Leave a Trace: Book Three

Chapter Six: Collapse

Chapter Six: Collapse

I stand in the office of the boys school. I have a photo of Logan's face all beaten on my phone. My Mom is with me and I'm holding Valentina on my hip. Vivienne is on Mom's lap and Nick and Noah sit at the coffee table in front of the chairs, coloring with crayons on the coloring books I brought to amuse them.

The woman at the desk hangs up the phone and turns to me.

"Sorry about that. How's can I help you?"

"I need to speak with the principal." I say.

This woman looks like she's fresh out of high school and her breasts are falling out of her shirt.

"Uh...okay."

She walks off and a few minutes later she comes back with a man that looks to be my age, maybe in his forties, in a suit.

"How can I help you?" He asks.

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" I ask.

"Sure, let's go to my office."

Mom stands up and I help her collect Noah and Nick's belongings.

"Why Mama?" Noah whines.

"We're going into his office." I nod towards the principal.

The principal waits until we've collected their things and then he starts walking.

I gesture for the boys for walk in front of me and they do, following the man.

I set them up to color on the floor and my Mom and I sit down at the chairs in front of his desk with the girls. Valentina is sucking on the necklace Zane got me the other day and Vivienne is inspecting my Mom's rings.

"So what's going on?" The principal asks.

I pull up the picture of Logan and drop my phone on his desk. His eyebrows shoot up.

"That's my six year old son." I say. "He has an identical twin named Liam. That's Logan. They're in kindergarten here, in Ms. Jenkins' class. Logan came home to me and my husband on Friday looking like that. I heard nothing from the school, I got no notification that my son had the crap beat out of him by another child, who apparently has been bullying Liam since the beginning of this school year. I heard from my boys that the child, Brett Reynolds, said something rude to Liam so Logan told him to not talk to Liam like that, and then Logan said that Brett called him stupid, and then he hit my child, so my son hit him back."

"I don't mean to be a downer, but how do you know that story is true?"

Growing up, my Mom was a force to be reckoned with when it came to her children. She had my teachers afraid of her.

When she jumps in to speak, I'm not surprised.

"That's not the point here." Mom snaps. "The point is that my daughter had to hear the story from my grandsons when it's the staffs job to notify us of what happened."

"I'm sure we can work this out." The principal says. "How about tomorrow after school, we have a conference with Logan, Liam, Brett, his parents, and you and your husband? And Mrs. Jenkins and myself?"

"This won't be necessary." I say snootily. "My children will not be coming back here. I just don't trust your staff to speak with me about a problem. My son could be failing and I guarantee I won't be notified. I would like for you to know, however, that the media will hear about this."

Now exit.

"Thank you for your time."

I stand up and hurriedly gather the twins crayons.