A/N: To Sammy's Girl-sorry I haven't been answering any of your reviews lately. Life's been insane and when I get the time to write, I write, and usually I only have enough time to post what I've written.

Anyway, I've seen your requests for a Cordell and Emily/Stella/August story. I really have tried to come up with at least a short scene for them, but at least for me, it's tough. Don't get me wrong-I love Walker, and I love Jared and Gen in Walker. I will watch the series all the way through no matter what. But as a character, I've come to connect more with Liam in this show than Cordell. I have not given up the idea of a Cordell story, it's just tougher for me to write than Liam.

As for your review on the first chapter to this story-you're right. It is frustrating that some parents think adults are right just because they're the adults and the kids are kids. But, at least from what I've seen with my own mom raising me and my sister, and my sister with her three kids, a lot of parenting is trial and error. You try one thing, it doesn't quite work like you want it to, so you try something else. I based the character of Mrs. Wilson on a teacher my sister and I both had at different times. She was a bully to the students in general, and me in particular. Luckily, my mom handled the situation with Mrs. Smith a lot differently than Bonham and Abby have handled this, but the story isn't over yet. There's at least two more long chapters to go (probably more than that, I haven't decided for sure yet). But I promise, everybody will learn a lesson here, Bonham and Abby included.

Thanks again for reading, love. Your reviews, along with everyone else's, mean so much to me and brighten up my days when I need it the most.

Liam

Unlike Sophie's school year, Liam's senior year of high school was going beautifully.

He had gotten an early acceptance to NYU, and his future appeared set. He knew better than to try and coast through his senior year, but Liam felt ninety percent of his anxiety lifted off his shoulders. He could enjoy his year, have fun, and everything would fall into place in time.

But there was one thing that was top in his mind right now.

Sophie had been quiet for days now. Too quiet. She had begged Liam not to come home with her in the afternoons anymore before the school year started. Liam, who had his own after school activities, readily agreed, thinking that Sophie was just trying to assert some of her independence. He was somewhat surprised at the lack of argument coming down from his parents about Sophie coming home from school on her own, but chose to take it as a good thing. Sophie was growing up, their parents were letting her, and it made him feel better about leaving the following year.

That was, he would feel better about it if he could figure out what was going on with his little sister.

Sophie claimed that everything was okay, but Liam knew better. When everything was okay, Sophie would talk to him nonstop. She'd tell him all about the intricate little details of her school day, to the point that Liam had stopped listening most of the time. She would ask him questions about his day, and as each afternoon passed, Liam was able to feel the two of them growing closer together.

On the ride home, Liam made a plan. There was a bakery he passed every day, and he walked in and bought Sophie a dozen cupcakes. He got six of her favorite flavor, red velvet, three of his favorite, strawberry, one chocolate, one vanilla, and one lemon. He paid and put the cupcakes in his car, hoping that Sophie would be in at least a semi good mood when he got home.

Sophie

Sophie slammed her hand into the pillows on her bed, over and over and over, picturing Mrs. Wilson's face the whole time.

Sophie was well aware of her reputation at school. Sophie Walker, the tiny, weird, quiet kid who kept mostly to herself. But she'd never had much of a problem with bullying before. Maybe it was because most of the student body knew she had two much older, much bigger brothers, both of whom wouldn't hesitate to stand up for her if the time came. She chuckled as she remembered a bully she'd had in kindergarten.

Tyler was, in his own kindergarten way, vicious to Sophie. He pulled her hair and pinched her every chance he got. He called her names and told her that she wasn't good at any of the games the kids played at recess, destroying her self-confidence. Tired of everything that Tyler was doing to her, Sophie thought about fighting him, but realized that she'd just get in trouble too. She couldn't tell her Mama or Daddy about it, because then she'd be considered a tattletale when Tyler got in trouble and she wouldn't have any friends.

So she got her brothers involved.

Mama and Daddy had left to go out to dinner that night, leaving then eleven-year-old Liam and seventeen-year-old Cordell in charge. After eating two slices of pizza, Sophie finally told both of them about Tyler. Her brothers had listened to her carefully, then both promised to take care of Tyler.

The next day, Sophie was excited when Cordell and Liam both offered to take her to the school playground, which was open to everyone on the weekends as there wasn't really a good public playground anywhere close. Sophie had taken her beach ball and her dolly with her, making a list of everything she wanted to play with her brothers at the park that day. It was rare that she got both their attention at the same time, so she wanted to get as much playing done as possible.

