Peanut Goes to School

Chapter Five

Dragos changed into his dragon form, since flying directly to the school was much faster than driving on the winding country roads. Pia rode on his back, muttering worriedly. She asked, Did he tell you what happened?

No, Dragos said, which was the strict truth.

He didn’t mention what Hugh had already told him about Liam’s two confrontations at recess. While Dragos planned on telling Pia everything, he still hadn’t figured out what to say about those incidents.

He was proud as hell of how his son had handled the bullies, and he was both surprised and intrigued at Liam’s newly emerged talent for breathing fire in his human form, but Dragos wasn’t sure that Pia would feel the same way. Sometimes family dynamics were an interesting puzzle.

He also planned on having Andrew and his family investigated. As Hugh pointed out, the boy might need counseling or even special schooling.

Dragos kept his cloaking spell tight around them until after he had landed and shapeshifted back into his human form. Taking Pia’s hand, they strode quickly into the school building and to the administrative offices.

The school secretary escorted them into the principal’s office. Inside, the principal, Doreen Chambers, waited with an older woman, and with Liam.

Dragos took in everything about the older woman at a glance. She was of mixed race, part human and part Dark Fae, and she wore a tight-lipped, self-righteous expression. He turned his attention to his son, who sat with such quiet dignity that it took Dragos a moment to realize Liam was trembling. He clutched his phone tightly in both hands and didn’t look at either the principal or the older woman.

A silent snarl built at the back of Dragos’s throat. As Pia rushed to Liam, Dragos rounded on the other two women. He said in a quiet, rigidly controlled voice, “Explain this.”

As the older woman had caught sight of him and Pia, her expression had changed. Clearly she recognized them. Instead of looking self-righteous, she started to look worried.

She should.

Doreen Chambers walked around her desk, hand outstretched to Dragos. She said, “Lord and Lady Cuelebre, this is Liam’s teacher, Elora Teaberry. I owe all of you a profound apology. You see, we have a policy that children aren’t allowed to have cell phones at school. . . . And with everything involved with the start of the school year, I simply forgot to tell Elora that we would make an exception in Liam’s case.”

Dragos ignored the principal’s outstretched hand. Instead, he focused on Liam’s teacher. Not only had her expression changed, but she was starting to smell nervous too.

On its own, that wouldn’t be enough to pique his interest, because people smelled nervous around him all the time. However, when he combined her nervousness with Liam’s upset, he didn’t like the picture that was starting to emerge.

Elora Teaberry’s chin came up. “Mr. and Mrs. Cuelebre,” she said stiffly. “Had I been told that your son would be in my class, things might have gone very differently. As it was, I insisted he give me his cell phone, and he growled and snapped at me. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that this is not acceptable or safe behavior—”

Tuning her out, Dragos turned to Pia and Liam. Whispering soft words of comfort, Pia squatted by Liam’s chair. His head lowered, Liam turned in his chair to lean toward her. Pia slipped an arm around him, cupped his shoulder and squeezed.

With an indrawn hiss and a grimace, Liam pulled away from her hug, and everything in the room changed drastically.

Frowning, Pia asked him sharply, “What’s the matter, sweetheart—are you hurt anywhere?”

Liam muttered, “Not really. It’s okay.”

Pia’s eyes flashed to Dragos. Shifting so that she crouched in front of Liam and blocked him from the rest of the room, she went silent. Liam looked at her, nodded then shook his head. They had gone telepathic. She eased the neckline of his shirt to one side to reveal bruises in the shape of fingermarks on one slim shoulder.

“Oh my God,” said the principal, blanching.

Dragos’s silent snarl turned audible. Pia whirled to face Elora Teaberry, her expression blazing with incredulous rage. “You put your hands on him. You shook him?”

The teacher’s nervousness turned to outright fear, and her gaze darted around the room. “Everything I did was in self-defense. Your son snarled at me—he acted like he would bite me. He had partially shapeshifted, and he had claws and teeth—”

Liam said in a clear, strong voice, “You’re a liar. You’re lying.”

Sliding out of his chair, he stood beside Pia’s crouching figure and put his arm around her. To Dragos’s eyes, it looked like a protective stance. Liam was guarding his mother.

Reining in his own rage so that he could at least appear calm, Dragos asked Liam, “What really happened?”

