Home Visit

The Epsom salt always smelled like dishwashing detergent to MJ, and she had to pinch her nose closed as she poured it into the water filling the bathtub.

Her elbows were sore from hitting the ring floor, and the rest of her body ached from taking so many bumps throughout the week. She stood in the bathroom wearing an oversized T-shirt that had belonged to her father and might as well have been a dress on her. She was turning the bathwater into a cloudy mess with the chemical salt that would make her muscles feel better after they soaked in it for a while.

It wasn’t her first Epsom salt bath. She used to take them all the time when she did gymnastics, especially after competitions. That was one of the few easy parts of dealing with her mother when it came to MJ training at Victory Academy; her mother was used to MJ being sore and needing to soothe minor injuries from gymnastics, so she didn’t freak out when MJ came home from the wrestling school with a few aching body parts.

Steam rose from the hot water in the tub. MJ was excited about sinking into the bath, despite the smell. She turned away from the mirror and began lifting her shirt. MJ hated the mirror in the bathroom of the house they were renting. It covered practically the whole wall above the sink and counter. That made it impossible to avoid. The mirror in their old bathroom was a smaller round thing that didn’t follow her around the room.

MJ stopped when she heard her mother’s voice yelling at her from the living room.

“Maya! Can you come out here, please?”

She didn’t sound mad, at least. MJ made sure the knob that controlled the water was turned off tightly before walking out of the bathroom and down the hall.

What she saw when she turned the corner stopped her cold. Neal Corto was standing in their living room. She recognized him right away. He might have even been wearing the same cheap-looking, badly fitted suit he wore when MJ first saw him at Victory Academy.

He was smiling in the same fake way he’d smiled at Mr. Arellano while writing him tickets.

“This is Mr. Corto,” her mother explained. “He’s from the State Athletic Commission.”

“I know who he is,” MJ said, and she didn’t even try to sound happy about it.

Her mother’s eyes flashed angrily at her. “Maya Jocelyn Medina, don’t be rude.”

“I’m sorry,” MJ said automatically. “Hello, Mr. Corto.”

Corto seemed unruffled by the icy greeting. He was smiling the whole time.

“It’s nice to see you again, Maya,” he said. “You look healthy. I’m glad you’re okay.”

MJ’s eyebrows crinkled in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Instead of answering her, Corto looked at her mother. The smile left his face, and his expression turned serious.

“Mrs. Medina, we’ve received a report that there was an incident involving Maya here at Victory Academy a few evenings ago.”

MJ’s mother immediately looked at her as if she expected MJ to explain.

“The incident also involved a ladder,” Corto added.

MJ’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected him to know about that. She wondered if someone had told him. Would anybody from the school betray the rest of them like that?

She quickly told that thought to go away. MJ decided he must’ve overheard the other students talking about it while he was doing one of his weekly inspections.

“Maya?” her mother asked, waiting, and not at all patiently.

“I . . . after the show on Saturday, I saw someone shady climbing up a ladder outside the school, so I went up to see what they were doing, and I slipped. But just for a second. I didn’t get hurt.”

MJ wasn’t sure why she left out the part about the hooded man throwing a box of live rats at her. Perhaps she thought that detail would only make what happened worse in her mother’s eyes, and this was already a bad situation.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” her mother demanded.

“I was fine! Nothing happened!”

“You fell off a roof!”

“I didn’t fall!”

“What were you doing outside downtown by yourself?”

“I was just cooling off in the air! I was standing right by the door!”

“So you were unsupervised at the time?” Corto asked her, having been standing there patiently while she and her mother yelled back and forth.

That question hit MJ harder than most of her opponents in the ring. She knew that was a serious accusation coming from Corto, and her answer could be damaging to the school.

“I . . . it wasn’t like that! I just climbed up a ladder and slipped. That’s all. It was over in two seconds.”

“You should know better,” her mother said. “And someone should’ve been watching you.”

Now MJ was angry. “I’m not a baby! They don’t treat me like one there. They treat me like a wrestler!”

“You’re not a wrestler,” her mother reminded her. “You’re a student.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve upset you, Mrs. Medina,” Corto said.

MJ hated how concerned and polite he was being. She’d seen the way he treated Mr. Arellano, and she knew he was exactly like teachers at her school who always acted nice when parents were around, but who were always nasty to kids like MJ.

