The twenty-minute drive to Concord Elementary feels like hours.

Denise, who is now Ms. Hancourt, again, didn’t go into details. All she would say over the phone was that Caitlyn was fine, but that she was in a bit of trouble. I asked what kind of trouble and she only reiterated that I should come in.

Kids are playing on the playground as I make my way from the parking lot to the main entrance.

I try to mask my panic from the staff as I walk into the main office and up to the desk.

The secretary looks up from her computer. “May I help you?”

“Uh, yes. I was asked to come in. My daughter, Cai—”

“Mr. Price?”

Principal Craig is standing in the doorway to her office.

“Come with me, please.”

*

“Apparently, there was some sort of incident on the playground during recess,” she says, leading me down the hall to Ms. Hancourt’s classroom.

“What kind of incident?”

“Caitlyn shoved a boy.”

“She shoved a boy?” In my entire life, no sentence has made less sense.

“Yes, but that’s not why we asked you to come in.”

“Then why did you—?”

We stop outside the door to the classroom.

“I’ll let Ms. Hancourt explain.”

She gestures for me to go in.

Caitlyn is sitting at a desk with her eyes down.

Denise stands off to the side with her arms folded, her expression just as confused as mine.

I quickly go to Caitlyn and take her face in my hands. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

She meekly nods.

“What happened?”

Caitlyn hesitates.

Principal Craig chimes in. “During recess, she shoved a boy named Peter Sanders and knocked him down.”

Oh no. I thought there was no way she would do it. I still can’t believe it.

“You saw her do this?” I ask.

“Some of the other kids say that they saw Caitlyn sort of shove him, and Peter says she did it,” Denise says in a softer tone than Principal Craig.

“Where is he now?”

“He’s with the nurse. He was pretty shaken up.”

I turn back to Caitlyn.

“Sweetheart?”

She brings her eyes up just enough to look at me.

“What happened?”

She sniffs. “I was talking to her,” she says, barely above a whisper. “Peter was making fun of me for talking to her. He wouldn’t stop … She got mad.”

“Who, sweetheart? Who got mad?”

Caitlyn’s eyes slide back down to the desk.

“Caitlyn says she didn’t do it,” Denise says, quietly. “She said … She said Katherine shoved Peter.”