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Emma hoped Claire stepped in dog poop. Or maybe got it in her perfect stupid blonde hair. Or maybe she’d drop her sandwich in some and then eat it. Yeah, that would be good. Anything to get her back for being mean…and a know-it-all…and the teacher’s favorite. Of course Ms. Missouri didn’t hear Claire on the playground or see it when she broke Emma’s favorite pencil on purpose. No, she only heard Claire’s perfect answers and saw her perfect stupid drawings. Stupid Claire. Those things were all bad and annoying and she hated her already but this was the last straw. This was downright evil. Claire’s parents weren’t even married anymore anyway. They didn’t even live together but she still decided it was funny to tease Emma because she didn’t have a mommy. Emma tried to ignore it, then she tried to be mean back but she was never really good at that, and finally she cried. She fought the tears and swallowed endlessly to hold them back but they came anyway and now here she was, in a staring contest with her worst enemy with tears streaming down her face. Not her best moment.
“Oh, poor wittle Emma. Are you a cry baby?” Claire’s face scrunched up as she imitated Emma’s sobs.
“Shut up!”
“No, it’s more fun this way.”
“I’m…I’m telling!”
“Oh, poor cry baby! Gunna run to Ms. Missouri? Hafta tell the teacher? Aw poor Emma!”
“No! I’m gunna tell my dad and he’s gunna tell your mom and you’re gunna get in trouble!” The threat of parents seemed to shift something in Claire’s demeanor.
“Yeah, well…you’re just jealous I have a mom!”
“Shut up! My dad’s gunna get you!”
“Your dad can’t get me, I’m just a little girl!”
“Well, he’ll get your dad!”
“Ha! No way! My dad is way stronger than your stupid dad!”
“Nu-uh! My dad is the bestest strongest dad and he’s gunna kick your dad’s butt!”
“Ha! I see mine! You just wait!” Claire ran off away from the front steps towards a tall man in a tan coat. She caught up to him and as he bent down to hear her better, the roar of a car tore away Emma’s attention.
“Daddy!”
“Hey princess. What’s shaking? Wait, are you crying?”
Emma clung to the open window, “Get out! You hafta fight Claire’s dad! She’s being mean to me and you gotta fight him!”
“Uh, what? Pumpkin, you’re not making any sense. I ain’t fighting anyone unless I got a real good reason.”
“But this is a good reason! See, he’s coming over now! You hafta fight him!”
Emma’s dad turned his head away from her and looked out the driver’s side window.
“That guy? Pumpkin, I think if I blew on him he’d fall over. I’m not fighting him,” her dad finished with a laugh.
Claire’s voice was audible again, “See Daddy! That’s the girl! She was mean to me so now you gotta beat up her dad!”
He answered in a deep voice, “Claire, you know I don’t condone violence of any kind. This behavior is unacceptable.”
The man and Claire reached their car. The man looked the car up and down and did the same to her dad when he got out. The girls’ pleas overlapped each other. “Please Daddy!” “She was mean!” “Make her stop!” “Get him, Daddy!”
“Hello. We seem to be meant for a duel.”
“Ha, yeah. So you’re Claire’s dad?”
“Cas.”
“Gotcha. I’m Dean. So ladies, what exactly happened here?”
Their shrill voices collided once again as they fought for the floor.
“Stop!” Dean held up his hands, “One at a time. Claire, let’s hear your side.”
Emma listened with a frown on her face as Claire spun a tale of Emma kicking her as she left the classroom. Emma wanted to stop her but she knew her dad and if she interrupted she’d never get a chance to talk.
“Okay. An interesting story. Emma?”
Suddenly Emma didn’t know what to say. How could she sum up months of bullying in one go? How did she admit how much Claire’s teasing hurt? What would she say when her dad asked why she hadn’t said something earlier?
“She…she….she said I didn’t have a mommy!” A sob broke out of Emma and she fell against her dad’s leg.
“Claire! Is she telling the truth?” Claire’s dad fixed her with a hard glare. He seemed to know her earlier story was a lie.
“Well, it’s the truth!”
“Claire, her mother may not be here but you cannot tease her about it. How are you supposed to treat people?
Claire looked down at her feet, “With kindness.”
“Is that how you’ve been treating Emma?”
“No.”
“How are you going to atone?”
Emma didn’t know what atone meant but if it meant someone was finally going to give Claire was she deserved then she liked it.
Claire heaved a sigh and turned towards Emma, “I’m sorry.”
Those words did nothing for Emma so she kept her face against her dad’s leg and said nothing. One little apology couldn’t undo all the hurt she’d been suffering. Dean reached down and detached her death grip. He knelt down to her level and wiped her eyes.
“Whatdya say, kiddo? You accept her apology?”
“No,” Emma shook her head for good measure.
“Why not? I thought it was a good one.”
Rage built up again in Emma’s body. “She’s been mean to me forever and she’s always teasing me and breaking my pencils and tripping me and saying I don’t have a mommy!”
Cas’s eyes grew wide and he looked down at Claire. “You and I are going to have a long talk tonight and then you’re going to write Emma a very long letter. Do you understand?”
Claire nodded with fear in her eyes.
Cas bent down and put one hand on Emma’s shoulder and the other on Dean’s. “I’m very sorry for what Claire has been doing to you, Emma. I would guess she’s been taking her anger for me out on you. She and I will talk tonight and tomorrow she’ll have an apology letter for you. Is there anything else I can do?”
Emma liked the man but that didn’t really make anything better. She shook her head and turned her face into her dad’s chest.
Cas turned to Dean and sighed, “I am truly sorry. Her anger over the divorce has taken much longer to recede then we thought. I had no idea she was taking it out on anyone other than me. I’m very sorry.”
“Thanks, man. Hey Claire?” The sound of her name startled Claire and she gave Dean a frightened look. “I’m sorry your parents broke up.”
This small gesture broke something in Claire and soon both girls were crying. Cas reached an arm out to his daughter and brought her into the pseudo group hug that had formed.
Claire started choking out apologies in between her sobs, “I’m so-sorry, Emma. I didn’t mean to-to be so mean. I’m sorry, Em-mm-ma.”
The girls found each other in a hug and the men let go. Dean flopped down on the ground behind them and Cas stood up. Dean looked up at the other dad,
“So, what? They’re frenemies now?
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Dude, don’t you watch tv?”
“Yes. I’m very fond of shark week.”
“Sick. Me too! But seriously, give Doctor Sexy a chance sometime. You’ll learn something new, I promise.”
Cas raised an eyebrow alongside a smirk. “Do you and Emma have dinner plans?”
“Uh, no? Why?”
“Maybe we should foster this moment and go out for burgers.”
“Dude, yes. But not the place on 2nd because their veggie burgers suck.”
“Oh. You didn’t strike me as the veggie burger type.”
“Not me! Emma. Doesn’t like killing things with cute faces and all that. But uh, yeah. Meet you at the Roadhouse?”
“I walked. You could drive all of us?”
“Are you always this ballsy?”
“Only when I really want something.”
“You really want a burger, huh?”
“Something like that.”
Emma gave one last sniff and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Claire was rubbing her eyes and didn’t see the looks their dads were giving each other. Emma was glad she and Claire might not be enemies anymore but now she was afraid they might be a lot more than that.
“Uh, Daddy?”
“Yeah pumpkin?”
“Do we hafta get dinner with them?”
“Yes we do, baby. Yes we do.”