Page 55 of Want to Know a Secret?

There’s a rap at the passenger side window. It’s a teacher.

“If you’re not dropping off a child,” the teacher says, “you need to park in a different area. This is the drop-off line.”

“I understand that. But my son is very upset and—”

“But this is the drop-off line. We need to keep the line moving. If you’re not getting out—”

“All right! I’ll move!”

I throw the car back into drive. I pull out of the drive-through line and off to the side. My hands are shaking on the steering wheel. The early bell has already rung and we’ve got about five minutes before the late bell rings. I’ll probably have to walk him in and get a tardy slip.

“Bobby,” I say as calmly as I can. “What’s wrong? Why don’t you want to get out of the car?”

Finally, his little face crumples. Tears start to stream down his cheeks. “Everybody hates me!”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Bobby has always been very popular. He’s one of those kids everybody likes. He gets it from his father. “No, they don’t. Why would you say that?

“They think that I pushed Leo. But I didn’t!”

“Oh, Bobby…” I’m not sure entirely what to say. People always say “little kids, little problems” but this is a big problem. I don’t know what kind of advice to give him when I’m not dealing with it any better than he is. “Listen, the other kids will forget all about it. I promise.”

I end up going in the backseat and the two of us talk for another ten minutes. Part of me wonders if I should just take Bobby home for the day. On the other hand, why should he have to stay home? Bobby did nothing wrong. Owen is the one behind everything.

I finally manage to persuade Bobby to go to school, and I have to walk him inside and he gets a tardy slip. His first tardy in over two years of school.

After sending Bobby off to his classroom, I’m about to leave for home, but then I see Julie Bressler coming out of the nurse’s office. My first instinct is to cover my face and make a run for it. But of course, she sees me.

“April,” she says. I take it as a positive she didn’t ignore me.

“Hi, Julie.” I force a smile, which is the hardest thing I’ve had to do yet today. “How are you?”

She ignores my question. “I need to speak to you.”

“Um…” I shift in my flats. “Okay... when?”

“Now, if possible.”

“Um, okay…”

I get a sick feeling in my stomach. Is she going to serve me with a lawsuit? How does that even work? Or maybe she believes me about Owen, and she’s asking for my forgiveness.

No, not likely.

Whatever it is, I’m not sure I want to hear about it.

_____

My legs feel like jello as I follow Julie to her office on the first floor. It’s not really an office. It’s just a spare room that they let the president of the PTA use for work, but she likes to call it her office, and I’m not going to argue with her. Sometimes I do think Julie ought to go back to practicing law.

The office consists of a small conference table, and Julie sits on one side of the table. She gestures at a chair on the other side. “Sit down,” she says.

“No ‘please’?”

My attempt at humor is met with silence. I slide into the chair, not a moment too soon because I feel like I can barely stand up. I’m getting upset over nothing though. Julie isn’t serving me with a lawsuit—that doesn’t make sense. She probably just wants my help with something for the PTA.

Julie leans forward in her seat and folds her hands together. The purple circles she had under her eyes yesterday are gone. She has the best makeup. “I want to talk to you about the silent auction.”

My shoulders sag in relief. I knew it had to be PTA related. And the auction went amazing. She probably wants to start planning for the spring. “Yes?”