Emily curled her lip in to a frown as she sat in one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs in the waiting area outside the principal's office at her daughter's school. Every once in a while, she shot a look over at Anna, trying to strike the right balance between compassionate mother and stern parent. She wanted to make sure that Anna knew how serious the situation was.
Anna's feet were dangling beneath a chair that was too big for her, and that made her look even smaller and more vulnerable. She looked more confused than contrite. Her legs swung back and forth a time or two before she guiltily crossed them at the ankles and pointed her toes so that they touched the ground. She didn't want it to appear that she was playing around – or, worse, that she was bored. She knew that she was in trouble, even though she wasn't sure what she had done. The apologetic look that she gave for seeming not to be taking the situation seriously enough almost broke Emily's heart. She just wanted to get things moving; to find out what Anna had done. The principal's assistant couldn't give her any details over the phone, other than that Anna and a boy had been sent to the principal's office, and Emily needed to get to the school right away.
Principal Dahler wouldn't start until the boy's mother got there. Emily understood why not, but that didn't make the waiting any easier.
The boy was sitting against the other wall, with his head propped up on his arm, his elbow planted on the armrest of the chair. He looked bored, in a world-weary kind of way. Emily had a feeling that this wasn't his first trip to the principal's office. Once or twice, he locked eyes with Anna. When Emily noticed the eye contact, she gave him a good stare until his eyes shifted elsewhere. She was not going to let this boy intimidate her daughter.
Finally, the door to the waiting area opened and a woman who looked to be around Emily's age breezed in, her auburn hair tousled as if she'd run all the way there from her house - not just from the school's parking lot. The woman gave the boy a good, severe stare. He dipped his head in response, looking down between his knees to the mahogany seat of the chair where he was sitting.
"Ms. McCullers," the receptionist said, with her ever-present smile, "thank you for coming down." She was a good fit for her position; her demeanor and her smile helped ease the tension of the people - parents and children - who found themselves summoned to see Principal Dahler. She hit a buzzer on her desk and stood, walking towards the foursome. "Ms. Fields, Ms. McCullers," she said, gesturing first towards them and then towards the door, "Dr. Dahler will see you now."
Paige tightened her lip, breathing out heavily through her nose. She hadn't even had a chance to catch her breath. She didn't have the kind of job that she could just pick up and leave on a moment's notice, when she got the call from her son's school. Fortunately, she'd been able to get another of the temps to cover for her, but she'd had to wait until Marlene got back from her company-mandated break before she could leave. She sped to the school as soon as she could, without even enough time to check her lipstick. She was sure that she looked like the kind of white-trash, single mother that "Ms. Fields" no doubt assumed she was. Paige could see the look of pity on Emily's face, and she rolled her eyes in response, not even bothering to try to hide it. Emily knew nothing about her or Wayne. Paige wasn't going to let her and Principal Dahler intimidate them or push them around.
As they entered the office, Principal Dahler, looking much more jovial than the situation called for, greeted them both by name, making a hand-wich with each of them as she shook hands, and introducing them to each other. Once the pleasantries were out of the way, she backed into the large, leather chair behind her desk, gesturing to her guests that they, too, should take a seat.
"First of all," Dr. Dahler said, "I want you to know that, although it doesn't take away from the seriousness of the matter, this is actually very common. Anna and Wayne are at an age where they're still learning how to resolve conflicts with their peers, and, sometimes, when they're frustrated, they don't resolve things in the most effective manner." Dr. Dahler paused, looking first at Paige, and then at Emily. "Do you understand?"
Emily cleared her throat. Her eyes had turned to Paige when Ms. Dahler looked that way. Crossing her legs, she turned her attention back to the principal. "Dr. Dahler," she said, her voice soft and somewhat high-pitched, "I don't really even know…"
"What happened?" Paige interrupted impatiently.
"There was a minor incident involving some shoving on the playground during recess. It was very minor." Dr. Dahler repeated the word for emphasis. "But, unfortunately, Ms. James didn't see how it started. Not that it matters. We teach our children that both hitting and retaliation are wrong."
