Point of Retreat

Kel and yourself, but I wasn’t able to get in touch with his sister.”
     
    “We’re aware of what happened,” I say. “Layken misplaced her phone. Do I need to let her know to contact you?”
     
    “No, that isn’t why I want to talk to you,” she says. “I just wanted to be sure both of you were aware of last week’s incident first, and that it was handled appropriately.”
     
    “It was. We took care of it,” I say. I don’t know what she means by ‘handled appropriately,’ but I doubt she expects that their punishment was laughing about it at the dinner table. Oh, well.
     
    “I wanted to talk to you about a different matter. There’s a new student here, she seems to have taken to Kel and Caulder. Kiersten?” She waits on me to acknowledge that I know who she’s referring to. I nod. “There was an incident today that involved her and a few of the other students,” she says.
     
    I stop walking and turn toward her, suddenly becoming more vested in our conversation. If it has anything to do with how the three kids acted at the dinner table the other night, I want to know about it.
     
    “She’s being picked on. Some of the other students find her personality doesn’t mesh well with their own, I guess. Kel and Caulder found out about a couple of the older boys saying some things to her, so they decided to take matters into their own hands.” She pauses and glances back at Kel and Caulder, who are still seated in the same positions.
     
    “What’d they do?” I ask nervously.
     
    “It’s not what they did, really. It’s what they said….in a note.” She takes a piece of paper out of her pocket and hands it to me.
     
    I unfold it and look at it. My mouth gapes open. It’s a picture of a bloody knife with the words “ You will die, asswipe !” written across the top of it.
     
    “Kel and Caulder wrote this?” I ask, embarrassed.
     
    She nods. “They’ve already admitted to it. I understand you’re a teacher, so you know the significance of these kinds of threats on campus. It can’t be taken lightly, Will. I hope you understand. They’ll be suspended for the rest of the week.”
     
    “Suspended? For an entire week? But they were defending someone who was being bullied.”
     
    “I understand that-and those boys have been punished as well. But I can’t condone bad behavior in the defense of more bad behavior.”
     
    I understand where she’s coming from. I look down at the note again and sigh. “I’ll let Lake know. Is there anything else? They’re free to come back on Monday?”
     
    She nods. I tell her thank you and walk back to the car and climb inside. The boys both climb into the backseat and we drive home in silence. I’m too pissed at them to say anything right now. Or at least I think I’m pissed. I’m supposed to be, right?
     
    ***
     
    Lake is seated at the bar when I walk through her front door. Kel and Caulder walk in behind me and I sternly instruct them to take a seat. Lake shoots me a confused look when I walk through the living room and motion for her to follow me to her bedroom. I shut the door behind us for privacy and explain everything that happened, showing her the note.
     
    She stares at it for a while, then covers her mouth and tries to hide her laugh. She thinks it’s funny. I feel relieved, because this was my initial reaction, too. When we make eye contact, we both start laughing.
     
    “I know, Lake! From a sibling standpoint it’s really funny,” I say. “But what are we supposed to do from a parent standpoint?”
     
    She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I’m sort of proud of them for taking up for Kiersten." She sits down on her bed and throws the note aside. “Poor Kiersten, though.”
     
    I sit down on the bed beside her. “Well, we have to act mad. They really can’t do crap like this.”
     
    Lake nods in agreement. “What do you think their punishment should be?”
     
    I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know. Being suspended seems kind of like a reward . What kid wouldn’t want to get a week off school?” We both think for a while. Neither of us comes up with any good punishments.
     
    “I guess it’s a good thing we have different schedules this semester,” she says. “That way, every time they get suspended, at least one of us will be home.”
     
    I smile at her…and hope she’s wrong. This better be their first and last suspension. Lake doesn’t know it, but she’s made things with Caulder so