Hello friends! How are we all doing on this fine Thursday? I've been out of school approximately two days and I'm already bored. Graduation, come faster! Blegh. Anyway! Three chapters left, including this one, and this one is the reason this story exists, to be honest. I had this idea like a month or two ago and was like, "How could I build a story around that, because I don't think it's strong enough to stand alone." And here we are.

The chapter title comes from "Belief" by Gavin DeGraw, which is a beautiful song and I recommend it greatly. Actually, I recommend all of the songs I've used because let's be real, they're amazing and I wouldn't have used them if they weren't. Thanks for your feedback and I hope you enjoy this one! :)

oh, you stood by me and i'll stand by my belief

Summer wanes inevitably into fall and September brings a slew of new beginnings. Grace starts kindergarten and, to no one's surprise, absolutely loves it. She comes home everyday with a new fact she'd learned and a story to tell. Her teacher makes gracious commentary on all her papers, so Toby is surprised when one late September afternoon, he gets a call from Rosewood Elementary. He's operating the table saw when it comes through, so the ringing of his cell phone is drowned out by the buzzing and spitting of wood. When he concludes, he just barely catches the call on time and, chancing a glance at his coworkers, answers. He isn't technically supposed to take calls on the job, but it's a number he at first does not recognize, which immediately alarms him.

"Hello. I'm trying to reach Toby Cavanaugh."

"This is," Toby affirms.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Cavanaugh! This is Jill Duncan, the principal of Rosewood Elementary School. How are you doing today?"

"I'm fine," Toby answers warily. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. I'm calling you because I have your daughter in my office with me and I was unable to reach your wife."

"Yeah, she's not allowed to answer the phone when she's with a patient," Toby informs her. "What's going on?"

"Your daughter was involved in a physical altercation with another student earlier this afternoon and I was wondering if you would be able to come down to the school to discuss this incident further."

"A physical altercation? Like a fight?" Toby questions in panic. "Oh my god, is she alright?"

"Mr. Cavanaugh… your daughter was the aggressor."

Whatever it is he's expecting to hear, it isn't that. He's rendered speechless for a moment before managing to utter, "Yeah, I'll be right down."

He clears his departure with his boss and splits, using the drive to try and come to terms with what's happening. Not only had Grace been in a fight her third week of kindergarten, she had been the provoker. It just doesn't seem like her and he's absolutely shocked. He arrives at the school and signs in as a guest, following the long hallway to the principal's office. When he does, he finds Grace seated on the bench beside the principal's door, pigtails a little messier than he'd last seen them, her arms crossed over her chest. When she notices her father's arrived, her face brightens a bit, but then wanes back to neutral, as though she's remembered her past transgression.

"Hi daddy," She greets him quietly and Toby's still mildly at a loss for words.

"Grace," He shakes his head. "What did you do?"

She sighs and tells him, "I punched Brady McCall."

"You punched someone?" Toby's eyes widen. "Why?"

"Daddy, he was being mean to Brynn!" Grace defends. "He almost made her cry!"

"Grace, that's still not the way to handle a situation. You need to tell an adult."

"We were at recess," Grace explains. "Brynn and I were playing with the hula hoops and Brady and his friends came over and they started making fun of us. They said Brynn was weird and gross and they said it was because she has two mommies. They said having two mommies is disgusting. Brynn was really sad and was going to cry. So I punched him."

Well now Toby's torn. Is it still all that bad if what she's done was for a good cause? Toby sighs. "You sit here while I talk to your principal, okay?"

She nods but says, "It made Brynn feel better. I didn't want her to be sad."

Toby shakes his head trying to keep the smile from his face. When he enters the office, the principal greets him and invites him to sit down, introducing him to the other woman in the room, Patricia, whom Toby assumes is Brady's mother. "Alright, now I got a chance to talk to both Grace and Brady before I called you both in here so I could get both sides of the story."

"I don't think we need both sides of the story," Patricia huffs. "My son's in the nurse's office with a bloody nose and Grace isn't."

Before Toby can reply, Jill addresses this. "Yes, but from what I understand, Brady made a slew of homophobic comments to another student and Grace did not take this lightly. Your son was bullying another student and Grace stuck up for her. Granted, she did not do it in the correct way."

She turns her attention to Toby and says, "Grace will spend the rest of the week inside with her teacher during recess instead of getting to play with her friends. I will let her teacher decide the nature of the punishment, but I'm sure she can find some spelling or math to occupy her with. In the mean time, I need you to remind Grace that violence is never the answer. This is a safe environment and I need you to follow through with that at home."

"Absolutely," Toby agrees, nodding. "I'm so sorry about all the trouble. I don't even know where she would've gotten the idea. We are not a violent household I assure you."

Patricia scoffs. "Oh, so she just picked it up out of the blue, huh? That's ridiculous. Kids aren't inherently aggressive; they must learn it from somewhere."

"That's an excellent point you're making," Jill interrupts. "Which is why Brady will also be spending the rest of the week inside for recess, further punishment to be determined. Homophobia is absolutely unacceptable at this institution of learning and that attitude is not simply inherent. I assume Brady learned it from his parents and therefore, I suggest you change your attitude or find another school for him to attend, because I will not allow that kind of behavior inside these walls."

A phone rings distantly and she nods curtly. "You're both dismissed. Have a pleasant day."

Patricia shoots Toby a nasty look. "As if she can possibly think I'm going to change what I know to be true just for her."

