Externalizing [mxm]

Chapter 7

"This is Dean Withers," she introduced herself indignantly over the phone. "This is regarding your daughter, Ariel."

"Is something wrong?" Marc questioned. Usually Brendan was there to tell him something first, if he knew about it.

"Ariel's gotten into a fight at school. I've already called the parent of the other child, and I'd like to talk to both of you and have you come pick her up."

Marc swore. "Fighting?" he echoed. Ariel didn't do those kinds of things.

"Yes, I'll give you more details when you come in."

She was six. How could she be getting into anything serious enough to get a call from the Dean? Kids fought all the time, didn't they? And it wasn't like this was a recurring thing. Marc sighed and took another early lunch for the week to drive himself in.

If they were sending her home for the day, he didn't know what he was going to do with her. Take her to work? She'd sit in an office all day with her. Maybe he could send her to the visual department. Was that artsy?

He showed up and went into the office, seeing Ariel sitting with a boy of about the same age and a blonde woman waiting by his side. She was dressed in a business suit herself and didn't look happy to be there either.

"I'm Alice," she introduced herself. "And my son, Eric." She glanced down towards the equally blond boy.

"What happened?" Marc just wanted to know that simple fact.

"He was teasing me—" Ariel started quickly, right as Eric spoke up with, "Well she hit me first!"

The Dean shushed both of them quickly. "Eric was making fun of Ariel's art," she explained. "And so Ariel hit him. Then he hit back and the playground supervisor pulled them apart."

Ariel took the first hit? Marc kept silent and nodded grimly. "Is she being sent home?"

"Just for the day," the Dean explained, like it was that easy. "Just so that they can both cool off. They've both gotten warnings, and another one will result in an infraction."

Marc nodded and ushered Ariel out of her chair. That's when he saw the swelling of her other cheek, and noticed the nice split lip that Eric had. Apparently it couldn't have just been a nice hit. They'd actually done a number on each other.

Marc nodded apologetically to Alice as he was hoping to get out of there. He didn't want to have to deal with anymore of this. He'd sit Ariel down and talk with her on his own time.

"Hold on," Alice insisted though, stopping him at the office door. "Eric, go wait over there for me," she said, pointing ahead to the doors of the main office.

"Um," Marc looked around for a place to send Ariel, so he sent her off towards the secretary.

"I think we should set up a playdate for them," Alice decided.

"What?" Marc pulled back. "They just got into a fight; I don't think they're friends."

"I think this is all going about a little wrong," Alice said, pausing. "There's that stupid belief that people think boys need to be mean to the girls that they like... I think he has a crush on her, and I want him to learn that he needs to be friends with, and be nice to the girl if he likes her. So I'd like to get them to try and hang out as friends, not playground rivals."

Marc glanced towards a guilty looking Eric at the front of the office. He'd never done it at that age, but then he wasn't Eric. "She really likes the movie Lilo and Stitch," he muttered. Watching a movie couldn't be too bad of an idea, could it?