Page 34 of Know Your Place

“The fuck do my daughter keep getting sent to your funky ass office? I don’t see any other snotty-nosed kid up in here anytime I’m here. Kinda shit y’all playin’ at?” Icelynn barked.

As soon as she saw her mother, Scottlynn ran for her. Our daughter was a mommy’s girl through and through, but we still had a strong bond too. She might gravitate toward her mama more, but that little girl was my mini me through and through. It made me so proud when a year ago, she asked to get her hair loc’d up just like mine. She looked like me too. And if people thought Icelynn and I bickered a lot, boy, they hadn’t seen me and Scottlynn go at it. Since she was able to talk, we bickered like siblings instead of father and daughter. But my baby knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. She could get any and everything up out of me.

“Now, Mrs. Slater⁠—”

“Don’t Mrs. Slater my wife. You better listen when she’s talkin’,” I snapped.

“Like I was saying, . . . why do she be the only mothafucka in here?”

The principal stayed silent, and I eyed him viciously. He finally spoke up, his tone timid. “Can I speak now?”

“You ain’t hear my wife ask you a damn question?”

The principal sighed like we were inconveniencing him. My jaw clenched.

“Scottlynn was bullying another kid,” the principal finally said.

“Couldn’t be that. Scotty doesn’t bully. Ain’t that right, baby?” Icelynn asked as she rubbed her hand over our daughter’s curly hair. Scottlyn looked up at Icelynn innocently and nodded with big brown eyes. She melted my damn heart. “See? You’re mistaken. Maybe the other kid is just a bitch.”

The principal sputtered. “You . . . you can’t call a kid that.”

“Why not?” Icelynn asked, and then her eyes narrowed. “Nah. You know what I think? I think you’re the bitch. We pay good-ass money to send our daughter to this fuck-ass school. Aren’t we funding that new funky-ass gym y’all are building?” The principal nodded meekly. “Yeah, that’s right.” Icelynn slammed her hand down on his desk. “Not anymore, nigga! And as of today, Scotty no longer goes here.”

Icelynn grabbed Scottlynn’s hand and walked past me and out the door. I shook my head at the principal in disgust. “My daughter a bully? Nigga, is you insane?”

I muttered to myself all the way to the car. Once we were all inside, I looked in the rearview mirror at Scottlynn. It was only eleven in the morning. Shorty didn’t even make it a full day. That was okay, though. More time for us to spend together as a family. “You want ice cream, princess?”

Her little smile made my entire life worth it.

“Yes, please.”

She was so polite. I couldn’t understand where they got off saying my daughter bullied anyone.

I pulled out of my parking spot as Icelynn spoke. “What happened at school today, baby?”

I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Scottlynn’s eyes grow wide. “Jimmy kept picking on me, so I kicked him in the knee.”

“As you should have.” The thought of any little boy picking on my daughter pissed me off. I would have kicked him in his knee too.

“And then Doris told me my shoes were ugly, so I pinched her eyebrow.”

“Kinda name is Doris?” I asked.

“Her eyebrow, baby? Really?”

Scottlynn nodded. “I wanted to pull the hairs out so she didn’t have any eyebrows anymore.”

Icelynn shrugged. “Anything else?”

“Brandom got the last juice box, so I punched him in the back of the head.”

I snorted, and Icelynn shook her head.

“Okay, maybe that one was bullying,” I said.

Icelynn nodded and turned in her seat. “Baby, what do we always tell you? You can’t hit someone unprovoked.”

“But it was voked, Mommy,” Scottlynn argued.