Flare (37 page)

After Kevin heard what had happened at school, he decided to allow her to stay home the next day. Overnight, a link to her essay had been found and then sent from one kid to another until nearly all the school had read her words. For those who didn’t yet have a phone or an e-mail account, printed copies were passed around. No one knew who had sent the original message, but Kevin suspected Felicity.

That day, Brooke had been teased about her shoes—referring to the title of her essay—and she was asked if she really thought they fit her. Noise died down to nothing when she walked into previously chaotic classrooms. People stared and whispered. Brooke had tried her best to ignore it, holding her head high until the end of the day, but she was shaken up, her voice wavering on the other end of the line as she told Kevin what had gone on. She didn’t cry, though.

“I’m not going to let this bug me. I don’t have anything to be ashamed of at all,” she said.

“You’re right,” Kevin said with a growing warmth in his chest. “We’re a great family. We fit great together.”

It was good to hear Brooke chuckle at his lame joke. “Okay, Dad. I’m going to go and try to get my math done before I forget how to do these problems. Hugo just got home too,” she said with a relieved sigh.

When Brooke went back to school after a one-day reprieve, Felicity was up to some of her old tricks, this time a little sneakier. Now she was using surrogates to bother Brooke, getting other people to write notes or say things after Felicity had whispered words. They were all Felicity’s words, but they were coming from so many different angles now. Brooke shared with Hugo that she was having a hard time knowing who to trust anymore, aside from her best friend Serena.

Staying home would’ve been easier, to let it blow over, Kevin thought, and Hugo agreed when he heard what had happened. The kids would grow bored and move on to the newer gossip. When they asked Brooke how she wanted to deal with it, her chin quivered. She was much more frightened than she’d let on earlier.

“I just don’t know how to stand up to her without making it worse, and ignoring things doesn’t work.”

“I’ll talk to your principal again. I can call Felicity’s parents too.”

“No,” Brooke nearly shouted. “You can call Dr. Edwards, but not her parents. That’s why she’s doing this. That’s what Serena heard. Felicity thinks it’s my fault she got her computer taken away. She wants to get back at me, and this is how she’s doing it.”

“It’s not your fault,” Hugo said as he got down to her level and looked her in the eye. “She’s trying to play the victim, and she’s doing anything she can to not take responsibility for her actions.
She
messed up.
She
did,
not
you! You know that, right?”

Brooke nodded and took in a shaky breath. Hugo and Kevin had a scared girl they needed to bolster before they sent her back to school. A few more days off might get the gossip to die down enough that Brooke could manage better.

Before calling the school, Kevin reread the school’s student discipline policies. Felicity’s actions could be classified as verbal abuse, bullying, or harassment according to the document, and the greatest consequence for any of those incidents was a two-to-ten-day suspension with the social worker doing some sort of intervention. A three-day suspension with intervention had already happened, and still, Felicity kept it up. It pissed Kevin off that this girl could get away with doing so much damage, and he knew he’d have to find a way to make this stop.

Kevin called and talked to the principal, who had already heard the stories from other kids doing what they could to try to protect Brooke. At least she had advocates. The principal vowed to talk to Felicity’s parents again based on what the other kids reported, and he also encouraged Kevin to contact the police liaison officer, waiting patiently while Kevin found a pen and paper so he could jot the number down before hanging up. Maybe Felicity needed the fear of God put into her. At least the school was well aware and not turning a blind eye. They were taking it very seriously, which was all Kevin could ask from them for now. The rest was up to him.

Teachers sent assignments via e-mail to Kevin, and Brooke worked at home. He and Hugo didn’t know how Brooke was going to manage if the bullying continued, so Kevin scheduled a few appointments with Lori so she could better help Brooke come up with strategies to deal with this and also to help Brooke talk through some of the emotions. Kevin didn’t know what to do with her aside from running through the exercises Lori had sent home, and Hugo was too busy with rehearsal to work his usual magic in the evening.