Liam said, “Well, first she said, you couldn’t have read all those books, you’re a liar. And I said, I did too read them, but she never asked me about learning methodology or first-grade literacy, or anything about what was really in the books. Then she said, it’s against the rules to have a cell phone, so you give it to me right now, young man, and I said no, I can’t do that, it’s against the rules. So she grabbed me, and I tried to fight her off, and she shook me, and that’s when I got toothy, and she said, Don’t you dare bite me, you little animal.” He was breathing hard, and his eyes flashed with dark violet fire. “And she got my phone out of my pocket, so I said, give it back. And she gave it back. That’s when I called you.”

When he finished, a stark silence fell as everyone stared at Elora Teaberry, who stood with her back pressed against the wall. “That’s not what happened,” she said faintly. “He growled first. He snapped at me. He thought the rules didn’t apply to him!”

Dragos could hear the lie in her voice. It was so apparent he felt sure the other two women could hear it too.

The principal’s expression was appalled, while Pia looked more murderous than Dragos had ever seen her, and he knew fully well that he had the teacher’s death stamped in the lines of his own face.

“This is so far beyond anything appropriate or acceptable, I have no words,” breathed the principal.

“Well, you’d better come up with a few,” Pia snarled as she surged to her feet. “And ‘I’m so desperately sorry’ and ‘We’re going to press charges’ better be some of the first words out of your mouth.”

It was so charming how Pia’s thinking went straight to the justice system, while he thought of things like vivisection and dismemberment.

Dragos’s gaze dropped to Liam. Now that he had told his story, the boy looked completely calm, even analytical, as he regarded Elora Teaberry. He had stopped shaking, and all signs of his previous upset had vanished.

What was going on in that brilliant, unpredictable, dangerous young mind of his?

Dragos decided to find out. He asked telepathically, What do you think should happen to Mrs. Teaberry?

Liam’s gaze lifted to his. Other kids warned me she would be mean. I want to know if she’s hurt anybody else.

Dragos lifted his eyebrows. That’s an excellent point, he said. I think we should find out, and if she has, we need to contact those children’s parents.

Liam nodded. He had slipped his arm around Pia’s waist, and he leaned against her again. His expression was serious. We need to make sure those kids are okay.

Liam had been hurt, and he’d been upset and frightened enough that he had partially shapeshifted, but his first thought afterward had been for other children.

A powerful wave of pride conquered Dragos’s rage. Already, his son was a far better man than he would ever be.

Walking over to Pia and Liam, he asked gently, Are you all right?

The boy gave him a faint smile, and Dragos got a glimpse of the older soul inhabiting that young body. Yeah. I didn’t let her keep my phone.

He stroked Liam’s bright, silken hair. Good boy.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Liam said aloud. He looked up at his mom and gave her a crooked grin. “I’ve got a girlfriend.”

Dragos wished he could have taken a photo of that moment, because the look on Pia’s face was priceless.

Maybe things didn’t completely and totally suck after all.

A couple of the guards who had been watching over the school with Hugh came to take Mrs. Teaberry away, but not before Dad stood in the corner with her for a long time in silence. Liam never found out what Dad said to her, but whatever it was, it turned her skin pasty white and made her hands shake.

Briefly, Liam thought he might feel bad about that, but then he didn’t. Sorry, not sorry.

After the guards took Mrs. Teaberry out of the room, Mom, Dad, Mrs. Chambers and he talked. Mom asked, “How do you feel about school now?”

“I like it!” he told her. It had been a busy first day, and going undercover was every bit as interesting as he thought it would be.

“Do you want to come back tomorrow?” Mom watched him closely.

“Yeah. Does that mean I get a new teacher?”

“It absolutely does,” Dad said.

The adults talked for a while, and Liam lost interest. He wandered over to the bookcases that Mrs. Chambers had in her office, and he read a couple of books until they were finished. Mrs. Chambers said, “There’ll be a substitute teacher in his class until I can hire someone else. Again, I can’t tell you how sorry I am that this happened. Elora worked here for years, and I never heard a whisper of anything like this before.”

Liam sneaked a look at Mom, who didn’t look mollified. Her face set, she said, “Sometimes you only hear whispers if you listen for them well enough.”

At that, Mrs. Chambers looked both terribly apologetic and rather offended, which Liam thought was a pretty hard expression to pull off. But she must have thought Mom had a point, because she didn’t say anything.

Soon afterward, they left. Liam would have rather gone back into class, but Mom and Dad decided he’d had enough for one day. Outside, Eva leaned against the bumper of an SUV. Dad held out his hand, and Eva tossed the keys at him.

Dad said, “Thanks. Find your own way home, okay?”

