Ada's English teacher and another teacher from a nearby classroom came running out to the stairwell in time to see the large boy holding his arm, blood dripping on the floor and Esri holding the bloody flint. Brad and his friend saw the teachers first and immediately stopped fighting. Esri and Luka, with their backs to the teachers, continued to flail and kick at the boys until the teachers grabbed them from behind.

"Drop that weapon. We're calling the police," said one of the teachers. Esri dropped the flint. It shattered into several pieces. "Meanwhile all you kids are going to the office."

Brad said, "You saw. We were just standing there and they started pounding on us. They're a bunch of psychos. You should expel them."

Ada's English teacher said, "Save it for the principal, and the police. You three," pointing to Ada, Esri, and Luka, "and you two," pointing to Brad and his friend, "come with us. The rest of you, go on about your business," he said to the large crowd of students that had gathered. He turned to the boy with the cut arm. "We'll get someone to take you to emerg to get that looked after."

A short time after they arrived at the principal's office, two police officers came, a man and a woman. One of the vice-principals drove the injured boy to the hospital. They put Esri, Ada, and Luka in a room separate from Brad. The principal and the woman officer interviewed the students one at a time starting with Brad. The other police officer ensured that there was no further trouble.

Ada was devastated. She could hardly speak, choking on her tears. "I'm so frightened and now you are in terrible trouble . . . and my family."

Luka was completely wound up. Esri tried to comfort Ada, and calm down Luka, all the while horrified by what she had done. The boy was a complete jerk but she had stabbed him. That was beyond overreacting. She should have tried to push him away until the teachers came, but seeing what he was doing to Ada and the look on her face, what was Esri supposed to do? She would certainly be charged by the police, probably kicked out of school. Oh God, her Dad.

And Flat Rocks, her dreams would stop she was sure. The Disruptors did their job. How could she be so stupid, so impulsive? Whoever chose her to be a Mender chose poorly.

Esri was the last to be called into the principal's office. Before she went in, she turned to Luka and Ada and said, "You two go on. Don't wait for me. Luka, if I'm not home by 5, pick up Jilly at Farhana's. Please don't say anything, just that I was delayed at school. My Dad will be home by six. I'll try to talk to him as soon as I can."

Once seated in the office, the Officer Calvino spoke first. "Young lady, you could be charged with aggravated assault with a weapon and I could haul you out right now, book you, and put you in a detention center pending your trial. Your principal here tells me you've never been in any trouble before, are a good student, and, if anything, tend to be a peacemaker. She thinks we should be lenient with you. I want to hear what you have to say."

Esri took a deep breath. She thought about Clea. Not that Clea would ever stab somebody, but how Clea would expect Esri to face up to what she had done, and what she could try to do to fix this mess.

"I did a terrible thing. I want to tell you what happened and why I did it. I know that doesn't make it right or excuse what I did. It's really hard to do nothing when you see someone you care about, who's been good to you your whole life, who's one of the best people you've ever known being hurt and threatened. But what I did was wrong. I know that." Esri struggled not to cry.

The principal's phone rang. "Let me get that. It's probably my VP phoning from the hospital," she said. "Hello. Ian? Tell me about the boy . . . no stitches? . . . that's good. How is he?"

The Officer Calvino in, "I want to talk to the boy. What's his name?"

"Hang on, Ian. Officer Calvino wants to talk to Troy. Can you put him on?"

"Troy. This is Officer Calvino. I'm glad to hear you're doing ok. I'm sitting in Principal Wong's office. We've been talking to everyone involved in what happened today and I wanted to hear what you have to say. Why do you think the girl cut you with that sharp stone? . . . If I asked the kids standing on the stairwell what you were doing, would they say? . . . And if someone caught it on video on their phone? . . . Ok, you go on home. And Troy, you promise me not to get any big retaliation ideas. Tomorrow morning when you come to school, go straight to the principal's office. Got that? Ok. You can give the phone back to the vice-principal."

Officer Calvino handed the phone to Principal Wong, "Troy did admit he grabbed Ada's breast, claimed it was an 'accident' but was starting to waffle on that." They turned to Esri.

"Esri? That's your name, right? Can you tell me what the heck you were doing carrying around a razor sharp spearhead or whatever that was? And where did you get it? I must admit that's a new one on me," said Officer Calvino.

"I made it. I did some research for a school project on cave people and talked to a guy that does flint-knapping - that's what it's called - and he showed me how to make it. I guess I liked it and I've been carrying it around ever since. I never had any intention of using it, but yeah, dumb of me to have it because it's super sharp. It's broken now anyway. It's just that boy was so big and Ada's so small and I'm not that big either. I was scared for her. . . I didn't think."

Principal Wong spoke. "Esri, I can't even begin to tell you how shocked and disappointed I am in you about what happened. I know you're a good kid. We've talked a few times when you've met Luka here after he got into trouble. You're a loyal friend and I know you were involved with Jerome's video last year. And, I pulled up your file – your marks are good. You don't skip class. I'm frankly baffled. The thing is, we simply cannot tolerate this kind of behavior at our school. This is very serious. Effective immediately, I'm suspending you from school for a week. It's up to you to stay on top of your school work. But there will be further ramifications. You should be prepared. I'm going to call your home this evening. Will your parents be in?"

Esri nodded, "Yeah, my Dad should be home by six." She walked out of the office and was surprised to see Mr. Romero, her last year's ancient history teacher, waiting for her. She wanted a hole to open up and swallow her. It was almost as bad as facing her dad.

"Esri, I heard about what happened. Do you have time to talk? This is so out of character for you. I want to hear from you what happened and if I can help you in any way."

