“Hey, Emmett.”
Adam eased himself down to sit on the steps with the boy. It was lunchtime, and Adam had been watching over the kids playing outside when he spotted Emmett sitting by himself.
“Did you get lunch?” he asked.
Emmett nodded and pointed to his lunch box.
“Anything good?”
Emmett shrugged.
“You don’t feel like playing with the other kids?”
Another shrug.
Adam sighed. “Look, kid. Believe it or not, I’m trying to help here, but you have to give me something.”
Silence.
“Everything okay at home? Problems with your mum? Your sister?” Fabulous. Now he felt like he was pumping the kid for information. Probably because he was, but he did also care about the kid.
“Don’t have a mum.” Emmett wrapped his arms around his knees.
Adam paused. “So, the woman who collected you yesterday…?”
“Aunt Hope.” Emmett picked at a bit of loose paint on the railings. “She looks after us now. Me, Bella, and Liv.”
Things started to fall into place.
“When did you lose your mum?” he asked gently.
“Summer.”
Ah, poor kid. It hadn’t even been a year. Now he was in a new school and adjusting to a new family. No wonder he was quiet.
“I’m sorry, Emmett,” he said. “That sucks, and nobody should have to deal with that. Especially not at your age.”
Emmett remained silent.
“I know nothing can make it better, but you’ll be okay here.” Adam looked out at the other kids. “The others are all shifters, too. And they’re nice kids. If you give them a chance, they’ll be your friends.”
Emmett shrugged. “No point. We never stay long enough anyway.”
“You’re not staying?” A weight dropped into Adam’s stomach. Surely his mate wasn’t going to leave?
“Aunt Hope says we’re staying,” Emmett said. “But Mum always said that too… and then we’d move again. We’ll see.”
Ah. Sounded like the kid had trust issues.
“Well, I hope you do stay,” Adam told him. “Because this is a great school in an awesome town. Just try to give it a chance.”
Emmett blinked up at him but didn’t answer.
Adam lumbered to his feet. “Think about it.”
He watched the other kids playing, scattered into little groups in different parts of the playground. Hopefully, Emmett would be out there soon.
In the meantime, his thoughts returned to Emmett’s aunt. It changed nothing. She was essentially their mother, and they came as a package deal. Which was fine. Oddly enough, Adam was actually looking forward to it.
He was especially anticipating the end of the school day when he’d get to see Hope again.
***
Hope took a deep breath. Then another. And another.
No. It wasn’t working, and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. Slowly, she forced her fingers to release the steering wheel and unclenched her teeth. She let her head fall back to thunk off the headrest.
Yeah, she was stalling.
Sooner or later, she was going to have to leave the safety of the car and go into the school. Any moment now…
Nope. She was staying right here.
Another deep breath. Still not helping, and all the extra oxygen was making her lightheaded.
“Okay, you can do this,” she reminded herself. Even Hope noticed the doubt in her voice. Dammit.
She glanced at her watch, noting that she’d now been sitting here for seven minutes.
“Just get out of the car and walk inside.”
She ignored herself. Shit.
Within her mind, her inner reindeer prodded her, wanting her to deal with this crisis and then go hunt down her mate.
Her mate that she’d happily go chat to if only she’d been going to pick up Bella and Emmett like she’d planned. But no. Olivia had decided to play up today, and Hope had been summoned to deal with her. At a completely different school from the one she wanted to be outside right now.
Her reindeer flounced off in a sulk, and Hope didn’t even blame it. She was in the mood for a good flounce herself. Except that would hardly be helpful when dealing with a surly teenager. Yet again, somebody had to be the adult here, and as much as Hope wished she could call Auntie Joy, Hope had been the one to take on the girls, so this was her responsibility. Besides, Auntie Joy was already on her way to pick up Emmett and Bella.
She took off her seatbelt. See? Progress.
Grabbing her bag, she opened the car door and got out. She shivered a little and pulled her scarf tighter as she walked toward the building. Once inside, she got directions from a woman in the reception area and then made her way to the head teacher’s office. Olivia was sitting outside, scowling down at her phone.
“Two days, Liv.” Hope fought to unclench her teeth. “Two days and you’re already causing trouble.”
Olivia merely grunted. As usual.
“Ms Phillips.”
Hope looked up to see a middle-aged woman standing in the doorway.
“I’m Mrs Williams. Thank you for coming in.”
“Of course,” Hope replied. Well, it wasn’t like she’d had a choice.
“Come on in.” The woman stepped aside to let Hope enter.
Once inside, Hope took a seat as she looked around the room. A couple of photos sat on the desk. The same two kids grinned in each of them, both clearly happy. Hope felt a little pang. Would her lot ever look that content?
“What happened?” she asked Mrs Williams. “The message I got was somewhat vague.”
“Olivia refused to take part in Home Economics today.” Mrs Williams sat down. “She just point-blank refused.”
Hope slumped down in the chair. “I’m so sorry, Mrs Williams. Olivia has been…” Frantically, she searched for something other than ‘a bloody nightmare’ to finish that sentence. “Umm… difficult lately. But she’s been through so much—”
Mrs Williams held up a hand. “I am aware of the situation, Ms Phillips, and I am sympathetic. I suspect it will take time for her to settle in.”
“Thank you.”
“But I cannot allow her to be so disruptive.”
Hope felt the blood drain from her face. “You’re not expelling her, are you?” What on earth would she do if Olivia got kicked out of this school? She couldn’t keep moving the kids around like their mother did, but Olivia did need to get an education.
