The principal’s voice grew even starchier when Sophia didn’t seem to be taking her seriously. “Those are the rules, Mrs. DeBussi.”

“When they’re convenient,” Sophia muttered.

“I didn’t call you to argue. I’m merely trying to inform you that your daughter started a fight, and now she has to be punished just like anybody else.”

Sophia was so close to letting the anger inside her erupt, but she ordered herself to override that impulse. She had to consider how her actions would affect Alexa.

Keeping a tight rein on her temper, she tried a different approach. “Mrs. Vaughn, I don’t have to tell you that Alexa recently lost her father. Whatever you hold against him, or me, please don’t let that influence how you treat her.”

“I’m offended that you’d even suggest I could be capable of taking out what I feel for a child’s parents on the child,” she responded.

But that was precisely what she was doing. Couldn’t she see it? Before Skip cheated everyone, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Mrs. Vaughn would’ve believed Alexa immediately. “I’m not suggesting anything,” she said. “I’m just asking you to be aware of the potential for prejudice and to guard against it. I mean...isn’t there something else you could do to punish Alexa? Give her a detention after school or—or have her come in during lunch? I know she’s not responsible for that fight. I know it. It doesn’t seem fair that she’ll be punished so harshly. For one thing, she’ll fall behind in her classes if she misses the rest of the week. She’s already struggling...in more ways than one.”

“Maybe that’s why she acted out. Makes sense, doesn’t it? I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

When Mrs. Vaughn hung up, Sophia wanted to throw her phone. Instead, she pounded it against her forehead. “Damn it,” she whispered as she lost her battle with the tears that had welled up. “Can’t anything go right? Can I really be so terrible as to deserve all this?”

“What’s going on?”

Dropping her hand, she whirled to see Ted standing behind her. She hadn’t heard him come out. How long had he been listening?

She dashed a hand across her cheeks. “Nothing. Alexa needs to be picked up from a school a little early, that’s all.” Hoping to escape the scrutiny of those dark eyes, she moved away from him. “I hope you don’t mind if I go now instead of in forty minutes.”

She couldn’t even make herself wait for an answer. She hurried down the stairs and out the front door as fast as she could without breaking into a full run. But before she could get in her car, Ted came jogging out after her.

At the sound of his footsteps, she glanced back and he gestured toward the passenger side door. “Unlock it. I’m going with you.”

Ted took a seat in the principal’s office next to Sophia while Mrs. Vaughn closed the door. Alexa was already there, in a chair set off to one side, looking like a condemned prisoner. She didn’t get up and rush into her mother’s arms, as Ted thought she might. She didn’t plead her case. She just peered up at them through her brown bangs with swollen eyes and a tear-streaked face.

Certain injuries were evident. Ted suspected the scrape on her cheek was new—it was bleeding—but the swollen lip and the bruise didn’t seem as recent.

“I’m sorry to have to call you in under these circumstances.” Mrs. Vaughn looked at him as if she couldn’t fathom how he was involved, but he didn’t trouble himself to explain. He wasn’t sure he could. He just acted as if he had every right to be there, and she didn’t try to shut him out.

When Sophia turned to her daughter and started to blink rapidly, he knew she was fighting tears, just as she’d been fighting them on the way over. She opened her mouth to respond to the principal, but Ted squeezed her arm to tell her he’d handle this. “It’s unfortunate. Has Alexa been in trouble often?”

Alexa’s gaze shifted to him. She seemed confused by his presence, too, but didn’t say anything. She just bowed her head and stared at the floor.

Mrs. Vaughn took her seat behind the desk. “Never.”

“So this is her first infraction?” He knew it was. Sophia had explained the whole situation in the car. He merely wanted to remind Mrs. Vaughn that this was a kid who’d never caused trouble before. Maybe she’d see that suspension was a bit extreme, that maybe there’d been more provocation than she’d been told, since this wasn’t typical behavior for Alexa.

“Yes. But as you know—” Mrs. Vaughn’s eyes cut to Sophia “—there’s been a lot of disruption at home.”

“None of which is Alexa’s fault,” he pointed out.

“Oh, no,” she agreed. “I wasn’t implying that.”

He addressed Alexa. “Lex, can you tell me what happened?”

She didn’t say anything until Sophia encouraged her. “This is a friend of mine, honey. Can you answer him?”

“She kept shoving her pencil into my back,” she mumbled.

“She being...Connie?” Ted said.

A nod confirmed this.

Sophia made a sound that led him to believe she’d jump in, but he squeezed her arm again. “And she poked you before the fight broke out?” he asked.

Another nod.

“Did it hurt?”

“Yes!” Alexa spoke louder. “It was the pointy end!”

“Then it probably left some marks. Do you know if it did?”

“No,” she said. “I can’t see my own back.”

“Can we take a look?”

After a silent confirmation from her mother, she got up, turned around and let Sophia lift the back of her shirt. Sure enough, there were several red marks, one where the point had broken the skin.

“Did you tell the teacher?” Ted asked.

She tugged her shirt down. “I couldn’t. She wasn’t there. It wouldn’t help, anyway.”

“Because...”

Her voice filled with indignation. “Then Connie and the others would be even meaner. A bunch of them followed me off campus yesterday, and Connie hit me lots of times.”

“So you’d already had a bad experience with this girl.”

Her chin bumped her chest as she nodded.

“What did you do when she kept poking you today?”

“I asked her to stop. But Babette and Ella kept laughing and egging her on. They said they’d give her a dollar to do it again. Then they offered her a cookie and a bag of chips. She was pulling my hair when she wasn’t poking me.” Alexa held out her white blouse. “She even marked my shirt with her pen and said I’d have to get another one from a thrift store since we don’t have money anymore.”

Ted knew this wasn’t his battle, but he was glad he’d come. Sophia was so emotional. She’d break into tears if she tried to speak.

When he looked up, Mrs. Vaughn cleared her throat. “A sympathetic story. But the other kids say most of it isn’t true. They maintain that Connie made some comment about Alexa having to get her clothes from a thrift store and that was all it took.”

Ted stood and gestured toward Alexa. “And those marks on her back? How did they get there?”

The principal couldn’t argue with that. Alexa couldn’t have hurt herself in that way. “She should’ve gone to the teacher, like you suggested.”

“Tell me something, Mrs. Vaughn.” Ted rested his hands on his hips, knowing it made him seem more imposing. “What would you have done in her shoes?”

“Stop baiting me, Mr. Dixon. I can’t condone her actions. Fighting doesn’t solve anything.”

“That’s true. So what’s Connie’s punishment for instigating this?”

She straightened her blotter. “I’ve assigned her after-school detention.”

“And Babette and Ella?”

“Babette and Ella?” she echoed. “This is the first I’ve heard of their involvement.”

“Now that you know they have some culpability, I mean.”

“Unfortunately, it’s impossible to be perfectly fair to every child who might have been involved. I wasn’t there. I can only go by eyewitness accounts, and I have to draw a hard line when students get physical. Alexa’s the one who crossed that line.”