“He’s not hurt. From what I can tell it was just an argument, but Jack is pretty upset.” She frowned as she nodded her head into the hallway.
“Jack doesn’t ‘scuffle,’ Joan. You know that. I’d like to know what happened.” I marched behind her to the principal’s office.
Jack and Aidan sat on opposite ends of the bench outside the office. My son’s face was red and swollen from tears while Aidan uttered a bored sigh. He’d had a miserable and condescending attitude since he was a preschooler. This was the first time he’d been in Jack’s class and made my son the target of his torment. I balled my hands into fists, willing myself to calm down enough to speak.
“Jack? Hey, sweetie. Are you okay?” I brushed the hair off his forehead until his piercing blue eyes met mine. He sucked in his bottom lip, but tears still fell from his cheeks.
“You probably shouldn’t baby him, Ellie. It may be part of his problem.” Susan Warner rose from her seat next to her son.
“My son is a bright, sweet boy who hasneversat on that bench before.”
I was certain Jack wasn’t the reason they were waiting for the principal. If only I could say it washerson who had a problem, but as I worked and taught here, I had to bite my tongue. The professional educator in me had to keep the pissed off mother in check.
“Jack is a baby,” Aidan whined. “He can’t even hit a baseball at recess. He’s a doof nugget. Just like Dylan and all his baby friends.” Aidan pushed into Jack’s side, making my son’s nostril’s flare.
“That’s not a nice thing to say to a fellow Scout, is it?” A familiar deep voice noted from behind me. “We all have different strengths, and pointing out someone’s weakness isn’t really a nice thing to do. If you can’t treat others with respect, you can’t stay—”
“Oh, he will, Nick.” Susan fluttered over to Nick and dropped her hand on his arm. “Just a little argument is all.” She shrugged as she tried to burrow herself to Nick’s side. She turned to pout at her son. “Right, Aidan? Now say you’re sorry like I asked you to.”
I scoffed and dropped my head into my hands, pinching the bridge of my nose. Whereas I was a stagnant, in perpetual mourning widow, Susan was a downright shameless, opportunistic one. She had no conflict over moving on. I doubted Nick could kick Aidan out for being a jerk, but I hoped the threat was enough to pressure his mother to keep him somewhat in line. God forbid she didn’t have access to the hot den leader leading our boys. The woman made me sick to my stomach.
Aidan mumbled a barely audible ‘sorry’ and they were on their way out the door before the principal had time to see them.
“Come on, Jack. We can talk on the way back to my classroom.” He rose from the bench and buried his head into my hip.
I shook my head at Nick as he regarded us with a sad smile.
“What are you doing at school on a Friday?” I asked Nick while I rubbed Jack’s back. Maybe I did baby him, but I was at a loss at how to bring him out of his shell and toughen him up. Evan was around as much as he could, but he had a child and pregnant wife of his own. It was Jack and me against the world, and right now it was world, one; Jack and Jack’s mom, zero.
“Picking up the permission slips for indoor rock climbing.” Nick waved a stack of papers before crouching in front of Jack. “Don’t be upset, buddy. My nephewhatessports. He found Scouts and loved it, and I think you will, too.” Nick put his hand on Jack’s shoulder, and he nodded as he met Jack’s gaze.
“Thanks, Nick,” I whispered. We turned to walk back down the hallway when he grabbed my arm.
“We’re having a Scouts carnival next week. The school is letting us have the gym, and I could use some help setting up. Think you guys would like to help me?” Nick moved closer and lowered the tone of his voice. “A lot of the Scouts are helping me set up. It’s a good way for Jack to interact with the other kids.”
Jack needed to be around other kids. I pushed aside any intrusive thought in my head that Nick may be asking us becausehewanted to be aroundme. During the few Scout meetings we had so far, I'd noticed him linger around our table more than the others. As he lectured the kids, his eyes landed on me quite a bit, as they had at our first encounter. If that was true or how I felt about it, Jack needed this. I’d go and set Nick straight if I had to.
“What would we have to do?”
“Jack and the other guys would decorate, and the parents help me set up. We could really use some extra hands at the event, too.”
A slow smile spread across my lips. “Sure. We’d love to. Right, Jack?”
Jack nodded as he focused on Nick. I had the feeling that in the past five minutes, Nick went from a cool guy to his hero.
“Awesome.” I was rewarded with Nick’s megawatt smile and pucker of a dimple. Our eyes locked for a long minute, but I broke the contact. “Set up starts Thursday night, and the carnival is Friday. We’ll talk more about it at Scouts on Tuesday. Thanks, guys.”
“No, thankyou.” A grateful smile slanted my lips. Nick nodded and strode away.
Jack and I walked back to my classroom in silence. I hoped a night of decorating with kids would ease my son’s troubled mind, even if nothing could soothe my own. Jack was getting older, and I was at more of a loss as to what to do. Maybe his father wouldn’t have had all the answers, but moments like these were when I hated his absence the most.
“WOW, JACK. LOOKat all this stuff. Doesn’t even look like we’re in the gym, right?”
I led my son by the hand into the school gym—or yanked as the case was. His crystal blue eyes scanned the gym, wide with hesitant trepidation. Thanks to Aidan getting into his head, my son spent most of this week to himself. Joan informed me neither he nor Dylan barely made a peep in class since Friday, which was unlike either of them. I hoped whatever Nick needed us to do took my son’s mind off things, even if for only a few hours.
“Hey, guys. Just in time.” Nick marched over to us and squeezed Jack’s shoulder. “I'm glad you're here. I really need your help. Think you could hang the streamers with the guys?” Nick crouched in front of Jack and motioned to a couple of the Tiger Scouts twisting the crinkled crepe paper with the help of some of the older kids. It was lopsided and messy, but the boys laughed and giggled as they went along with their task, which I guessed was the point.
He craned his head to me, and I nodded. “Go on,” I whispered as I nudged his back. It was probably all kinds of wrong to want to punch the boy that made my son so tentative to play with other kids.
