"One more chance, that's all I'm asking" Magda pleaded. "Come on, he's fourteen – he'll grow out of all this"
To her intense dismay the Principle shook his head, leaned a little further over his desk and tried to give her a comforting smile. It looked insincere, but she could hardly mind that given that her own pleasant smile was so utterly false at that moment.
"I'm sorry, Ms Maximoff, but enough really is enough. We've put up with too many of Peter's little incidents now. He has to go"
"But…"
"You heard him Magda" the other woman sat beside her snapped, "Your boy's a menace to society. If you ask me he's being let off *very* lightly, I could press charges you know!"
"He's a child!" Magda snapped back, "And your son was *bullying* him!"
"There's no bullying at my school" the Principle told her smoothly, "Mrs Carmichael's quite within her rights to take this matter to the police, you should be very grateful that she's –"
"GRATEFUL?!" Magda's fraying temper finally snapped, jabbing a finger in the direction of the other mother, "Allan's made my son's life a living hell ever since he came back to this school, he pushed him and pushed him and –"
"Allan has been BURNED!" Mrs Carmichael hissed, "He didn't deserve that. Your kid's crazy, you need to take him someplace before he kills someone!"
"Ladies, please…" the Principle held up his hands for peace, "Mrs Carmichael, you are welcome to take any further action you want, but all I can do is remove the problem. Ms Maximoff, I'm afraid this isn't under discussion. Peter will not be coming back to this school"
"What about his education?" she asked in a quieter voice, "his future?"
"With all due respect, Peter's hardly a star student. He missed a great deal in those seven months he was out sick you know. It may be better for him to be home-schooled. At any rate I'm afraid his future is no longer my concern"
Magda nodded. Rose from her chair, gathered up her handbag and carefully pushed her chair in with all the dignity she could muster.
"Thank you, Principle Weeks," she said quietly, "I won't take up any more of your time"
It took all the self-control she had to walk calmly away and not slam the door behind her, gritting her teeth in rage and clenching her fist hard on the strap of her bag as she made her way back to the car. Even from a distance, the two children inside could see that the meeting had not gone well by any definition of the word. Thumping down hard in the driver's seat and just breathing for a moment or two before Wanda had asked
"Is he still suspended?"
"No" her mother replied quietly, fixed her gaze on her son in the rear-view mirror, "He's expelled."
"I'm WHAT?!"
"Expelled, done, finished with that school, out on your ass, clear enough for you? Have you got that through your head now? You are not going to that school any more. Ever."
"But-"
"But nothing. First thing Monday I'll call St. Saviour's, this is ridiculous…. What is that you've got there?!"
"McNuggets.." he said in a small, thoroughly chastised voice, offered her the box, "You want one?"
Magda sighed, rubbed her eyes gently.
"Did you pay for those, Peter?"
"Yes…." He said, put on his most innocent eyes, "Sort of.."
She started the engine, shook her head and sighed again. Pulling out of the car park in silence until she had finally given Peter another look in the rear-view and said
"You'll end up in a delinquent home one day if you're not careful, kid."
The journey had been silent for the rest of the way, Peter heading straight down to his room when they had arrived, Wanda walking round to collect Lorna from the babysitter down the street, Magda left alone sat at the kitchen table seriously considering the bottle of good vodka in the freezer that she'd been saving for a special occasion. She knew perfectly well that her son was no angel, but she still couldn't help feeling that after how hard he'd fought to get back to school, kicking him out like this just wasn't right. Nothing ever seemed to go in Peter's favour these days, and by extension hers.
They tried to have a normal evening together, but the dinner table was quiet and cheerless, even Lorna seeming subdued though she didn't really understand what was going on. Wanda toying with her food until at last she had pushed her plate over to her brother to finish, Peter himself looking glum and contrite and barely saying a word. Magda excused them from helping her wash up, sent them downstairs and soon heard the rapid pattering of table-tennis, though uncharacteristically not accompanied by the twins' bickering and laughter. Put Lorna to bed, and curled up on the sofa with that vodka.
