Chapter 18
The family's next biggest challenge was to make it through their first Christmas without Louise.
Celebrating it seemed so wrong, because it was her favourite holiday (after her birthday), and she wasn't there to celebrate it with them. The little apartment seemed so quiet without Louise planning how she was going to trap Santa that year, or what schemes she would be cooking up with her siblings.
Nonetheless, the big day was getting nearer and nearer, and the Belchers were in full swing as they prepared for the holiday in between working on Louise's Garden, which was coming along nicely.
The tree was up, brightly coloured lights were strung everywhere Linda could hang them, and paper snowflakes – made by her own precious babies, of course – were hung in every window, including the bathroom.
Figuring it was best to keep the kids busy, Bob and Linda – mainly Linda – had been keeping their days packed with activities. Now, papier-mache Santa hats adorned every surface – the backs of the kitchen chairs, a huge one covering the top of the fridge; hanging lop-sidedly off the corners of the bookcase, even miniature ones for the napkin holders in the restaurant. Tina and Gene seemed to enjoy it, and Linda got a kick out seeing her childrens' art on display, like their house and the restaurant was her own little museum. Even the customers seemed to like it; little old ladies in particular would coo and squeal over the tinsel that decorated the booths, the handmade cotton ball snowmen, and the paper chains that looped around the ceiling. One customer told Linda that he loved the décor – "it really gives it that personal touch."
Bob was glad the kids were enjoying the holidays, and he hoped they'd like what he had planned for them later that day. He was desperate to cheer them up. Aside from the emotional roller coaster that had been Louise's birthday, Gene and Tina had had to go trick-or-treating for the first time without her. Although they'd come home laden down with candy, there was a hole in their hearts that no amount of Sticky Sugar Booms could fill.
Of course, they couldn't let Halloween pass without including Louise in some way, and that was why they had placed a pumpkin and a few pieces of candy at her grave site. It was also the reason there was now a mini Christmas tree covered with fairy lights at the foot of her headstone. There was no way they could leave her out of the celebrations.
But Bob, and Linda too, had been so proud of them; going out as a duo when they had always been a trio couldn't have been easy, but they did it, and he couldn't help but marvel at their strength.
He began to wonder if joining in on the activities would be good for him, as well; Bob had never really been big on stuff like that; he preferred to leave it to Linda. But wasn't it good for him to start making traditions with Gene and Tina? He'd never really had any, and it made him feel so guilty – Bob didn't think he ever felt anything but guilt and sadness these days. Just a few weeks ago, Bob had found himself in the kitchen, outlining the turkey giblets with chalk; not doing so was unthinkable. He'd sat at the table, staring at the crime scene, head in his hands.
As he finished setting up the kitchen table while he waited for them to return from carolling, Bob caught sight of the laptop, his heart drooping. Every day, he awaited the link to Louise's online gift registry. It seemed incomprehensible to not receive it, and if Louise wanted Christmas presents, she was going to have to hurry.
"Gene, Tina! Come here!" he called when he had finished.
When they came into the kitchen, they found a plate with several slices of gingerbread, along with piping bags filled with frosting, and bowls of various candies. "I thought we'd make some gingerbread houses today," he explained, as they walked further into the room, removing their coats, scarves and gloves.
"Wow, this'll be fun," Tina said, looking around the table. For all Linda's enthusiasm over anything and everything to do with Christmas (and everything else, really), the kids had never once made gingerbread houses. Linda knew why, of course, and never pressured Bob into restarting his favourite childhood tradition. They made Christmas cookies and cupcakes, but never gingerbread, until today.
Linda stood in the doorway, smiling. She didn't say or do anything to announce her presence; this was Bob's time to shine. He seemed to be really getting into it, and her smile grew wider. He was showing them how to score the slices, and how to ice them so the houses wouldn't collapse.
"You know," Bob began slowly, helping Gene hold his roof together until the icing hardened, "I used to do this with my mom when I was little."
"Really?" Both Tina and Gene had stopped and were staring at him.
"Yeah. Every year. It was like our tradition."
"No wonder you're so good at it," Gene remarked, and Bob chuckled a tiny bit.
"Yeah, a lot of practise. I used to look forward to it every year."
