Catching Fireflies (16 page)

“I think there’s some bullying going on, but I haven’t witnessed it firsthand, at least not here at school,” Laura said, her gaze on Katie, hoping for even the tiniest hint of confirmation. Katie remained perfectly still, her eyes downcast.

Betty regarded Laura with dismay. “You believe Annabelle Litchfield is bullying someone?” she repeated incredulously. “Katie, is that true? Has she been attacking you in some way? Does this have anything to do with why you were caught skipping school earlier this fall?”

“Not Katie,” Laura said quietly, her gaze steady on Katie. “I think she’s bullying Misty Dawson, but as I said before, I can’t prove it.”

Betty turned back to Katie. “Is she right?” she asked, her tone far more gentle than anything Laura had ever heard from the tough-as-nails principal before.

Tears spilled down Katie’s cheeks. “I can’t say,” she insisted again.

“But whatever happened just now between you and Annabelle, it was because you were trying to stand up for Misty,” Betty guessed.

Katie did give a brief nod at that.

“Okay, then,” Betty said decisively as she jotted out a note. “Go on to your next class, Katie.”

Katie regarded her with surprise. “That’s it? I’m not in trouble?”

“Not unless I hear about another incident like this,” Betty told her. “I applaud you wanting to stand up for a friend, but there are better ways to do it. Leave the rest to Ms. Reed and me.”

Katie nodded, shot a grateful look in Laura’s direction, then practically ran from the room.

As soon as she was gone, Laura looked at the principal. “Now what?”

“Now we try to figure out what that girl out there has been up to. We need to have every single duck in a row before we accuse her of anything.”

“I assumed as much, which is why I didn’t come to you sooner. I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of it.”

“Oh, we will,” Betty said grimly. “For now I’m going to send Annabelle off to her next class. I know she’ll assume she’s gotten off scot-free, but it’s better that than stirring up a hornet’s nest before we have our facts straight.”

“Because of Mariah Litchfield,” Laura concluded.

“Precisely. Frankly, I look forward to tangling with her, if this turns out to be true. She’s cost this school system two great teachers. It’s about time we’re able to turn the tables and give that little entitled, spoiled brat of hers the boot,” she said vehemently, then looked chagrined. “Not that you ever heard me say such a thing.”

“Not a word,” Laura said, grinning.

Her view of Betty Donovan had just done a complete one-eighty. She might be a strict disciplinarian, perhaps a little overly zealous in certain situations, but it was apparent to Laura that when it came to her students and her teachers, Betty had the same sort of protective streak that J.C. had seen in Laura.

10

A
fter 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.