Mr. McCrae ended up letting Mr. Anthony keep an eye on the kids from a distance for the next two days. And though Mr. McCrae scolded me for talking to a stranger Mr. Anthony spoke up that the reason we met was when I had been “yonked” as he called it, (probably like yanked I think) from the sidewalk by Mia and her friends trying to corner me.

After hearing that, Mr. McCrae relaxed, then went to talk to Mia and her group, giving them one and only one warning to leave me alone, that if they bothered me in any way they would be in immediate detention and a portion of their mark would be taken off the upcoming assignment.

Given that the three boys and Jill liked what they were going to work on, they did what the teacher asked. Kaya didn’t do anything, but even Mr. McCrae said that it would be better if she had better friends.

Hearing that stung, given all that Kaya was dealing with at school I didn’t think she liked being friends with Mia. But was too scared to talk with me.

I wondered for a moment if I was also going to be in trouble since what Mr. McCrae said was true and that I should be careful, but I was. If Mr. Anthony was anything at all like Mr. Green I would have screamed if Mr. Anthony tried anything.

But he never did, and I believed he never would.

The way Mr. Anthony looked at me always had a bit of a sad look in his eyes, even when he smiled.

Though Mr. McCrae seemed to accept it while being careful, Ms. Miller either didn’t notice or just didn’t care. I think she didn’t like me either.

It made me wonder why, I mean, I’m a kid, what did I do to someone who is so much older than me to hate so much?

Was it because I was good in her class?

Or because I knew other languages, remembered things easily or was good with math?

Or was it because she liked Mr. Green and any kid who distracted him from her she would dislike right away? If that was the case then I don’t think she’s good as a teacher.

“Hey, kid,” Mr. Anthony spoke before lowering himself so we could look eye to eye. “What’s on yer mind?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“Because ya got this far away look in yer eyes is why. Is lookin’ at old dusty dino bones not excitin’ enough for ya?”

I shook my head. “The bones are fine, and I don’t think they’re dusty.”

“Then what’s up?”

“A lot of things,” I didn’t want to drag a person into something that could get them hurt. But also because I didn’t think I’d be believed.

“Is it because of that teacher that didn’t show?” I instinctively covered my mouth with my hands, because I couldn’t tell a lie or the truth. “So it is huh? Did he hurt ya?”

I shook my head quickly.

“Did he hurt someone else?”

I just glanced at him.

“Yes then,” how he could know all that from just looking at me was amazing, maybe it was how I was acting, but then I wasn’t a good liar. “What’s his name?”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked softly as I moved my hands away from my mouth.

Mr. Anthony just smiled. “Just curious.”

I just looked at him, before looking back at the exhibit of two dinosaurs fighting. “His name is Nicholas Green, but he goes by Nick, he’s… our school’s gym teacher. He’s scary.”

“Yeah, I bet he is. Well, I can tell ya, kid, that I’ve dealt with a bunch of scary folks. So no need to worry, alright? By the way, what’s the name of yer school?”

* * *

The very next day, Mr. Green had a black eye, some type of cast on his wrist and seemed to have a limp. The moment I saw him I knew who did that. But I hadn’t a clue how Mr. Anthony found him, the reason I knew it was him was when we went to the R.O.M. his hands which he didn’t wear anything but four rings, two on each hand, but when he came today he wore thin black leather gloves.

“Why did you hit him?” I asked, keeping my voice low as we were at the back of the group. “You could get in big trouble.”

He gave a smile. “But I won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Cause he’s nothin’ but a coward. People like that won’t do a thing when yer the one who has control and they’re scared that what they don’t want to be known will get out.”

He sounded so sure of that, that Mr. Green wouldn’t do anything now. Yet, a part of me felt like nothing would change even after what Mr. Anthony did.

We continued more of the large exhibit since it was so big it would take three days to see the whole thing, and it looked like some other schools were doing the same as us.

When lunchtime came, me, Lukas, and Mr. Anthony were in the café that was inside the R.O.M for lunch, all of us kids brought our own food as did Mr. McCrae and Ms. Miller, Mr. Anthony got lunch from Mr. McCrae, a sandwich and coffee.

“Man, I could just watch him walk all day.” Mr. Anthony said with a smile as his chin rested in the palm of his hand while his elbow rested on the table as he watched Mr. McCrae walk back to the table he shared with Ms. Miller.