"How come we've never made them before?" asked Tina, and Bob prepared himself for the answer.
"After she died, I didn't want to do it any more; my dad definitely wasn't the kind to do this kinda stuff. I could have made them by myself, but it didn't feel right. It was mine and my mom's thing, and I only wanted to do it with her."
Gene and Tina had stopped icing their houses, and were gazing at him, their attention rapt. Before now, Bob had never mentioned his mother to them. Even now, with this little titbit, they could tell she had been, and still was, so very special to him. "I know the best way to remember her is to do the things she loved," Bob continued. "She would have loved you guys so much, and she would have loved carrying on this tradition with you. But, I'm going to do it instead."
The next thing Bob knew, he was encased in a loving hug from his children, which he happily returned. He was relieved that they understood why his reasoning, and that they accepted it. He truly did have the best kids ever.
"Thanks for telling us, Dad," said Tina as they sat back down. "I've always wondered about Grandma."
"Yeah, she sounds like she was fun," Gene said.
"She really was," Bob told them. "Your mom reminds me a lot of her."
As they continued to decorated their houses, Bob began to tell them all about his mother.
Linda's smile was watery, and she reached up to wipe away a proud and happy tear. Leaving them to their bonding time, she went into the living-room, and her gaze fell upon the bookshelf, where a picture of Bob's mum rested on the shelf next to a photo of Louise.
She'd known how hard it was for her Bobby to do this, and it took everything she had not to run back into the kitchen and smother him in hugs and kisses.
When her gaze fell upon the tree, she paused, taking it in. Lights, tinsel, baubles, and ornaments her kids had made over the years covered the tree. All except for the top. Louise always put the star on the top of the tree; it was her job, no one else was allowed to do it. Briefly, Linda wondered about getting the star out of the box and placing it there herself, but it felt wrong.
Well, if Bob could change his tradition, and add to it, Linda didn't see why this one couldn't change.
When they had finished, Linda was called into the kitchen by the kids.
"Mom! Come and look!"
She went into the kitchen and was greeted with three smiling faces and three heavily decorated gingerbread houses on the table. There was icing smeared all over the table and sprinkles all over the floor, but that was just the signs that a lot of fun had been had.
"Aw, they look great!" She walked up to her kids and put her arms around them. "Did you have fun, my babies?"
"Yeah. Can we do this next year, Dad?" Tina turned to her father, who nodded.
"Sure. We can do this every year." he said, and the kids smiled, causing Linda to hug them tighter.
"That'd be so sweet!" she gushed. "Okay, now that you're done, can you guys come with me for a second?"
She led them into the living-room, and picked up the star that was lying on the sofa. "I thought you guys might wanna put the star on this year." She held it out and Gene and Tina glanced at one another.
"Okay," said Gene. He and Tina took the star and approached the tree. Tina could remember being a toddler and being lifted up by her parents so she could place the star on the top. She had done that until she was around six, when Louise started demanding she get to do it, and Tina had never done it since.
"You do it, Gene," she said, suddenly feeling bad that, out of all the kids, he was the one who had done it the least.
"We can both do it," he offered, but Tina shook her head.
"No, you can do it."
Gene took her hand and guided it to the star. Together, they stepped up on the chairs Linda had brought in, and placed the shiny golden star on the top of the tree in unison.
Hopping down, they took a few steps back admire their handiwork, along with their parents.
On a dark, crisp late afternoon, the Belcher family hurried across the car park, desperate to reach the warm confines of the mall. Frost crunched under their shoes, their breath fogged out in front of them, and they pulled their coats tightly around them as they sped up.
Once inside the OMG Mall, they relaxed a bit, basking in the warm air that beamed down on them. Covers of holiday classics were playing from the speakers, the other shoppers argued and chatted as they jostled about, trying to get in some late Christmas shopping, and the air smelled of chestnuts, cinnamon, and hot chocolate. Everywhere they looked, there were Christmas trees, covered in lights, baubles and tinsel; garlands were strung over the balconies, and fake icicles hung from the ceiling.
"Okay, where should we go first?" asked Linda as they began walked further into the mall. She had always loved shopping at Christmas; she loved seeing all the decorations, hearing the music – if it were up to her, the mall would look like this all year round.
