Hazel tossed her hands in the air. “I tried to. I told the study hall monitor, Mrs. Bailey, but she told me to sit back down.”

“So you defended yourself?”

“You bet your... I mean...yes, Mother, I did.”

Zoey bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at her daughter’s sarcasm. She had to be the adult here. She turned back to Ted, with his giant desk and his giant chair.

“Are you suggesting my daughter shouldn’t have defended herself?”

There was a beat of silence, and Zoey knew the tide had turned. Ted Sheffield knew it, too. They negotiated a one-day suspension for both Zoey and Micah Wilkins, the kid who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. There was only a month left in the school year, but rules were rules. Suspension wasn’t great, but the school’s zero tolerance policies were well-known to students and parents. Ted called Micah’s mother on the speakerphone and they all approved the plan. Tammy Wilkins laughed, saying her son’s pride had been injured by Hazel’s punch more than his nose had been.

She and Hazel rode home in silence. It had been an exhausting few months since moving into Dad’s house in January, with its peeling paint and rusted folk art “sculptures” in the front lawn. She’d inherited the place when her father died unexpectedly last fall. Behind the house was the barn that housed the business she’d also inherited—Hartford Fix-It Shop. It wasn’t until she’d parked Dad’s small white pickup behind the house that Zoey spoke.

“I had your back in there, Hazel. I always will.” She turned off the ignition. “But you and I both know that you had other options besides hauling off and punching Micah in the face. Just because the room monitor didn’t listen didn’t mean you couldn’t have gone right to the principal’s office. Or to another teacher.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. One of these days those teenage eyes were going to roll right out of her daughter’s head. “You’re always telling me to fight if someone tries to mess with me.”

“Yes, but fight doesn’t mean literally using your fists.” She unzipped her coveralls and sighed as the cool air swept over her. Springtime was in full swing in Rendezvous Falls, with Upstate New York temperatures bouncing between freezing cold one day to hot and humid like today. “I know it’s been a bumpy year, but let’s not make it worse by getting yourself expelled from school, m’kay?”