Though it had undoubtedly been a rash, idiotic thing to do, she really couldn't find it in herself to blame Peter for flipping a lab table over on that Carmichael kid and his crony. She'd lost count of the number of times Peter had come home with his clothes ripped, or with scratches and bruises and split lips from scuffling with those boys. They teased him continually, had come up with a plethora of hurtful and insulting names for him that though he tried not to show it cut him to the bone. They would steal his homework on the odd occasion he'd actually done it, trip him in the halls, corner him at recess just to taunt him some more.
To his credit, Peter had stood it for months without once losing his temper in return. Still learning how to control the odd powers that had only recently emerged in him, he had been careful not to show them around others and never used them to get himself out of those situations, mostly because if they knew, it would just be something else to pick on. Had tried to hold his head up and bear it, though Magda knew full well that he would often come home from school and cry in his room for a while before he would feel up to spending any family time. Already hormonal and an emotional wreck who was still building his strength up after all that time so horrifically ill, she knew that this was the last thing Peter needed right now, standing and deciding to stop wallowing and make sure he was alright.
Wanda had crashed out on his bed, head resting on the open book in front of her, bare legs dangling off the side, so used to the noise down there by now that it didn't disturb her. Her brother was sat close by, feet kicking against the legs of his chair in time to whatever was blaring on his headphones, spotting his mother and removing the 'phones as she gently put her arms around him. Tried so very hard to keep his face neutral, though she could feel him shaking slightly against her.
"How're you feeling?" she asked, watched him dropping his eyes from her gaze, "Anything I can do?"
Peter shook his head, rested his hands over his mother's, couldn't help the little hitch in his breathing or the tears that started to spill out from under his lowered eyelids. Swiped them away with the heel of his hand as he turned to face her
"M'fine" he muttered, sniffed loudly, "I hate school anyway"
Magda felt her heart flutter uncomfortably the way it always did when her children were upset. Scooped him up tightly and held him close to her. He still felt so fragile, though much less so than this time last year when he'd been sicker than ever, so weak he couldn't get out of bed but still totally unable to sleep. Felt his arms curl around her back and just held him for a while until she had finally released him and tilted his face up to her with a finger, gently brushed a tear away.
"You want some ice cream?" she offered, "We've got Rocky Road. C'mon"
Peter allowed her to lead him upstairs, had pulled a blanket around himself by the time she returned from the kitchen, curled up tiny and miserable on the sofa. It hurt her terribly to see him like this, knowing that she'd done everything she could and still failed him.
"I didn't mean to hurt them, you know" he'd said at last, poked at a marshmallow with his spoon, "I just lost my temper. I didn't mean it"
"I know you didn't honey," she soothed, tucked his long hair behind his ear, "but you can't take it back now. That idiot Principle wouldn't budge, we've got to just handle this"
"But it's not fair!" he burst out, "They've been at me for months, I do one little thing and I get expelled!"
"It's not one little thing though is it now?" Magda smiled kindly, "It's all the little things"
"I get *bored*, Mom" he sighed, set the now-empty carton aside, "I can't help it"
"You can't help putting whoopee cushions on your teacher's seats? Or cutting class to go for pizza? Or pinning notes to people's backs? Or –"
"Okay, okay so I'm a crappy kid, I get it. But what am I supposed to do now, huh? Stay around the house all day? Mom, I'll drive you crazy. I can't do this. I only just got back, this is just.. argh it just SUCKS"
"I know. It does" She kissed his softly on the forehead, "after you worked so hard to get better too. I'm proud of you for that, Peter. You don't deserve this"
"What do I deserve?" he asked seriously. "Really? I get kicked out of everything. I can't help being this way Mom, I'd change if I could. I just wish just once someplace wouldn't kick me out or pick on me. I wish I knew what I could do"
"We'll think of something, hon." She told him soothingly, snuggled the blanket around him further, "It'll be okay, I promise"