Paige scoffed, incredulous. "So what was my son supposed to do? Turn the other cheek?"
Dr. Dahler gave Paige a patient, grandmotherly smile. "Anna, Wayne, what should you do if someone pushes you?"
"Let an adult know," they recited, almost in unison.
"And if you can't?"
"Just walk away," they chorused again.
Dr. Dahler put her hands on top of her desk as she pushed her chair away from it, standing up and moving around to the front of it. She perched there, between the two families. "Look," she said in a soothing tone, "we realize that there are some mitigating circumstances. I know that it can be hard for Wayne to make friends, coming into a new school in the middle of the year, when most of the other children have already formed their peer groups. And he and Anna are both bright students, and that sometimes brings out a sense of competitiveness. That's why we don't want to make too much of this incident. We wanted to bring the parents in, just to make sure that Wayne and Anna know how seriously we take this behavior, but Ms. James and I are in agreement. We don't believe that any corrective action is necessary, beyond this discussion." She put her hand on Anna's shoulder and then on Wayne's. "They're both good kids," she assured their parents, with a smile. "They've already apologized, so I think we can consider this matter closed. Unless you have any objections?"
Emily shook her head, which was angled downward. "Thank you, Dr. Dahler."
Paige, through a tight-lipped smile, also thanked the principal as she stood up, taking Wayne by the hand to lead him out of the office.
Once Paige and Emily were back in the waiting room, Emily holding her daughter's hand and Paige with her hands on Wayne's shoulders, there was an awkward moment of silence as they stood facing each other. Their eyes locked momentarily, but neither mother had anything to say to the other. "It was nice meeting you" didn't seem appropriate for the situation, nor did, "See you soon." Emily smiled weakly and squeezed Anna's hand, signifying that it was time to go.
Later, Emily sat across the table from Anna and pulled open the package of Apple Dippers she had bought her, taking the lid off of the caramel sauce. The restaurant was relatively uncrowded, so they were able to talk.
"Anna," Emily said calmly, "how did you end up shoving Wayne?"
Anna, hunched forward in her chair, was intently focused on getting just the right amount of caramel sauce on the apple slice, swirling it to prevent the excess from spilling on the table. "I was playing with my friends at recess," she began in an earnest monotone, "and I saw him sitting against the wall by himself, so I went to see whether he was okay. I asked whether it was okay for me to sit with him, and he nodded his head. So, I started talking to him, and we were talking, and he kissed me." Anna rattled off this fact as she had the others, in an emotionless, matter-of-fact tone.
Emily's head snapped on hearing this, although she tried not to react. She didn't want Anna to think that she was in trouble. She just wanted to hear the whole story. "So, you… you shoved him?"
"No, Mommy," Anna explained, "I told him that he shouldn't kiss people without permission." Anna calmly took another apple slice and meticulously swirled it into the sauce. Emily took a couple of French fries, nodding for Anna to continue.
"So, then what happened?"
Anna shrugged her shoulders slightly, looking off into the distance. "We were lining up to go back into class, and he came over and told me that I was ugly."
Again, Emily tried to suppress her reaction. "He said that?"
Anna nodded. "So, I ignored him, because he wasn't behaving, and I kept talking to my friends. And then he pushed me on the shoulder, and I hit the wall. And I pushed him back, and the playground monitor took us out of line and said," – Anna's face twisted into a scowl and her voice got deeper, like a Disney villain's – "'You're going to the principal's office!'"
Emily squeezed her daughter's hand. "Well, I understand what you did," she said softly, "but you should never hit somebody out of anger."
"I know, Mommy." Anna, reacting to her mother's tone, suddenly looked and sounded as if she were about to cry.
"Only to protect yourself, and only if there's no way to avoid it."
Anna put her apple slice down on the napkin and folded her arms across her stomach, looking down.
