by Ann, Natalie
“Ms. Parker.”
“Please call me Paige. I hope this is the last time I’m here, but I have a feeling that it might not be. Can you tell me exactly what happened?”
“Paige,” he said. “I hope you aren’t here again, but something tells me this might be a situation I have to keep an eye on. It would help if I knew all the facts.”
And there was the dread that she felt driving here. Was it going to start all over again in this school? “I’ll give you as many facts as I can.”
“I’m not sure exactly what caused the altercation today. There are a group of kids whose stories are lining up, but they are lining up perfectly...”
“So they made sure they had their stories straight, Principal?” she asked.
“Call me Noah,” he said. “That’s my guess, but I’m not completely sure. I’ve talked to the other kids’ parents already. They are standing behind their children.”
“Most do,” she said. She’d had this battle already and was preparing again. How many times could she move? Or should she move?
“Sebastian isn’t a small kid by any means. He’s not the biggest, but I’m trying to figure out why he was targeted. I was told he threw the first punch so he isn’t afraid to fight back. With most kids that get bullied, it’s because they won’t fight back.”
“My nephew will only take so much. Something had to set him off. I thought you said there were no physical injuries.”
Was she going to get sued? It was hard enough raising Sebastian on her own—he was growing so much, he needed clothes and shoes more than she needed milk in the house. Hell, she needed a cow to just keep up with the milk, now that she thought of it.
“As I said, he threw a punch, but the other kid’s friend grabbed Sebastian from behind, stopping the punch from landing. That kid will have out of school suspension since he touched Sebastian.”
“And I bet that kid argued he was defending his friend?” she asked.
“Sounds like you’ve been down this road before.”
“I have,” she said. “Did Sebastian say what caused him to take a swing?”
“No. He isn’t cooperating.”
“It wouldn’t change his punishment either way, correct?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, no.”
“Then he won’t say a word.”
She knew her nephew well. He wasn’t talking about his life or his past to anyone. Especially if it wouldn’t change what was going on. He didn’t want any more attention on him than he was getting.
“I can’t help him if he doesn’t,” Noah said.
“I’ll talk to him tonight. It’s a tough situation.”
Noah took a deep breath in. “I understand. I can only do so much. Please know that I’m going to keep an eye on things, but I won’t know what to look for if I don’t know what is going on.”
“It’s a family situation,” she said. “We’ll try to deal with it the best we can. Sebastian tries to just stay away from people, but they don’t let him.”
Noah nodded. “I’ve spoken to a few of his teachers. They say he’s a smart kid but doesn’t always apply himself and his homework is sloppy and rushed, but his grades are mostly decent.”
“He’s a smart kid but sometimes if you’re too smart you stand out too.”
“Understood. Well, I guess there isn’t much more for us to say to each other.” He stood up so she did the same.
She shook his hand when he extended it out. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I hope this is the last time I’m in this office.”
3
The Last Straw
Noah watched the young woman walk out of his office. When she walked in he didn’t think she could have been Sebastian’s mother. She looked way too young. He’d put her a few years younger than him. Of course that never meant much, she could have had a kid early.
But it wasn’t Sebastian’s mother, rather his aunt.
He pulled up Sebastian’s personal information in the computer again. He looked further than he did when he was trying to find the first point of contact just assuming Paige was his mother with the same last name. Now he saw his mother was named Cora and that Paige was his guardian.
Hmm, didn’t his own mother mention someone named Sebastian a few weeks ago? Something about being smart but wanting to be lost in the shuffle.
He did a search and found only two other Sebastians in his school and those two were upperclassmen, so this must be the same kid his mother commented on. Maybe he’d see if his mother knew more of what was going on since the kid wasn’t talking and neither was the aunt.
Had to be something serious. Especially since he had a feeling it wasn’t going to end today.
He picked the phone up and called his mother’s cell phone. He was guessing she might be home by now since it was close to four.
She answered on the first ring. “How is my favorite son?”
He laughed. “I’m only your favorite today. If Drake calls you later you’ll say the same thing.”
“You know me well. What’s going on?”
“A few weeks ago you mentioned a kid named Sebastian. Was it Sebastian Parker?”
“It was. Did something happen with him today? Halloween, I should have figured.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” What was he missing here? It’s not like any of the kids were dressed in goth or that he thought they were into that stuff.
“How much do you know about their family situation?” she asked.
“Nothing. That is why I’m calling you. Do you know anything? There isn’t much in his file other than his aunt has custody and he’s new to the district. I see a mother’s name listed but that’s it.”
“I don’t know a lot. I’ve heard rumors. Or the kids talk and then it gets to the teachers, but I don’t know anything concrete.”
“What rumors have you heard?” he asked. “At least it’s something. I had him in my office for fighting today and his aunt came to pick him up. Neither of them would say much.”
“You met Paige? She’s so sweet. So nice. She wants to be helpful for her nephew, but you can tell she struggles.”
