Chapter 29
Alice leaned against the wall just off school property. She wasn't the only student out there this time.
Emmett sat on a tree stump about ten feet from her.
"Trying to be held back again?" Alice asked.
Emmett chuckled. "Nah, I'll be moving on to high school next school year no matter how much my dad wants to hold me back."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I'll be sixteen at the end of next month, which means I can get a job and try for emancipation if I'm not finally let move on. My dad knows what my plans are, too. I believe it's called mutually assured destruction."
"What about all the fights you get into?"
He didn't speak for several seconds, his eyes seeming far away. "I don't actually have anger issues, you know? But I'm the principal's son. I have to defend myself, whether school rules say I can or not. I have to defend my dad, too. But people never ask why I throw the punches, especially not my dad. It won't be such an issue once I'm out of this school. I'll just be another student in whatever place I end up in."
"Sometimes I wish there was someone to defend me." The words were out of her mouth before she'd made the conscious decision to say them.
"I'm pretty sure Jasper would, if you'd let him."