After she’d left Betty’s office, Laura went looking for Cal Maddox. She wanted him to know about the incident between Annabelle and Katie from her before he heard the talk likely floating around school already.
Thankfully she found him in his office between classes. He regarded her with surprise.
“You generally avoid this part of the building,” he commented. “To what do I owe this unexpected visit?”
“There was a problem at the end of my AP English class today. Since it involved Katie, I thought you should know.” She met his gaze. “Or would you rather I call Maddie and Bill? I never know quite what to do in circumstances like this.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened and I’ll help you decide? Please don’t tell me Katie skipped class again.”
Laura shook her head, then described the incident. Though Cal had likely heard far worse in the boys’ locker room, he looked stunned when she reported what Katie had said.
“That’s not like Katie,” he protested. “Maddie would never tolerate language like that.”
“Believe me, I get that. So does Betty. She had to be highly agitated to resort to saying such a thing.”
“You really think there’s an excuse?” he asked, clearly surprised.
She nodded and explained her theory.
Cal listened intently, shaking his head as she described what she’d overheard at the fall festival. “That would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?” he said eventually. “I’ve been teaching for a long time now, and it still astounds me just how cruel kids can be to one another. I always figured boys did the most bullying, but obviously girls can have a mean streak, as well.”
“It’s shocked me, too,” Laura admitted. “And I guess I just never expected it from a girl who’s from a good family with all sorts of advantages. Maybe that’s the problem, though. Annabelle’s gotten away with a lot, and she’s come to feel she’s entitled to behave however she wants.”
“We still don’t have all the facts, though,” Cal reminded her. “This could be more complicated than we know.”
“Oh, I’m sure it is, but with Betty on the case, there’s little doubt we’ll get to the bottom of it. I have to say I’ve never seen her quite so furious or determined.”
“How was Katie when she left Betty’s office? Should I check on her?”
“I think she was mostly relieved that she wasn’t in trouble and proud of herself for defending Misty. Still, it wouldn’t hurt for you or Maddie to have another talk with her after school. Maybe she’ll open up this time, now that she knows it—whatever it is—is all going to come out sooner or later.”
Cal nodded. “We’ll do that. Thanks for filling me in, Laura. And if you need any backup on this, let me know. It makes me sick to think that Misty and Katie have been trying to cope with this on their own, that they haven’t trusted any of us enough to ask for help. I know Katie has a good relationship with her mother, and I thought she and I had a good one. It kills me that she was dealing with this and we didn’t know.”
“Well, they’re not on their own anymore,” Laura assured him. In fact, the team of people on their side was getting stronger by the minute.
* * *
Paula Vreeland knelt in her garden deadheading flowers and snipping dead stalks from the perennials in preparation for winter. Though she had soothing classical music on a nearby radio, the air was frequently laced with muttered curses about the various aches and pains that made doing one of her favorite tasks so uncomfortable.
“Grandma, I didn’t know you even knew words like that,” Katie said as she slipped into the yard through a back gate, an impish grin on her face.
Paula winced. “Just because I say them doesn’t mean you should,” she told her granddaughter sternly. “Now come over here and help me up, then go inside and pour us both huge glasses of lemonade. It’s much hotter out here than I realized.”
Katie helped her to her feet, then gave her a hopeful look. “Are there cookies, too?”
Paula gave her an amused look. “When was the last time I baked anything?”
“Not for a long time, but I know Liz Johnson stops by here on Thursday mornings and she always brings cookies.”
Paula laughed. “So, that’s why I get these surprise visits on Thursday afternoons. I thought it was because you love me.”
Katie embraced her in an exuberant hug. “I do love you,” she said. “More than anything.”
“Good answer, kiddo. Now get the lemonade and cookies—they’re in the jar on the counter like always—while I try to work out some of these kinks from being down on the ground so long.”
When Katie came back outside with their snack, she curled up on the chaise lounge in the sun. “How come you’re not painting this afternoon? Did you finish the picture you were working on last week? Can I see it?”
