“I see. Well, pardon me if I question your judgment given what your child is wearing and how she has conducted herself since arriving at my school.” Lynde stepped forward, one step closer into my space than I would have liked. Possibly so she could look down on me like one looks down a cliff at something that has just fallen off that cliff and ended up a splat on the ground.

Or maybe that’s just what it felt like.

“I will go and reassure the Spencer family, then.” Lynde took another moment to deliver another steely look before gliding across the floor and out the door. “I’m sure they will be thrilled to know you have this under control.”

As the door closed behind her, I took my first breath in five minutes.

Lucy also took a deep breath, leaning on her desk, which had, I was only then noticing, just pillars of paper, precariously perched on every inch of space. It looked like she was conducting an experiment to see how many pieces of paper she could fit on her desk. And the answer was a lot.

It looked like Lucy had also had. . .kind of a day. Her smooth morning hair looked like it had been restyled by an angry horde of kittens. Her suit looked weirdly wrinkled and her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. I was pretty sure this discussion about me was not my mom’s first not-great discussion with Principal Lynde.

“Mom,” I said, catching myself.

Lucy stared at me. Then her eyes skipped past me.

Coach Harras, whistleblower extraordinaire, appeared in the doorway.

“Who started it?” Lucy looked at me, then at Harras.

“Your ki—” Harras started.

“I did,” I cut in.

Lucy gave me a sharp look. “You’re interrupting Coach Harras?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, chin to my chest.

“Darn right,” Harras mumbled.

“Sorry to whom?” Lucy asked.

I turned toward the doorway. “Sorry, Coach Harras, I shouldn’t have interrupted.”

“We’re fine now, thank you, Coach Harras,” Lucy said, with her softest, calmest voice. Coach Harras gave a small huff, then turned and walked away. Lucy closed the door behind her.

“Okay,” Lucy said, a few seconds after the door clicked. “Okay.” She took another deep breath. “This is hard. This is a new school. This is a town that’s not like other towns where we’ve lived.”

“Mom—”

“You can’t keep— Anne. Do you understand what it means when you act this way?” Lucy looked to the door, through which she could see Tanner and his family.

“I—”

“You cannot act out this way.” Lucy’s voice cut sharply. “I say this as a mother and as the vice principal of your school, Anne. Do you want to talk about why this happened?”