The Perfect Mistake✓ (Perfect #1)

Chapter Seven✓

On Sunday, before I go back to work and the boys go back to school, we figured everything out. I would take the puppies with us on our way to the twin's school, and then I would drop them off with Cage. Luckily, the boys didn't get upset when we dropped off Muddy and Buddy today. I was thinking they would because they never want to be separated from them while at home.

Yes, Muddy and Buddy are what the boys decided to name them. I tried talking them into calling the girl Maddy, but they refused. Saying how the names are perfect just the way they are.

I sure wasn't about to argue with seven-year-olds. There isn't even a small chance of winning.

Besides, they’re the twin's puppies. They can call them whatever they want. 

Today is an easy day for me at the bakery. I don't have any orders I need to rush to finish. I will be busier as Christmas approaches, but it's only the last day of November. All I need to do now is make sure the cases are filled with baked goods. Nothing more, nothing less. I have been making a lot more apple turnovers in the morning. I guess those are everyone's favorite at the moment. 

Though I can't say I blame them, they are delicious.

So far today is going really well. It's beautiful out, not too cold at all. It's probably the last nice day we're going to have before it gets cold. The air is starting to get that cold winter bite, and that's usually the first sign.

I grab some strawberries for some strawberry rhubarb pie and start cutting off the stems. 

Honestly, cutting fruit is so relaxing; the whole baking process is. Anytime I was upset and just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, I would bake. Just making new desserts would always calm me down. With me being calm, the boys were usually calmer too. Baking is my escape from my reality. It's like my safe space. It brings me joy to bake, and it brings others joy to eat what I make. It's why I opened my bakery 'Sugar Rush'. Plus, I couldn't spend my entire life working two jobs just to provide for Knox and Kohl. I needed something more that provides more money and more time with my sons. They're growing up and getting older. Soon they won't need me anymore. I just never wanted my kids when they're older, saying I wish I knew my mother better, you know? I wanted to make sure Kohl and Knox knew me and knew that I loved them.

I'm almost finished cutting all the strawberries when my phone rings.

I reach over and pick it up. Worry is the first thing I feel when I see the school calling me. They never call me. I have only ever gotten two calls from them since the boys started school. Both were only because the boys had gotten sick. They were fine this morning, that’s what I know.

"Hello?," I say worriedly once I answer the call.

"Hello, Miss Williams. I'm calling because Knox and Kohl got into a fight at school today with another child," Mrs. James, the school's secretary, says. 

"What? Are they hurt?"

I run a hand through my long chestnut hair and sit down on the nearest chair.

"They're fine, just a bruise or two. The main reason we're calling is because Knox and Kohl are the ones who started the fight." She goes to say something else, but I interrupt her.

"What?! No! I don't believe that. The twins have never been in a fight before. They stop fights anytime there is one. Why would they start one?" I ask, not believing a word she just said.

"Yes, we were quite surprised as well. However, the twins are being suspended for two days. We need you to come to pick them up."

"How did the fight even start?"

"Um... that is something the principal will talk to you about once you get here." Mrs. James tells me, then says goodbye once I agree.

The hand that's holding the phone tightly falls onto my lap. I take a few deep breaths, hoping that will calm me down a bit. 

It does, but not by much.

It isn't like the boys to get into fights. They try to defuse them if anything. If anyone is bullying Sam, or anybody for that matter, they talk to them and get them to stop. Not fight them to get them to stop. 

Realizing I can't sit and ponder over this any longer, I get up and leave the kitchen. Asking the person manning the cashier to tell Quinn, when she gets here, that I had to leave because of a family emergency.

Soon, I'm arriving at the school and heading inside. I spot the boys sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chair in the office waiting area. They look to be fine, thankfully. I start to walk over to them, but a voice stops me before I can.

"Miss Williams." The principal says once he sees me.

They must have notified him that I was here. He makes a hand gesture towards his office and I walk into the office, holding up one finger to Knox and Kohl, the sign to just wait a moment. 

He waits for me to sit down before sitting down himself, then starts to speak.

"As I am sure you've been told, Knox and Kohl got into a fight and they did indeed start it. I'm sure that must come as a shock to you. Trust me, it was for us as well. I sat and talked it out with all three of the kids involved and apparently the other child said something that set your boys off."

"What was said? They don't get upset easily. As I'm sure you know, my boys are always the ones defusing fights, not starting them. I mean, for goodnes’s sake! They see someone getting bullied, and ask the person doing the bullying to stop. While making it seem like it was their idea in the first place!" Clearly, I am not very calm if I'm snapping at an elementary school principal.

"I am well aware of that, Miss Williams. Apparently, what was said to your boys is that you are... um, you are a whore." The principal's cheeks start to tint red after he says that.

What?

Did that seriously just come out of my children's school principal's mouth?

Clearly, I must be mistaken?

But no, that just came out of his mouth.

"Oh... um, why exactly is that coming out of a child's mouth?" I calmly ask him, slightly bewildered.

Out of everything that could be said, that is not what I expected. I seriously have only dated one guy after my one-night stand with Cage.

One guy.

That was three years ago. I never even slept with Noah. He took me out on a few dates. It was fun, but we both realized we were leaning towards the friends side more. So we stopped dating and just talked a bit as good friends. What brought us together is our mutual outcast status in town. People think he's some bad guy just cause he has a bunch of tattoos and wears a leather jacket. He's not a bad guy at all. Just really loves tattoos. Each one is a memory he said and the jacket? His dad gave it to him before he died.

Every person has their reasons for being how they are and how they dress. There isn't anything wrong with that. Yet in our small town there is, if you're not like them, then they don't like you.

"We're not sure we assume it's just something he overheard his parents saying at home." He goes to say more when the door bursts open.

I turn around in my seat and spot someone that hates my guts.

Cage's older sister Lauryn.

Well shit.

This isn't going to go well, not at all.

(Edited - 4/3/23)

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