“What in the hell happened to my child?” she demanded as she clamped a hand on Braden’s shoulder. “Are you all right, son? Who did this to you?” Then she whipped her head back around to glare at the principal. “What are you doing to the kid who hit my son?”

Braden patted Lily on the arm and said, “I kinda got into a fight, and the other two look worse than I do, Mama. They’re over there in another room. Isaac done told his story, and he’s gone back to class.”

“You were fighting with Isaac?” Lily’s eyebrows shot up. “He’s your best friend.”

“No, it was kind of because of Isaac,” Braden started to explain.

Mack pushed through the door before he could say anything else. His expression reminded Lily of a violent Texas tornado tearing up everything in its path. If he was that angry at Braden without even letting him explain, then he could damn well pack up his goats and get off her property.

Mack dropped down on one knee in front of Braden and gently touched his eye. “Who did this to you, son?”

“We had a dustup out front just before school,” the principal answered for Braden. “He wouldn’t say a word to defend himself until both of you got here. We’ve been waiting.”

Both? Why would her son want both of them there? She was the parent, and only parents got called to solve problems. Mack was only her roommate. No, that wasn’t right—he was more than that even if she couldn’t put a name to what they were. Even so, he wasn’t Braden’s father.

“Braden?” Lily said.

“Other than your eye, are you all right?” Mack’s face relaxed a little as he got to his feet.

“It’s kind of like this”—Braden inhaled and let it out slowly—“Lester and Martin are in the eighth grade, and they’ve been pickin’ on us. They mostly just called us names and said that we—” He blushed and shrugged. “I can’t say the rest of what they said. It’s too nasty to say out loud.”

“Isaac wrote it down,” the principal said.

Braden took a deep breath and went on. “Yesterday they made us give them our lunch money, and today they were going to do it again. I wasn’t going to do it, but they said if we didn’t, they were going to”—he swallowed several times—“they said they were going to hurt our sisters. I told them that my sister could whip them both with one hand tied behind her back, but they just laughed at me and said they had high school buddies that would hold her down for them. And they told us just how they were going to do it, so we didn’t fight them. This mornin’ when I got off the bus, they had Isaac on the ground. They were goin’ through his pockets, and when I yelled at them to stop, they threw me in the dirt and tried to pull my jeans off. Lester’s elbow hit me in the eye when I was tryin’ to get free.”

“What did you do?” Mack asked.

“I got up and kinda whupped them both,” Braden said.

“You did what?” Mack gasped.

Braden went on. “I told them I knew martial arts. Before we came here, I kinda watched videos on it and practiced. Me and Holly both did in case we got into trouble with a gang or something, but they just laughed at me. Lester had me pinned down, and Martin was undoing my belt. I showed them some tae kwon do and some jujitsu. I kicked one of them in the nose, hopped up, and did a spin and put a heel in the other one where it hurts real bad.”

“We have a no-bullying policy here,” Mr. Wallace said. “Why didn’t you come tell me that these two boys were being mean to you and Isaac?”

“I didn’t want them to hurt Holly and Faith, and what they said they were going to do to them made me want to throw up,” Braden said. “Did I do wrong when I fought them off me and Isaac?”

“Absolutely not!” Lily shot a look toward the principal. “If anyone tries to take your pants off, you do exactly the same thing next time.”

“I wholeheartedly agree with your mother.” Mack laid a hand on Braden’s other shoulder.

Mr. Wallace hit a button on his desk and said, “Would you please bring in Lester and Martin?”

The two boys were ushered in by a short guy wearing glasses. One of the boys had bloody smears all over his shirt. The other one was still a little pale and walking like a ruptured duck. Lily didn’t care if they had to crawl into the office right then. She had no time for bullies.

Both sets of their parents crowded into the room, all four of them demanding answers.

The principal held up a hand. “I’ve gotten Isaac and Braden’s statements. Now, do you two want to tell us what happened out there this morning?”

Martin gave Braden a go-to-hell look. “He bloodied my nose for nothing, and he kicked Lester so hard that he’s still walkin’ funny.”

“What did the two of you do that caused him to do something like that?” the principal asked.

“We was just jokin’ and playin’ around with him and Isaac.” Lester’s voice really did sound a little high for a big boy his size.

“Stealing lunch money is playing around? Threatening to hurt girls is just joking?” The principal stood up. “You two boys have in-school suspension for the rest of the year. I would suggest that you keep your distance from Braden.”

“You picked on two little kids half your size?” Martin’s daddy asked. “Well, son, you just got your phone and television privileges taken away for the rest of the school year.”

“And you”—Lester’s father pointed at him—“will be doing double chores for the next month. I’m ashamed of you for picking on a kid half your size.”

“What’s he gonna hafta do?” Lester glared at Braden. “He hit us, too.”

“Probably get a medal,” Mr. Wallace said.

“What about school activities like the junior livestock show and the rest of the basketball season?” Mack folded his arms over his chest.

“The policy book says that while a student is in ISS, they cannot participate in any extracurricular activities. So no basketball, baseball, or anything else for these two boys the remainder of this year,” the principal said, and hit the desk with the policy manual so hard that the noise made both boys jump. “Next, you two will clean out your lockers and report to ISS. Mr. James runs a tight ship over in his building, so you should know that if you get in trouble there, you will be expelled.”

“This ain’t fair,” Lester said. “I’m the star of the junior high basketball team.”

“And I got show goats ready for the livestock show,” Martin said.

“Too bad,” his father said. “I paid a lot of money for those goats. You can work it off on Saturday and Sunday afternoons after your regular chores are done.”

“Can’t we do something else? Pick up trash or do Saturday school?”

“No, son, you can’t.” The principal shook his head. “You were here the first day of school when I told the whole student body what would happen if there was any bullying. All y’all signed the contract. Now you can suffer the consequences. I’ve taken a picture of Braden’s black eye and have his height and weight on file. He and Isaac gave me permission to record their statements. Isaac went into full detail about what you threatened to do to their sisters and the language you used. Should I play that for your parents?”