Maggie rested her forehead on her desktop and sighed. She was so damn tired, and yet she could not stop smiling. Last night had been one huge rollercoaster ride, but at the end of it all, Jaeger had gone to sleep in the new bed that his aunt and uncles had set up for him in his new room.
It had been satisfying on a soul level to see how warm and welcoming the Hernandez family was to their youngest member. Maggie had enjoyed seeing the looks of surprise on Darren’s face as well. It was obvious that he hadn’t anticipated this much support from his siblings. Maggie didn’t have siblings, and she had always envied those who did. It made her feel good inside to be a part of that even if it was only on the fringe of things.
For now.
She had to stifle another silly grin as she wondered for about the millionth time what was actually going on between her and Darren Hernandez. She was so in love with him that she couldn’t see straight. It was an incredible feeling and she never wanted it to stop. Each day she woke up, she felt like she had so much to look forward to. She didn’t feel like a mouse anymore. She felt like the tiger. And maybe that was because she just didn’t feel alone anymore.
There was a knock on Maggie’s door. She raised her head from her desk and covered a yawn with her hand. “Come in!”
Rhonda poked her head inside the door. “Hate to bother you, because you seem like you could really use a nap, but we’ve got three third grade boys who need a butt whooping. And unfortunately, the object of their torture is sitting out there waiting to have her chat with you. She beat the one kid so hard Nurse Wilkins says he’ll have two black eyes.”
“Seriously?” Maggie rolled her eyes.
They’d not had a single incident in the few days since Darren started teaching gym, which was kind of odd considering he’d only seen those kids once. But he had been running touch football games during afternoon recess for some of the kids, and they really liked him. It was possible that he had talked to the boys about bullying and how to treat a lady, but Maggie didn’t know for certain. There had been so much else going on in the last few days that she really hadn’t given the bullying much thought.
“Send her in,” Maggie told Rhonda. “And go ahead and call Mr. Hernandez.”
“Which one?” Rhonda winked at Maggie.
“Actually, call Laredo for me. Just let him know that Bella is in the office. I’ll send Darren a text. This is really odd.”
“Very,” Rhonda agreed. “We had almost a whole week of quiet.”
Moments later, Maggie saw Bella poking her head through the door. She didn’t look like she wanted to come inside Maggie’s office. Not that Maggie blamed her. The little girl had to be getting tired of getting in trouble because of a bunch of bully boys.
“Come in, Bella,” Maggie called out. “And close the door please. We need to chat.”
Bella gave a dramatic sigh and shut the door behind her. Then she perched on the edge of a chair and scooted her little bottom farther onto the seat. “I didn’t mean to hurt Julian’s eye. He was just being so mean that I had to do something!”
Maggie opened her mouth to speak but shut it when she realized there was something different about Bella’s description of events. “He was so mean? How was this different?”
“Normally, Julian and Bentley make fun of my hair and stuff. They tell me I look like a Q-tip or something else really stupid. Then Sawyer will run around in circles with his hands over his head like he’s pretending to be a Q-tip. Right?” Bella actually sniffed as though she was going to cry. She swiped her arm across her nose and sniffed. It nearly broke Maggie’s heart to see her this way. “Today, Bentley said that my daddy is so mean that he chased my mommy away and made her fall in love with someone else. Then Julian started making fun of me saying that if I’d been a pretty girl, my mommy would have stayed with my daddy. Sawyer was just making faces. That’s why I didn’t punch him. He’s stupid. He’s too stupid to say mean things. He just does whatever the other boys do.”
Maggie was absolutely horrified. Not just by what Bella was describing but by the idea that these third grade boys knew such intimate details about Bella’s life. She cleared her throat and tried to stop herself from showing too much outward reaction. “I’m really sorry, Bella. That was very mean. I can’t even begin to imagine how much that hurt your feelings.”
Bella’s little lower lip pooched out. “How do they know why my mommy left us? I don’t think my mommy left because Daddy was mean or ‘cause she loved someone else. She just didn’t get along with Daddy.”
Holy shit. Those boys knew more about Bella’s situation than she did. This wasn’t right. Laredo had done something that seemed kind of rare for him. He had protected his daughter from the truth of what her mother had done. He didn’t talk bad about Bella’s mom in front of her. Nobody did. They were all aware that saying bad things about the mother would just hurt the daughter. So, who had opened that kettle of fish and fed it to some schoolyard bullies?
“Bella,” Maggie said gently. “You still shouldn’t be punching boys in their faces. All right? It’s not a very good way to solve a problem. But I understand why you were so angry. This was very different from how they’ve usually acted. Isn’t it?”