"I don't mind," said Gene, looking over at the brightly decorated shop windows. The 'Yes, You Can-dy' sweet shop had giant candy canes and gingerbread men stickers all over their front window, while a larger than life nutcracker stood sentry outside.
"Well, we could go see Santa first?" suggested Linda, and the kids agreed.
They got in line, and watched the ice skaters as they waited for their turn. Tina liked ice skating, even though she fell over a lot; her siblings usually helped her up when they were too slow to catch her. She looked down at the ground as she remembered Louise's Nice Capades show, and how desperate she had been to get on Santa's Nice list. Tina sometimes wished she had tried harder to get Louise to stop, but it was impossible to reason with Louise until she was ready to listen.
Bob and Linda stood off to the side, watching their kids. They always got such a kick out of seeing them talk to Santa.
When it was their turn, Gene and Tina each climbed on to Santa's knee, and he put his arms around them, the vision of cheer.
"Hello!" he beamed, his eyes twinkling. "First of all, have you both been good this year?"
"Yeah. Very good," said Gene, glancing over at Tina.
"Great! You're definitely staying on the Nice list, then. Now, what do you want for Christmas?"
Neither Gene nor Tina answered at first. There really wasn't anything they wanted. Well, nothing that Santa could bring them.
"Um, I'd like – there's a book about the adventures of Chariot," said Tina after a moment, and Bob and Linda sighed in relief. That book was already wrapped and safely hidden away somewhere.
"Well, I think we can arrange that," he smiled, before turning to Gene.
"I want a banjo," he said, catching his parents completely off guard. However, Gene was becoming more serious about his music, and was experimenting with different sounds. Bob supposed a banjo was the next step. He made a mental note to make a quick visit to the Hi-Fi Emporium and hope that they had what he needed. If not, Dino would surely know where to find one.
"A banjo, huh?" Santa asked, and Gene nodded. "Well, that sounds doable. You know, I think you kids are gonna have a great Christmas."
"We are?" asked Tina. She wondered how he knew that for certain, because she knew tears were going to be shed. They were still going to have a good day, that she knew, but it was still going to be hard.
"I know it."
"Thanks, Santa."
One of the elves handed Gene and Tina a candy cane each, and they all smiled as they had their photo taken.
Returning to their parents, the family continued walking through the mall, taking in the decorations, although none of them spoke.
It was Christmas Eve. They'd had their usual Christmas Eve dinner, the chocolate chip cookies they'd made for Santa were cooling on the side, and the family were curled up on the sofa watching a holiday movie.
In the corner, the memorial candle was lit; they couldn't not think about Louise on the eve of her favourite holiday. Last year's holiday card was resting on the bookshelf, along with the others. The holiday photo they had taken that year was lying flat on its side, however; Linda didn't like looking at it. Visually, it was a nice photo; they had gone to another scenic location. That time, it was a forest just when the sun was starting to go down, and the resulting photo showed the family in front of a beautiful backdrop of snow dusted pine trees, Louise's bunny ears in Bob's hand.
No, Linda could hardly bear to look at it because her wonderful family was incomplete.
"It's so weird how there's no Santa traps this year," said Bob after a while.
"I know; I keep looking for trip wires," Linda chuckled. Force of habit still made her pick up her knees like a horse whenever she stepped through doorways.
"Remember last year, when she set up a video camera, so she could catch Santa in the act?" Gene grinned, and Bob laughed a little bit. Louise seemed to have (angrily) realised that Santa was smarter than her (for the time being), and would never fall for her traps. Therefore, a camera was the next best thing. Physical proof could be used for blackmail, after all. "We actually saw a reindeer!"
"Yeah, I can't believe she managed to get it," said Bob, silently thanking every single living being in existence that Teddy had been there. He'd overheard Bob and Linda panicking about the camera. Bob had been all for 'accidentally' tripping over it in the night, and having it be unable to record, but Teddy had told them about an app. It would superimpose a small clip of a reindeer eating carrots over the living-room.
"I could do that for you, Bobby, if you send me a picture of your living-room." Teddy had said. Of course, Bob and Linda had done so, and very late that night, they had received the little video of a reindeer eating carrots in their living-room. It looked so real, it had almost fooled them.
