My heart sinks. I don’t have a problem with Caitlyn standing up for herself or anyone else, but if she’s blaming her imaginary friend, then this is a new step, the one the psychologist had warned me about. Caitlyn insisted that her lie is real and it’s my fault. I suggested that she show Peter Sanders ‘who was the boss’ and I didn’t call her on it when she insisted that her imaginary friend gave me the necklace, even if she was trying to be nice.

“Who’s Katherine?” Principal Craig asks.

“It’s her imaginary friend,” I sigh.

Caitlyn’s head snaps up. The hurt and betrayal on her face are more than I can bear and I look away towards Principal Craig.

“Since we moved, she’s had an imaginary friend named ‘Katherine’, but the thing with this Peter kid, I may have—”

“Mr. Price, that’s not why we called you here.”

“Then, what is?”

Principal Craig points to the whiteboard behind me. “That.”

I turn and freeze.

Scrawled across the board in the uneven hand of a child are the words “Hancourt is stupid”, “I hate you”, “stupid stupid stupid” and finally:

“We wanted you to see before we erased it,” Principal Craig says after a long silence.

“I … I can’t believe it.”

“That’s why we wanted you to see it,” Principal Craig replies and nods to Denise, who picks up an eraser and begins wiping away the writing.

Stunned, I turn to my daughter. “Caitlyn?”

“I didn’t do it,” she weakly pleads.

“Caitlyn, don’t lie to me. Not now.”

Her face springs up, again, and the words come out in a frightened torrent. “It was Katherine! I told her not to, but she wouldn’t listen! She didn’t like that Peter was making fun of me for talking to her, so she pushed him.”

“Caitlyn—”

“Then she got mad at Ms. Hancourt for saying that I was in trouble. I told her not to write that, but she said that’s what her dad called Rebecca—”

“Caitlyn—”

“—and that Ms. Hancourt was going to ruin everything between you and Mom, because last night you and Ms. Hancourt—”

“Caitlyn, stop it!” I yell.

Denise stares at me in shock.

A tense silence fills the room.

I desperately try to convey with a glance to Denise that I haven’t told Caitlyn anything about last night, but her thoughts are clear; She believes that I did, and now, Principal Craig will know.

I can already see the suspicion growing behind Principal Craig’s eyes as she looks from Denise to me.

I have to get both Caitlyn and myself out of here.

I look at Denise and Principal Craig. “I’m going to take her home for today.”

“We think that would be best,” Principal Craig replies through tightened lips.

I hold out my hand. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go home.”