The teacher—Ms. Patel—stepped forward. “Mr. Reeves, I think we should all sit down and—”
“His daughter,” Mr. Reeves repeated. He laughed. It was a strange laugh. Not mean. Not happy. Something in between. “I trained with Daniel Carter for six years. Before he moved to Chicago. Before he had you.”
He looked at Tyler. His face was hard now. “Do you know who Daniel Carter is?”
Tyler shook his head. His face was red. Not from anger anymore. From embarrassment. From confusion.
“Daniel Carter is the only man who ever put me on the mat three times in a row,” Mr. Reeves said. “I was twenty-five. He was nineteen. He was a kid. And he made me look like I’d never trained a day in my life.”
He looked at me. “Your father taught you.”
I nodded.
“He taught you well.”
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say.
Mr. Reeves turned to Ms. Patel. “I need to make a phone call. And I need to talk to my son. Privately. Is there a room we can use?”
Ms. Patel nodded and led him toward the office. Mr. Reeves stopped at the door and looked back at me.
“Lily. Don’t leave. I’ll be right back.”
They were gone for twenty minutes.
Emma came and stood beside me. Her face was pale. “Lily, what just happened?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
The other kids were whispering. Some of them were looking at me differently now. Not like a quiet girl who kept to herself. Like someone they didn’t understand.
Tyler came out first. His face was blotchy. His eyes were red. He didn’t look at me. He walked to the corner of the room and sat down. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t move.
Mr. Reeves came out next. He walked straight to me.
“Lily, I owe you an apology.”
I frowned. “You didn’t do anything.”
“I raised a son who thought it was okay to put his hands on a girl half his size. That’s on me.” He glanced at Tyler. “He’s going to apologize to you. And to Emma. And to every kid he’s bothered. And then he’s going to spend the next six months in a program that teaches him what respect actually means.”
He looked at me. “But that’s not why I came over here.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “I called your father.”
My heart stopped. “You what?”
“He’s on his way. I told him what happened. I told him you handled yourself. I told him you did exactly what he taught you to do.”
I felt my face get hot. “I wasn’t supposed to use it outside the gym.”
Mr. Reeves smiled. It was a sad smile. “Lily, the gym is where you learn. The world is where you live. Your father knows that. He’s not mad at you.”
I looked at the floor. “He’s going to be.”
“No,” Mr. Reeves said. “He’s going to be proud. There’s a difference.”
Dad arrived fifteen minutes later.