The kids had been unbelievably excited over a real live reindeer; even Louise had been in awe. In fact, she'd been so thrilled that she hadn't even questioned why the camera had picked up only that footage, or how she didn't hear the reindeer in the night. She happily told everyone at school that Santa had brought one of his reindeer into her house.
"I still can't believe the reindeer liked our carrots," said Tina. "They were only leftovers from the restaurant."
"I think they get so hungry flyin' all over the world, they'll eat any carrots," said Linda. This was the part of Christmas Eve she loved more than anything; sitting together with her beautiful family; the room was lit only by the tree lights, and snow was falling. It was almost perfection.
"Bye! See ya soon!" Linda waved as the customer left the restaurant; the woman smiled and waved back at her. When the door had closed, Linda began wiping down the counter, chatting to Teddy all the while. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a slow day. Still, less customers gave her more time to clean the diner, and to sit down and chat with her kids. Right now, Gene and Tina were sat in a booth, the laptop in front of them; one of Gene's compositions was going to be played on the local radio station, and they couldn't wait to hear it. Gene had updated his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, informing his fans about what time they could tune in, and he was also planning to record an upcoming interview he'd arranged with Miguel, so he could post it on YouTube and Spotify.
Linda also had the radio on, and now that the restaurant was devoid of customers, she turned it up. Finally, her little Genie Beanie was going to be the star he was born to be! So was so amazed at how far he'd come in such a short space of time – his videos were gaining genuine views every day, and his social media accounts already had several hundred followers.
The bell rang, and she looked up. "Oh, hey, Mike. How ya doing?"
"Not too bad. You?" he asked as he approached the counter, reaching into his bag.
"We're taking it one day at a time," she said, taking the envelopes he handed her.
"Yeah, I guess you gotta, huh? Well, see ya," he said, before nodding at the kids and leaving.
Linda looked through the mail; the usual bills and late Christmas cards, but at the bottom there was a small package. Upon opening it, Linda found it was the new Boyz 4 Now album, My Heart Beatz 4 U, which, after several delays, was gearing up for a release around Valentine's Day.
"Look!" she cried, holding it up, and Tina and Gene rushed over. "They sent it to us!"
Tina took the CD, examining the front cover. It featured the boys in what looked like an abandoned warehouse, all of them looking intently into the camera. Boo Boo was holding a red rose, Matt was leaning against a pillar, moodily playing a harp, while Allen and Griffin were holding white doves.
"This hasn't even come out yet!" She couldn't believe it, and her jaw dropped when she realised all of them had signed the album. "They – they..." Lost for words, she could only gesture at the signatures. She had never owned anything signed by the group before, and she had never imagined that she would. Tina supposed that the album belonged to the entire family, as it was sent to them, and that meant that it belonged to her, too.
"Oh, wow, they signed it!" Linda leaned forward and squinted. "That was nice of 'em."
"Who signed what?" Bob came out of the kitchen and stepped behind the counter.
"They signed the new Boyz 4 Now album," Teddy told him, also leaning closer. "Allen looks different. They didn't replace him, did they?"
"No, they didn't." Linda tried to reassure him, even though she was certain that Allen looked different, and it wasn't the haircut. "It's the same one; they wouldn't do that." She inwardly relaxed as both Teddy and Tina breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey, look." Tina had opened the CD, and was reading the little booklet that came with it. It was full of photos, song lyrics, and credits. Above the lyrics for track five, 'Memories of You', were the words: 'Dedicated to Louise Belcher, one of our biggest fans.'
Bob's eyes began to water, and he bit his lip as he placed his arm on Tina's shoulder. The five of them fell silent, letting the realisation of this wash over them. The more he met Boyz 4 Now, the more he liked them. Before this year, he had assumed they were just another boy band, perhaps doing a bit of friendly PR, but now he knew they were much more than that. These kids cared about their fans, and he couldn't say that about a lot of celebrities.
Now he was getting quite excited for the upcoming concert; Tina had been playing her favourite songs, and teaching him and Linda some of the moves that the fans did.
"All the fans do this, Dad; you and Mom will look silly if you're the only ones who don't know it," she informed him, and Bob had dutifully learned the little steps and hand gestures.