“I have a feeling this isn’t new to her being called in for fighting.”
He’d seen the worry in her eyes mixed in with the urge to strangle her nephew, then the relief it wasn’t as bad as it could be. There were plenty of emotions going on behind her brown eyes that looked more troubled than just being called in for today’s incident.
“No. Unfortunately, I don’t think it is. Anyway, I heard there was something about Sebastian’s mother being in a mental institution. My guess is that is why the kids started in with him today. Being Halloween they probably thought it’d be funny.”
“I’ll have to see if I can find anything out,” he said. “Is that all you’ve heard?”
“That is it. There are so many kids that come through our rooms it’s hard to keep track of them all. He’s smart. A very talented writer. I want to say he was one of my best students, but he didn’t always do his work unless it involved writing.”
“That is what I’m hearing from his teachers here too. When he does an assignment fully he does it well, but he doesn’t do everything.”
“I’m here if you need anything, but that is about all I can tell you right now.”
“Thanks. It’s enough,” he said and hung up the phone.
Yes, he’d seen that Paige was concerned over her nephew and nervous at the same time. There were a lot of parents that came into his office feeling that way. He tried to put as many as he could at ease.
Then there were just as many that came in and were argumentative that their kids were innocent. That was Robbie’s parents. The kid that should have gotten the fist in the face if his buddy Ian hadn’t stepped in. Sebastian was bigger than Robbie and the kid would have surely had his face messed up.
As much as Ian’s parents argued their son shouldn’t get in trouble, rules were rules. Robbie did owe his buddy one, b
ut didn’t say that and wouldn’t.
Then there was Paige herself. Brown hair pulled back in a ponytail on her head. Blue scrubs on that made him think she was a nurse but she worked in a dentist’s office. Same thing in his eyes, kind of. He wouldn’t want to be in someone’s mouth poking around any more than he’d want to be taking vitals.
She was just a little thing. Shorter than her nephew by a few inches. He’d probably peg her around five foot four, and if she weighed a buck twenty he’d be shocked, but the scrubs hid a lot.
He’d bet she’d be a knockout if she didn’t look so worried and could relax and be herself. But her nephew came first—he’d noticed that right away.
He pulled up Google on his computer, typed in Sebastian Parker to see if anything came up. He didn’t normally do anything like this, but since Sebastian was new to the school he figured he’d see if he could find anything.
What came up were several articles on Cora Parker, convicted of murdering her boyfriend four years ago. He read some more and saw she was in a mental institution after being declared mentally insane.
He scanned a few more pages, a few more searches, and found one article stating that Cora had one son, Sebastian, aged ten. Had to be the same kid. Son of a bitch.
Why wouldn’t his aunt say anything? Or even Sebastian. This was public knowledge if anyone even bothered to look, which he found with a short internet search.
At least he knew what to keep an eye out for now, not that he was sure it was going to help any.
* * *
“Want to tell me what happened today?” Paige asked Sebastian once they were in the car.
“Typical shit,” he said looking down at his phone.
She reached over and took it out of his hand and stuck it in her purse. She’d take it away from him as punishment, but she needed to know where he was and that would just stress her out if she didn’t have that communication with him.
“What did they say?” she asked.
“They wanted to know if I was going to visit my mother in the loony bin. That it was probably a national holiday for her,” he said. “That was the last straw.”
“And you threw a punch rather than walk away?” she asked, knowing she’d like to do the same, but she couldn’t say that. She had to set an example now.
“He wouldn’t shut the hell up and he wouldn’t let me walk away. I tried three times and he kept blocking my way. He was smart enough to not touch me though. He’s just not smart enough to shut his pie hole.”
“Is this the same kid you had issues with last year?” she asked.
“No. Same group of friends though. You know how it goes. It’s like wildfire. One starts and then turns direction and another pops up to do just as much damage even though everything has been burned out around it.”
She loved how his brain worked. It was a good description from a teen. “Well, if you’d hit this kid you would have hurt him and then we’d be in even more trouble.”
“Robbie would have deserved it. Maybe he’ll keep his mouth shut.” He started to grin. “I heard Robbie and Ian arguing and their parents were there yelling too. Ian’s parents are pissed he’s getting out-of-school suspension because he held me back. The no-hands policy.”
Her lips quirked. “Then maybe you and Robbie should be thanking Ian. Robbie for not getting a busted face and you for getting in less trouble.”
“Fat chance that is happening. I’m not thanking either of them. Though Ian didn’t say anything, but he didn’t stop Robbie from running his mouth either.”
“Do you think maybe he felt bad about what was being said?”
He snorted. “Hardly.”
It was worth a shot in her eyes. “With any luck we can move on. Why didn’t you tell the principal what was said?”
“Why bother? It wouldn’t change the outcome.”
Just what she figured. “He wants to help. He thinks that it might not be the end of it but can’t help if you don’t tell him what is going on.”
