A/N: Hey there, folks! Sorry it's been a while. I had an idea for another story that took longer than I intended it to take.
This chapter is a little shorter than most of the others, and it only involves Kayla and Sammie. In it, Samantha gets in a fight at school, and Kayla nearly gets into a fight with Sammie's school principal. Because of that fight, she ends up telling Sammie about Art.
Fifteen minutes earlier, Kayla had been riding high.
She had just left Jackson's final adoption hearing. He'd been adopted by the Novak family, Jimmy and Amelia, and all parties seemed thrilled by the arrangement. Jimmy and Amelia had a younger daughter named Claire, who was five years younger than Jackson, with whom Jackson had formed a tight bond.
It was definitely a high for Kayla's career, who had become known at social services as 'the adoption whisperer'. She'd been placed in charge of a total of fifteen kids in the three years she'd been there. Three of them had been reunited with their families. Two of them were in the process of being adopted by their foster families. One had been admitted to college early, with Kayla acting as his guardian. Jackson's adoption had just gone through, and seven of Kayla's eight other charges all had been completely adopted out of foster care.
Kayla was rocking her career of choice.
But all that had to take a back seat. Thirteen-year-old Sammie's principal had just called her to school. Sammie was suspended. Apparently, she had punched someone and bloodied his nose. Kayla was shocked. It just didn't fit Sammie's demeanor to hurt someone. On a normal day, Sam would've been the one the school called. But Sam was out of town, chaperoning an overnight field trip with Jessie's class.
Kayla was known on the campus, so when she arrived, she went straight back to the principal's office. Sammie was there, and a woman Kayla assumed was the mother of the boy Sammie had punched. There was a distressed looking boy sitting next to the mother, holding an ice pack to his nose. The principal, a hardnosed older woman of which Kayla wasn't a fan, gave Kayla a fake smile.
"Mrs. Whitaker. Nice of you to finally join us."
"It's good to see you, Mrs. Lively." Kayla said, putting on her best polite voice. "I apologize. I was helping a child who didn't have parents get parents. But next time I'll be sure to put that aside."
Mrs. Lively threw a glare to Kayla, but chose to ignore the dig. "I trust my secretary told you what happened?"
"She told me a version of it." Kayla answered, slowly losing her patient façade. "May I speak to my daughter, please? Sammie, what happened, baby?"
"I'll tell you what happened. Your daughter beat up our son!" the mother of the boy exclaimed.
"I understand that. What I want to know from my daughter is why."
"Mrs. Whitaker, there's not an acceptable reason to punch another student. Samantha will be suspended for one week."
"Again, Mrs. Lively, I would like to speak to my daughter. I'm asking you to please give her a chance to speak, and I would appreciate the common courtesy of allowing her to do it without being interrupted. Is that okay with you?"
Mrs. Lively's glare deepened. "There's no need to be short with me, Mrs. Whitaker."
"I completely agree. And if I was being short with you, Mrs. Lively, I assure you you'd know it." Kayla said. "Now, Sammie, what happened?"
Samantha waited a moment before speaking. She knew that her mother knew her principal, but didn't know the extent to which they didn't care for each other. When no one had spoken for ten seconds, Samantha finally told her story.
"Kevin's been walking behind me and grabbing me every day."
"Grabbing you how?" Kayla asked. "Doing what exactly?"
"The last few days, he was grabbing the bottom of my shirt and pulling it. Today he grabbed my bra strap and snapped it."
"He what?" Kayla asked. She turned around to Kevin, who shrank back against his mother. "Is that true?"
"Don't yell at my son!"
"Maybe if you had yelled at him a little more, we wouldn't be in this situation!" Kayla said. "Sammie, did you ask him to stop before you hit him?"
"Yes. Every single day. And twice today. I asked him, and then I told him, and he still didn't stop."
"Mrs. Whitaker, whatever Samantha's reason, she still assaulted another student." Mrs. Lively said. "This situation is very serious."