Linda was really excited for it, too; she hadn't been to a real concert in years. She wanted them to wear matching outfits, and honestly, Bob couldn't find it in himself to say no to her. If she wanted him to cosplay as Princess Peach, then he would, to make her happy.
"And now, we have some music here from a young up-and-coming artist, who lives right here in Seymour's Bay..."
"Oh! Oh, this is it!" Gene practically leapt up onto the counter, and turned the radio up.
"Okay, everybody listen!" Linda ordered, as they all gathered around the radio.
"I had the pleasure of meeting this boy back in September, and I was just blown away by his talent," Miguel continued, and Linda pulled Gene into a proud hug. "When you listen to this, keep in mind that he's just eleven years old, and -"
"Hey, are you guys open?" A man had opened the front door and was standing in the doorway. "Can I get a -?"
"Quiet!" The group shrieked in unison, before spinning back round to face the radio. The poor man almost jumped out of his skin, and he quickly backed out of the door, and hurried away.
"So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy 'Retrospective' by Gene Belcher."
As the music began to play, Bob turned the radio up even louder. Again, they let the song wash over them, basking in the beautiful song, as well as the joy that Gene was finally getting the recognition he deserved.
Linda felt so proud of her baby; it wasn't just the fact that his music was being played for everyone to hear – it was the fact that he was actually playing again. It was helping him so much; Gene was talking more and more, and was slowly starting to become more animated again, almost the way he used to be. He delighted in telling his clueless but excited family about his latest work of art, about how he was gaining more and more subscribers and views on YouTube, and how he was desperate to record an album.
A kind of determination had overtaken him, like it had her, and Gene spent almost every spare moment fine tuning his compositions.
The song continued, and Gene couldn't help but smile. He looked over at his family's beaming faces; his parents behind the counter, and Tina and Louise sitting at the stools. While Tina had her eyes closed and a look of bliss on her face, Louise gave him a thumbs up, and he smiled at her.
"Oh, my perfect little baby!" Linda cried when the song had finished, wrapping her arms around Gene's face, and kissing the top of his head repeatedly. "My Genie's a star!"
"That was great," said Bob, also hugging Gene when Linda had released him. "I'm glad they chose that one, it's one of my favourites." 'Retrospective' was one of the pieces Gene had played at the recording studio, only it didn't have a name then.
"Thanks. That felt good – hearing my music on the radio," he admitted. He couldn't help but feel proud of himself. He was achieving his dream; sometimes, there was a little voice in the back of his head, saying that he would never make it as an entertainer. But with each new YouTube comment, each new social media like, each new subscriber, it felt like he was actually going to do it. He knew that if he worked hard, he would succeed, he just knew it, and it spurred him on.
"You should be," Linda told him, her eyes glistening. "We're all proud of you, too."
"It was great," said Tina, while Teddy nodded.
Gene began to thank them, but was interrupted by the phone ringing, and Linda picked it up.
"Hello? Oh, hi! Yeah, he's right here, hold on." She held the phone out to Gene. "It's Pop-pop," she told him.
"Oh! Okay." Gene took the phone, and began talking to Big Bob, who had called to congratulate him.
While Gene and Pop-pop talked, Bob, Linda, Tina, and Teddy watched him in silence, feeling as if they would collectively burst with pride.
Bob tucked his nicest shirt in, standing in front of the dressing table mirror in his and Linda's bedroom, before untucking it. He tucked it in again, huffed, and then untucked it once more, before smoothing it out.
They had briefly thought about dressing a bit smarter, but ultimately, Linda thought that a casual approach was best. She thought the kids would relate to them more.
"You ready?" she asked Bob, who nodded, giving himself a final look over in the mirror.
"Yeah," he said, smoothing out his shirt once more, and they walked out of the room.
The drive was silent. Bob was behind the wheel, while Linda was looking through her notes, making sure she had everything, and muttering to herself.
They arrived at Huxley High in good time, and were signed in by the receptionist.
"The vice principal will be along in a few minutes, and she'll take you to the auditorium," she told them, unable to keep that all too familiar pitying look off of her face. Bob closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. When would people stop looking at them like that?
