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‘Oh.’ Cassie picked up some more pipe cleaners and twirled them again. After a minute or two she said, ‘Why are you being nice to me? All I ever do is get into trouble.’
‘Cassie.’ Sophie stopped what she was doing and turned to face Cassie, making eye contact before she continued. ‘It’s OK to be angry sometimes. It’s all right if sometimes you have arguments, if you get sad or upset, or even if you make mistakes. We all do it. It’s how people deal with their emotions. And we learn from everything that happens to us, every decision we make. Nobody’s upset with you for not always doing the right thing. We just want to know why and make sure that you’re OK,’ she explained.
Cassie blinked back her tears. ‘These are pretty,’ she said, holding one of the candy canes up to admire it.
‘You’ve done a great job!’ Sophie said, accepting that Cassie had listened but wanted to move on. ‘Would you like to take one home for your tree?’
Cassie shook her head. ‘No, thank you.’
‘Are you sure?’ Sophie raised her eyebrows.
‘We don’t put a tree up any more.’
‘You don’t?’ Sophie put down the candy cane. She could barely disguise the surprise in her voice.
‘No, not since Mum died.’
Sophie’s heart broke for Cassie. Her mother had died, and she’d been denied the one time of year where magic happens, where everything could seem like it was all right. She felt a wave of anger directed at Liam, but it subsided as quickly as it had arrived. There was no way Sophie could ever comprehend how or why someone might act like that under the circumstances.
‘That’s a shame,’ Sophie said. She felt desperately sad inside but didn’t want to let Cassie see her judgement. If that’s what Liam needed to do to cope with what had happened, then who was she to say otherwise?
‘I can’t remember before Mum died,’ Cassie said. ‘Not really. So, I’m not missing out on anything. Lily was mean about the Christmas tree thing too,’ she added.
‘I’ll speak to Lily later today,’ Sophie promised. ‘You did the right thing to walk away and find the friendship bench.’
Cassie smiled and continued to bend over her candy cane. Her tongue poked out of her mouth as she concentrated.
‘You know I’m meeting your dad after school, don’t you?’
Cassie nodded.
‘I’d like to talk to him about some of the things you said today. Is that OK?’
‘Yes, that’s OK.’
‘Will you bring him into the classroom at the end of the day?’
Cassie nodded.
The bell went and the sound of cold, damp children coming in from the playground made Sophie spring into action.
‘Why don’t you take a candy cane anyway and you can hang it from a door handle or something?’ Sophie suggested.
Cassie looked pleased and placed one in her coat pocket.
‘Now go and pop your coat on the peg and we can start this afternoon’s lesson.’
Cassie did as she was asked, just as the hordes came tumbling in through the door, ready for geography.
The afternoon rushed past, despite the children being slightly giddy at the prospect of snow and slightly irritable because of their clothes and hair being wet through. Sophie was pretty sure that they’d learnt something about precipitation, even if it was just through their lunchtime experience of it.
At the end of the day, she went out to the playground as she always did. Across the way, Kate was saying goodbye to her own class. She made a T shape with her hand and Sophie replied by holding up her entire hand to show she’d be five minutes. Kate raised an eyebrow and gave a knowing nod as Cassie led Liam by the hand over to Sophie.
‘Hello again, Miss Lawson,’ he said.
She liked that he kept it professional where his daughter was concerned. She had to admit, it sent a wave of something through her body when he addressed her so formally.
‘Are we still OK to have a chat now?’ he asked.
