“There you go, letting her off the hook,” Laura said, then added fiercely, “You did not deserve what she did.”
He smiled at that. “Anyone ever mention this protective streak of yours?”
She nodded. “Absolutely. It’s finely honed. Nobody messes with the people I care about.”
He looked for an instant as if he might ask if he was one of those people she cared about, but instead he said, “Thus the determination to fix things for Misty.”
She nodded, willing to allow the change of topic. J.C. still had the cornered look of a man who’d had about as much personal talk as he could handle for the moment.
“I still don’t like what’s going on,” she told him. “Misty’s been in class, but I know things are no better. I can see it in her eyes and in the way she lingers after class to avoid being with Annabelle and her cronies in the hallways. I just wish Misty trusted me enough to let me deal with it once and for all.”
“I imagine she’s just relieved to know that an adult believes her, that you heard for yourself what she’s been living with since school started. Maybe that’s enough for now.”
“Since when is having an adult stand by helplessly while bullying continues ever enough?” she said in frustration. “I want it to end before things go too far.”
J.C.’s expression instantly sobered. “If you ever sense that it’s getting out of hand, you tell me, understood? I don’t care about school protocol or some kind of evidence that would hold up in a court. This is not going to get out of hand and ruin that child’s life.”
She was startled by the vehemence in his voice. It wasn’t the first time she’d sensed that bullying held special meaning for J.C. Tonight, though, with all of the revelations about his marriage, she judged that his feelings might be a little too raw to pursue yet another touchy subject. She would get to the bottom of it, though. She sensed that it, along with the lousy way his marriage ended, were the keys to understanding him.
And the more she got to know J.C., the more she wanted to know everything that had shaped the man he was now. She just hoped those scars from his past would allow it.
* * *
“You need to go online right now,” Katie practically shouted in Misty’s ear when Misty answered her cell phone. “I can’t believe it!”
“What are you so worked up about?” Misty asked, still lost in the fictional world she’d been creating for a story for Ms. Reed’s class.
“Just do it,” Katie commanded. “You’ll see. I’ll wait.”
“Are you talking about Annabelle’s page?” Misty asked, already typing in the link.
“What else?” Katie said. “She’s gone too far this time, Misty. You have to tell somebody. This needs to end.”
Katie might be dramatic, but she wouldn’t get this worked up over nothing, A sense of dread settled in Misty’s stomach as the page loaded.
There, front and center, she found a link that, in turn led to even more pictures of some nearly naked girl in very provocative poses. She blinked and looked again. Even without the identifying comments below, she knew that was her in the pictures, or at least it was supposed to be, she realized, nearly gagging.
How had this happened? Where would Annabelle have found pictures like this? Misty had never been photographed even close to nude in her entire life, except maybe in some embarrassing baby picture taken after a bath. Her parents would have sent her off to an all-girls school in some remote place if she’d ever even considered doing such a thing.
“It’s not me,” she said in a whisper. “There’s no way.”
“Well, I know that,” Katie said without hesitation. “But she’s gone way too far this time, Misty. These pictures will be all over school tomorrow. The site’s already had, like, three thousand hits or something. Who knows how many kids at school have printed out copies? Some teacher’s bound to see them, and you know what will happen after that.”
“I’ll probably be expelled,” Misty said, sickened by the thought of the whispering and the destruction of whatever was left of her reputation.
Worse was what this would do to her parents. Even though those pictures had nothing to do with her—anyone who wasn’t half blind could see that she wasn’t built like that—there would be talk.
She sighed heavily. At least she had her answer to her question earlier today. Things could get worse.
* * *
Misty wasn’t in class on Thursday. In fact, she wasn’t even in school. Laura checked the attendance records and saw that she simply hadn’t shown up. There’d been no call from home, nothing.
She also knew something was up around school. She’d seen the kids huddling in the corridors, whispering and giggling over something that clearly was circulating at warp speed. A terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it had something to do with Misty’s absence.
Just as class ended, she noticed Katie Townsend heading toward Annabelle with a glint of real fury in her eyes. Laura automatically headed in their direction to intervene.
“You’re nothing but a low-down, lying bitch!” Katie shouted, stunning Laura not only with her choice of words but the venom behind them. Even Annabelle looked taken aback for once. The smug expression she usually wore around school was wiped away in a heartbeat as her friends stared at the two girls with shock, waiting to see what would happen next.
“Okay, that’s it!” Laura said. “Katie, Annabelle, we’re going to the office.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” Annabelle protested indignantly. “She just attacked me. You all heard her.”
“We all did,” Laura confirmed. “I think the more important question might be why.”
She saw the sheen of tears in Katie’s eyes as they neared Betty Donovan’s office and knew she was terrified of another suspension. Laura wanted desperately to console her, but the situation was out of her hands. She just wished she had some idea about how it was likely to play out and what on earth had sparked that uncharacteristic outburst.
Betty stepped out of her office, saw the three of them there and motioned for them