“You got it,” Eva said.

“I’m going to ride in the back with Liam,” Mom said.

Dad smiled at them. “Good idea.”

While he wouldn’t have thought to ask for it, Liam was glad she did. They rode for a while quietly, and when he sneaked his hand into Mom’s, she closed her fingers around his tightly.

Suddenly, she burst out, “I want to punch her evil, lying face.”

Liam caught a flash of hot gold as Dad looked at them, narrow-eyed, in the rearview mirror. Dad said, completely seriously, “I can make that happen.”

It wasn’t really funny, and yet somehow it was. He burst out laughing, and after a few moments Mom and Dad laughed too. Mom raised his hand and kissed it. He wiggled sideways in his seat belt so he could lay his head on her shoulder, and in that moment, he felt completely happy.

She said, “I’m so sorry you ever had to go through that, but especially on your first day.”

“I’m not,” he told her.

She turned to him with a look of surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, she made me mad and she sort of scared me for a few minutes, but it didn’t last long, and she shouldn’t be a teacher.”

“Out of the mouth of babes,” said Dad.

“What do you want for supper?” Mom asked him.

He replied, “Lots and lots of spaghetti. I’m starving.”

She chuckled. “Dad and I might eat something else, but you can have spaghetti every night this week if you want.”

So, in fact, everything turned out to be almost perfect.

Almost.

That night he ate so much spaghetti, Mom said he was in danger of turning into a big noodle, which made him laugh so hard, he fell out of his chair. The rest of the school week went well. The substitute teacher was wonderful, a smart and nice man named Mr. Huddleston. After a few days, Principal Chambers came into the classroom to announce that Mr. Huddleston would be their permanent teacher, and all the kids cheered.

Dad told him Mrs. Teaberry went to jail. It turned out she had been mean to other kids, and Dad said that lots of parents were pressing charges. Andrew, Brad and Joel stayed quiet at recess, and they left all the other kids alone.

Mom contacted Marika’s and Perrin’s parents, and one day, they came over for a playdate after school.

Liam had an awesome time. Perrin was an odd, nervous little nerd of a boy, but after he relaxed, he shouted and charged around with every bit as much energy as Marika did. They explored the woods behind the house and played pirates until the sun went down and the other kids had to go home.

So actually life could hardly have been better, except for one thing that weighed and weighed on his mind, until finally, on Friday evening, he couldn’t take it any longer.

After supper, he and Mom made vegan rice crispy treats and together they ate the whole batch. Then, when Mom went upstairs to take a bath, he went in search of Dad and found him reading one of his history books in the library.

Liam wandered over to hang on the arm of his chair. Dad looked at him over the edge of his book. “Something on your mind?”

“Yeah. Maybe.” Liam couldn’t look into his dad’s keen gaze, and he bent his head as he asked, “Can I talk to you in private?”

Dad glanced around the library, but instead of pointing out that the room was already empty except for them, after a moment he said, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Liam swallowed and nodded.

They went outside.

The sun had just set behind the nearby mountains, but it was still hot and plenty light enough. Overhead, the sky was streaked with rainbow colors. It would be a good evening to go flying, except Liam didn’t feel like it.

Dad led him to the path that went to the lake, and soon they walked along the beach toward the half-completed office complex. It was the one place where Mom never came anymore.

Liam darted a thoughtful, uncertain glance up at Dad’s face. While it was impossible to read Dad’s expression, he felt pretty sure Dad hadn’t picked the location by accident.

He said, experimentally, “I like the lake.”

“I do too,” said Dad. Stopping at a stack of concrete blocks, he sat on the edge of the pile and stretched his long legs out. He gave Liam a sidelong smile. “Don’t worry, Mom will get over it. I think she’ll come down here a lot once the building is completed and people move in. She doesn’t let much hold her down, you know.”

Liam nodded and turned to look out over the water, which reflected the rainbow colors in the sky. The lake blurred as his eyes filled, and his mouth wobbled as he asked, “Am I bad?”

In a very quiet voice, Dad asked, “Now, why would you think to ask such a thing?”

Squatting, he picked up a stick to poke at the ground, mostly to hide the fact that his tears had spilled over. “Last Sunday, when I was playing Spy Wyr, I heard you and Mom talking about how I needed school, so I could learn how to control myself.”

Dad stayed silent a moment. He said, “We were on the balcony. Where were you?”

“I climbed up to the beams u-underneath.”

From the corner of his eye, he watched as Dad closed his eyes briefly and said to himself, “I didn’t sense a damned thing.”

