“Harper kicked a boy,” the dry tone now familiar from the phone call said as a matronly looking middle-aged woman marched into the room through a door in the back. “In the knee.”
Del unconsciously unclenched. At least it hadn’t been the balls. Then again she knew better than that.
“We’re a zero tolerance for violence school, Mr. Abbot,” Miss Lewis continued as she sat heavily behind her desk.
“All right. Well, what did the boy do to deserve the kick?” he asked, looking from Miss Lewis to Emily—who was doing a weird expression—and back.
“What did the—Mr. Abbot, violence is neverthe answer!” Miss Lewis looked aghast.
“He called Harper a racial slur, and then he said that her brother was a sexuality-related slur as were you, Mr. Abbot,” Emily said in a tone that must’ve been her official work voice.
“Oh, I see.” Del nodded slowly. “So where’s this boy and his parents?”
Emily’s lips twitched.
Miss Lewis looked confused as hell. “Why would—”
Del imagined that she’d expected the social worker to side with her against the terrible O’Dwyer kid. He imagined that’s how things like this would have played out every other time. Well, not today.
“Or does the school have a policy against violence but not against racism and harassment?” Before she could say anything, Del continued, “Why am I here? Since you seem to be incompetent in battling racism and homophobia and Harper has done it for you, I don’t understand why you need a parent here, especially when Emily has so kindly stopped by already.”
Miss Lewis couldn’t have looked more like a pissed off porcupine if she’d tried. “You are not—”
“How about we don’t scare the children,” Emily cut her off smoothly, before she could say that Del wasn’t the kids’ parent. “I’m going suggest that for the time being, since Principal Clark isn’t available, Del takes Harper home for the day and she returns to school on Monday. And while you make sure Principal Clark is caught up with this situation, you make sure that he knows how dissatisfied Mr. Abbot, Mr. O’Dwyer, and myself all are with the school’s lack of proper guidelines on how to act when a student encounters racism and homophobia?”
Del was pretty sure Miss Lewis was going to actually blow up. Instead, she nodded tightly. “I suppose that is acceptable.” Then she looked at Harper who was still sitting on her bench. “You are free to go, Harper.”
Harper slid off her seat and gathered her backpack—which she somehow already had packed, which made Del feel pissed off—and came to him and Emily. “Can we go home now?” she asked quietly, and Del squeezed her shoulder gently.
“Yeah. But first, what do we say about hitting?” he asked, loud enough for Miss Lewis to hear.
Harper huffed. “Never to hit first, and only hit if you’re hit or someone is being a racist asshat.”
Emily made a startled, muffled-behind-her-hand sound, and Del chuckled.
“Racist meanie, Harper,” he corrected, then he glanced at Miss Lewis before turning his gaze back to Harper. “Or otherwise being an asshat and not quitting when you tell them nicely. Twice.”
Harper grinned at him. He gestured for her and Emily to go ahead. “Ladies first.”
They made their way out of the school and into the parking lot. There, Emily looked at Del pointedly, so he took the kids to the car first.
“Can you buckle the little ones in, Harper? I have to speak with Emily for a bit.”
“Uh-huh.” Harper got to work, able to maneuver the buckles much easier than Del with his larger hands. He wasn’t sure who those things were made for, but certainly not grown ass men.
He moved to where Emily waited for him nearby next to an older model SUV.
“So, why Monday?” he asked, because it was only Thursday now.
“Because that’s their usual suspension schedule for violence. Well, at this level at least,” she explained, frowning.
“Are they really that fucked up that they don’t interfere with racism?” He leaned to the side of her car and frowned, too.
“The principal does, but Miss Twat—I mean Lewis, she’s a racist, homophobic…what was it? Asshat?” Emily chuckled a little tiredly.
Del grinned. “That she seemed to be. It was oozing out of her.”
“Besides, the boy is a council member’s son, so…” Emily looked mildly disgusted at that
“Ah…Well, thanks for calling me like Harper asked. Justin needs that job and with him having the last name he does…”
“Yeah, it’s such a shame that he has to bear the burden of the family name for sure.” She sighed and glanced at Del’s car with the back door still open, but the kids settled down already. “You’re good for them.”
Del winced. “I…I don’t know, Em,” he used the old nickname without thinking. “It’s…They’re lovely, of course they are. I love them. But Justin…”
“He’s head over heels gone on you, Del. You should see when he talks about you. Tries to hide it, obviously, but…”
Del sighed. It wasn’t like he didn’t know. The time they managed to spend together was precious to Del.