Personal Prompt: Heidi gets into trouble at Kindergarten

Regina was at work when the phone began to ring. She had finished serving the customer over the counter before moving to answer. The phone ringing wasn't an uncommon occurrence; people often called the bakery with orders, especially if they happened to be larger ones. They made sandwiches and afternoon teas for corporate events and other occasions. She grabbed a pen and pad, ready to write down the order once it was relayed to her.

"Hello, you've reached Divine Desserts. How can I help you?"

"Hi, is this Regina Mills?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. It was strange for someone to ask her that. In fact, it had never happened, not on that phone anyway. The device was usually reserved for work calls, so only a few places had the number as a contact for her. Worry started to bloom in her chest, she didn't have her mobile whilst at work, so the bakery's phone was her emergency contact. "Yes, who may I ask is calling?"

"Hi Regina, I'm sorry to bother you whilst you're at work. It's Mary Margaret."

Oh no. "Hi, Mary, what's going on? Is it Heidi?"

"I hate to say this, but you're going to have to come and pick her up."

"Why? Is she okay?" Regina asked. She was panicking. Her daughter had been fine when she dropped her off at kindergarten that morning, so what was going on? Was her daughter unwell, was she hurt? What was happening? She began to untie her apron as she listened to the woman witter on.

"We tried to contact Robin, but…"

"He's at an art fair in Boston. You won't be able to reach him. Can you please tell me what's actually happening with my daughter?" Regina folded her apron as she rested the phone against her shoulder and rolled her eyes. Why couldn't this woman ever get straight to the point? Caroline kept glancing over in her direction whilst she continued to serve the customers.

"She got into a fight with another child."

"Excuse me?" Regina's eyes widened, and she was sure that her words had come out much harsher than she had been meaning them to. How did a five-year-old girl manage to get herself in a fight so bad that her teacher had to call her mother?

"I'm sorry."

"You said that already Miss Blanchard," the brunette snapped. "I'll be there in ten minutes," she ended the call before the woman could carry on. Why had she become more annoying since high school? "Caroline, I'm really sorry, but…"

"Go, go, I'm fine here."

"Are you sure? I could call my father and…"

"Regina, get out of here," the older woman chuckled, playfully shooing her away.

Reluctantly, the younger woman grabbed her things from the backroom before heading to her car. Why had her daughter been involved in a fight? She still couldn't get her head around it. It wasn't like her daughter to get caught up in confrontation. The drive to the school seemed to take forever, but when she arrived, she checked in at the front desk before walking down the corridor with her head held high, heading towards the headmasters' office.

She knocked boldly, swallowing down any insecurities she might be feeling and slipping into protective momma bear mode. When she was given the all-clear to come inside, she opened the door and got straight to making demands, "where is my daughter?"

"Miss Mills, would you care to take a seat?" the headmaster asked, looking at her from where he was sat behind the desk. It was safe to say she wasn't all that fond of the man, he was old and miserable, and she didn't have the patience to deal with him when it seemed her child was in trouble.

"What I would care to do is see my daughter, please."

"Yes, I understand that, but we need to talk about her behaviour first."

"She's a five-year-old girl," Regina scoffed, reluctantly perching on one of the seats opposite his desk. "I know Miss Blanchard said she was in a fight, but what could she have possibly done that was so bad you had to call me to come and collect her?"

"Well…"

Earlier that morning. Heidi's POV:

Heidi gave her mother the biggest hug as she was dropped off at school; she felt so loved as her mommy kissed her goodbye and wished her the best day. It had all started so well. She'd sat on the carpet with her best friend Gracie as they had their first lessons, learning to add up using different animals.

It was when the time for free play came that the problems started. Not that it was Heidi's fault; why would it be? She was a good girl. Her mommy and daddy said so. The little brunette and her friend had hurried over to play kitchen, giggling as they pretended to cook meals for one another, setting the table and preparing food made from playdough.

Heidi had just made a little cupcake when one of the stinky boys in the class came along and punched his fist through it, flattening her creation. "Hey! Christopher!" she huffed, folding her arms as she glared over at him, watching as he laughed with his other friend before running away from them. When he was gone, the little girl simply shook her head and started to remake it; she would make it even better than it had been before, just like the ones her mommy and nanna made at the bakery.

At recess, Heidi ran around with her friends, she played football, just like her daddy had taught her. The other kids were sure that the sport was called soccer, but daddy said it was football, and he was always right.

She was quite good at football and prided herself in her dribbling skills. Running as fast as she could, she tackled one of the first graders, managing to get the ball off them before hurrying away towards the goal.

She kicked the ball as hard as she could, aiming for the net, it ricocheted off the post, and she groaned in annoyance. "That was so close!"

