Her Mom Likes Girls

9

I stared at the irritation on my daughter's face in agony. "Hailey, what is wrong with you?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, Mom."

I rubbed my temples. "Sit down, please."

"Sure." She sat, crossed her legs and began humming. "I've got detention, so—"

"Hailey, why? Why would you do that?"

"Do what, Mom?"

I sat down and stared at her again. "The school doesn't tolerate bullying. I certainly don't tolerate bullying. You are suspended for—"

"What the hell! Really, Mom? It was just a fucking—"

"Hailey!" I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "It is called bullying. It is called disrespect. It is called insubordination."

"It's not bullying if it's true!"

"How do you know anything about Miss Dutton's life? You have no right to humiliate her."

"It was just a joke."

"Okay, Hailey. You're saying it's the truth, now it's a joke. Either way, it doesn't matter. You are suspended and you will apologize. And if you do it again, so help me, I will expel you."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Yes. I would, Hailey. You will go to that damn all girls boarding school in Virginia, if you keep this up."

"Maybe, there, everyone won't be so uptight. I hate you." Hailey got up and slammed my office door on her way out.

"Don't forget you have deten—" I groaned. "Well, that went well."

I grabbed my stack of papers and filled out the incident report. I wished I could just make the situation disappear. But I couldn't do that. It was already out there. And the school had a no tolerance for bullying.

I went to look for Jamie and found her in her classroom alone. "Miss Dutton?" Jamie raised her head. Her glasses were perched nicely on her nose. I smiled at the sight of her.

"Peyton. It's good to see you."

"Yes. I'm not sure if you've heard—"

She pulled her glasses into her hair and smiled goofily at me. "I wish I hadn't, honestly."

"So you did."

"I certainly have. I don't know where your daughter got the idea that I have a crush on you from."

My eyes widened. "Me?"

Jamie paused. "Oh. I assumed she was referring to you. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sorry—I—"

"I don't—I guess you might be right. I wish I'd gotten the chance to ask her." My thoughts lingered off. Was Hailey referring to me? "That's—I couldn't tell you what's in that head of hers. But I wanted to apologize."

Jamie smiled nervously. "Yeah. I don't know. Hailey and I haven't seem eye to eye. I've been trying my best, but—"

"Jamie, it's not you. My daughter seems to have trouble with authority. It's a shame that I haven't taught her better. And I sincerely apologize for her harassment. You don't deserve that."

"Thank you. I hope it won't happen again."

"Jamie, it won't. I promise you. She's suspended for four days. And I'm planning to add a few more punishments to her to-do list. Her tantrums are stopping here. I won't tolerate this."

Jamie looked at me with the softest brown eyes I'd seen in a very long time. She was a very attractive woman. I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed that before.

"I'm sure this will be forgotten by next week," Jamie said.

"I hope so. Please let me know if any students bring it up. It will be handled."

"Thank you, Peyton." Jamie slid her glasses over her eyes.

"Of course."