Kevin did call and talk to the police liaison as well as Mark. They could seek a restraining order, but Brooke vehemently resisted the notion. “I don’t want her to think I’m scared of her, and that will just prove I am. I want to show her how strong I am. Lori talked to me about things I can do.” So Kevin didn’t immediately follow through with the restraining order, but he didn’t tuck the notion too far away either.

When she returned to classes again, Brooke was better able to handle the comments. They happened much less than before her little break.

“I only heard a thing or two, and it was from Felicity’s besties. Everyone else ignored me or asked if I got the stomach flu. I guess Brett Zimmerman puked all over the lunch table the other day.”

“Maybe it was a good thing you took a few days off,” Hugo said with a disgusted look on his face. “So, what did you do or say to Felicity’s besties?”

“I just smiled at ’em, like I had a secret I’d never let them know about,” she said, demonstrating the look. It was effective. Kevin was very curious what was going on inside her head.

“And it worked?”

Brooke shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know, but instead of looking at me or whispering about me or shutting up when I walked in the room, people just did their thing. I’ll be okay.”

To say Kevin was grateful for the lack of drama in Finn’s life at that time would’ve been an understatement.

CHAPTER THIRTY

A New Low

“S
O
STRANGE
,”
Kevin said as he arrived back home after grocery shopping.

“What is?” Hugo asked, taking a few cloth sacks from Kevin’s overloaded arms before bringing them into the kitchen.

“I ran into Erin’s friend Allison at the store.”

“Allison, as in the household-gay-wanting Jillian and Allison?” Hugo asked as he unloaded the produce.

“Yep.” Kevin decided to ignore the dig even if he’d never been a big fan of Allison himself. “She basically gushed about how happy she was for us. I guess we’re on the prayer chain at her church.”

“The what?” Hugo asked with confusion.

“Do you know what a prayer chain is?”

“No,” he said with a quick shake of his head before heading to the sink with the colander and a bunch of grapes to rinse.

“A prayer request is made, and then one person calls another, who calls a few more until this huge chain is made. Their church is praying for us.”

“I bet they are,” Hugo said with a deadpan look as he glanced over at Kevin. “Church-sanctioned gossip.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, what are they praying about? For our wretched souls?”

“No. Nothing like that,” Kevin said defensively. “Why would you think that when I said she was happy for us?”

Hugo shook his head, looking as melancholy as he’d been a few months prior when Kevin found him in the basement by his Formica table.

“Seriously, why would you jump to that conclusion? She congratulated us on our engagement and the upcoming adoption.”

“Let’s just say I haven’t had the best experiences here lately,” Hugo said as if he wanted him to drop the subject.

Kevin took a long moment to study Hugo. He was protective with his posture. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t give me that BS. What’s changed? Something’s obviously wrong,” Kevin challenged.

“I just…. Ever since the crap started happening to Brooke, I’ve been going to other places for what we need—like groceries—so we can avoid any potential conflicts.”

“Where do you go?”

Hugo opened the refrigerator and put away the cheese and milk, saying nothing.

“I couldn’t find the really good cheese you always get, by the way,” Kevin shared. “Where do you go for groceries if you don’t go right here in town?”

“Uptown,” Hugo answered.

“You go that far out of your way because of the aftermath of Brooke’s essay?” Kevin asked.

Hugo shut the fridge door and reached into another bag for a box of pasta that he set in the pantry. “It’s not that far out of the way, and no. I’ve been going to Uptown for food for months.”

“For months? I knew you went on occasion if you were working there, but not all the time. Why wouldn’t you tell me something like this?”

Hugo looked pathetic and refused to make eye contact.

Kevin knew Hugo had shut down. No matter how much he wanted to know what was going on in Hugo’s head, he wasn’t going to get it out of him right then, so he chose not to pursue it and just continued putting groceries away. Hugo had slipped out the door long before Kevin’s frustration had subsided, giving Kevin a quick kiss before he left for a night of rehearsal.