"Thanks," Linda said, and she and Bob waited for a moment, before the vice principal walked up to them, a rather small woman in a neat grey suit.
"Mr and Mrs Belcher?" she asked, and they nodded. "Great, we're just about ready for you, if you want to follow me."
She led them down a locker-lined corridor, and around a corner, where they soon happened upon the double doors leading to the auditorium. "The Principal's just finishing up and then he'll introduce you," she told them, glancing briefly at the door, before she turned back to the couple. "The PowerPoint is all ready and set up for you, and all you have to do is press the button on the remote to change the slides."
"Okay," said Linda, looking down at her note cards. She could do this. She had to.
When it was time, the vice principal opened the door, and, upon hearing their names, Bob and Linda entered the room. Immediately, the heads of hundreds of students swivelled around to stare at them. Truthfully, it was a little bit intimidating; an exceptionally large room full of pre-teen and teenagers, who may or may not listen to anything they had to say. It did make them feel a little nervous, as it would anyone.
The walk that took them along one side of the room and up the steps to the stage seemed to take hours, and when they were finally centre stage, Bob and Linda turned to face the room. They looked out at the dozens of faces, some looking interested, others bored, and others whispering to their neighbours. "Hi," said Linda, after what seemed to be an uncomfortably long silence. "I'm Linda Belcher, and this is my husband Bob, and we wanna talk to you about bullying."
She glanced down at her note cards; suddenly, everything she had planned on saying seemed so stupid, and now she didn't know what to do. "Earlier this year, our youngest daughter died because of her bully." Linda decided to just abandon her speech and just speak from the heart. "Louise was a normal, loving kid who had a bully. And she didn't deserve that. Okay, she wasn't perfect; no one is, but she didn't deserve to be treated the way she was."
"Most kids will be bullied, said Bob, sounding just as nervous as he looked, "but most kids aren't bullied by teenagers. Logan's bullying of Louise started small – he wouldn't let her walk past the Steps, but then it just got worse and worse, until.. until she died."
As they spoke, Linda slowly clicked through the slides, showing copies of Logan's police statement, pictures of Louise (to help drive home the fact that she was a real person), a bullet-point list of things he'd done and said to Louise, and photos of the rescue effort. She noticed that while the teens were paying attention, they didn't seem to be fully absorbing the impact of what she and Bob were saying.
"Some people bully because they've been bullied, because they have a bad home life, but some people bully because they like making others feel bad," said Linda bluntly. "Logan Bush was one of those people. He had anger problems, but he liked to pick on girls."
"We don't know why," Bob continued. "We might never know, but for some reason, he targeted our daughter."
"Look, we're not gonna try and make everyone be friends with each other, because that'll never happen in real life, but we just want there to be things in place for bullied kids, and for bullies. What happened to Louise was rare; if someone bullies you, you're probably not gonna fall down a well. But, even if that didn't happen, Logan had already tried to hurt her twice, and he probably would have hurt her another way sooner or later. And there are people who have died because of bullies. I don't want what happened to my daughter to happen to anyone else. What we wanna do, is help people deal with their anger, because this has broken our family," she admitted, and she saw that now all the kids were paying rapt attention. "When we buried our daughter," she continued, "all my husband and I did was drink. From the moment we woke up, we'd do nothing but drink, because the pain of losing Louise was too much for us. I didn't want to see or talk to anyone; I just wanted my daughter, and even now it still hurts, because I'll never, ever see her again. We didn't work, we didn't look after our other kids, and I'm so ashamed to say that. All I could think about was Louise, and how much I wanted to be with her."
"When Louise died," Bob spoke up, sensing that Linda was struggling, "I wanted to kill Logan, I really did. I think if I had seen him, I would have tried to. I was going to; I had a knife. I can say I wasn't thinking straight, but I was. I wanted him to suffer." He could see the Principal and the teacher shooting nervous looks at each other, but he carried on anyway. He couldn't seem to stop talking; it was like all the things he struggled to say in therapy were pouring out of him here. "The police stopped me, and they let me off, but all I could think about was making him hurt as much as I was hurting. I'll never forgive myself for terrifying my kids like that, and for not being there for them when they needed me; every day, I try and make it up to them, but I feel like it's never enough."
