Page 6 of Breaking Rules

Somehow, I doubted either of them would appreciate it very much if I followed through.

Evanne, however, didn’t have to like it. I’d do what was best for her, even if she was furious with me. Lumen…she was something else.

“Am I going to have school tomorrow?” she asked as we pulled into the driveway. “We were supposed to have a spelling test after lunch, and I studied for it.”

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” I said, resisting the impulse to tell her that she wasn’t going back to that school anytime soon. I needed to wait and see, make an informed decision that would be the best thing for my daughter.

I also needed to figure out when and what I was going to tell Keli. My gut said she would find a way to make this my fault somehow.

“Someone did something bad, didn’t they?” Evanne asked as I unlocked the door and then reset the alarm code.

“What makes you say that?” I asked, heart squeezing painfully.

What had she seen? Heard?

Evanne shrugged. “I just thought that must’ve been what happened because all the teachers looked angry like they do when kids are bad.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer to the question I was about to ask, but I had to ask it. I had to know. “What happened today?”

“Well, we had a math quiz, and I did really good on it. Then we learned about–”

“I meant during lunch.” I really hoped her automatic assumption that I wanted to hear about her whole day meant whatever had happened hadn’t made a lasting impression.

“Oh,that.” She headed for the kitchen, and I followed. “Well, I was eating mac ‘n cheese and somebody dropped something two times. Or dropped two things. The teachers and lunch aides got real quiet, like they were mad, and then they told us all to line up. We weren’t done eating, but they said we had to go outside right away.”

Somebody had dropped something.

“I think there were spiders and snakes.”

I blinked, confused by the apparent change of subject. “Where were there snakes and spiders,mo chride?”

“I think that’s why we had to go outside,” she said matter-of-factly. “I think someone dropped some boxes with snakes and spiders in them, and that’s why we had to leave.”

My eyebrows shot up. She had quite the imagination, my daughter. “Spiders and snakes.”

She nodded solemnly. “That’s why I was scared in the parking lot. I didn’t want them to get out and bite anyone.”

“You’re not scared now, then?”

She shook her head. “I knew we didn’t have any in our car so we’re safe now.”

On occasion, a child’s logic actually made a wee bit of sense. “Did you ask Ms. Browne about what happened?”

“No. She was busy when she found us.”

“Found you? She wasn’t with you already?” My temper flared.

“It wasn’t her turn to be in the cafeteria with us.” Evanne skipped to the kitchen. “Can I have a snack?”

Lumen had left my daughter alone. I frowned as I followed Evanne. Lumen hadn’t simply leftmychild, though. She’d left all of them. Her job was to take care of the children under her charge, and she’d simply been somewhere else. How could she have done that?

“What do you want?” I asked, opening the refrigerator. “Do all of the teachers leave their classes when it’s time to eat?”

“I didn’t get my dessert at lunch,” she informed me seriously. “I want a cookie.”

“All right.” I reached for the box of shortbread cookies Theresa had sent to us a few days ago. “But just two.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “And yes.”