly voice. "We're not mad at you. We wish you can handle the situation a little bit better, but Chuck shouldn't have said all those things".
"Yeah and if anything, we're happy that you kicked that kid's a-butt," Letty said making sure she didn't make the same mistake she did earlier.
"Yeah, even though it wasn't an ideal solution, we're proud of you defending us, buddy," Dom stated his opinion on the matter which got Jack to smile.
"Even though grounding you seems like the right thing to do in this situation, but since you know that what you did was wrong, I think we can make an exception," Brian said with a smile and Jack smiled back. "How about tomorrow, we spend the whole day together? If that's okay with me taking the day off from the garage, Dom?" he asked Dom to which he confirmed with a nod. "And I will call Principal Jackson, tell him what happened, and make sure that Chuck will never bother you again".
"I'd like that," Jack answered. "I love you guys," Jack said as he kissed all four members of his family and went up to his room.
"You have a kid who is willing to kick ass for all of us," Dom said with a smirk. "You must be so proud," he said to both Brian and Mia.
"We are," Brian said as he kissed Mia's temple as the bad day has finally turned itself around.