“Uncle Darren told those boys that only losers pick on other kids and that boys who pick on girls are just making it so when they get older, those girls will never give them the time of day.” Bella made a face. “I don’t think I know what time of day means, but it sounds bad. Since we had gym, the boys haven’t bothered me though. They’re too busy playing football at recess to bother.”
“That’s good.” Maggie stood up and walked around her desk to Bella. She put an arm around the girl’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “I’m going to walk you back to class. Then those boys and I are going to have a little talk.”
It didn’t take Maggie long to walk with Bella out of the main office and down the hallway. Rhonda gave them a very curious glance as they passed her desk, but said nothing. Maggie had no doubt that Rhonda would demand a full accounting later on. But at the moment, Maggie didn’t even know what to tell her. It was as if some adult had given those boys really personal information about Bella, and that didn’t sit right with Maggie.
“Here you go, sweetie. Looks like you’re back in plenty of time for reading. I know that’s your favorite.” Maggie opened the door and gently squeezed Bella’s shoulder. “I will check on you later, honey.”
“All right.” Bella offered Maggie a tight smile and went to her seat.
Maggie nodded to Bella’s teacher and then went right next door to Sarah Farnsworth’s classroom since she was the one with Julian, Bentley, and Sawyer in her class. As soon as Maggie opened the door, she knew something was off. She could not put her finger on it, but the smirk on Sarah Farnsworth’s face was way out of line.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Farnsworth.” Maggie forced herself to be pleasant. “Could I have a word?”
Sarah huffed out a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. “Class, I’ll be just a minute. Continue reading to yourselves and we will do some more reading aloud when I come back.”
It seemed to take forever for Sarah Farnsworth to exit the classroom for the hallway and shut the door. If she had been a child, Maggie would have accused her of dragging her feet. Finally, Maggie was standing face to face with a woman who obviously did not like her one bit. Of course, it did not help that Sarah Farnsworth and Olivia Witherspoon were best buddies.
“Mrs. Farnsworth, I just had a rather interesting conversation with a young lady who was bullied horribly by three boys in your class.” Maggie folded her hands in front of her and waited to see what Mrs. Farnsworth would say.
“So what?” Farnsworth’s smile was rude. “Bella Hernandez is a brat. Everybody knows that. The girl fights like the rancher’s daughter she is. They should have left her in a cow pasture instead of bringing her to a school with decent children. The worst part is that people like you”—Sarah Farnsworth pointed her finger at Maggie—“keep coddling that brat. We all know you’re sleeping with her uncle though. Maybe you’re screwing the uncle and the father. Who knows? Those Hernandez people are about as low class as it gets.”
The personal attack caused Maggie to recoil as though she’d been struck. Her mouth gummed up, and she fought the urge to turn around and run away. She didn’t like confrontations. They weren’t her thing. Yet ever since she had met Darren Hernandez, she had been finding herself involved in one right after the other! Now she had to say something or poor Bella was going to get the short end of the stick in this bully episode.
Maggie mustered every bit of courage she had. “Are you out of your mind?” she asked Mrs. Farnsworth. “It does not matter one little bit what you think of Bella’s father or Bella’s uncle. And the rest of it is just gossip! You’re repeating something and you don’t even know if it’s true.” Maggie realized something very awful and hoped that she was wrong. “Those boys were talking nonsense rumors too. Did you tell them those things about Bella’s family? Did you repeat those things to them? How can you call yourself a teacher if you do such a thing?”
“I—I didn’t!” But the way Farnsworth was backing toward her classroom said otherwise. She was grabbing at the door in an attempt to turn the knob. “Go talk to Ms. Witherspoon. Once that Hernandez brat is expelled for this fight, then it won’t matter what you think.”
“Expelled?” Maggie burst out. “Why would Bella Hernandez be expelled? School policy says that fighting is referred to the guidance counselor for mediation. If the guidance counselor feels there is a genuine problem that requires disciplinary action, then the principal is involved! And believe me, the only students who deserve to be expelled are the boys who just shouted that poor little girl’s private business all over the playground. But if they got their information from where I think they did, then they aren’t going to be in trouble at all! Do you get me, Mrs. Farnsworth? If you and Ms. Witherspoon think you’re going to punish the Hernandez family like this, you’d better think again!”
Maggie had never been so angry before in her life! She turned on her heel and headed back toward the nurse’s office. She needed to find out where these boys had gotten their facts, and she needed to make sure that person paid the price for their meddling once and for all.