"I'm not upset," Emily assured her. I probably would've done the same thing. "And I'm really proud of you for checking on Wayne, when you saw him sitting by himself." Emily gave her daughter a smile and a squeeze on the shoulder.
"You want to tell me what happened today?" Paige caught Wayne's eyes in the rear-view mirror as he sat in his booster seat. He shrugged his shoulders. Paige furrowed her eyebrows. "Wayne Joseph!"
Wayne breathed heavily. "I was sitting by myself and Anna came up to me and started talking to me. And she was real nice. And she smelled nice. And she looked pretty. And she wasn't teasing me, the way the other boys were."
Paige spun around quickly to check on her son. "Who was teasing you?" she asked, catching his eyes in the mirror again. He shrugged.
Wayne was taller than most boys his age, and his movements were awkward, his motor skills not having caught up with his latest growth spurt. He dressed differently and talked with a slight hint of a South Philadelphia accent. He was an easy target for schoolyard bullying.
"So?" Paige said sharply. She felt bad for the kid, but she didn't want to let on. He needed to know that pushing a girl was not okay.
"I kissed her," Wayne admitted, watching his thumbs as he played with them.
Paige's eyes were on the road, and she was glad that Wayne couldn't see the smirk on her face. The kid really was a chip off the old block. "We don't kiss people without their permission," she said sternly, turning around to glare at him, to drive the point home.
"Yeah," he said resignedly.
"'Yeah'?" Paige prodded.
"Yes, Mommy."
Paige nodded. "So, then what?"
"So, I went to try to play with the boys, and they said that I liked her and she was my girlfriend. So we were lining up to go back into class, and I told her that she was ugly. 'Cause she's not my girlfriend, and I don't like girls!"
"Wayne Joseph Cantor!" Paige realized that she shouldn't be having this conversation while she was trying to drive. Fortunately, Rosewood was a small town. There weren't many people on the streets.
"I'm sorry!"
"And what did she say?"
"Nothing. So I pushed her."
Paige exhaled deeply. "Since when do you care what those other boys think?"
"I don't, Mommy!" Wayne protested, although it was hard for him not to care. It was hard being the oddball; the outsider.
"Well, you shouldn't be kissing people at your age. And you shouldn't call people names. And you shouldn't push people. Ever. And, Wayne, you can't let people get into your head!"
Wayne curled up into himself in his seat. He looked out of the window, trying to get control of his emotions.
"You need to make this right with Anna," Paige said.
"I said I'm sorry!" Wayne protested.
"I know, Honey. That's good. And I'm proud of you for that. But you need to make things right. She came up to you to be your friend, so you need to try to be her friend."
"Mommy, Wayne's mommy is really pretty, isn't she?" Anna asked as she held Emily's hand on the way to the car.
Emily chuckled to herself. Anna was right, but the statement, delivered so earnestly, was kind of out of the blue. "What did I tell you about beauty?" Answering her own question, Emily continued, "There are two kinds of beauty: outside beauty and inside beauty. And, unfortunately, Ms. Paige isn't very beautiful on the inside. And that's the most important kind of beauty."
Emily understood why Paige would have felt stressed when they met in the principal's office, but that didn't excuse being brusque and rude. It was not setting a good example for the children. Emily wanted to be sure that Anna knew that being pretty didn't excuse being obnoxious.
Paige was both. She was pretty. And she was pretty obnoxious.
A/N - Well, hello! So, I'm trying my hand at a real multi-chapter again... Wish me luck! I'm (obviously) super rusty. :(
Just a reminder, because I know people are going to tell me that they want longer chapters... My chapters are short, but I update every day. Sorry, but this is a hobby for me, and I don't have a lot of time to devote to it. I always suggest that people who need longer chapters should read my fics once a week, rather than every day... :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the journey. Please let me know how you feel - good, bad, or indifferent. And I do welcome your ideas and prompts, but please recognize that I can't accommodate everyone's suggestions.
Thanks so much for giving this story a shot! I hope I can make it worth your while!