Chapter Thirteen
Ginny came out of school, her heart sinking at the sight of seeing Lisa talking to the principal. She wished she could be like the other children who were lining up to get on the school buses, or the ones who were dutifully taking their turns to get in the vehicles that were in the pickup line. Lisa not only wasn’t waiting her turn in her car, but she wasn’t dressed like the other moms.
Ginny dragged her feet forward, coming to a stop beside Lisa. She wanted to puke at the smile Lisa gave her, but instead she remained silent, waiting for the conversation to finish.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a boy come out of the door, looking as unhappy as she. It didn’t take long for her to understand why. Two older students were making fun of him as they followed him to the bus. Moses was in their class, his thin body a third of the size of one of the bullies pestering him.
“What’s wrong, crybaby? You forget your paci?”
Her temper flared at their jeers.
Ginny saw the teachers in the pickup zone were making no effort to stop the hurtful behavior, so, shrugging her backpack higher on her shoulder, she moved away from her foster mother to come up behind the two bullies who were tormenting her brother.
“Whew-ee ….” The larger of the two inclined his head within sniffing distance of Moses. “You and your brothers wash your clothes in the toilet or the pigpen?” They laughed jeeringly, both taking opposite sides of Moses to pin him between them.
Coming alongside of them, they didn’t notice until too late that she was witnessing each of them holding a foot out to trip him.
She rushed forward furiously, swinging her backpack at the closest one to her.
“Ouch!” A freckled face turned toward her in shock, his hand on the side of his face.
“Stay away from my brother!” Running around Moses, she wildly swung her backpack at the other boy before he could run away. “You big, ugly turd. The only one that stinks is you.”
“Ginny!”
“Ginny!”
Oblivious to her foster mother’s and the principal’s yell, Ginny stomped her foot at the two terrified boys, pretending she was about to hit them again.
“My big brother will beat the ever-loving hell out of you when I tell him!”
Stomping her foot again, she managed to whack the freckled one again on the back as he fled up the steps of the bus. She had her foot on the step to chase after him when she felt herself pulled backward from the back of her dress.
“Stop it!” Lisa hissed in her ear. Grabbing her by the arm, she propelled her toward the school. Ginny made sure not to wince when Lisa’s nails bit into the skin she was forcibly gripping. “How dare you act like trash with everyone watching!”
Ginny felt her hands clenching into her as they went inside. She knew she was in big trouble when Lisa didn’t stop until they were in the principal’s office and she was roughly set down in the chair facing the desk.
“I’m so sorry, Ross!”
Unrepentant, she let her backpack fall to the floor and stubbornly faced the two adults who made no effort to hide their disgust with the way she acted.
Ginny didn’t care. Moses was the sweetest of her brothers. He couldn’t stand anything being hurt. Ginny couldn’t even count the number of times that he had nursed a sick animal back to health, and the animals returned the natural affinity, letting him touch them despite not knowing the touch of human hand. That two boys were preying on Moses made her sick to her stomach.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Lisa. I’ve dealt with the Colemans before. I have to admit, finding out they would be entering the school system was not one of my better days.”
“I can imagine. I’ve only had to deal with Ginny for three months, and I’m at my wit’s end. She’s very troubled, Ross.”
Under the principal’s judgmental gaze, Ginny had a better understanding of why Silas hated school. She hated it, too. The teachers were snooty, and the highlight of their day was to see how many children they could disparage as they walked past them in the halls.
Ginny had lived most of her life on the mountain, living in a bubble of protection. Being taken out of that environment, she wasn’t dealing very well and didn’t know how to make it better. She felt like she was in freefall and didn’t have anything or anyone to stop it.
“You’re an amazing woman, Lisa. I admire what you’re doing by bringing Ginny into your home.”
Something about the tone of the principal’s voice had her frowning in confusion. Switching her gaze between the two of them, she was baffled at what it was.