"Ella, your phone's ringing," Kayla said as she hurried into the kitchen. Ella dropped the pan of cupcakes she was holding and took the phone from Kayla. She saw that it was Josh's teacher and wondered why she was calling her by this time. It was just 10:30 a.m.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
"Hello."
"Miss Lewis?" she heard the soft voice of Josh's teacher.
"Yes. Is everything alright?"
"I'm afraid not," Miss Rose replied.
"What's going on?" she asked, trying to hold off the panic for just a little bit.
"Josh got into a fight."
Ella frowned. "You sure it's my Josh?"
The teacher chuckled nervously. "Pretty sure. We're going to need you to come and get him."
"Of course. Of course," she said hurriedly. "How is he?"
"Just come down to the school," she replied. Ella agreed and they hung up.
Her reply did nothing to ease Ella's fears. Why wouldn't she tell her how her son was? If he was okay, she would have just said so, right?
She hurriedly took off her apron. She explained the situation to Kelly and asked her to hold the fort till she got back.
When she got to his class, she was led to the Guidance Counselor's office by his teacher. She refused to tell Ella what was going on. Ella couldn't help wondering where she had learnt "teachering". Ella had always thought that one important part of being a teacher was an ability to make parents feel comfortable. Ella was not feeling very comfortable at the moment.
For the hundredth time in the past half hour, the thought that they had made a mistake came to mind. Josh never fought. Ever. When she said ever, she meant just that. He was a level headed little man who knew how to apologize when he was wrong and he absolutely hated conflict. Why then would he fight?
She stepped into the Counselor's office and gasped. Her little baby had bruises on his face. There was one on his forehead and one on either side of his face.
What kind of child was able to inflict such injury on another child? Then she turned her head and saw the other little boy. He was bigger than Josh, he had fiery hair and pale skin. But that was not what caught Ella's attention. What did was the fact that the boy was in even worse shape than Josh. He had bruises on his face and a cut lip, and he appeared to be crying while Josh just sat and glared at everybody in the room.
Exactly what was going on?
"Please, take a seat," The Counselor said to Ella.
"What happened?" she asked as she sat down in one of the empty seats.
"Your son and Micah here got into a fight," the counselor said.
"Can somebody please not state the obvious and tell me what happened?" She was agitated at this point. Her son was bruised and nobody could tell her what the problem was.
"Your son's teacher and I discussed it and we think it would be better for you to take Josh home and talk to him and then choose to punish him in the way you see best. It's a rather sensitive issue," the middle aged woman with round glasses said.
What kind of system was this? Anyway, she was glad she could finally take her son home now and tend to his injuries herself. She looked back and saw that he was still glaring at the boy sitting beside him. What had the boy to work Josh into such a temper?
"Come on, baby," she said to her son.
****
"Hey baby," Jon said to Ella when he picked up her call.
"Jon? Are you busy?" He heard her harried voice ask.
"Why? What's happening?"
"Can you come over to the house? I need your help with something. It's kind of important."
He frowned. What was this about? Was she okay? Josh. Was he okay? He decided to stop working himself up into a frenzy and just go over to her house.
"Hey. I got here as quickly as I could," he said. "What's happening?"
"Come on in," she said and stepped aside to let him in.
"You're scaring me."
"Calm down a little," she said as they walked to the living room. She yelled Josh's name and he walked into the living room, looking a bit surly.
"What in the world?" Jon exclaimed at the sight of the injuries on Josh's face. The little boy walked into the room in just his underwear and sat on the couch and folding his arms and glaring at the both of them. Jon turned to Ella with a wildly confused look on his face.
"He fought with a kid at school," she said in a monotone voice.
"That doesn't sound like him in the least."
"My thoughts exactly," Ella replied. "Then I asked him why and his reply shocked me."
Jon turned to Josh, then walked over to the couch and sat down beside the boy. "What happened, buddy?"
The boy turned to him. "I already told Mommy. Why can't she just tell you?"
He was still clearly agitated over whatever had happened so Jon just turned to Ella expectantly. Thinking about it now, why had she called him to come over?
"You guys are killing me," he said exasperatedly.
"He told his classmates that his mommy had a new boyfriend," Ella started narrating. She sighed and sat on the other chair in the sitting room. "This was a few days ago. Today, this Micah kid comes to school and tells the whole class that Josh's mother is a bad woman. That only bad mothers have boyfriends."
Jon's eyebrows went up. He rubbed the back of his neck. He understood now why she had called him to come over. What exactly did one say to a child in this situation?
He couldn't even begin to imagine how the little boy felt. Having a classmate tell the whole class that his mother was bad. No wonder the boy had gotten into a fight.
"Josh. You do know that your mother isn't bad, right?"
He received a glare in response. "I know that. That's why I punched him."
Ella sighed. "Josh, I keep telling you that violence is never the answer."
Jon kept quiet on that one. He would have punched the living daylights out of anyone who dared insult his mother. Or his Emma, for that matter.
"Violence was the only answer to what he said," Josh said stubbornly.
"No honey. You punching him was like telling the entire class that you didn't know how to defend yourself and your mommy, so you had to punch him," Ella explained, looking a bit frazzled.
"No, mommy. It was telling them that he is a huge meanie and meanies get punched."
"Josh, you're not listening to me!" she yelled.
Jon watched the little boy's eyes widen at the sound of his mother's raised voice. "Sorry, mommy."
Ella took in a deep breath, but she looked like she was fighting tears. "Sweetheart. I understand that you were trying to defend me, but you could get into a lot of trouble for fighting. You could also get seriously hurt. Even more than you are now. Do you understand that?"
The little boy bent his head now, and Jon thought he looked ashamed. "Yes mommy. I won't fight anymore."
Ella sighed in relief. "Thank you so much. Come and give me a hug."
He got up and walked over to her and she locked him in her arms and kissed his forehead. "I love you baby."
"I love you too," he said.
She let him go. "Go get dressed."
When he walked into his room, Ella let her head drop to her thighs and she made a pained sound.
"Come here." Jon said, patting the space beside him on the dark couch.
When she was beside him, he pulled her into his arms and held her there. He kissed her forehead.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing things right with him," she said into his chest.
"What?" he said, surprised. He had no idea why she would think that. She was an amazing mother.
"I don't know. Children don't come with handbooks so I worry sometimes," she said. "My parents didn't give us much advice. And when we got in trouble, we were locked in our rooms without even being asked what happened. So I don't really know how these things should be handled. I mean, you read all the books but every child is different."
He kissed her forehead again. "I don't know much about parenting myself, but I was rather impressed by the way you handled that. You didn't just tell him not to fight. You actually made him understand why he shouldn't."
"I just worry about him."
"He'll be alright."
She got up and looked into his eyes. "I can't thank you enough for coming. I really just needed the moral support."
"It's no problem." Jon said before closing his lips over hers.