She started to turn toward the parking lot.
“You’re not staying for the game?”
She shook her head. “No, I think it’s best if I head home, just so there’s no lingering confusion for her. The school cable station is broadcasting the game, so I’ll cheer Ezra on from there.”
“Jess—”
“Go, you idiot!” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “It’s fine. We’re fine. We’ll always be fine.”
“Thank you,” he said.
With a wave and a smile, Jess headed toward her car.
He stood there, watching her as she left, a soft pang in his chest. Back when they first dated, he liked her, but it never blossomed into anything more. He hated the thought that he hurt her. Tonight might be a rough night for her, but he believed her when she said they were fine and always would be.
Looking back over his adult years, he realized that theirs was the first relationship he’d ever called an end to. He and his high school girlfriend had broken up amicably when they went to separate colleges across the country from each other. His wife had filed for the divorce. Without any other experience with breakups, he just hoped he’d been clear and fair. Hopefully, in a few days, everything would be just as it had been for the past couple of years because he’d hate to lose her as a friend.
With a shake of his head, he proceeded to walk back to the stands. While Elyxandre was working wasn’t the time to get into all of this, but if he managed to catch her alone, he’d do what he could to quickly reassure her. When she was off duty, he’d talk with her, making sure she understood that whatever she thought she saw wasn’t the truth. If he could get her to listen, that is. She was a strong woman, and if she wouldn’t listen to him, there was nothing he could do. He didn’t want to make her do anything. He wanted her to listen because she wanted to hear him out—because she cared about what he had to say.
As he approached the gates, he saw several officers heading toward the home sideline as if they were on a mission. One was talking into the radio clipped to his shoulder. Both had stone-faced expressions. Did something happen? An injury? Students misbehaving? Parents fighting? Any and all of those things could happen in the stands on any night, but things had been so tense lately, with so many things going wrong, that he felt like one more thing would shatter what little peace there was.
Whatever was going on was happening on the far side of the sidelines. He pushed himself to move a little faster, intuition telling him that whatever was going on wasn’t good. If he ran, that would draw attention, and then people would switch their focus to him. Best if he tried to appear as normal as possible.
Before he got very far, one of the assistant principals came running up to him. “Lucas, we have a problem.”
“I saw the officers moving quickly. What’s going on?”
“Officer Hookstead is dealing with a very drunk parent, I think. He’s screaming all kinds of obscenities at her, and it’s causing quite a scene. I don’t recognize him, so I’m not sure whose parent he is.”
“Well, the police appear to be on it. Let’s let them do their job and worry about who it is later. Find Raymond.” He was one of the other assistant principals. “They may need to remove the parent from the premises, and they’ll want to do that with as little disruption as possible. One of you take the south end of the field behind the bleachers, the other take the north end.”
“He’s already in position.”
“Excellent. Stay on this end, then. I’ll go see what’s happening.”
His new staff really were doing well. They’d accurately anticipated what needed to be done. More and more, he was finding that they could be trusted to do things that previously had been an issue in their building. Maybe the culture really was shifting since they’d hired from outside to support him as the new principal.
As he got closer to the active situation, he could hear raised voices. The two unknown officers were each holding an arm of an adult male, around sixty years old, very disheveled and extremely belligerent. He wasn’t someone Lucas recognized. A parent of a Riverbend student? While community members came to the games even if they didn’t have children in the school, they were usually regulars and recognizable. Rarely did people come from the neighboring school communities unless they were attached to the visiting team, and no matter who they were, it was concerning that someone in this state would be at the game.
When he got within twenty-five feet, he noticed her hand was resting on the hilt of her stun gun, as if she was prepared to draw and fire at any moment. Had this creep threatened her?
Looking up into the press box where the announcer was sitting, he hit the call button on his radio. “Get the announcements started, please. We need to distract this crowd and get this guy out of here.”
Immediately, the teacher behind the microphone began announcements. Lucas hoped that the homecoming fanfare of team introductions, review of fan etiquette, and then the anthem would be enough to drown out the voices at the field level as well as distract everyone from whatever was going on.
Focused back on the situation in front of him, he noticed Axton had physically put himself in front of Elyxandre, shielding her from the drunk’s reach. He wanted to join the officer in protecting her, but he didn’t want to impede him from doing his job, so he stayed on the periphery. It took several moments for his brain to shut off his worry for her and focus on what was being said.
The man lunged toward Elyxandre again. Despite his age and his out-of-shape physique, he was giving the two police officers holding onto him a difficult time restraining him. Adrenaline and high emotions could often do that.
“Go back to whatever hole you slunk out of, girlie. No one fucking wants you here. You ain’t worth shit!”
Lieutenant Axton spoke up, his demeanor calm but hard. “Mr. Parcell, I’ve given you three warnings. I will not give you a fourth.”
Who was this guy?
The man simply kept raging. He was so upset, his face was red, almost to the point of purple.
“You’re a coward, girl. You were always a coward! Always needed someone to protect you! Back in high school, it was thatmotley assortment of kids you hung around with. None of them were worth a goddamn thing! That boyfriend of yours thought he was all big and bad because he was going into the Navy! Thought he could threaten me. Me! Your father! Thought he could make me stop laying hands on you when you needed to learn your place.”