"What we're aiming for," Linda said, "is for specially trained school counsellors who can help you if you're feeling angry, or sad, or anything. It's going to be available for everyone, no matter who you are. They'll teach you tricks to control your anger in lots of different ways, they'll do workshops, and other things like that. We haven't got everything finalised yet, but that's what we're going for. We're hoping to have this all in place by next year."
As Linda continued to lay out her ideas, Bob fell silent, and just watched her talk. The more she spoke, the more animated she became, and he could see a spark of something coming back into her eyes. He was glad they were doing this; not only because of what it was doing to Linda, but because what it could mean for kids like Louise. He wouldn't wish what he and his family were going through on his worst enemy. Now more than anything, he was so glad she had decided to do this; he knew it was going to help them both.
After the assembly, Bob and Linda, feeling full of adrenaline if a little bit shaky, headed to classroom of freshmen. They were unusually quiet as the Belchers entered and sat down in the chairs provided for them, while the teacher sat nearby.
After introductions were out of the way, Bob launched right into it, figuring that there wasn't any need to recap the assembly.
"How many of you have been bullied?" he asked, and he was disheartened to see more than half of the class raise their hands. "That's not good," he said quietly. "What do you think could be done to stop that?"
"The person doing the bullying should have to get off the computer. They always tell the person being bullied to get off, but why should we? It's not fair," said one girl, sticking her hand into the air.
"Right." Times had changed, Bob realised; bullying was online now. "How long should they be banned for?"
"Um, about a week?" she guessed. "One week with no computer, no cell, no social media; nothing."
"Oh, I'd hate that!" one boy piped up, and many classmates nodded in agreement.
"Okay, banned from the Internet for one week," Bob said, seeing Linda write it down out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't really see how that could be achieved, especially outside of school, but he wasn't going to burst their bubble. "What else?"
"We shouldn't get punished for fighting back!" called out one boy. "If I get hit first, I shouldn't get detention for hitting him back."
"That seems fair," Bob nodded. That was something that could be changed, at least he believed so. He and Linda were going to do everything they possibly could in order to implement this. They owed it to Louise. "So, why do you think stuff like this is important?" he asked.
"Because we shouldn't feel scared to come to school?" suggested one girl, and Bob nodded again.
"That's right. We wanna help stop that, and that's why we're here."
"We don't wanna stop you guys from having fun, though," said Linda. "There's always gonna be teasing and joking, and that's fine. But there's a difference. What Logan did to Louise was not teasing, though. For some reason, he hated her, and we'll never know why. So, again, it's okay to tease your friends, but just don't take it too far. Because of Logan, our other kids don't have a little sister to play with any more."
Instantly, the atmosphere changed. Already listening politely, a heavy sort of silence hung over the students; none of them knew what to say to that. Many of them looked horrified, a few looked on the verge of tears, and others had their mouths hanging open. It seemed to really hit home for them. Bob and Linda supposed that many of the kids would have siblings, and it was that that allowed the students to put themselves in Gene and Tina's shoes.
That afternoon, Linda had to drive home as Bob couldn't stop crying. Every so often, her hand would leave the steering wheel and give his a comforting squeeze.
To her surprise, the talk had been a success. The kids had been receptive, and had seemed eager upon hearing the plans for special counsellors. Linda hoped it would be the start of something good. Next week, they were going to speak to a different class at Huxley, and in a few weeks, she and Bob were going to speak at another school, and then a meeting with some government people she couldn't remember the official titles of, to discuss the training techniques of these new counsellors. After that, there was the hiring process, and then they could get started. It all sounded simple and easy, but Linda knew it was going to take a lot of hard work.
When they arrived home, Bob headed straight to his and Linda's room, where he grabbed Louise's shirt he always kept beside his pillow. Falling onto his bed, he curled up into a ball, the shirt clutched tightly in his fists, breathing in his baby's scent. He felt Linda lie down behind him; she pressed her body against his as her arm wrapped around him. After a moment, she lifted her head and angled it so it was resting his shoulder as their fingers entwined.
They remained like that until they heard the front door open as Gene and Tina arrived home from school.
~ X ~
And another chapter done.
What did you think? I'd love to know!