"Good try," Alexandra smiled, giving her a high five.

This, however, was interrupted by someone else. "You're so rubbish at soccer, Heidi!" Christopher yelled from across the pitch, "why are we letting girls play anyway?! Girls can't play soccer!"

"They can too!" the little brunette scowled at the boy, hurrying up to him with her hands on her hips. Her neat pigtails from earlier that morning coming loose from all the running around. "Girls can do the same as boys."

"Soccer isn't for girls. Go play with your barbies."

"My daddy said girls can do whatever they want," Heidi sassed, raising her eyebrows in a trait that had certainly come from her Mills family genes. "I don't care what you say. I'm playing."

She thought he might be about to push her over when they were interrupted by someone. "Hey, Chris leave her alone already." It was one of the older boys, she thought he might have been a second grader, but she wasn't certain.

Christopher gave her a mean look and bumped her shoulder as he went past her before running to the other end of the pitch.

"Don't listen to him, Heidi. He's just a smelly boy," Gracie huffed.

Heidi was angry with the boy. Why couldn't she play football if she wanted to? She wasn't going to listen to him, just as her friend said. She was better at football than he was anyway.

After recess, there had been another lesson. The children were working on writing their sentences, using different sounds to spell out certain words. Once that was done, they were allowed to choose their activities once again.

This time she was with her friend Millie in the painting corner. She had an apron on and was taking her time to create her artwork. It was going to take a lot of practice if she wanted to be as good as her daddy. Carefully, she applied the paint, washing out her brush before dipping it in another colour, making sure that she didn't mess them up. "I'll show you how to make purple," she smiled, scooping up a little red, then some blue and mixing them together into a vivid purple shade.

"Whoa! How did you know that would happen?"

"My daddys' an artist," she exclaimed proudly. Her daddy was the best artist in the entire world. "He showed me."

"Cool."

Heid grinned and went back to concentrating, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth, just like her mommy did when she focused on something. She dipped her brush in the purple before running it over her paper, slowly creating the shape of her flowers. The problem was, she was concentrating so hard that she had been completely oblivious to the bully coming up behind her. Before she could even do anything to stop it, a large splash of black paint was splattered all over her artwork and her favourite yellow sundress.

The girl gasped in shock, staring at her now ruined picture. She had nearly finished, and now it was all spoilt. It was meant to be for her mommy and daddy; she'd wanted to show it to him when he came home from work. Heidi felt tears welling up in her eyes as the sound of laughing met her ears. That sadness was soon replaced with hot rage. She was angry at whoever thought it was so funny to ruin her special painting.

The little girl whirled around, not surprised to see Christopher laughing loudly at his victory. "You are a horrible boy!" she screamed, flicking her paint pallet over and making sure that it went all over his clothes.

"Hey!"

"You deserved it!"

He moved closer to her, and she was glaring at him, trying to control her anger. She couldn't remember ever being so angry in her short life. Heidi clenched her fists as she stared him down. It was then that he pushed her, knocking her back into the children's easel.

She pushed him right back, and that was it. They were all out fighting, screaming at one another as they fought. The paint was going absolutely everywhere as they pushed and hit each other.

The teachers hurried over to the pair and pulled them apart. Miss Blanchard lifted Heidi off the ground as she was kicking and screaming.

Then they ended up in Miss Blanchard's office. Both her picture and summer dress were ruined. Her pigtails had come completely undone, and her cheek stung from where the boy had managed to hit her. Not to mention her mommy and daddy would probably be angry with her. Heidi couldn't stop herself from bursting into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.

Now… Regina's POV

When Heidi was finally brought into the office, she was looking at the floor. Regina's eyes widened as she took in her daughter's appearance. The girl certainly hadn't looked like that when she had dropped her off at the school gates earlier that morning. "How on earth have you allowed this to happen?!" she asked, the question posed to Mary Margaret, who had escorted the little girl inside.

"Regina with all…"

"Seriously?"

"The boy involved in the fight said that Heidi started it. Heidi has refused to say a word since it happened."

Regina was angry that they were simply taking this boys word for it, her daughter wasn't a troublemaker, and she certainly didn't start fights. "Well, I suppose I better find out for myself hadn't I. If you would be so kind…"

"Of course," the teachers nodded, leaving Regina alone with Heidi.

As soon as the door closed behind them, she hurried over to her child, kneeling down on the carpet and gently lifting the girl's chin so that she could look at her. Her mouth fell open when she saw a red mark that clearly wasn't paint on her baby's cheek. She was furious and had to take a deep breath to gain control of her emotions. Someone had hurt her little girl. She didn't care if it was another child; she wanted it dealt with. "Heidi."

The little brunette met her eyes before welling up again, tears springing from her eyes as she shook her head. "It wasn't my fault, mommy. I promise."

