A/N: The confrontation chapter is coming, I promise! But this chapter was a little longer than I originally pictured, so I decided to keep it as is. Liam, Abeline, and Bonham comfort Sophie after finding out the truth about Mrs. Wilson. Bonham, Liam, and even Cordell will be in the next chapter more than this one.
Sophie
Sophie tried to get the words Mrs. Wilson had said to her to stop hurting so much. But she just couldn't do it.
She knew her parents and brother would hate it if they could hear inside of Sophie's head, but she had never thought of herself as 'the best' of anything. In her family, everybody had their roles, and they were all good at them. Bonham was the provider, the one who made sure everyone had what they needed. Abeline was the nurturer, looking out for everyone's physical and emotional health. Cordell was the athlete, giving the Walker family a proud name in the local high school sports circle. Liam was the smart one, the one who Sophie and everyone else was certain would go on to do great things when he grew up.
Sophie's role, at least according to her, was to fade into the background.
More than once she'd caught people in her family's circle forgetting that her parents had a daughter. She would never forget the day she'd come to that realization. She had just turned four years old, and her father was working out a business deal in the kitchen. Her brothers were gone to school and her mother had gone to the grocery store. Sophie was sick that day, so she'd been taking a nap in her room. Sophie had sleepily stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and looking around for her mother to snuggle with.
"Well, who's this?"
The stranger, whose name Sophie had long since forgotten, was a loud, boisterous man that reminded Sophie a bit of the Santa Clause she'd met at the mall a few weeks before at Christmastime. She hadn't realized the man had been there in her sleepy daze, so she shrunk back a little and flinched. Bonham acted quickly, walking over and picking up the frightened Sophie.
"You okay, darlin'?"
"Jus' waked up, Daddy." Sophie said. "I sorry. I not knowed you busy."
"It's alright."
"Bonham, I think we're good. I'll let you get back to this cutie. You sure surprised me. The way you talk about them boys, I don't think I ever realized you had a little girl too."
And so from that moment forward, Sophie Walker became the one who sat in the back of the family, watching the accomplishments of her brothers and becoming fodder for compliments for her parents. But no one, other than her family, ever really saw Sophie.
No one, it seemed, until Mrs. Wilson. And Mrs. Wilson hated her.
Sophie pulled out her books to start her homework, but the books sat unused on her desk. She just couldn't shake the venom that Mrs. Wilson had flung at her. It had gotten deep down inside her, making her believe all the ugly things she thought about herself that she'd tried to push down.
Before she could think too much about it, there was a knock at her bedroom door. Even through her tears she could tell it was her mother. Sophie sniffed and wiped her face just as the door opened. She was surprised to find not just her mother, but her father and older brother standing there too.
"Can we come in?"
"Sure." Sophie said, afraid to breathe too deeply for fear she'd start crying again.
"We need to talk to you." Abeline said. She took a seat on Sophie's bed and patted the space next to her. Liam and Bonham stood in the doorway, both with their arms crossed over their chests. "Come sit with me."
"Am I in trouble?" Sophie asked. Her father especially looked angry. Did Mrs. Wilson call them about her test?
"No, Princess, you're not." Bonham answered with surprising gentleness.
"Okay. What's going on?"
Liam took a breath and held out the recorder. "I did something today that might make you a little upset. I'm just asking you to hear me out first."
"What'd you do?"
"I put this in your backpack last night."
Sophie wanted to be mad. She really did. But the anger was quickly short circuited when she realized what exactly Liam was holding. Cordell had showed it to her one day when she went to work with him. It was a camera. It was small enough, according to Cordell, to fit in a pocket or underneath a shirt and not be found unless you knew it was there. Sophie had thought it was cool at first. Now that it had been used on her, she wasn't sure how to feel. Then it hit Sophie. If the camera had been in her backpack, and the backpack had been on her shoulder when Mrs. Wilson said what she did…
"You heard all of it?"
When everyone nodded at the same time, Sophie let everything go. All the fear, the hurt feelings, the worry that she'd let them down-it all came out in the form of tears. She felt her mother grab her in a tight hug and her brother take a seat next to her on the bed.
"I don't know why she hates me so much, mama. I didn't do anything to her, I promise."
"Shh. I know, baby."
"I don't care what happened, what we heard on that tape was not okay." Bonham said. "You get that, right?"
Sophie nodded. "Yes, Daddy."
"Soph? Has she done that before?" Liam asked. "Called you names?"
"Here." Abeline reached over to Sophie's nightstand and handed her a tissue. "Blow. And I want to know that too."
Sophie blew her nose and shook her head. "Called me names, no."
"What has she done?" Abeline asked.
Sophie shrugged. "She just…picks on me. All the time."
"Picks on you how?"
"If I answer a question, she tells me it's wrong or how I can answer it better. If I'm quiet, she gets on me for not participating in class. She always tells me to stop doing stuff I'm not doing."
"Like what?"
"Talking in class. Eating. Not paying attention. Being disrespectful."