Then she saw him.

Tyler was there, with his usual group of friends, over by the swings. Cordell and Liam both told Sophie to go and swing. Sophie, afraid of Tyler and what he might do to her, adamantly refused. Liam promised her that the both of them would be right there the whole time, and if Tyler touched her, then he'd never be a problem for her again. Afraid that if she took her dolly to the swing Tyler would hurt it, she handed it to Liam and walked over.

It took all of thirty seconds for Tyler to make trouble.

Sophie had just climbed onto the swing and was practicing pumping her feet like Liam had taught her the weekend before. She looked ahead at the bench where her brothers were sitting, and not on the ground, so she wouldn't get scared and fall. Just as she started to get a good swing going, she felt something hard hit her in the head and she tumbled to the ground. A chorus of boyish laughter came from behind her.

"That was too easy!" she heard Tyler say.

Sophie looked to her left and that was when she saw it. Tyler had thrown a small, hard, rubber ball at her head. It wasn't a rock, but he'd thrown it hard enough that it felt like one to Sophie. She couldn't help it. She started to cry. It hurt and embarrassed her, and now she just wanted to go home.

"What do you little punks think you're doing?"

Liam was beside her, helping her get up and examining her head. He shushed her to help her stop crying, and when she finally got to her feet she felt another pair of hands lift her high up off the ground. Cordell had picked her up and now she could see.

Tyler and his gang were terrified of Cordell, who was nearly twice their size and, Sophie guessed, a thousand times as strong.

"Um, we were just…"

"What?"

Sophie laid her head down on his shoulder as she relished the look of fear on Tyler's face. The two boys that had been with him had already fled, leaving Tyler to face Cordell's wrath alone. Liam took his own stance next to his brother, and suddenly Tyler's face went a ghostly white.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" Cordell asked, his voice booming. "Did you throw this at my little sister?"

"N…no…."

"Really? And let me guess, you haven't been tormenting her at school either, have you?"

"Well, I…"

"I'm gonna warn you, once. Just once, you little punk. You leave my sister alone. Or else." Cordell threatened.

"Or else what?" Tyler squeaked.

That was when it happened. Sophie was the first to notice. A strong smell filled the air, one that made everyone's face scrunch in disgust, including Tyler's.

"Or we tell your whole class," Liam said with a smirk, "that you just wet your pants."

Liam knew that was a low blow, especially to a little kid like Tyler, but it was effective. He was only concerned with Sophie at the moment. A woman came running up to the group of them, fretting over Tyler. The woman was his mother. Tyler was still crying, and picked up his crying when Cordell informed her that Tyler had wet himself. His mother dragged Tyler to the car, fussing at him for not letting her know he had to go to the restroom.

It was the first moment Sophie remembered the three of them working together. It was the first time she felt like she and her brothers were one family.

Not surprisingly, Tyler had never bothered her again.

She wondered if she should still tell Liam about Mrs. Wilson. She knew that he had a slim chance of changing their father's mind about the grounding, but she didn't care about that now. She just wanted someone in her corner. When she heard Liam's car pull up, she smiled.

Help was on the way.

Abeline and Bonham

Bonham heard the door slam to Sophie's room, but he chose to ignore it. After getting through Cordell and Liam's teenage years, a slammed door honestly didn't bother him too much anymore. Abeline sighed at the table next to him, and Bonham felt the headache he was already battling grow the slightest bit bigger.

"Say it."

"Say what?"

Bonham eyed Abeline suspiciously. "You think we were too hard on her?"

"No, actually. I don't." Abeline said.

"You don't?"

"No. I agree with you. We need to be hard on her about her grades."

"Why do I sense a big but coming on?"

"But I do think something else is going on that she's not telling us." Abeline said. "Remember that Tyler kid from her kindergarten year?"

"You think she's being bullied?"

"Maybe."

"But her grades are good except for that one class. There's something going on there."

"I asked the principal about Mrs. Wilson before the school year started." Abeline said. "He said she was really tough but her grades were top notch."

"You think her teacher's bullying her?" Bonham asked.

"Not bullying her, necessarily, but maybe being a bit too hard on her." Abeline explained. "Maybe I should go talk to her again."

"Well, miss Sophie's gonna have to learn that the world is tough sometimes. She's always skated by in school. Maybe this whole thing'll turn out to be good for her."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that unless things get a lot worse, I think we need to stay out of this. Let Sophie navigate this and find a way to get along with her teacher. Mama and Daddy won't always be there to help her out of jams, you know."