Paula shook her head. “I painted over the canvas. I wasn’t happy with the way it was going.”
The truth was, none of her paintings pleased her these days. After creating amazingly detailed botanical artwork for so many years, after showings all over the world and landing her art in several very prestigious collections, she seemed to have lost something. It was true her vision wasn’t what it had once been and her hand was less steady, but she thought it was more than that. Whatever it was, it made painting now more torture than passion.
Katie regarded her with shock. “Grandma, it was beautiful. You could have given it to me, if you didn’t like it.”
She smiled at her granddaughter. “Next time I paint something, if you like it, it’s yours.” She studied the usually bouncy teen across from her and thought she detected an unusual hint of worry in her eyes. “Now, tell me what’s going on with you these days. How’s school?”
Katie shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”
Paula frowned. “Something wrong?”
“Not with me. My classes are all good and my grades are okay.”
“Then what’s the problem?” One of her greatest joys over the past few years was having her grandchildren drop in just like this to share their lives with her. She’d been too consumed with her painting to listen half as attentively to Maddie, and their relationship still suffered because of it. Since Maddie and Cal had married, he’d worked to bridge that chasm, and there had been strides for which she’d be eternally grateful to him.
One thing she’d also learned was patience. When Katie didn’t immediately respond, she waited, allowing the silence to linger.
“One of my friends has a problem,” Katie admitted eventually. “I’ve been trying to help her, but I don’t really know what to say. And today things went really crazy. I got hauled into the principal’s office for trying to defend my friend.”
Paula studied her face to try to assess if that was code for saying that Katie herself was the one with the problem. “Tell me,” she said neutrally. “I thought you’d been on your best behavior lately since that suspension earlier this fall. You can’t afford another suspension.”
“I know, but it really wasn’t my fault. I had to say something,” Katie said earnestly. “It was the right thing to do.”
One of the things Paula admired about the way Maddie had raised her children was that each of them had a well-developed sense of right and wrong.
Oh, her grandson Ty had certainly made his share of mistakes, mistakes that had almost cost him the girl he’d loved for most of his life, but he’d recognized in time that he was on the wrong path. Kyle, thank goodness, seemed steady as a rock, choosing his friends with care. Now here was Katie, as sweet as any mother or grandmother could hope for, in trouble for the second time in a few months. It didn’t make a bit of sense.
“Maybe you should let me decide if what you did was called for,” Paula suggested with no hint of censure in her voice. “Tell me about it.”
“There’s this other girl who’s being really mean to my friend. She’s on her case every chance she gets. She’s started some ugly rumors on the internet. There’s gossip all over school, but things get really bad because they’re both in a couple of classes together. My friend won’t even go to those classes anymore.”
“In other words, your friend is being bullied by another girl,” Paula said, incensed on this child’s behalf. “Has your friend reported it to a teacher or to the principal?”
Katie shook her head.
“Isn’t there a zero-tolerance policy at school when it comes to bullying?”
“There’s supposed to be, but it doesn’t always work,” Katie told her.
“What about your friend’s parents? Do they know?”
“She won’t talk to them,” Katie said. “I know she needs to talk to somebody, but she’s afraid if she tells on this other girl, it will just make things worse.” She drew in a deep breath, then added, “And this week it got really, really bad.”
“How bad?”
“Somehow this girl, the bully, made up some pictures that were supposedly of my friend. I don’t know how she even did it, but they were awful.”
Paula stilled. “Pictures?” she echoed, not sure she wanted to know.
“Half-naked pictures,” Katie said indignantly. “But it wasn’t my friend. She would never, ever do anything like that. Anyone could see it wasn’t really her, except for the face, but that didn’t stop the pictures from being shown all over school. My friend didn’t even show up at school today because she was so embarrassed.”
“I’m sure she was,” Paula said gently, understanding the depth of her granddaughter’s distress. “Have you said anything to Cal? He could probably deal with this. I know he’d want to help.”