“Of course not.” Mrs Williams smiled. “I do not give up on my pupils, Ms Phillips. Not even the difficult ones.”
Hope blew out a relieved breath. “Then what do you suggest?”
“Counselling.” Kind blue eyes met hers. “She can see the school counsellor. Ms Jones has already agreed to work with your niece, starting on Monday. And I have informed Olivia that this will be happening.”
Hope winced, all too able to imagine how that went down.
Mrs Williams’ lips twitched. “Yes, that went as well as you expect, but nevertheless, it is happening. I think Olivia is mostly resigned to that fact now.”
“Thank you. It’s a good idea.” Honestly, Hope should have thought of it herself. Olivia clearly needed the help. Maybe the younger kids could benefit from something similar. She’d have to look into it if things didn’t improve.
“Also, as a result of Olivia’s behaviour today,” Mrs Williams continued, “she will be spending each lunchtime helping out in the library. For the next week.”
“Fair enough.” Hope sighed. “I’m sorry, Mrs Williams. I’d hoped this would be a fresh start—”
“And I’m sure it will be,” the woman said. “But these things take time.” She stood up, signalling the interview was at an end. “We can handle Olivia, Ms Phillips. I simply thought you should be kept up to date with the state of affairs.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” Hope said, standing up. “I’ll take her home now and talk to her about her behaviour.”
“Good luck.”
Hope grimaced and took her leave, finding Olivia exactly where she’d left her.
“Let’s go.”
Olivia stood and followed her, and they walked out of the school in silence.
Only once they were in the car and driving home did Hope speak.
“Why, Liv?”
A shrug.
“Not good enough.” Hope glanced at her. “Why wouldn’t you take part in the class? You used to like Home Economics. You chose to study it.”
“I changed my mind.” Olivia picked at her green nail polish.
“Why?”
“I don’t want to do it anymore.”
Hope once again forced herself to relax her jaw before she strained something.
“Olivia, if you genuinely want to change courses, then you need to talk to your teachers and see what you can work out.” She pulled up at a pedestrian crossing. Several little kids practically ran across the road, dragging their parents behind them. “You can’t just refuse to do that class.”
A grunt.
“Liv, do you want to switch classes?” It would be a nightmare, but Hope was prepared to do battle if she had to. Still, something wasn’t right here. Olivia normally liked Home Economics, so what had changed?
“No.” Olivia slumped against the car window. Did teenagers develop soft spines or something? What was with all the slumping?
“Then what was so wrong with this particular class?”
Silence for a moment and then…
“They were making Christmas cookies.”
Hope stared at her. The car behind honked, warning her that the lights had changed. Hope drove, trying to work out what the problem was. Yeah, so Olivia wasn’t exactly in the Christmas spirit, but her reaction seemed a bit over the top.
“You don’t like Christmas cookies?” she asked.
“I don’t like Christmas.” Olivia looked over long enough to scowl and then turned to stare out the window. “I hate Christmas, and I don’t see why everyone wants me to celebrate it.”
“Liv, you can’t expect everybody else to ignore Christmas.” Hope sighed. “Look, I know things haven’t been easy for you—”
“Haven’t been easy?” Olivia choked out. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Then tell me.”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Olivia went back to picking at her nails.
“Then explain it.” Hope wasn’t letting this go. Not when Olivia was finally talking. Goodness knows when Hope would get another chance. “Why do you hate Christmas?”
“We didn’t do Christmas!” Olivia yelled. “Mum could never be bothered. If she was even there. When Derek came back, I thought things would be better, but then he died and it just sucked. I tried. I tried to make it good for the kids, but I didn’t have money for presents or sweets. Emmett stopped caring three years ago. He’s smarter than me. I was seven when I gave up expecting Santa to visit.”
“Liv, I sent you presents. And I know Auntie Joy did, too.” Most of the family would have. It had sometimes taken Hope a while to track them down, but she’d always managed to deliver bags of gifts before Christmas.
Olivia snorted. “Yeah, I discovered that two years ago when I saw my mum open them and sell it all for money to pay the rent.”
Hope’s jaw dropped. “You never got any of the presents?”
“No.”
Well, shit. Hope had known her sister was a mess, but this? Wow. That was a whole other level of messed up. If Faith had needed money, she’d only had to ask any member of their family. Stealing from the kids was just cruel.
“God, Liv. I’m so sorry.” Tears were stinging her eyes. “I didn’t know that. I knew you had to look after the kids more than you should have had to—”
Another snort. “I was practically their mum. Why do you think I took Home Economics? I was learning to cook, and I got to take stuff home to feed Bella and Emmett when there was nothing in the fridge. I learned how to sew, so I could mend their clothes and fix Bella’s teddy bear.”
“Oh, Liv.”
“Christmas was always worse,” Olivia continued. “Mum would manage to be even more of a mess than usual, and we’d have less money.” She sighed and swiped at her eyes. “I just don’t want to bake stupid Christmas cookies and pretend that everything is okay.”
“I get that,” Hope said. And she did get it. No wonder the girl was so anti-Christmas. The season had never brought her anything but extra trouble. “But you can’t just decide to not take part in class. You know that, Liv. Next time, simply make the cookies and decorate them any way you like.”
“Fine. I’ll make their stupid cookies.”
“I’m sorry things were so tough, Liv.” Hope pulled into the driveway. “But I really want to make this Christmas as nice as possible for us all.”
“Whatever.” Olivia got out of the car and stomped into the house.
Hope wasn’t sure if that was progress or not.