"I get that, but she's always loved school. I'm afraid if we don't do something more than just grounding her until her grades come up, she'll come to hate it."

Bonham sighed. "I know. Let's just give everybody a little time to calm down and we'll talk to her tonight. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

It was at that moment the front door opened and Liam stepped inside. "Hi, guys!"

"Hey there, son. How was school?" Abeline asked.

"It was good." Liam said, placing his backpack on a kitchen chair. He stopped in surprise when he saw his father. "Hey, you're home early."

"Yeah, me and your mama had to have a talk with your sister."

"Is she okay? Where is she?"

"Apparently, she's slipping in one class at school." Abeline said. "She's failing."

"She's failing? She's a straight A student!"

"We know. But part of her grade in that class is participation, and she's not doing her assignments or listening to her teacher."

"Is something going on?" Liam asked. "That doesn't sound like her."

"The only thing your sister said was that her teacher was, quote, crazy." Bonham recounted. He took a look at the clock on the wall and stood up. "I better get back to work."

"Dinner in two hours." Abeline reminded him. "Come to table washed up, please."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Bonham said, bending down for a kiss before walking out the door.

Abeline turned back to Liam and spotted the box in his hands. "What's that?"

"Oh. Cupcakes. I bought 'em for me and Sissy."

"I'm afraid she's grounded." Abeline said. "You can put them in the fridge and we can eat them after dinner if you want."

Liam frowned. "Come on, Mama, please. Just let me take her one? It'll be a lot easier to get her to talk."

Abeline sighed, knowing she was a pushover. "One for her and one for you. On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You find anything out, you let me know?" Abeline asked hopefully.

"Assuming she hasn't asked me to keep it between us, sure." Liam promised.

Sophie

Unknown to the rest of her family, Sophie had heard bits and pieces of the conversation in the kitchen.

Her family really thought that this was all about her. That Sophie was the one causing friction between herself and Mrs. Wilson. Sophie wracked her brain, trying to come up with something concrete that she might have done to cause this, but she couldn't come up with a single thing.

Could they be right? Could ending the constant tension at school all come down to Sophie behaving differently?

Her train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. She recognized the knock right away. It was soft, almost hesitant.

"Come in."

Liam popped his head inside and smiled at her. "Hey, Sissy."

Seeing her older brother caused a wave of emotion to course through Sophie. She jumped up from her bed and ran to her door, grabbing Liam's waist and hugging it tightly. She felt him put something down on her desk and return the hug, making Sophie start crying exhausted tears.

"Hey." Liam soothed. "Come on, sit down."

Grateful that she was still small enough to fit in Liam's lap, she curled into it and let him hold her. She felt loved and appreciated, cared for, the exact opposite of how she felt when she was at school. She soaked it in as long as she could.

"Talk to me. What's going on?"

Sophie took a long time to answer. The thoughts of a few minutes earlier were starting to take over. She knew that, in order to get an honest answer as to whether she was at fault for the situation, she would have to tell Liam everything. But she decided that she had to tackle this problem on her own. Come next year, Liam wouldn't be there to hold her hand through things like this, so she took a deep breath and told him half the truth.

"I'm failing one of my classes."

"I heard. Why?"

Sophie shrugged. Now was where the half truth came in. "I don't know. Just harder than last year, I guess."

"But you're doing so well in all your other classes. Are you sure it's just the material that's harder?"

"Mrs. Wilson is just really hard. I guess I have to study more than I did before."

Sophie felt Liam tense up, and she knew he didn't believe her. She prayed he wouldn't call her out on it. When he said nothing, Sophie assumed she was in the clear. She then remembered that Liam had put something on her desk and she looked up.

"You brought me cupcakes?"

"I did. You want one?"

"Mama and Daddy let you give them to me?" Sophie asked, surprised. Though she wasn't banned dessert when she was grounded, extra treats like this were usually vetoed right away.

"Mama did. Go get 'em. Let's eat."

For a few minutes, Sophie forgot all about her school troubles. The cupcake brought a smile to her face again, and she realized that tomorrow was the weekend. She had two whole days to come up with a plan for what to do about school. Though she was stuck inside all day, it was better than having to face Mrs. Wilson again.

That would come Monday, and Sophie shuddered at the very thought.