Their Life

Different

Tina glanced at Newt as they stepped into the principal's office for the third time that month. He looked tired and stressed. Turning back towards the room, she spotted the top of their son's head poking above the back of a chair. The principal closed the door behind them before sitting behind his desk. Newt and Tina sat down on either side of their son.

"Thank you for coming," Mr. Williams, the principal, started. "I'll admit that I was surprised that I had to call you. Your son has only been here for a little over a month but he always seemed to be such a quiet, well-behaved boy."

Tina suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. He had said more or less the same thing the week before.

"What happened, exactly?" Newt asked.

Mr. Williams frowned slightly. "Nicholas was caught chea--"

"I wasn't cheating!" Nick exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Miss Harte just said I was. She knew that Paul was the one cheating, but she blamed me because I'm different and she doesn't like that."

Tina rested her hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back into his chair.

"You can't have called us here just to tell us that Nicholas cheated," she said. "What else happened?" The question was really meant for her son, but Mr. Williams didn't know that.

"Miss Harte claims he punched her in the mouth."

Tina ignored him. She doubted Nick would ever hit a teacher.

"I didn't. She just said I did because she doesn't understand what actually happened."

"And what was that?" Newt asked.

The boy looked embarrassed. "Maybe you should just see for yourself. You'll have to fix it anyway."

Tina nodded Turning to Mr. Williams she said, "Could we please see Miss Harte?"

Mr. Williams nodded and left the room. Tina sighed and ran her fingers through her son's dark, messy hair, trying in vain to smooth it down.

"Nick, this is the third incident and it's still only the first month of school."

"Second month," he muttered, "and I'm not doing it on purpose. I can't help that I'm different."

"It's okay to be different," Newt said. "You're very special, even by wizarding standards."

Nick sank lower into his chair. "I know." 

Tina opened her mouth to ask what had caused the accident but Nick answered before she could speak.

"We were taking a test and Paul was trying to read my answers. Miss Harte knew he was cheating but she didn't care. I tried to cover my paper but he's taller than me. He kept looking at my paper. Miss Harte happened to look at me just as I turned slightly in Paul's direction. She said I was cheating but she knew I wasn't. If I was going to cheat, I wouldn't have to look at anyone's paper. (And no, I wasn't cheating.) It's not fair. She always treats me differently because she knows something's different about me, even though she doesn't know what."

Just then, the door opened and Mr. Williams came in. He was followed by Miss Harte who was covering her mouth with one hand. Tina stood to meet them.

"Let's see what the damage is," she said. "Please lower your hand."

"I don't know what Nicholath did but I know he'th the one who did it," she said without lowering her hand. She had an obvious lisp.

"We know who did it," Newt said. "What we need to know is what he did."

"Please lower your hand," Tina repeated.

Miss Harte slowly obeyed and Tina nearly choked on a laugh. The woman's front teeth were twice as big as they should have been and all her teeth were bright green.