Chapter Three

Callie was positively fizzing as she stormed through the doors to Eisele's school. She was in the process of making her way to the Principle's office after she had received a call from the man informing her that her daughter had been involved in an altercation with another child.

The call had come through just as she was meeting with Shane McMahon, Jet Prickett, one of the stage managers and Michael 'Michael Seitz' Hayes, one of the senior producers in the company. She had proceeded to profusely apologise before having to cut the meeting short. As soon as she mentioned Eisele, Shane had waved her off, telling her to go and make sure her daughter was okay. It was one the things that Callie loved about Shane; family trumped work every day of life.

The school halls were deserted at this time as lessons were still going on. Callie stomped towards the Principle's office, intent on finding out just what her daughter had been up to. The Principle hadn't disclosed to Callie over the phone just what had occurred and who was responsible for the incident - but Callie knew her daughter well - and knew that she was most likely to blame for whatever had happened.

Upon rounding the corner to the office, Callie saw Eisele perched on a seat outside of the office, casually swinging her feet back and forth, hands tucked under her knees. The expression on her eight year old's face was one of undisputed innocence.

"Mommy!" Eisele shouted upon setting eyes on Callie. "I'm so happy to see you," she stood from her seat and proceeded to wrap her arms securely around her mother's waist, pressing her cheek to Callie's stomach. Callie sighed and made a face, patting the back of her daughter's head gently. She pulled back to look down at her and tried to force her face into a stern expression.

"What happened this time?" Callie asked, raising an eyebrow at her daughter. Eisele was no stranger to occurrences such as this.

The little girl hung her head slightly before meeting her mother's eyes. She twisted her lips slightly, evidently not keen on confessing what had happened.

"There was a girl and she was saying some bad things to me. She made me feel bad, Mommy. So I-I-I I got her back by putting her in that move that Daddy does."

Callie couldn't contain her shock and let out a gasp.

"What move that Daddy does?" she demanded, anger creeping onto her face.

"The submission one, you know, the 'Captain's Hook'," Eisele answered, illustrating her point by using her arms to show Callie what she meant.

"Eisele! You-You can't be going around and wrestling the other kids in the playground, sweetheart, you just-"

"Mrs Kendrick!" A voice came from a few metres down the hallway.

"It's Ms!" Callie corrected, not appreciating the fact that the Principle didn't know or care about the parenting situation between Callie and Brian. Callie straightened up to her full height, placing a comforting hand onto her daughter's shoulder.

"May we speak in the office, please?" he asked, and Callie felt her back stiffen at the haughty tone present in his voice. She patted Eisele's shoulder and told her to take a seat before heading towards the office with the Principle.

The man closed the door behind her and invited her to take a seat. Callie sat and crossed one leg over the other, placing her bag at her feet.

"Ms Kendrick," he started, stressing her name. "Has Eisele informed you of why I called you down here?"

"She explained a little about the situation, yes," Callie said, nervously rubbing her palms on her jean clad thighs.

"So you are in agreement that I'm going to have to suspend her for two weeks?"

"Excuse me?!" Callie questioned. "Two weeks?! I think that is a little excessive, don't you?"

"On the contrary, I think it is an acceptable form of punishment. Eisele injured the other girl involved in the incident with her and irrevocably damaged the young girl's state of mind."

"Damaged her state of mind? I'm not sure I follow," Callie replied aghast. She could barely fathom what she was actually hearing.

"And at the end of the day, I think you will find that Eisele has had this sort of violence instilled upon her from your husband and his colleagues," the Principle added and Callie could hear the disgust and indignation in his voice.

"What my ex-husband and many of my friends do is a carefully honed craft, I will have you know," Callie narrowed her eyes at the educator. "And I will also inform you that Eisele is not taught and is most certainly not allowed to perform the moves that the athletes do in the ring! I understand that was she did was wrong - very wrong - and I understand that she needs to be punished. However, what is being done to punish the other young girl who insulted my daughter?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me! When I enrolled Eisele in this school, I was promised that you hold a zero tolerance on bullying."

"We do!" he replied indignantly.

"Not from where I am sitting! You are handing my daughter a two week suspension, which let's face it, only serves to negatively effect her education and you are not going to give a single bit of punishment to that other young girl. If you hold a zero tolerance on bullying, I think you will find that emotional bullying can sometimes be worse that physical!"

"Ms Kendrick, I don't think that you under-"

"Oh, I understand perfectly, Mr Ross," Callie said standing from her seat. "I understand that I pay you an exuberant amount of money to educate my child, I understand that I have also donated and raised copious amounts of funds for this school and I also understand that the promise made to me when I enrolled my child here, was nothing but bullshit!

"Ms Kendrick! I beg your-"

"You beg nothing, Mr Ross. I entrusted you with my child. I expected you to take due care and responsibility for her and to educate her to the best of your ability. What I did not expect was to find that you sending the students mixed messages. By allowing them to believe that any one manner of bullying bests another, you are sending them the message that it is okay to mentally hurt someone but not to physically hurt them. And quite frankly, I think that is unacceptable."

"Ms Kendrick!" The Principle tried again, standing up so that he towered over her, eager to make Callie seem inferior.

"Stop saying my name like that, Mr Ross! There is one simple solution in this situation. I will withdraw Eisele from the school and all future funds and/or donations that were going to be made. However, Eisele will be made to handwrite a letter of apology to the child that she hurt and she will deliver it to her before I fully withdraw her from the school," Callie picked her bag up and headed for the door.

"Ms Kendrick, I think that you're blowing this way out of-"

Callie cut him off by closing the office door behind her and shutting off the noise he was making. She turned to see Callie sitting where she found her, swinging her legs back and forth, her head drooped low. Her little girl looked up when she heard the office door open and she smile sadly at her mother.

"Am I in big trouble, Mommy?" she asked, her voice tiny in the corridor.

Callie licked her lips and approached her daughter, trying to find the words to convey how upset she was. She crouched down to Eisele's level.

"Yes, you are in big trouble, Eisele," Callie told her and her daughter dropped her head again. "Look at me," Callie told her, making Eisele look up at her. There were tears brimming on the edges of her dark eyes. "There's no point in crying, Eisele. What you did was very wrong and you need to understand that. You need to understand that you cannot go around hitting other people or using those moves, they're only for the ring, sweetheart."

"But Daddy-"

"Baby, Daddy spent years training to wrestle. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of discipline. You need to know what you're doing, how much pressure to inflict so that you don't hurt anybody. You could have really hurt that other girl!"

"I know but-"

"There are no buts. You did hurt the other student," Callie sighed. "I know that she said some really mean things to you and she should never have done that. She should be getting punished too. But that's not always how things work. Now, you're going to have to handwrite a letter saying sorry. And I'm going to bring you over next week to give it to her," Callie explained. "I don't want to see that face," she added when she saw Eisele's expression. "After that you never have to come back here again."

"Really?" Eisele's face lit up at the prospect of never setting foot in the school ever again.

"Yes," Callie chuckled. "But that doesn't mean no school. I will need to find you another school." She stood up to full height, reaching for her daughter's hand. "C'mon, lets go and get some pizza and we'll talk more about you and this 'Captain's Hook'."