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The doctor assured me fiberglass was easier to care for. I’d still have to go back every other week to get it x-rayed and to check on the swelling. We had another long list to call him about if any of them happened.
All the way through the process, Coop and Archie kept an upbeat patter and I pasted on a smile. They were all killing themselves to make this easier for me. The least I could do was roll with it.
We made it in by just after lunchtime. I didn’t want to miss anymore days than I had to, even if the guys didn’t care about the attendance records. I didn’t even make it to study hall before I got pulled into the principal’s office.
Maddy waited for me there.
The smile on her face made my blood run cold. I dug my phone out as Mr. Dillard ushered me into his office. Thankfully, I’d texted Mr. Wittaker the day before, so his message was right near the top. I told him my mother was at the school and I’d been pulled into the principal’s office with her.
Message sent, I stopped at the door and refused to take another step. “I apologize, Mr. Dillard, if you want to have this conversation with Ms. Curtis in the room, but I’ll be waiting for my lawyer.”
The principal hesitated. One thing about our principal—he was a good person. He knew everyone’s names. He greeted us in the hallways and had treated us like old friends from our first day here. The man showed up to all the football games, debate tournaments, academic decathlons, cross-country meets, and band tourneys—if there was a contest or someone from the school competed somewhere, he did his absolute best to be there.
Unequivocally, he was on our sides.
He was also a huge proponent of family.
Huge.
Like massive.
Religious, too. Not in your face and drive you crazy religious. Not remotely hypocritical. The man lived his beliefs and truly embraced talking out problems and using love to heal everything. He so wasn’t going to get us.
No. Not even a little.
“I understand why you might feel that way, Frankie,” he told me kindly. “Your mother came in this morning to get my help, and she’s asked me to sit in on this discussion foryourcomfort. She’s very concerned about you.”
Bull. Shit.
I didn’t bother to look at her. “That’s very kind of you, Mr. Dillard. I’m still not having a conversation with her without my attorney.” Who would ever think I’d need to utter these words where my mother was concerned?
Instead of being remotely put off, he gave me another patient look. “Well, how about this? She has some things she’d like to say to you. We can sit here, and she can talk and you can listen. You don’t have to say a word.”
“I’d rather not.”
“I understand, but I think this is important, and I’ll be here with you. I can even call the student advocate to come down and join us.”
No. Diane had already gotten an eyeful of my crappy situation. My phone buzzed. A glance down showed a message from Mr. Wittaker.
He was ten minutes away.
“Mr. Dillard.” My mother’s voice turned all kinds of breathy, and I swore I threw up in my mouth. “Frankie’s always been a bit difficult. It’s better to just start talking than to wait for her to agree.” She smiled, all sugar and light. “Honestly,” she continued, and glanced at me with a smile that set off every warning bell I possessed.
Look, I got the good mother today. The one who would probably like to bake cookies and shit with me. The one who used to take me for hot cocoa every day before kindergarten. The one who used to encourage me to climb onto the back of the sofa each evening and brush out her hair for her.
Little things that probably didn’t amount to much, but those scraps had been gobbled up by younger me.
Not responding took everything I had. Maybe I should have just texted the guys. It was one thing to have them swoop in when my mother showed up with Archie’s father to drag me out of here—wait.
Where was “Eddie”?
This was twice in as many days that I’d seen her sans the new boyfriend-fiancé-dirty little secret. Well, not so little or secret anymore, but definitely dirty.
Had he dumped her? Archie said it was coming. Sooner or later. His grandfather was in town. Had they ended up having a fight?
I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved, wary, or flat out terrified.
Mr. Dillard pulled at his lower lip as he considered me, then my mother, then back to me. “Would you like to close the door, Frankie? I would prefer to give you ladies some privacy.”