"I agree. I see why you called me now. You want to know if I want to press charges."
A shocked silence fell over the entire room, before Kevin's mother spoke from the other side of the room. "Excuse me? She assaulted him!"
"In self-defense. After he assaulted her first. Several times, I might add."
Mrs. Lively's brisk demeanor started to crumble. "Mrs. Whitaker, there's no reason to escalate this so much…"
"I say there is." Kayla said. "Sammie, I'll leave the choice to you. What do you want to do?"
"I just want him to leave me alone. Don't touch me."
"That seems to be amore than reasonable request. What I want to know is why something wasn't done to stop this from happening."
"We weren't aware…" Mrs. Lively tried to say.
This time she was interrupted by Samantha. "That's not true! I told Mr. Beckett."
"Mr. Beckett, the assistant principal? What did he do about it?"
"Nothing. He told me to ignore it."
"Excuse me?" Kayla raged. She again turned her wrath to Mrs. Lively. "Do you train your assistant principals to ignore sexual harassment?"
"They're kids!" Kevin's mother protested.
"Which doesn't make it okay." Kayla seethed. It would occur to her later she didn't know Kevin's last name, but she didn't care. "Mrs. Lively, I want to know right now what Kevin's consequence will be."
"He is the victim…"
"As is my daughter. Now I'll give you three options. One, Sammie's suspension is revoked and she's able to come back to school on Monday. Two, Kevin is suspended for at least as long as Sammie is. Three, I go to your boss's office and make a stink about this."
"There's no need for the superintendent to be involved."
"Given that he's my best friend's husband, and Sammie's godfather, I'll be sure to ask him that when they come to dinner tomorrow night."
Mrs. Lively was defeated, and she knew it. Her lips pressed in a thin line as she picked up Samantha's suspension paperwork and ripped it up.
"Wise choice, Mrs. Lively." Kayla said. She turned to Kevin and stood six inches in front of his face, speaking in a low toned voice that made it clear she was not messing around with him. "Do not ever put your hands on my daughter again. If you do, I will not hesitate to press charges against you. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Yes, what?" Kayla asked.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Glad we understand each other." Kayla said. "Sammie, grab your backpack. Let's go."
Something had started inside of Kayla, and she raced out to the car ahead of Samantha. She broke down crying at the steering wheel, and by the time she composed herself, Samantha was staring at her.
"Mom?"
"Give me a second." Kayla said. She took a few deep breaths, then turned to Samantha. "Sorry."
"You okay?" Samantha asked. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't you dare be sorry." Kayla said. She sniffed and smiled at Samantha, further confusing Samantha on whether her mother was upset or not. "I'm so proud of you."
"You're proud of me? And that's making you cry like that?"
"No." Kayla swallowed hard again. Kevin's face had appeared in her head, and it morphed into one Kayla hadn't seen or talked about in years. "Do you remember when Daddy and I had the talk about sex with you?"
"Yeah."
"And how it's important to wait until you're old enough to make the decision to have it responsibly?"
"I remember, Mom. You're scaring me. Why are you so upset?"
"Because when I was your age, your papa had a friend. His name was Art. And he used to do stuff to me like Kevin did to you."
"What?"
Kayla nodded. "Yeah. Except he hurt me a lot worse."
"Did Papa know he was hurting you?"
"Not while it was happening. He didn't find out until a long time later." Kayla explained. "But my point is this. I'm so stinking proud of you because you stood up to Kevin today. I never had the courage to do that."
"You're really proud of me?"
"Yes. So proud, kiddo." Kayla said.
Samantha smiled. "Thanks, Mom."
"You're welcome. Now your dad's working for another few hours right now, and your papa and Jesse won't be back until later tonight. What do you say we go enjoy having the house to ourselves for a while?"
"Can we watch a movie?"
"You bet. You can pick." Kayla said, turning the key and starting towards home.