"I never even thought it was. What happened?"

"He threw paint and ruined my picture. It was for daddy, and he ruined it and my dress," she sniffled. Regina swiped the tears from her baby's cheeks as she listened to her daughter's words. "I got angry at him and threw paint back. Then he pushed me and I…"

"He pushed you?" Keep calm, Regina. She tried to remind herself to remain composed, but it was becoming more and more difficult. If her daughter's words were true, and she'd never known her to lie, so they most likely were, this boy had started the fight and lied to get out of trouble.

"Uh-huh."

"And what did you do?"

Heidi looked down again, releasing a little sigh as she shook her head, "I know I shouldn't have done it, mommy. He was so mean to me. He said I couldn't play football with the boys."

"Why not?"

"He said girls can't play, but they can, can't they, mommy?"

"Of course they can," she smiled, softly stroking her daughter's cheek. She was going to sort this out; she wanted the boy punished for what he had been doing. Though she reminded herself that he was only five or six years old, he didn't know any better, especially if his parents were setting that example. "You can do whatever your heart desires."

"Are you angry with me, mommy?" Heidi whispered.

Regina shook her head, pressing a kiss on the top of her daughter's head, "you understand that what you did was wrong. That you shouldn't have pushed him back. What would you do if you could go back and do it again?"

"Tell Miss Blanchard or one of the other teachers."

"Good girl. Why didn't you tell Miss Blanchard your side of the story when she asked you?"

Heidi simply shrugged her shoulders, and Regina had very little she could say to that. Her daughter could be very particular about who she opened up to, clearly, the kindergarten teacher wasn't one of those people.

"Sit down, sweetheart. I just need to talk to your teachers." She hugged the girl tight before standing and moving over to the door, slipping outside. Both the class teacher and headmaster were looking at her expectantly.

"Did she say what happened?"

"Yes. Apparently, the boy had been mean to her all day…"

Regina relayed the story her daughter had told her, and the teachers nodded as they listened before going into the office and talking to Heidi for themselves. After that, the staff talked to the other children who had witnessed the trouble, all of whom collaborated with Heidi's story. The kids confirmed that the boy had been the instigator in each situation and had been teasing the little girl even before that day. For some reason, he had chosen to target Heidi. The teachers would be dealing with him accordingly.

Heidi had been reminded about making the right choices, but everyone could see that she was sorry for what she had done. She had clearly been the victim in the situation.

"What now?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the headmaster, Mary Margaret had gone back to the classroom to relieve the teaching assistant.

"Well, now that we have a clearer picture of what happened, we don't think we need to take things further. I'm sure that we won't have a repeat of this incident."

"We better not have."

"Yes, well. Heidi can return to class if she would like, or we can let her go home for the rest of the day."

Regina glanced at her watch. There were only a couple of hours of the school day left anyway, she didn't see the point in leaving Heidi here to come back for her again, but it was ultimately up to her daughter. "What would you like to do?"

"Home, please," she whispered, snuggling into her mother's side.

"I hope that when she returns to school tomorrow, she won't have to worry about being targeted by that boy."

"We can assure you, Miss Mills, that we will be monitoring him closely."

"Good," she rose from her seat, lifting her daughter up into her arms. Without another word towards the man, she left the office and headed straight to the car.

Once she was out of the building, she exhaled deeply, allowing her walls to drop back down. "How about we head home, get you cleaned up. Then you can paint your daddy another picture, and I will try my hardest to rescue your dress?"

The little girl smiled at her mother as she was clipped safely into her car seat.

Later that night, once Heidi had been bathed and put to bed, Regina was relaxing in the sitting room. She had called Robin to update him on what had happened, he'd been worried at first, but she reassured him that everything was okay and she'd handled the situation. She was just thinking about finding something to watch when her phone began ringing again.

"Hello."

"Hi, sweetheart. How've you two been getting on this week without Robin?"

"It has been hard not having him here, but we're fine. There was a little trouble at Heidi's school today, but it's sorted out now."

"What kind of trouble?"

Regina sighed as she told her mother about what had happened, and by the end of her story, she waited for the older woman's reaction. What she hadn't been expecting was the soft chuckle that came down the line. "Mom, it's not funny."

"Oh, I know the situation isn't funny. It's just your daughter is so much like you. You were exactly the same at that age. A feisty little madam who always defended herself."

Regina rolled her eyes as she shook her head; she knew that her daughter took after her in many ways, clearly, this was just another one they could add to the list.

"She's definitely your child."

"I know," Regina smiled, thinking about the sheer force of the love she felt for her little girl. She would do anything to protect her baby. If her own track record had anything to say about her daughter, she was sure this was only the beginning of her daughter getting herself into trouble.