Katie regarded her with frustration. “He would. He knows something’s wrong, and he even asked me about what’s going on, but she won’t let me tell him anything. Like I said, she’s afraid it will get even uglier.”
Paula thought she understood now. “But she didn’t tell you not to speak to me about it, did she?”
Katie shook her head, looking relieved that Paula got it.
“Want me to speak to Cal or someone else?” she asked, determined to let Katie guide her actions since she’d shown so much faith in her grandmother.
“There’s this teacher, Laura Reed. My friend’s skipping her class and she seems real worried about it. And she defended me today when we went to see Mrs. Donovan. She made sure I didn’t get in real trouble, because she suspects what’s been going on. Maybe you could talk to her,” Katie suggested hopefully. “But not at school. I don’t want my friend to figure out who told.”
Paula nodded. “I’ll be the soul of discretion, I promise. Maybe you’d better tell me who we’re talking about, though. I imagine Ms. Reed is going to want specifics.”
Katie’s expression fell. “I didn’t think about naming names.”
“Sweetie, it’s okay,” Paula assured her. “Between Ms. Reed and me, we’ll handle this very carefully. I don’t think we can fix it, though, without more than you’ve given me so far. And didn’t you just say that she already has a pretty good idea about who’s involved?”
Katie buried her face in her hands. “Misty is so going to kill me,” she murmured just loudly enough for Paula to get the one piece of information she needed.
So, Misty Dawson, who’d stopped by here with Katie from time to time, was the target of the bullying. Paula’s temper stirred. She was such a sweet, gentle girl, dedicated to getting a good education. Paula had never heard a bad word said against her, though there had been talk around town recently about her parents’ marriage being in trouble. Then again, she didn’t spend a lot of time on internet sites where malicious teen gossip was likely to be spread.
She stood up. “Let’s go inside. I want you to show me some of these posts you were talking about.”
Katie turned pale. “I can’t. They’re really ugly.”
“All the more reason for me to see them,” Paula said briskly. “The pictures, too.”
Katie was slow to follow her into her office, but once there she logged on, made a few clicks and then pointed first to the revealing photos and then to a series of posts on a social-networking site. Paula sat down to read them and once again felt her temper stir. “And you’re sure who this teenidol is?”
“A hundred percent,” Katie said, standing behind her to look over her shoulder.
“And there are more posts like this?”
“Lots of them,” Katie confirmed. “I can show you.”
“I think I’ll just print out these for now,” Paula said, tight-lipped with fury. She gazed into her granddaughter’s eyes. “Tell me who’s doing this.”
“Annabelle,” Katie said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Paula couldn’t hide her shock. “Annabelle Litchfield?”
Katie nodded, then asked, “Now do you blame me for yelling at her today?”
“Not a bit,” Paula said, “though it might have been wiser to get me or another adult involved instead.”
“I know that,” Katie said with evident frustration.
“But Misty wouldn’t allow it, even now,” Paula realized. “Why on earth would Annabelle hate Misty enough do something like this to her? What can that child possibly have done to her?”
“Annabelle’s boyfriend, Greg…” She looked to Paula.
“The football captain? Greg Bennett?”
“Uh-huh. He likes Misty. Or maybe he’s just on some kind of power trip because she won’t pay attention to him. Anyway, he keeps asking her out, even though she’s told him no, like, a hundred times. Everybody in school knows about it, because Greg is too dumb to keep his mouth shut about how he wants to get into Misty’s pants.”
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than Katie flushed. “Sorry, Grandma.”
Paula patted her hand. “Not to worry. At least now I understand the root of the problem. Annabelle’s jealous and taking Greg’s disgusting behavior out on Misty.”
“That’s it exactly,” Katie said, then threw her arms around Paula’s shoulders from behind in an awkward hug. “I knew you’d understand. I just knew it. Can you fix it?”
“Believe me, I’ll handle this,” Paula said grimly. Annabelle might be her parents’ little darling and the pride of Serenity because of her beautiful voice, but a bully was a bully. She wasn’t going to be allowed to terrorize Misty another minute if Paula had anything to say about it.