"Don't do it for her," Toby replies. "Do it for Brady, because you might have grown up in a time where that kind of bigoted attitude was acceptable, but he isn't. Help him realize that before he realizes it the hard way, or today won't be the last time he gets punched."

Without another word, Patricia stomps out of the office and Toby shakes his head in disbelief. Grace is still waiting when he exits and asks, "Am I in trouble?"

"Bad news, kid," He informs her. "You've got indoor recess for the rest of the week."

"Oh," Grace frowns and then shrugs. "Oh well."

"Look, you know that hitting people is never the answer and I never want to get a call from your principal saying you hurt someone ever again. Understand?" Toby scolds and Grace nods quickly. "But, I'm really glad you stuck up for Brynn."

Grace chances a small smile. "Really?"

"Of course. What you did wasn't right," He says. "But why you did it was. Brady was wrong to have said and thought those things and I'm glad you realized that. You're a really good friend, Grace. But next time, tell a teacher."

Grace giggles and gives him a hug. "Okay."

"Okay?" Toby grins, kissing her cheek. "Now let's get you back to class. I have to get back to work."

"Daddy?" She calls over her shoulder. "I think I hit him really hard 'cause there was a lot of blood."

Toby rolls his eyes. "You should apologize when he gets back to class."

"I will," She says. "But he needs to say sorry to Brynn, too!"

Toby walks her to her classroom and makes sure she's settled before heading back to his truck. His phone's buzzing in the console and he realizes he has five missed calls from Spencer. Oops. When he calls back, she's pretty panicky. "Toby, you can't do that, okay? You can't ignore me when I have three missed calls from the school! You just can't do that to me! Is she okay?"

"Spencer, take a breath," He replies. "I left my phone in the car and I'm sorry. I just got out of the school. They called me in because Grace had gotten into a fight at recess."

"What? Oh my god. Is she alright?"

"She's fine; you should see the other guy," Toby jokes. "I haven't even gotten to the good part yet. Grace was the attacker."

There's silence on the other end for a moment. "Are you kidding me? How… What… Why?"

"Apparently, Brady McCall-"

"Ugh, Grace doesn't like him."

"Yeah, she let him know," Toby smirks. "He made a homophobic comment to Brynn and Grace retaliated. She gave him a bloody nose; it's kind of impressive."

"Unbelievable. Our daughter uses physical violence against a classmate and you think it's impressive."

"The violence is not what's impressive," He counters. "She stuck up for Brynn because unlike the Bradys of the world, she doesn't give a shit if Brynn has two moms. She doesn't think it's 'disgusting' like he does."

"What a little shit. No wonder Grace doesn't like him. Did you meet his parents?"

"The mother," Toby affirms. "And man, is she a piece of work. I'm not surprised her kid's awful; she's a twat."

"You've got to call Emily."

"I was planning on it." He tells her. "Are you picking Grace up later or…?"

"Yeah, I should only be another hour or so. I don't know what I'm going to say. How do I tell her what she did was wrong because honestly, I probably would've done the same."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Toby laughs. "But it doesn't surprise me to hear you say that."

Moments later when their conversation ends, Toby calls Emily and gives her the 411 on the latest drama at Rosewood Elementary. "I was just wondering if you'd heard about the incident with the girls at school today."

"I haven't. Why? What happened?"

"Well, there's this kid in our daughters' class, Brady McCall?"

"Brynn is not his biggest fan."

Toby grins. "That's a popular feeling today. Anyway, he made some really nasty comments to Brynn about her two moms at recess this afternoon."

"Oh my god, what did he say?"

"That it's disgusting and because you're both so disgusting, Brynn is consequently 'weird and gross'," Toby quotes. "Just when you think you've made progress in the world, you know?"

"My poor baby. Oh my god. My heart is breaking."

"Well, maybe I've got the remedy for that," Toby continues. "Grace was not in the least bit pleased with Brady's treatment of one of her best friends and so she retaliated. By punching him in the face."

"No!"

"Yes. Gave him quite the bloody nose," He chuckles. "I just got out of a meeting with the principal. I'm still in shock."

"I can't believe it! What a great kid. I mean, she probably shouldn't have hit him, but I can't help but be oddly… proud of her?"

"I know the feeling," Toby agrees. "She wasn't in the least bit remorseful because she knew what he did was wrong. I mean is it bad that I don't want her to feel sorry for hitting him? I want to hit the kid."

"Brynn is so lucky to have her as a friend. Give her extra hugs and kisses for me."

"You bet I will," Toby nods. "Are you okay, though? I mean, that can't be easy to hear."

"No, it never is and you would think that I'd be used to it or over it by now, but it just doesn't get easier. For every ten or twenty or thousand people who support us, there is always an equal amount of people who don't. It just gets really hard sometimes and I never want to see Brynn or Ben suffer because of it. I mean, they don't care who their parents are. But people do and… they don't understand why."

"Of course they don't," Toby sympathizes. "Because they, like the rest of the sane world, see love when they look at their parents. They don't see gender. It doesn't matter to them and it shouldn't matter to anyone else."

"It's just going to be a never-ending battle. But I'm prepared for that. I'm okay with that. Because this my life and people are going to have to deal with it."

"That they will," Toby smiles. "We're all here for you, Em, every step of the way."

"Thank you. And next time I struggle with a bigoted idiot, I know who to call."

Toby chuckles and agrees, "Of course. Grace will take down these idiots, one bloody nose at a time."