“So like my Dad,” Lukas says, and when Mr. Anthony looked at him Lukas added. “He and my Dad are going to marry next year in the summer.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Well, congrats! Given how cool your second dad is, I bet your first dad is the best of all.”

Lukas gave a big smile while his face was full of his sandwich. “Yeah!” He said after he swallowed. Then he coughed.

“Woah, here, take a drink.” Mr. Anthony slid the juice box closer to Lukas before waving to Mr. McCrae who came over quickly, I noticed Ms. Miller rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Lukas, Lukas are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. I shouldn’t talk when eating.”

“You sure?”

Lukas nodded. “Yup.”

Mr. McCrae patted his shoulder. “Okay,” then he looked at me. “Amalie, give me a shout if you think something’s come up okay?”

I nodded. “I will Mr. McCrae.”

The teacher nodded but his worried eyes stayed on Lukas before he got up and went back to where Ms. Miller was but not before looking back to where we were and taking a seat but still kept an eye on us.

“I bet ya he’s gonna be a great Dad to ya,” Mr. Anthoy said. “Ya gotta tell me how that guy an’ yer dad met one day.”

Then Lucas looked at Mr. Anthony and asked suddenly. “Are you a gangster?”

“Nope,” was Mr. Anthony’s response while eating his sandwich. “What makes ya think that bud?”

“Well, in the shows on TV gangsters wear clothes like what you’re wearing and how you talk too. Where are you from?”

“New York, family’s Italian, in case yer were wonderin’, but I ain’t no gangster, that kinda life ain’t for me.”

“Just because he dresses a certain way doesn’t make him a gangster.” Then I looked at him and asked. “What’s a gangster anyway?”

He looked a bit annoyed. “Ya say all that stuff an’ ya don’t even know what that word means?” I shook my head. “Ya kiddin’ me. Look, a gangster usually means it’s a person doin’ some not-so-nice things to somebody else. But you should also know, not all folks, regardless of what they come from, are bad. Just misunderstood.”

“So like Mia then,” I say. “She’s misunderstood by a lot of people.”

“Wait, ya don’t know what gangster means but ya know what misunderstood means?” he then frowned. “Wait, hold on, whose Mia?”

“The girl with the blonde highlights wearing overalls,” Lukas said as he looked at Mia who quickly looked away when she saw him looking at her.

I remained quiet, glancing at the back of Mia’s head while I opened the container to eat my lunch. It was leftovers from dinner, duck with spiced berries, stuffing and roasted veggies. The container the food was in would stay warm until I opened it.

“Whoa, yer food is sure lookin’ fancy.” Mr. Anthony said with a whistle when seeing the food I brought with me. “Yer folks a chef?”

“My Dad likes to cook,” I say. “He always cooks for me. Though people don’t think it’s normal. Since it’s just my Dad and me.”

“No Ma?”

I shook my head.

“We’re in the “No Mom’s” club,” Lukas said.

“Other kids think we’re strange because of it, that we’re weird for not having two parents,” I say as I take a drink of milk.

“We kinda don’t talk about it,” Lukas added.

“Mmm, I can relate,” Mr. Anthony said. “My Ma, skipped town when my sis an’ I were a bit older than yous guys. But ya wanna’ know somethin’? Not havein’ a Ma don’t make ya a weirdo’ yer just, another person. Yer just yerself.”

“You want to join?” Lukas asked.

“What? Ya wanna make me an honorary member of yer club?” Mr. Anthony asked. “I think ya’d both have to ask yer dads, don’t want some interloper joinin’.”

“No you’re not,” Lukas laughed. “Right, Amalie?”

I nodded but kept eating, I still couldn’t help but think of what Mr. Anthony did to that monster, I hoped that maybe the monster would stop.

Yet another part deep down felt like it was the beginning of something far worse to come. It was something that continued to grow as the day continued until it was time we had to go back to school.

And as if he could read my mind, Mr. Anthony handed me a piece of paper when we were getting ready to go on the bus.

“It’s my phone number,” he said. “If ya think somethin’s wrong, or, that guy is beein’ creepy an’ ya can’t talk to no one. Call, okay?”

