“Well,” she started. “Her name was Kiki and she was hell-bent on making my life miserable while we rode the bus. She and her little girlfriends were always terrorizing me and my friend Suzie and one day, I just snapped.”

“You snapped?” John asked rounding a corner.

“I punched her in the face.” Victoria closed her eyes. This was certainly not something to tell a kid who had a full week of detention ahead of her.

Becca looked up at her with wide-eyed wonder. “Really?”

“Yes, but it was wrong,” she added.

John snuck another look at her, trying to temper his grin. “I wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at you, Dr. Reese.”

“You punched her in the face?”

Victoria blushed. “Yes, but it was wrong,” she repeated.

“Did you get in trouble?”

“Definitely.” Victoria remembered her suspension vividly. Her mother had been aghast by the news and had fretted about what to tell the women of her charity circle. My own daughter is out here brawling like a common guttersnipe. Her father’s reaction had been entirely different. The strapping Marine who treated her like his son, had wanted Victoria to reenact the events, showing him how her fist had connected with Kiki’s jaw. The argument between her parents that evening reverberated off the walls of her girlhood bedroom and in her mind now. The memories made her realize how much she was projecting on Becca. Victoria probably hadn’t needed to say anything in the principal’s office. But she’d recalled how her own mother refused to defend her and felt the same wave of shame and disappointment. “Anyway, I was lucky I didn’t seriously injure Kiki. It could have been worse than a suspension for me. And I didn’t feel good about hurting her,” Victoria said. “I never felt good about using my fists like that.”

“Hmm,” was all John contributed.

“It felt good to push Jenny,” Becca said. “For a second. And then I felt really scared. Like I didn’t know what to do next. Before I could stop them, my friends jumped in and it was a mess.”

“Do you feel sorry you did it?” Victoria asked in a gentle voice.

“I do. I just wish she would leave me alone, you know?”

“I think when you and the rest of the girls are stuck in a room with one another and have to talk about your feelings, things might change. You never know what’s happening in Jenny’s life that makes her act like a...you know. People who are happy with their lives don’t tend to be mean for the sake of being mean.”

She caught John in her periphery, quietly nodding along to her words.

Becca wiped her eyes. “Maybe you’re right. I really don’t want to hate her.”