The principal and her teacher had explained that she’d gotten into an argument with two girls on the way out of class, which was unlike the Bennie I’d gotten to know. After a few minutes of grilling all three girls, the other two admitted they’d called Bennie a liar for saying that she wasfriends with Nate Becker, had told her that her father wasn’t a real doctor, and that she had an ugly boy’s name because she didn’t have a mother.
Yes, they were all kids, but kids could be assholes. And these two, snickering at Bennie in front of all of us, were brazen assholes—the worst kind.
What upset me the most was hownotupset the teacher and principal were about it, saying, “Kids will be kids.” After a lot of back-and-forth, and a reluctant and insincere apology from the girls, I somehow ended up volunteering as lunch monitor two days a week to keep an eye on Bennie.
Mean girls like that usually had a posse, and if the teacher wasn’t watching or didn’t care to, I would.
A friend had asked me to consult on an assignment with her, but she only needed a couple of hours a day from me that I could do after school.
Watching Bennie mope all the way home infuriated me all over again, but I was afraid that seeing me mad would upset her even more.
“Is Daddy going to be mad at me because I pushed them?” Bennie asked as we rounded the corner toward the house, her gaze stuck to the ground for most of the way.
“No way. He’ll be proud of you for defending yourself.” I stepped in front of her, bending down to meet her gaze.
“Hey,” I said, squeezing her shoulder so she’d look up. “You have an amazing name. Daddy is a real doctor, and Nate adores you. Don’t listen to people like Sienna and Jessica.”
“Yeah, they’re big jerks.”
I agreed, and I wanted to tell her that jerks like Sienna and Jessica were in every school, but I didn’t want to give those two any more airtime in Bennie’s head for today.
I was thankful that this had happened on a Friday to letBennie recover for a couple of days before she saw them again, even if it was a lousy way to start a weekend.
“How about,” I said, tapping my chin, “we order pizza and ice cream, and I let you stay up an extra hour?”
She gasped, her eyes wide as they met mine.
“Can we watch the whole game tonight?”
“We sure can,” I said as I unlocked the door and held it open for her to step inside.
“How can you order ice cream? It might melt by the time it gets here.”
“Well, my friend Bailee told me about a place that delivers ice cream sundaes. They keep them on dry ice until they get here.”
“How is ice dry? Does that make it extra cold?” Her nose crinkled as she peeled off her jacket.
“Yes, it does,” I said, not really knowing for sure.
“Yes!” She pumped her fist in the air. “Thank you, Stella,” she breathed out as she hugged my waist. I’d just suggested breaking every rule, but it wasn’t a school night and she’d had a bad day.
Seeing Bennie’s crumpled-up, tearstained face had upset me too, so I’d be eating my feelings along with her.
“It will be so cool to see you at lunch. I think you scared Ms. Cullen.”
“I did?” My stomach clenched. I had gotten loud enough for the principal to tell me to calm down, but I hadn’t thought I’d been scary.
“She jumped. Like this.” Bennie held her hands up and jerked back.
I’d made her teacher flinch, yelled at the principal, and was about to load her up with cheese and sugar.
I was going down in quite the blaze of glory tonight as a nanny or babysitter or whatever my officialtitle was.
“Go upstairs and change. Maybe we can play a board game or pick out a movie before the game starts at seven if you hustle.”
“Hmm,” she said, her lips twisting. “I’ll think about it.”
I laughed as she stomped up the stairs.
