Chapter 168
Chapter 168: Little Lawyer
Moana
“You know…” E frowned and folded her arms, puffing out her chest confidently before I could say
anything. After those little girls nastily called her a half-blood and shoved her, I had expected E to
come to me crying and that I would have to send them to the headmistress’s office, and all on my first
day of teaching. But instead, E stood up straight and took on a confident air that I hadn’t expected
from her.
“Buzz off,” one of the other little girls said, waving her hand dismissively. “We don’t bother with half-
bloods. You smell.” She pinched her nose, causing the other girls in her group to giggle.
“You’re really mean!” E replied. “Why do you have to say things like that? Didn’t your parents ever
teach you to treat everyone equally and with respect?”
The little girls giggled nastily at E’sment. Even though E was confident, I was well aware of
how school bullies functioned, and I knew that she wouldn’t get through to them. I would have to speak
to their teacher or even their parents, and that would be the only way to stop the bullying. Even then,
many kids continued to be bullies regardless of the repercussions. It was sad that E had to realize
this on her first day of school, but it was the truth.
“E,” I said finally, stepping in. “Take your seat. I’ll handle this.”
However, E just ignored me and kept reprimanding them with even more vigor.
“You should learn to treat everyone nicely,” E growled. “If you were half human too, or even a whole
human, you wouldn’t like it if anyone else said mean things to you. My daddy always says to treat
everyone else how you want to be treated!”
The gaggle of nasty little girls went silent. I was shocked by E’s impressive public speaking abilities;
she seemed to have gotten it from her father, I thought to myself. The mean girls’ apparent leader, the
redhead with the pointed face, scowled deeply and seemed as though she couldn’te up with
anything nasty to say as a retort.
It also seemed as though the other children noticed the argument, and had now gathered around and
were beginning to cheer E on.
“Reba, you’re a meanie!” one little girl said — I recognized her as the timid blonde girl from that
morning.
“Yeah!” another girl, the one who introduced herself as Stacie earlier, said loudly. “You’re always
bullying everyone! You’re just a big meanie because your mom—”
“Alright, alright,” I said, deciding to intervene before things got any worse and more insults got thrown
around. “Let’s all settle down.” I then looked down at the mean girls, who were still sitting on the floor
but whose faces were all beet red by now, and I frowned. “I won’t send you to the headmistress this
time, but I won’t tolerate bullying in my ss. If I see you three bullying anyone again, whether it’s in
ss or outside of ss, you’ll be marching down to the headmistress’s office right away. Understand?”
The three nasty little girls nodded, clearly regretting their actions. I ordered them to sit at desks and
revoked their privilege to sit on the cushions for that day, and instead let E and her friends sit there.
E grinned widely as she sat down.
“Thanks, mom,” she said to me.
My eyes widened. There was a chorus of gasps across the room. One of the kids who was sitting with
E jumped up and eximed, “E, the new art teacher is your mom?”
E nodded vigorously before I could say anything — not that I would have been able to correct her
anyway, considering the fact that Edrick had told the news that I was her mother, but it was still strange
to hear her refer to me as anything other than my first name. Not only that, but I quickly became
worried that the other kids would like her less if they knew that I was her “mom”. Maybe they would see
her as even more of an outsider, and would use me of favoritism.
“Yep,” E said, grinning. “She’s the best mom ever.”
Everyone was shocked. I felt a teare to my eye as I saw E smiling up at me, but I quickly blinked
it away. A hush fell over the room for a few moments, before one of the other girls spoke up.
“I wish my mom was a teacher,” the little girl said. “But she works at an office. My dad says that she’s a
‘pencil pusher’. I don’t know what that means, though.”
I stifled augh, and finally decided to cut the discussion short and begin my lesson after that.
We spent the remainder of ss ying fun games so the children could getfortable with me, and
then ended the ss with a coloring session. I actually got along well with all of the kids, and even the
nasty girls seemed to have settled down their bad behavior. Soon enough, the half hour of the ss
flew by and the childrens’ teacher came to take them back to their ssroom. E and all of the other
kids waved at me as they left, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face after that.
That day, after E’s little speech and the way that she exposed our “rtionship”, I noticed that no one
seemed to be bothering her. I ran into E a few more times that day during lunchtime and recess, and
she didn’t seem to be having any more trouble with anyone. In fact, it seemed as though E had even
made quite a few more friends by the time we walked out of the school together that afternoon.
Everyone must have wanted to be friends with the cool new girl who stood up to the bully and whose
mom was the art teacher. As I took her little hand and led her out of the school, I couldn’t stop smiling;
although I couldn’t tell if my smile was from E’s sess on her first day of school, or if it was from
her calling me “mom”. Maybe it was both.
Either way, as E skipped happily next to me and Edrick’s tall frame came into view in the golden light
of thete afternoon sun, I felt happier than ever.
Edrick was waiting for us at the parent drop-off point as we approached, and when E saw him, she
let go of my hand and raced up to him. He scooped her up and kissed her cheek, but as I got closer I
saw that he looked a little worried.
“Well?” he asked. “How was your first day?”
“It was amazing!” E eximed. “I made lots of friends, and I learned all about sy…. Syl…”
“Sybles?” Edrick asked.
E nodded excitedly. “Yeah, those! And there were these mean girls, but I stood up to them…”
As we began to walk home, E continued to chatter nonstop about her exciting first day of school. She
told Edrick all about how she stood up to the nasty girls in art ss, and how she made more friends at
recess, and how she couldn’t wait for her second day of school. Slowly, as she talked, Edrick’s look of
worry turned into a warm smile.
And as he carried her on his shoulders, I felt his hand reach out and slip into mine.Belonging ? N?velDram/a.Org.