Once more, she seemed to be looking every individual in the audience straight in the eye as she added fiercely, “And I expect you to do it.”
With that, she turned and walked back to her seat and sat down heavily. It took a moment, and then thunderous applause broke out.
J.C. leaned over to whisper in her ear. “You’ve given me a tough act to follow.”
She gave him a shaky smile. “Oh, I think you’ve got what it takes.”
Laura gave his hand a squeeze. “I know you do.”
J.C. approached the podium with trepidation. He began by talking about the kind of incidents he and Bill saw in their practice, the evidence of the toll bullying took on even the youngest children.
“We all act as if it’s no big deal at that age, that kids need to toughen up. I was told that just this week by a parent. Well, here’s the way I see it.”
He drew in a deep breath, cast a quick glance at Laura, then said, his voice wavering despite his best attempt to control it, “Bullying cost my little brother his life.”
Blinking back tears, he continued, “Stevie was a great kid. He was slower than other kids. He struggled in school, though it took years to figure out exactly why. His classmates were calling him a dummy by first grade. They never chose him for their teams at recess. He wanted so badly to be liked, to be normal, just like everyone else. He had a smile that could light up the world, but, day by day, year by year, that smile faded and the light in his eyes died.”
He let that sink in, then said, “When I realized what was happening, I did everything I could to protect him. I had more bloody noses and black eyes than any kid in school. My parents and teachers thought I was a troublemaker because I never told what was going on. Neither did Stevie. For a while things even got better.”
He paused. “And then I went to high school, leaving my kid brother on his own back in middle school, struggling to fit in, being beaten down emotionally a little more each day.” He heard the collective indrawn breath of the crowd and let the silence go on before adding, “Until he couldn’t take it anymore. Stevie hanged himself after school one day. He was thirteen years old.” J.C.’s voice broke. “Thirteen. Look around you at the children you know who are just barely starting adolescence. Try to imagine the amount of pain a child that age must have been in to take his own life.”
Like Frances, he tried to look every single person in the crowd directly in the eyes. “Thirteen,” he said again at last. “The kids in Serenity deserve more from us.”
Even through his own tears, he saw tissues come out of purses as he spoke. As he walked back to his seat, Laura was on her feet, enveloping him in a hug. Misty joined her.
“I knew,” Misty whispered, tears streaming down her face. “You didn’t say all that, but I knew the story didn’t have a happy ending.”
“No, it didn’t,” J.C. said, then gave her a hug. “But this one will. No matter what I have to do to see to it, Misty, this one will.”
* * *
Laura was devastated by J.C.’s revelation. No wonder he’d taken what was happening to Misty so seriously. He’d lived the horror of bullying and seen just how tragically it could end.
What she couldn’t understand was why he hadn’t told her sooner. Just when she thought they were close, when she’d convinced herself they had a real shot at the future, she realized he was holding yet another part of himself back.
This wasn’t the time for thinking about any of that, though. Bill Townsend was speaking now, adding a voice for even the youngest children who were victimized on playgrounds or in classrooms. He’d be followed by Helen and Chief Rollins. Then it would be Laura and Betty’s turn to explain how the school intended to handle not just this incident, but any further bullying incidents.
Each of them kept their remarks short and to the point. As Misty’s turn to wrap up the event came closer, Laura kept a careful eye on her. She seemed to have drawn some kind of strength from listening to J.C. There was a determined set to her jaw and a spark in her eyes that had been missing when she’d first arrived at the town green.
Since Laura was to introduce her as she wound up her own remarks, she turned to Misty before she rose. “You ready to do this?”
Misty nodded. “I can do it.”
“Of course you can,” Katie said loyally.
Laura said a few words, then expressed her pride in Misty’s willingness to come forward and talk about what had happened to her and how it had affected the way she looked at herself, at the town and the future.
No sooner had she finished her introduction than she noticed a restlessness on the fringes of the crowd. She realized then that many of the students from the high school had gathered back there, united for reasons she feared might not be good.
Anticipating a problem, she lingered by the podium next to Misty and Katie, drawing a concerned look from J.C. She gave him a faint nod toward the edge of the green. Obviously picking up on her warning, he slipped over and spoke quietly to Carter Rollins, who immediately left the stage.
Misty had barely opened her mouth to speak, her voice quavery but determined, when the first jeer rang out. “Hey, girl, is this you? Can you do me like that?”
A picture was waved in the air, a grainy, but devastatingly recognizable blowup apparently of one of the doctored photos that had made its way online the night before.
Misty’s voice faltered as people looked around.
“Whoa, girl! Who knew little Goody Two-shoes looked like that with her clothes off?”
At the second shout, Carter’s men moved in and started taking teens into custody. The entire crowd erupted with cries, some directed against the teens, some against the interfering police officers.
Misty’s face had turned beet-red. Tears welled up in her eyes as she fled the stage.
“Go after her,” J.C. shouted at Laura. “I’m going to help Carter round up those jerks.”
Laura found Misty sobbing in the alley behind the