"Does she get on other students for the same kind of thing?" Abeline asked.
Sophie sniffed. "Sometimes. But not as much as me."
"Why didn't you say anything to us?" Bonham asked.
"I didn't know if you'd believe me. She's an adult. I didn't want to sound like I was whining." Sophie said. "I thought it would get better, but it's not…"
"Hey. You don't have to worry about that anymore, okay? Daddy and I are going to school tomorrow to deal with this."
Sophie's eyes grew big. "You are?"
"Yeah. We are. We'll get this taken care of."
"She'll get worse if you do that, though."
"No. She won't. If your principal won't do anything about it, we'll get you moved out of that class. Either way, she won't bully you again."
Sophie nodded. "Thank you, Mama. Thank you, Daddy."
"You ain't gotta thank us for that, Princess." The normally gruff and tough Bonham walked over and put a gentle hand on Sophie's cheek. "That's what Mama and Daddy's for."
"And what happens when someone messes with Mama's girl?"
Sophie smiled. It was a question that Abeline had asked her often as a small child, whenever Sophie was bothered by something. Whether it was a monster under the bed, a bigger kid teasing her for her small size, or someone kidnapping her off the front yard of the ranch when she was four, it had always made her feel better. And it did just that for her now.
"They mess with Mama."
Abeline smiled and kissed Sophie's cheek. "That's my good girl."
A loud rumbling made everyone laugh. Sophie blushed. She'd been so upset with Mrs. Wilson that she had skipped lunch.
"I think there's a bear in here." Liam said. "What do you think, Daddy?"
"I think you're right, son. And there's only one way to get rid of a bear."
"Let me get up and go start making dinner before you two handle that." Abeline said.
Abeline
The sound of Sophie laughing brought a relief to Abeline that she didn't realize she needed.
Abeline had suspected, much like Liam and Bonham, that something else was going on with Sophie at school. Had Sophie been five years younger, she had no doubt that Sophie would have told her, in excruciating detail, exactly what was going on. Abeline sorely missed Sophie's kindergarten days. She'd only gone to school that year until noon, and the boys didn't get out until after three, so for three hours Sophie would talk to her mother. She'd tell Abeline about every single thing she'd done that day, from drawing to learning to read to having trouble falling asleep for a nap. Abeline was aware, even to this day over half a decade later, that Sophie hated the color of the tile on the floor in her kindergarten classroom and that she'd wanted to change it 'to a pretty pink color, won't that be pretty, Mama?'
To go from having Sophie tell her everything to finding out that she was hiding something as big as this? It hurt. Really hurt.
After tickling Sophie, Liam and Bonham came out of her room. Sophie was giggling, trying to sidestep her father and brother, both of whom spent the rest of the night doing their best to make her laugh. Sophie normally did her homework before dinner, but Abeline didn't push it that night. One night of missed homework wouldn't hurt her in the long run.
Bedtime came quickly, and Sophie was once again quiet. Liam said good night, then headed to his own room. Bonham stood next to the bed and kissed Sophie's cheek, tucking her in and wishing her a good night before heading to the bathroom for his shower. Abeline, who would normally do just the same, saw right away what Sophie wanted but didn't want to ask.
"You want me to stay with you until you go to sleep?"
Sophie bit her bottom lip and nodded. "Yes, please."
Abeline sat on the bed next to Sophie, who curled into her mother's lap as she'd done a hundred times before. It hit Abeline hard that she was still seeking comfort. Abeline wondered how many times this year Sophie had come home from school looking for comfort from her mother but been too afraid to ask for it. She started to stroke Sophie's hair and the two of them sat in near silence for a few minutes before Abeline started to speak.
"Do you know why I'm so upset with Mrs. Wilson?"
Sophie shifted a bit before settling down again. "Because she was mean to me?"
"Well, yes. That too. But that's not even the most important reason."
Sophie turned her head up to look in Abeline's face. "What do you mean?"
"I'm upset because she had you believing that you are not strong, or smart, or brave, or funny, or any of the other hundred wonderful things that are true about you."
"You really think all that about me?"
"Yes. And anyone who makes you feel otherwise, for any reason, I always want you to tell me. Or tell your father or your brothers. Tell someone. After we make you feel better, we'll handle whoever decided to mess with our princess. You promise?"
Sophie smiled. "I promise, Mama."
"I'm so sorry you didn't think you could come to me with this. Is there anything else big that's going on I need to know about?"
"Not right now. I promise."
"Okay." Abeline said. "Come on. Lay back down. It's time for bed."
"Yes, ma'am." Sophie said with a yawn. "Will you tell me a story?"
"Of course. How about we come up with it together?"
"I want to hear the story about when I was born." Sophie said.
"You've heard that one a thousand times."
"Yeah, but I need to hear it again." Sophie begged. "Please?"
Abeline smiled. "Alright. So, once upon a time, there was a couple who had two boys and really, really wanted a little girl…"
