She shrugs and doesn’t answer. It’s the way Sierra deals with a lot of questions. A habit I can’t complain too much about considering the way I neatly sidestep some of hers.
I’ve already had an appointment at her school to deal with a potential expulsion. Bradley wasn’t kidding when he said they were taking the matter with Steven seriously. Zach’s dad had come with me, which I thought was overkill beforehand, but was grateful for the support by the time I left the principal’s office.
Given Zach insisted he’d threatened but not hurt the boy, they were coming down hard.
“Remember, you’ve got work tonight,” Zach reminds me.
At first I shrug, then my face falls. “You’ll be here, though. That shouldn’t stop Sierra having fun.”
“Two single men supervising a ten-year-old girl and her friends.” He presses his lips together and rolls his eyes. “Don’t mean to tell you your business, but I can’t imagine anyone’s parents are going to be happy with that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sierra says in a dull tone. “We can leave it for another night.”
I can’t tell if she’s bending to accommodate my feelings or if she really doesn’t care.
“I’ll work out my work schedule tonight and we can take it from there.”
As she silently gets ready for school, I miss Finley and Rosa. They’d know what to do to shake her out of this funk or at least be entertaining.
“You know it’s not your fault, any of this,” I remind her for the thousandth time since taking her home. “It’ll take a while to get into a routine, but I promise we’ll sort it out and everything will be much better.”
“Just stop it,” she snaps, blowing her fringe out of her eyes with an annoyed huff. “You don’t have to make everything perfect all the time. It’s just a stupid movie. My friends probably wouldn’t want to come, anyway.”
I immediately want to ask why—is she being picked on, are they unsupportive, do they tease her—but Zach’s hand on my upper arm puts a stop to that.
“Just back off,” he whispers as she storms from the room. “You don’t have to stuff all the years you missed out into the first month.”
“But what if they don’t let her stay?”
“Then we’ll sort something else out,” he says in such a reasonable tone that he sounds nothing like the boy I know. “Even if it comes to the worst and you don’t have full custody, the court can hardly turn around and cut you off a month after deciding you were fit.”
A smile creeps onto my lips. “Says someone who’s unfamiliar with the family court.”
“Honestly,” he says, rolling his eyes. “If they don’t let you keep her, I’ll just get Dad to buy you a new one.”
The terrible joke makes me laugh, even if my worries return a moment later.
Zach drops us at the front of the school, taking out his phone to pass the time while I escort her to the door of her classroom.
“Can I move schools?” Sierra asks as we get close. “I don’t really like this one any longer.”
“Are you sure?” My mind immediately seizes upon the idea, drawing up a shortlist of ones that are far closer, both to the house and McKenzie High.
Not that we’ll be at either by the end of the year.
“What’s wrong with the school? Is Steven still bothering you?”
Her face drops into misery the moment I mention his name, and I stop, crouching lower so I’m level with her eyes. “Has he done something?”
She wipes a hand across her face, tipping it backwards in a gesture I recognise from performing it so often myself. “Hey,” I say, bending close to hide her tears from any passers-by. “We can move to any school you like, but if he’s causing trouble, then you can tell me, and I’ll take care of it for you.”
“I did something dreadful,” she says in such a low voice my ears strain to catch the words. “I think…” Her words dissolve into a flood of tears and a worm of foreboding takes up residence in my gut.
“Whatever you did can’t be all that bad,” I reassure her, pulling her close enough to rub her back. “Just tell me and we’ll sort it out together.”
“Is it…?” She breaks off again and thumps her leg with frustration. I catch her hand to stop her, the fist clenched so tight her knuckles are white and glossy. “Did Bradley get in trouble because of what happened to Steven?”
I hadn’t told her. The case worker had advised against it, and I’d stupidly followed her lead.