He guessed that meant he’d gotten pretty good at his cloaking spell. Ducking his head, he said, “There were some bad boys at school. I made one of them cry, and I scared the other one pretty good. And I meant to. I . . . liked it. Oh—also, I can breathe fire. Watch.”

Holding the stick to his lips, he concentrated on pulling on his Power as he hissed. Heat boiled out of his mouth, along with a lick of flame, and the stick caught fire.

“That’s something, that is,” said Dad in a soft voice. “Can you put it out?”

“Sure.” He started to bury it in the dirt between his feet.

Dad took him gently by the wrist to stop him. “No, not that way. Try to put it out with your mind.”

Liam looked at him uncertainly then focused on the stick. After a few moments, he said, “I don’t think I can do that.”

“That’s okay, maybe you can’t do it yet, but I’m sure you will be able to. We’ll practice at it.” Dad passed his hand over the stick and the tiny flame died down. “Okay, first things first. Come here.”

As Liam stood up, Dad did something he didn’t often do anymore. He picked Liam up like he was a little kid. Turning into the embrace, Liam wrapped his legs around Dad’s waist and put his head on his shoulder.

Dad sat down again, holding him in a whole body hug. It felt good, like being surrounded by a hot, comforting fire. He rested his chin on Liam’s shoulder. “Your mom and I already know about what happened with those other boys.”

He mumbled, “You do?”

“Mm-hm. Hugh told us. After talking about it, we decided not to say anything unless you brought it up.”

“Oh.” After thinking about it, he whispered, “I’m not sorry.”

Sorry, not sorry.

Dad rubbed his back. “You know what I think?”

He shook his head.

“I think you did an outstanding job.”

Outstanding. He lifted his head. “Really?”

“Really. You spoke to them in their language. You backed them off, and you made them stop hurting other kids. And you controlled yourself, and you didn’t hurt them in return.”

He had to point out, “I scared them pretty bad.”

“Yes, you did.” Dad’s face was calm. “If you were to talk to humans about this, they would probably say that things should be handled in a different way, and I respect that—but Liam, it’s important to remember, we’re not humans, and neither are those boys. They’re stronger than humans, more dangerous. They’re predators, and they crossed a line. You know what happens when Wyr go bad, don’t you? They can hurt a lot of people before they’re brought down.”

“That’s what the sentinels do,” he said.

“That’s right—that’s part of what the sentinels do.” Dad paused. “I also think it’s important for you to remember, you have two sides to your nature. You have some of me in you, but you also have some of your mom too.”

“That makes sense,” he muttered.

“Your mom is much more peaceful than I am, so sometimes, you might find that those two sides are in conflict with each other. When that happens, you’ve got to give yourself time to think things over. You can always talk to either your mom or me. Between the three of us, I feel sure that we can sort things out. Okay?”

Blinking to clear his eyesight, he nodded. “Okay.”

Dad looked over the water then back at him. “You know how old I am, right?”

“Yeah.” It was actually hard to wrap his mind around the concept of just how old Dad was, but he had a general sort of idea.

Dad smiled at him. “In all of that time, you are the best thing I’ve ever done. You are the absolute best part of me, and I am so proud of you. Your mom is proud of you too, and she understands you better than you might think. You might be dangerous, but you could never, ever be bad. You just have to promise me one thing.”

The weight lifted from his shoulders, until he felt light and free again. “What’s that?”

“You’ve got to stop spying on adults, especially your mom and me. Sometimes we say things to each other that are private, and we say it in a way that the other person might understand, but nobody else would. It’s called taking things in context. When you overhear stuff you’re not supposed to hear, that’s a good way to get your feelings hurt over nothing.”

That made sense. He heaved a sigh. “Can I still play Spy Wyr with my friends?”

“Yes, you can.”

“Okay. I promise I’ll stop.”

“Good boy. Are you ready to go back inside?”

“Yeah.”

Dad hugged him tight then set him on his feet and stood.

As Liam looked up, his gaze caught on the thin white scar on Dad’s forehead.

Dad was so big, so strong. He was stronger than anyone else Liam knew, but still . . . his dad could be hurt. As strong, old and fast as he was, someone could come at his back.

And Liam loved him so much it hurt. It was a good, deep ache.

When I finish getting big, he thought, I’m not ever going to let anything happen to you, or to Mom.

Not on my watch.

Dad held out his hand, and he took it. Together in the peaceful, deepening twilight, they walked back up to the house.