Charlotte hurried through the main entrance of Mitchell Prep, signed in at the security desk, and walked down the atrium corridor to the administration office. Her stomach twirled round and round, and her heart raced at the same time. What a nightmare, and there was a part of Charlotte that kept hoping that Mr. Norton had made a mistake. Maybe the security officer had only thought he’d heard or seen them having sex.
Charlotte opened the door and went inside the principal’s office, and his administrative assistant looked up from her computer.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Black.”
“Good afternoon,” Charlotte said, wondering what this nice woman must be thinking about Curtina and all the trouble she continued to get into.
“Mr. Norton and Curtina are waiting in his office for you, so please go right in.”
Charlotte breathed deeply, strode toward the door, and opened it.
Mr. Norton stood up, and while he normally walked around his desk to shake her hand, that wasn’t the case today. “Mrs. Black, thank you for coming in so quickly.”
“Of course,” Charlotte said, now looking at Curtina, who had her head down, crying. “What are you crying for?”
Curtina looked up with her face soaking wet. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m so, so sorry.”
Charlotte sat down next to her. “Sorry for what?”
“I’m just sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”
“So is it true?” Charlotte asked her.
“Mom, I didn’t mean it. I made a—”
Charlotte frowned and interrupted her. “Just stop it, Curtina. Because I don’t want to hear any lies or excuses. You know better than to do something like this.”
“But I didn’t. I mean, I almost did, but I didn’t do anything.”
Now Mr. Norton took a seat. “Curtina, we know what you and Mark were doing.”
“So what happened, exactly?” Charlotte asked him.
“Before the bell rang, Curtina’s math teacher saw her walking past her class, but then Curtina never showed up. At first, her teacher had just thought she was maybe coming to class late, but when five minutes turned into ten and then fifteen, she called me from her classroom phone. That’s when I called the security office, and one of the officers began searching for her. He searched two of the girls’ restrooms, and lo and behold, he found Curtina and another student, Mark Stevens, locked away in one of the stalls, having sex. The security officer heard a lot of movement and other noises, and when he realized what was going on, he kneeled down and looked under the door. That’s when he asked them what they were doing.”
“We weren’t doing anything,” Curtina said, still crying.
“Curtina,” Mr. Norton said calmly and cordially, “the officer saw both of your pants and underwear touching the floor.”
Curtina looked surprised and didn’t say anything else, and that’s when Charlotte knew that the officer had caught them in the act. It was enough to make Charlotte sick to her stomach.
“Then, when they finally came out of the stall,” Mr. Norton continued, “he ushered both of them here to my office.”
“I am so very sorry for this, Mr. Norton. And I’m so embarrassed. So disappointed.”
“I understand.”
Charlotte looked at Curtina and got angrier by the second. “Apologize to Mr. Norton. Now.”
“I’m sorry.”
Mr. Norton nodded. “Your apology is accepted, but unfortunately, this time that won’t be enough.”
“What do you mean?” Charlotte asked.”
“Mitchell Prep has a public lewdness and public indecency no-tolerance rule, so both students are being expelled.”
Charlotte’s stomach spun so forcibly, she grabbed hold of it. “Expelled?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“And there’s nothing that can be done?”
“No, unfortunately not, and we’ll also need to have her clean out her locker this afternoon. One of our security officers and myself will escort both of you over to it, and we’ll provide a box for you to pack everything in.”
Charlotte tried to find words, but nothing logical came to mind. This whole ordeal was simply outrageous. But then she thought about something. Mitchell Prep was a K–12 institution. So what if the boy she’d been with was a junior or senior? Seventeen or eighteen? Because that would constitute statutory rape.
“Can you tell me how old this boy, Mark, is?”
“He’s thirteen, just a year older than Curtina, so there won’t be any charges filed against either of them. And thankfully, none of the other students had to witness any of this, or we’d have some real trouble on our hands. Some of the other parents would speak out and cause public outrage.”
Charlotte still couldn’t believe her twelve-year-old daughter had been caught having sex. At school. In the middle of the afternoon. In the girls’ bathroom. At Mitchell Prep, one of the most prestigious Christian academies in the region.
“Do you have any questions?” Mr. Norton asked.
“No,” Charlotte said, “I don’t think so.”
“What about you, Curtina?” he asked.
She shook her head no, with more tears streaming down her face.
Mr. Norton stood up. “Well, I’m sorry that this had to happen, but please know that we’ll be wishing you all the very best wherever you end up enrolling. You’re a highly intelligent young lady, so I hope you get things in order. I hope you find your way.”
Charlotte got up and shook his hand. “Thank you for all you’ve tried to do for her here, and again, I’m very sorry.”
Mr. Norton walked toward his door and opened it, but Curtina didn’t move.
“Let’s go,” Charlotte said between gritted teeth. “Get up, so we can go clean out your locker.”
Curtina finally stood and walked out into the administration reception area, but when some woman stormed in front of them in a huff, Charlotte, Curtina, and Mr. Norton stopped in their tracks.
“How dare you manipulate my son like this. I oughta press charges against you and your awful parents.”
“Mrs. Stevens, please,” Mr. Norton said. “If you’d like to come into my office, I would be glad to sit down and talk to you, but right here isn’t the place.”
“When I send my child to school every morning, I expect him to be protected from little heifers like this. My husband and I pay a lot of money for Mark to attend here, and this is the kind of treatment we get? What kind of madhouse are you all running?”
Charlotte pulled her handbag farther up on her shoulder. “Heifer? I know you didn’t just call my daughter out of her name. Because I’m not going to stand for that.”
Mrs. Stevens stepped closer to Charlotte. “Well, if you and your pastor husband were raising her the right way, she wouldn’t be coming on to my son like some grown woman.”
“You know what?” Charlotte said. “If I were you I would pick my son up and leave before you’re sorry. Before my husband and I file a lawsuit against you, your husband, and that mannish little boy of yours.”
“You’re the one who needs to be worried about a lawsuit,” Mrs. Stevens said, and then turned to Mr. Norton. “Now, where is my son?”
“He’s sitting in the vice principal’s office. Just a couple of doors down.”
Mrs. Stevens rolled her eyes at Curtina. “How sad. But it’s not like you’ve had the greatest example of a mother to learn from, anyway, though,” she said, eyeing Charlotte up and down, as though she were the tramp of the century.
Charlotte wanted to tell this woman about herself, but deep down, she knew why the woman had turned this whole Curtina-Mark thing on her, and she was ashamed. As Curtis’s wife, so much of their business—the good, the bad, and the ugly—had been publicized nationwide. So no matter how many years had gone by that she’d been completely faithful to Curtis, it just went to show that most people would never forget her sins. Some would hold them against her for the rest of her life, and she only had herself to blame for that. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if folks would be so cruel and unforgiving if she weren’t the wife of a well-known pastor. Something told her that if she weren’t, things would be a lot different. People wouldn’t pay as close attention to what she was or wasn’t doing, and she would give anything to have that kind of privacy. She would give everything she had to be normal.