“One more thing,” she said to her granddaughter. “Why hasn’t Misty spoken to her parents? They should know about this.”
“They’re probably getting a divorce, and it’s really, really bad at home right now. Misty doesn’t want them worrying about her. Plus, it’s humiliating, you know? The stuff Annabelle is saying is really nasty. Nobody would want a parent to see that, even if they know it’s not true.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Paula said.
But the truth was, it was more of a reflection on Annabelle Litchfield and her twisted mind than it was on poor Misty. She could understand, though, why a young woman Misty’s age might not be able to make that distinction when she was the victim of such terrible harassment.
* * *
Misty hadn’t left the house all day. She was pretty sure her mom hadn’t even noticed. From everything she’d read online, her mom probably had some kind of depression. She wondered if she ought to call her dad and beg him to do something. Her own efforts to get through to her mom and cheer her up sure hadn’t accomplished anything. Who knew what would happen if her mom heard about those pictures supposedly of Misty that Annabelle had posted on the internet?
Every time the phone rang during the day, Misty froze. She worried at first it could be the school, calling to find out why she wasn’t there. Then she panicked that it might be another parent calling about the awful pictures. It would be just like some stupid kid to leave them on the screen of their computer or to print out copies and leave ’em lying around for anyone to see.
She eavesdropped at the top of the steps, but so far her mom hadn’t even bothered answering the calls. For once, she was glad that her mother was too lethargic to care about who might be calling.
She was just starting to think she’d made it through the day without everything getting any worse when Jake came in from school. Her brother spotted her at the top of the steps and raced up, his face red, one eye bloodied, a scratch on his cheek. He handed her a fistful of pictures. Misty sat down hard, the tears she’d managed to keep at bay all day finally spilling over.
“Is it you?” Jake asked in a voice filled with indignation.
“Are you crazy?” she asked, infuriated that her brother even had to ask.
“That’s what I told the guys at school, but they didn’t believe me.”
“You got in a fight because of me?” she asked. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He gave her a cocky grin. “You should see the other guy.” He sat down beside her. “Who would do this to you?”
“You saw the page, Jake. You know who did it.”
His eyes widened. “Annabelle? Why? What did you ever do to her?”
“She thinks I want her boyfriend,” Misty told him.
“Greg? He’s a jerk!”
Misty smiled for the first time all day. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
“Have Mom and Dad seen these?” he asked.
“No, and I don’t want them to know about any of this. Things are awful enough around here.”
“Maybe they could help, though. I think they’d want to.”
“You’ve seen Mom. She can barely get through the day,” Misty said. “And Dad’s never even here.”
“They’re gonna hear about this,” Jake predicted. “You can’t hide it from ’em. They’ll be on your side.”
Misty wished she was as sure of that as her brother was. “Or they could believe what they see.”
“No way,” Jake said.
“You did,” she reminded him.
“Only for a second,” he conceded. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you even for that long.”
She nudged him in the ribs. “You still fought for me. Thanks for that.”
“Nobody talks about my sister the way the guys at school were talking,” he said with bravado. “I don’t care how many times I get a black eye. I’ll always defend you.”
Touched, Misty hugged him fiercely until he complained.
“Stop!” he pleaded.
“You defend me, you get hugs.”
“Even though my ribs hurt?”
She frowned at him. “How bad did this fight get?”
He gave her an offhand shrug. “Bad enough.”
“Are you in trouble at school?”
“No, I waited till I was off school property before I caught up with them. Smart, huh?”
“I guess we’ll know when we find out how many calls mom and dad get from the kids you beat up.”
He winced. “I never thought of that. Do you think they’ll tell? If it were me, I wouldn’t want my folks to know that some kid beat me up because I was saying lousy stuff about his sister.”
Misty regarded him with surprise. Apparently Jake had both a code of honor and common sense. It gave her a whole new sense of appreciation for a boy she’d mostly thought of as an annoying pest.
