Principal Yu said nothing.

“And is this seriously the first time you’re trying to talk to me about it? Did you think I was happy before, like it was some ‘compliment,’ like my dad did? What is wrong with you all?”

“We offered counselors, Eve. We can’t force you to speak to us,” Principal Yu responded calmly.

“No! No.” Eve felt her hands turn to fists on her lap. “You should have helped.”

Principal Yu allowed a moment of quiet to go by. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “I assure you, we have investigated every claim thoroughly.”

“Oh, really?” An angry voice came out of Eve that she didn’t recognize. “Then why isn’t it all over yet?”

“We’ve conducted several interviews with students, and we do think we have an idea, but we can’t make anything public until we’re certain, Eve,” Principal Yu said with a quiet confidence that stopped Eve from saying anything more.

“Okay,” Eve said. “I’m sorry.”

“And Eve, I do wish we’d called you in to talk to the counselor. We didn’t want any girl to feel unfairly targeted for counseling due to that particular individual’s”—she paused as if to think of the right word—“position on the list. I wish…” Principal Yu sighed. “I wish I’d known better what to do.”

Eve didn’t know what to say.

“When I was in eighth grade,” Principal Yu said slowly, “I remember…” She paused. “There was this boy, Wes. He had short, bleached hair.”

“What?” Eve couldn’t imagine any of the guys in school with bleached hair.

“Yup. That was the style then.”

“Wow.”

“An unfortunate period.” Principal Yu laughed and then paused again. “Wes wouldn’t stop grabbing me. And snapping my bra.”

Eve tried to picture Principal Yu as an eighth grader. She was tiny now, so she was probably tiny then. She had kind, delicate features with eyebrows in a permanent state of listening-face.

“He thought it was hysterical. And I told him ‘Ow!’ I told him to stop. I probably used foul language of some sort.”

Eve could not imagine Principal Yu cursing. She was so put together, so classy.

“And I told the school counselor. She was nice, but ineffective. I think she thought that what Wes was doing to me was just … normal. And I think, to her, normal meant okay. Well, one day, Wes snapped my bra so hard that I got a small cut in the back from the metal of the clasp.” She reached toward her back as if to point to it. “I bled through my shirt.”

Eve instinctively covered her mouth. “Oh my gosh! What did they do to him?”

Principal Yu tapped her fingers on the edge of her desk and sighed. “Nothing.”

“Oh.” Eve wished she had something smart or kind to say. “Did you do anything? Did you say anything to him?”

Principal Yu shrugged. “No. I wish I had, though.”

It was hard to know what to say. Hard to see how to make it all stop.