I just looked at the piece of paper before looking back at him. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Yer a good kid, and ya reminded me a lot of someone. Someone I care about, so yeah, even if ya just want to talk. Ya can call me. My line will almost always be open to ya if ya ever need it.”

I still couldn’t understand. “But you don’t have to.”

“Yer right, I don’t, but ya didn’t have to do what ya did for me yesterday, and ya still did it. Besides, us weirdos with no Ma’s gotta stick together, don’t we?”

* * *

“So, how was your trip at a museum Amalie,” Elain said after the second night from the R.O.M. We sat in the living room as I worked on an assignment in a notebook that I would hand in for Mr. McCrae that was due tomorrow. It was to tell the teacher what we saw, what we could understand and what was our favourite dinosaur. “Did you like it?”

“I did,” I then asked. “Have you ever gone to the R.O.M since you moved here Elain?”

“Nope, but from what Kaya tells me, it makes me think I should go check it out for myself. Though, I’m kind of partial to the stuff from Egypt. So I might check that out.” She says as she watches me draw a Barosaurus, the tallest dinosaur at the museum. Its long neck looked cool and its name was Gordo. I liked the name, and I hoped it did so even if Gordo was now just fancy bones.

“How’s the cat?” I asked next. “Are you going to keep it?”

“From the looks of it, we are. Especially when Dad saw her,” she then showed me a picture of the cat with a bandage on her back leg and her dad kissing the cat on the cheek and looking happy. I think they were at the vet when the picture was taken “He is currently making a little cat nook in the basement where he does his work so that when we bring the cat home it has a place where it can just relax and not worry about anything.”

“What are you going to name her?”

“My Dad wants to name her Tori because she’s a Tortoiseshell cat. It was either that or Pomi, because of the white tip on her tail, and it’s very rare for those breeds.”

“And what about your Mom?”

Elain laughed as she remembered something. “Oh her face, when seeing the cat, it was pure gold. I think the cat warmed her heart, so yeah, we are keeping the cat. Never had a pet before, so it’ll be pretty different.” She then changed the topic. “Amalie, how are things going at school?”

“It’s okay, why are you asking?”

“Well, Kaya doesn’t talk about school at all. Unless she’s stuck on a math question. Normally she’s very chatty about what she did during the day. Do you know anything?”

I stopped drawing. “She doesn’t play with me and doesn’t talk to me in class anymore so I don’t know. I’m sorry Elain.”

“Don’t be sorry, and you know, you can call me El or Ellie, either one is fine. You don’t need to always be so formal with me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” she then asked me. “Who’s that with you in your drawing?”

“The boy in the chair is Lukas, and the other is Mr. Anthony, he helped our class since we only had two teachers.”

“Yeah? He seems nice,” the way she said nothing else made me look at her. “How did Kaya look when you were there? Was she enjoying it?”

I thought back to all the times I saw her in the R.O.M, and how she acted with other classmates besides Mia or those of Mia’s friends. Kaya did look happy, but also sad.

“I think she’s lonely,” I tell Elain.

“She looks lonely to you?”

“Sometimes, it’s only what I’ve seen since she doesn’t want to be friends, I don’t want to bug her in case someone else takes it the wrong way.”

Elain was quiet. I think she was worried.

“She was happy at the museum though,” I say. “But she avoids me a lot, so I don’t know if she’s sad or just doesn’t like me at all.” this wasn’t something I could tell Elain right away, mainly because I wasn’t sure how she would react. And from what Kaya told me about her big sister’s last school experience, I didn’t want her to blame Kaya for what I was dealing with.

Elain was silent for a moment. “Have you been having to deal with a lot of bullies since you started school?”

“I have, but I know things could be worse, for them and me.”

“That doesn’t mean they can get a pass for bullying you,” Elain said. “Is your teacher not doing anything to stop it?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think she likes teaching kids, at least kids our age.”

“Amalie, do you have a nickname?”

I shook my head.

“Then would you be cool if I gave you one?”

My eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a bit, since I’m going to be watching you for a while. Let me think of some and I can get your thoughts on it, okay?”

I smiled. “Sure!”

For the first time in a long while, I felt like I might have some people in my life that I could call a friend. It made me happy, so very happy.

If only I could hold on to that happiness for as long as possible until that horrible event took place…