“It was my duty to investigate, and to inform you,” Corto continued. “It’s not Maya’s fault. She’s just a child. The fault lies with the staff at that warehouse and the environment and culture they create.”

“It’s not a warehouse, it’s a school,” MJ grumbled.

“You watch yourself, young lady,” her mother warned. “You’re in enough trouble.”

“I won’t bother you further right now,” Corto said. “Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you for taking the time to let me know what’s going on. I’m embarrassed to say I needed it.”

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed. We all need a little help sometimes. For the good of our kids.”

You’re so full of it, MJ thought. She desperately wanted to say it out loud but didn’t dare.

“Good evening, Mrs. Medina.”

“To you too, Mr. Corto.”

“Goodbye, Maya,” Corto said to her.

MJ didn’t answer him. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“Maya Jocelyn,” her mother began sternly. “If I have to tell you one more—”

“Goodbye,” MJ said through clenched teeth.

Corto left their house. MJ could barely contain herself until the door had snapped closed behind him.

“He’s twisting things all around, Mom!” she exploded. “He comes to the school every week to write tickets for things he makes up because he hates wrestling and Mr. Arellano. Everybody at the school says so!”

“If he’s citing Mr. Arellano for violations, I’m sure it’s for things that are wrong at the school.”

“Just because he’s an adult and wears a suit doesn’t mean he’s right and I’m wrong. You just met him five minutes ago. Why won’t you listen to me?”

“Because I know how much you love wrestling and love going to that school, and I know you’re not thinking clearly when it comes to the subject of both.”

“I love it because it’s a good place.”

“Maya . . . this is all too much. You were supposed to be taking a few lessons every week at a school. You weren’t supposed to be fighting on wrestling shows and almost falling off roofs.”

“I didn’t fall!” MJ insisted.

“It doesn’t matter!” her mother shouted, louder and angrier than before.

MJ knew better than to say anything else right then.

Her mother sighed deeply. All the anger seemed to flow out of her. MJ thought she just looked sad and tired, and it made her feel bad, like those feelings were MJ’s fault.

“I blame myself for a lot of this,” her mother said quietly. “I’ve been so focused on work and school and trying to deal with everything that’s happened to us that I haven’t been paying attention to you like I should. I think after all our arguing about it, I was almost happy about Victory Academy because it gave you somewhere to go and something to do while I was working late and taking classes. And that’s me being a bad mom.”

“You’re not a bad mom,” MJ assured her, and she meant it. “You take care of us. You take care of me. I know I don’t always make it easy on you. It’s not on purpose.”

“I know that, baby. We’re both doing the best we can, but you’re a kid. You get some room to mess up. I’m the adult. I don’t have that luxury.”

“You didn’t mess up. Really. Wrestling has been helping me, Mom. A lot. It really has.”

“You’ve been happier lately,” her mother admitted. “It’s good to see. You have no idea. But I can’t let you get away with things all the time. That’s not fair to either of us.”

“Please don’t make me stop going to the school,” MJ pleaded. “This wasn’t because of wrestling or Mr. Arellano. I just did a dumb thing. I won’t do it again. I swear.”

Her mother rubbed her temple as if she had a headache, but she didn’t speak.

“Mr. Arellano yelled at me too,” MJ said. “About the ladder. And he didn’t tell me not to tell you. I did that. It’s my fault.”

Her mother thought about it for a while longer.

MJ waited, her heart feeling like it was trying to break through her chest.

“All right,” she announced, as if she’d reached a decision. “No training and no show next week. That’s your punishment.”

MJ nodded right away. That was nothing compared to the idea of never being allowed to go back to the school.

“I’d ground you outright,” her mother said, “but you don’t go anywhere else anyway.”

“I go to school.”

“Well, you’re not getting out of that.”

They shared a laugh over that. It was a quiet laugh, and it didn’t last long, but it seemed to help them both feel a little better.

“Go soak,” her mother instructed her. “Your bath is getting cold.”

“Thank you, Mom. I really am sorry, and not just because you found out.”

“Thanks for saying that. I appreciate it. No more not telling me things, Maya. Okay?”

“I promise.”

MJ meant what she said; she just hoped nothing else would happen that she wouldn’t want to tell her mother about.