They went to his classroom. The school was largely empty now. Esri still had time until her dad got home. She borrowed Mr. Romero's cellphone to call Luka and make sure Jilly was okay. Esri described the incident in the stairwell, and after some gentle prodding from Mr. Romero, told him about the baby-killer bullying and the threats to harass Ada's younger brothers and parents. She told him she felt bad about cutting Troy, and was worried that Brad and his friends would retaliate.

Mr. Romero said, "I find it odd that Brad and Troy and the others would pick on Ada. We have lots of kids from many different backgrounds, and sometimes political strife happening overseas does have ripple effects in our school. But in this case, given what I know about the perpetrators, I'm surprised they would get so riled and then to target Ada of all people. It puzzles me. What do you think is going on?"

"I don't know. Maybe Brad has family who are affected by what's happening. I don't know Brad very well, but he seems to enjoy bullying people and maybe saw Ada as an easy target."

"Well, I have two concerns. One is to make sure that you don't get derailed by this and that you stay in school and stay on track."

"Mr. Romero, you don't have to worry on that account. I know I really screwed up. I'm really worried that I'll get kicked out of school. The officer said I could end up in a detention center. I am terrified of that. Even if they want to send me to another school, I'd hate it, but I'd deal with it."

"Esri, you're a good kid. I know that. You should go to university. You've got such a keen interest in learning and a great mind. Just know, I'll do what I can to support your coming back to school here. You can reach out to me whenever you need. My other big concern is how to stop Brad and his friends from retaliating and escalating the situation."

"I know. I'm terrified for Ada, and Luka too. I don't know what to do."

"I'm going to talk to Principal Wong about seeing if we could bring in someone to try doing mediation between you all, but I wanted to talk to you first before going to her. And you should know, she may not agree. Some of the school counselors are trained mediators but their time is limited. Mrs. Wong has a lot of issues she's dealing with in a school this size and may think, perhaps rightly, that someone like Brad is not a good candidate for mediation as he may be too entrenched in his attitudes."

"I'm not sure I know exactly what mediation is. Do we all get in a room together and come to an agreement? I don't know if that would work so well, but I'm certainly willing to try."

"There's a fairly structured process where the participants agree on the steps of the mediation, terms of confidentiality, desired outcomes. It's something we should use more often. I've heard of schools where they even train students to be mediators. Anyway, here are a few links to websites about it. I'll pursue it on my end and see what we can do. Now, you should be getting home. What about your folks?"

"It's just my Dad. He's going to be really upset," Esri struggled not to cry. "He's a super Dad. He works so hard. He'll want to hear everything, but this is by far the worst thing I've ever done. He's going to be so disappointed in me." The tears rolled down.

"I don't think you need to worry. The key, Esri, is to soldier through this. Do the best you can to set things right, and there will come a time when you can look back and say, Yeah, that was a bad time but I learned from it and I'm ok now." Mr. Romero gave a crinkled grin, "And, young lady, no more flintknapping, ok?"

Esri managed a small smile, "Not in this lifetime, anyway. Thanks for this, Mr. Romero."

Esri picked up Jilly at Luka's and got home shortly before Joe arrived. Randi was with him. Now what? Esri knew she had to plunge ahead and talk about what happened because Principal Wong might be calling any minute. She wanted to include Jilly in the conversation as Jilly already knew some of what happened from Luka and would hear more tomorrow from people in the apartment building and kids at school. And, trying to exclude Randi would be awkward and create more problems.

"Dad, I did something very bad today at school and I need to tell you about it. Principal Wong will be calling you soon. Jilly knows some of what happened, and she should hear the whole story."

"Do you want me to leave?" Randi asked.

"No, stay," said Esri. "Dad will want to talk to you about it anyway." Esri told them much the same as she had explained to Mr. Romero, talking more in depth about the taunting and her conversation with Mr. Romero. She was almost finished when the phone range. It was Principal Wong. Joe spoke with her for several minutes, mainly listening. He got off the phone.

"I hardly know what to say, Esri. I never imagined that you would do something to get yourself suspended from school and perhaps even expelled. They're still deciding what to do. You've been distant lately. Is something going on that I don't know about?"

Yes, she thought, I'm leading a double life that I can't talk to you about and I can't stand your girlfriend. Esri said, "I wish I had a good explanation for you, but I don't. But you know Ada, how nice she is, quiet, smart, and funny. She never says anything mean or gossipy about anyone. If you had seen that horrible Troy grabbing her breast and hurting her – I . . . I couldn't stand by and do nothing."

Randi put her hand on Joe's arm. "Sometimes you have to get aggressive with thugs. That's how you keep them in line."

Joe looked at Randi. "I don't really agree, Randi. I worry that it only escalates matters."

"I know, Dad. Mr. Romero talked about that too. He talked to me about maybe trying mediation to sort this out. Do you know how that works?"

"Your principal mentioned Mr. Romero talking to her about a mediation process. I'm a little familiar with it, but your Principal seems to feel that in this case it won't work. She's quite worried about what may happen next. For now, Luka and the one boy are each suspended for 3 days and you and the boy you cut, who witnesses have confirmed was hurting Ada, are both suspended for 6 days each. But it's not over. It may still mean you'll be sent to another school to avoid further problems."

Randi spoke, "I'm wondering, too, Esri, if you spent more time with your Dad and Jilly. You spend a lot of time at that old lady's house. Clea, that's her name? I'll be honest, it seems a little odd that you would prefer being with her over your friends and family."

Why bring Clea into this? Esri thought, but stopped herself from making a snide retort. She was in enough trouble already.