He turned his head. “You didn’t tell him?”
“No. I didn’t see the need at this point. If it happens again, I might have to. I’m not sure anything can be done, but I don’t want to change schools again. We need to figure a way to get through this.”
“If I busted Robbie’s face like I wanted to then maybe that’d be warning enough for people to stay away.”
She wanted to agree but knew that wasn’t the adult thing to do. “And cost us both a lot of money.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I know you don’t want this headache. That you don’t want me.”
“Hey,” she said. “That’s not true at all. I want you. I love you. This is as new for me as it is for you, but I thought we were making it work.”
She didn’t want him to ever feel he wasn’t wanted. His mother tried but she just wasn’t strong enough. Well enough. And Sebastian’s father was nowhere to be found. He’d left Cora on her own once he found out she was pregnant.
“We are,” he said. “If you could cook a bit better it would work.”
She laughed. She needed that. She needed anything right now to help her nephew. “You could learn to cook.”
“Please. I set the smoke alarm off last time and you yelled at me because the fire department came. You said it was an embarrassment.”
It had been. She knew Sebastian was only trying to help by having dinner ready for her when she got home from work, but the fear she had when she got the call overrode his effort. It hadn’t been his fault. He walked away to go to the bathroom and burgers started to burn in the pan and smoke.
“Maybe we both need some lessons. How about a bucket of chicken tonight?” she asked, turning her blinker on and making her way in that direction.
“Works for me,” he said.
And that was them. Whatever worked in the moment she had to go with.
4
Monkeys In The Zoo
“Only three more periods, not even, before Thanksgiving break,” Ms. Cutter said. Beth Cutter was a new calculus teacher fresh out of college. She was young and eager, but didn’t want to always hand her lesson plans in on time forcing him to hunt her down.
Noah was starting to think she did it on purpose so they could have this time together to chat. He had too many other things to deal with and, though he didn’t want to write her up, he needed to make it clear it was the last time he was doing this.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “I’m sure you know why I’m here.” She was in her room for the one break all teachers got to grade papers or work on lesson plans. When he taught, he did his at home so he could spend the time with the kids, but he knew not everyone was like him.
“You want my lesson plans,” she said.
“I do. I sent you two emails looking for them and you haven’t replied. They were due to me yesterday.”
“Sorry. It’s done, I just forgot to email them.”
He held back the snort. One of those emails could have said that. “Why aren’t they in the software?”
“I’m struggling with it,” she said. “Do you think you could show me how to use it again?”
She was sending him a big toothy grin. He supposed ten years ago he might have been attracted to her. They both had similar careers; she was cute and friendly. She seemed to know her job and the kids loved her. He wondered if they loved her because she was friendly or they thought she was easy. So far her grades were pretty high for calculus, which made him wonder if she was giving a lot of extra credit, letting kids take tests over, or pretty much giving them the answers. Those were things he’d like to see on her lesson plan.
“All new teachers were trained on how to use the software. You have no problem putting your grades in; your lesson plan is just another screen. I don’t have time to show you today.”
“How about another day?” she asked. “Or after school?”
“I want it completed by the end of today. If that means you have to stay later to do it, then so be it. If it’s done
you should be able to cut and paste what you typed up and submit it. Ask another teacher to help you, but have it to me before you leave.”
Her smile wobbled a little but tried to stay there. “I’ll have it done.”
“Thank you. And enjoy your holiday and the few days off,” he said.
“I will. You too.”
Her smile was back, but he walked out before she could say another thing.
He detoured the long way around the school to see if there were any kids out of class wandering the halls. The closer they got to any break, the more the monkeys in the zoo started to fling their poop.
He was just passing the gym, noticing the doors open and a lot of shouting going on. Not cheering but trouble, causing him to move fast in that direction just in time to see Ian with his arms wrapped around Sebastian, blood running out of the kid’s nose, and Scott Wimple laughing. Scott was Robbie’s older brother.
“What the hell is going on?” he shouted. The kids that were laughing all stopped, a few took a step back, even his phys ed teacher pulled his shoulders up straighter. Fred Wilson had a few years left before he retired and just let the kids do what they wanted.
“Indoor soccer,” Fred said. “It’s raining out and they just stumbled into each other. Scott didn’t mean any harm and Sebastian wanted to charge.”
“It was an accident,” Scott said. “Sebastian isn’t very coordinated.”
He looked at Sebastian to see him wipe the blood from his nose. “Come here, you’re going to the nurse with me. And you, Ian, that’s twice now you’ve had your hands on him. What’s your reason this time?”
“I was just holding him back,” Ian said.
“Defending your friend’s brother this time?” Noah asked.
“Whatever,” Ian said. “Guess I’ve got another suspension coming, don’t I?”
“Once I hear all the stories, I’ll figure it out. Get changed and go to my office. You too, Scott. Sebastian, you’re with me.”