Brooke was the one who finally told Kevin what was going on. Hugo was still at rehearsal, so Kevin had started a bit earlier on bedtime than he usually did since he had to help both kids get settled rather than tag-teaming. That worked fine with Finn, the routine of brushing his teeth and putting his pajamas on informing his body that it was time for sleep more than the actual time on a clock. He settled in nicely, falling asleep to the sound of waves coming from his sound machine after story time was done. “Just like the lake,” he mumbled into his pillow before he dropped off.

When Kevin got to Brooke’s room, she was still dressed and wide awake. She was often awake after the time it took to get Finn down, but she was usually at least dressed for bed. When Kevin looked at the clock, he realized she probably didn’t feel drowsy in the least.

“Do you want to talk?” Kevin threw out in hope that Brooke would share her worries with him.

“Yeah. If you do.”

“Sure. I’ll talk about anything,” Kevin said with a smile. He sat beside Brooke on the full-size mattress Erin had talked him into buying so many years ago, thankful for the width as he got comfortable.

“Favorite ice cream flavor?” she asked and then looked at a magazine with a pen in her hand. “Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, or cookie dough.” This was so like her, warming up to a topic with something less scary, avoiding the real issue for as long as she could.

“I like vanilla bean. Are you giving me a quiz written for tweens?” He smiled so she’d know he was playing with her.

“Maybe. What’s the most important personality trait for a boyfriend to have? Sense of humor, friendliness, fearlessness, being helpful.” She looked up at Kevin and gave him a sly smile.

“What’s that little smile for?” Kevin asked.

Brooke leaned against Kevin’s chest. “I don’t know. I just think it’s cool that I didn’t have to change that to girlfriend. I can give you the same quiz as me. I like that.”

Kevin chuckled and pulled her in a little tighter. “I like that too. Okay, let me see my choices again.” He looked at the list and considered. “That’s hard. I want a guy who’s helpful and friendly, but I think I’m going to have to pick a sense of humor, because even when life gets hard, I want someone who can make me laugh. Hugo does that, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah. He sure does. He makes me laugh all the time. But he laughs more when he’s happy.”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Well, yeah.” Brooke’s eyebrows lowered for a second, and then she started studying her magazine. No new questions came. “Sometimes I don’t think he’s happy here.”

“Hugo? I don’t understand. He’s very happy here. That’s why he is adopting you guys and we’re getting married.”

“No. Not
here
here. He’s happy at our house and stuff. That’s not what I mean. I mean….” Brooke took a moment studying her magazine and methodically ran her finger over the bubbly letters in the title of the quiz. “Sometimes I think he wishes he was still living back in Uptown.”

“What makes you think that?” Kevin wasn’t blind.

“I heard you guys talking when you were unpacking groceries. I know he’s been buying groceries in Uptown for a while because I go with him. Finn and I both do. And he’s happier there.”

“Hmm,” Kevin said noncommittally.

“He parks the car and we get out and walk all over the place, even when it’s cold and snowy and rainy. We go to at least five different stores just to get the food you’d buy in one here. That’s how he gets that really good bread Finn goes crazy about and where he finds the tea I like. And your favorite cheese. He talks to people, and we’ve met kids there that we play with.”

“He’s happy here too,” Kevin put out there.

“You read what I wrote about in my story. People say mean things here. It’s gotten worse in the last couple weeks. The other day some lady came up and spit on him.”

“What?” Kevin was shocked. Why hadn’t he heard about this? And who on earth spit at people?

“Yeah. She said he was warping… I think that was the word. Warping my mind.” Brooke smiled and then reached for her journal, taking a few seconds to find a page. “He looked her in the eye and said, ‘Right, but confronting me in front of my daughter and spitting in my face is nurturing her? Teaching her what mature adults do? Increasing her faith in the human race?’ It was cool,” she said as she made eye contact again. “Well, it was totally gross what she did, but what he said to her after was awesome. I wrote about it in my journal so I wouldn’t ever forget that.”

“I had no idea,” Kevin whispered. “I honestly had no idea it was
that
bad.”

“It’s not most of the time. We’ve figured out the five or ten people to avoid.”

“Five or ten? There are more than just one or two?” Kevin felt like shit for not knowing Hugo was going through this. Why hadn’t Hugo told him?