* * *
J.C. had worked up a pretty good sweat at the gym. He knew he was trying to sublimate the desire to call Laura. Their date had gone a little too well. Not only had he opened up to her in ways he’d never expected to, but the attraction he felt to her had intensified. He’d resisted the urge to kiss her when he’d dropped her off at her apartment, but just barely. Something told him that once he’d crossed that line, he’d be lost, all of his resolve wiped out in an instant.
Glancing across the gym, he noticed that Cal’s workout seemed a little more intense than usual, as well. Wiping his face with a towel, he crossed the room.
“Everything okay? You look thoroughly ticked off about something.”
“You have no idea,” Cal muttered, putting the weights he’d been lifting back onto the stand. “Do you have some time? I’d like to talk this through with an objective outsider. Something tells me you’d be the perfect person.”
“Sure. I can spare some time,” J.C. said. If it would keep him from going home to an empty house yet again, he could spare a lot of time.
“Let’s grab a couple of drinks in the café and sit out on the deck. I don’t think anyone’s out there. We’ll need some privacy for this.”
In the café Cal grabbed two bottles of water. “You hungry? Want anything else?”
“Water’s good,” J.C. said, accepting one of the bottles.
“Put ’em on my account,” Cal told the young man behind the counter, then led the way outside.
Dusk had already fallen. Though the air felt more like a humid summer day than late fall, there was a faint breeze stirring the oaks that shadowed the deck. There was the scent of some sort of flower in the air, though J.C. had no idea what it might be. It smelled nice—a lot like Laura’s perfume, now that he thought about it.
“What’s up?” he asked when Cal seemed to be lost in thought.
“Just trying to figure out how much of this I can tell you.”
“I’m good at keeping secrets,” J.C. reminded him. “The whole patient-confidentiality thing is great training.”
“Right,” Cal said, looking satisfied. “I know you’ve been worried about Misty Dawson.”
J.C. paused before the bottle of water reached his lips. “I have been.”
“Well, I think it’s about to get really ugly.”
Cal described what he’d been told about an incident at school between Annabelle Litchfield and Cal’s stepdaughter. “I don’t know exactly what set Katie off like that, but it had to be really bad,” Cal said. “She’s a pretty even-tempered kid.”
“And Laura stepped in?” J.C. asked.
Cal nodded. “And apparently knew enough about what’s been going on between Annabelle and Misty to convince Betty not to punish Katie.”
“How about Annabelle?”
“She’s off the hook for the moment.”
J.C. was startled. “How can that be?”
“Annabelle’s mother,” Cal said succinctly. “The principal is not going to mete out punishment to Annabelle until she knows with a hundred percent certainty that Mariah doesn’t have a leg to stand on when she leaps to her daughter’s defense. I can’t blame Betty for that. Mariah’s a terror when she’s on a tear.”
“So I’ve heard. How’d Laura handle all this?”
“I think it shook her up, but she’s steady as a rock. She never once wavered in her belief that Katie was in the right. I have to respect her for that, especially when she knows it’s likely to make her Mariah’s first target.”
J.C. regarded him with real concern. “How bad could this get for her?”
Cal actually chuckled for the first time since the somber conversation had started. “Thought that might be your first worry. It could get bad for a time, but Laura’s tough enough and determined enough to weather whatever happens. And if these suspicions about the bullying are confirmed, the whole town would turn out on Laura’s side if necessary. We had a few incidents over the years, and the entire community has come down hard on the kids involved. Everyone wants to send the message that being bullied is not just an acceptable part of growing up. It’s inexcusable, no matter what form it takes.”
J.C. nodded. “Good to hear, and you’ve just confirmed my impression of Laura. Misty and Katie are lucky to have her in their corner.”
Cal gave him a long look. “How about you? Are you lucky to have her in your life these days?”
J.C. thought about denying that she was in his life, but he doubted Cal—or anyone else in town—would believe him. “Yeah, I’m pretty darn lucky, too.”
And more aware of it by the day.