Chapter twenty-five
I pushed through the crowd of kids and teachers who were moving to their next classes. It was as if they were trying to keep me from getting to Hailie. My heart pounded, my thoughts raced and for the moment I wish they were in front of the school waiting for me. Once I reached the dean’s office, I found Hailie sitting on the chair, slouched over; her hair covered her face and was sorted all over her head; her face was covered in sweat and tears, and her one eye was swollen.
“Oh my baby” I cried, bending down, examine her eye. “What happened?”
“Jake and his new girlfriend jumped me” she growled.
“It’s nothing major, Mrs. Mathers she’ll be fine” the dean said. My temper flared inside when she said it was nothing major. My daughter has a bruised eye. Her clean white t-shirt was covered in blood.
“Will she be kicked out because of this?” I feared.
“No, but I’m going to let her off with a warning and three days suspension”.
“Oh, no please don’t leave me home alone with dad!” Hailie cried. The dean raised her eyebrows. She sat back in her seat which made a squeak sound from her large body.
“Haile, why don’t you go to Nurse Rachel and let her clean you up” the dean suggested. Hailie proceed to the nurse’s office.
“Boy I wish I had a nurse at my old college a lot of people would’ve lived longer” I said.
“Sit Mrs. Mathers…”
“I know what we are going to discuss about and trust me it won’t happen again…”
“I said sit!”
Quickly I sat in the seat. She adjusted her 50’s looking glasses to her eyes and she gave me a low stare.
“Mrs. Mathers has your husband been ok?”
“Miss…uhh…Mrs….” “Anderson, Dean Anderson”.
“Anderson” “I assure you, it is not what you think…”
“Oh”.
“Yes, well it is pretty bad but Jake came over Thanksgiving and I guess he said some stuff to my husband and was escorted out”.
Dean Anderson raised her eyebrows, I tried to sugar coat the story the best way I can and keep it short but I don’t think she bought it, not for a minute. I bet Jake gave her a very traumatic and dramatic story which lead up to Hailie’s fight.
“Oh, is that all?” I gave it my best shot, I slouched over fiddling with my fingers as I tried to lie my way through this aweful mess. The hell she want?! A TV series explaining it!
“Yes, the way I understood it from my husband…”
“Oh, so you didn’t see anything happen?” “No, I was busy cleaning dishes with my mom and mother-in-law…”
Dean Anderson took out a piece of paper from her drawer and started to write down Hailie’s suspension. How was I going to explain this to Marshall?
“Mrs. Mathers, Hailie is our best student and don’t think that I enjoy writing this for a moment, but I’m going to suspend all three kids but Hailie will only receive a three day suspension…” I nodded as she spoke.
“Three days?”
“Yes, we have witness that saw Jake and Brook attack Hailie…what is fair is fair…” She was right.
“It is unfournte, Hailie will miss her club meetings…” she said. “Oh, no please don’t do that to her she works to hard and she presidents of all of them…” I cried. Dean Anderson raised her eyes from the paper,
“I’m sorry but I have too! Don’t think for a moment I want this to happen to her” she stressed. It was going to be another long night. She handed me a yellow copy of the suspension form, the sloppy handwriting was hard to see as a copy.
With a sign and a broken heart for Hailie I got up from my seat and said, “Thank you, Dean Anderson for understanding…”
“But I’m telling you this right now, child” she hissed, pointing her pen at me. My heart drop suddenly as if I was a child again and I was going to get a beating of a life time.
“I don’t like your husband…I don’t like his music and I don’t like the trouble he has caused because of his music”.
My lips purse together and I was ready to send her flying through a plate glass window. I can curse her out, she can’t do anything to me. I can tell her how Marshall is like at home despite what the press, his music, and the tabloids have sworn what he’s like. The people who love him and understand him know why he’s like the way he is and it’s not some desperate cry for attention. I couldn’t hold my tongue anymore.
“Dean Anderson, I assure you my husband is not the way he is at home as he seems to portray in his music…He is a wonderful father and a wonderful husband who does his best to make up for what he’s done in his past. Why don’t you listen to other rappers beside my husband then come back to me and then we’ll talk controversial…have a nice day ma’am.”
--
Hailie was quite the car ride back to the office. Her face was covered in make-up resdue what I believe blood on her white t-shirt. She didn’t seem to have any open cuts or bruises I couldn’t understand whose blood was it.
“Is that your blood, or Jake’s?” I asked.
“His girlfriend’s he ran away once I started smashing her against the wall…” she grumbled. I tried to keep myself from laughing and aweing at amazement like some teenager. Till this day I still get excited about hearing about fights. I guess some things never change. Hailie saw me smiling from the mirror and tried herself not to laugh at the situation.
“My baby is a natural born killer” I mumbled through my teeth, trying not to laugh still.