Urquia

Chapter 18: Be Water My Friend

*Author POV*

Andrea went to work at the clinic as usual. She was a bit stiff because she missed training. The receptionist told her about two men looking for her.

-"Damn, girl, two hotties were looking for you yesterday. You've gotta tell me where I can get one!" She said dreamily, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

Andrea laughed. -"I actually met them by mistake. But those two are already taken, sorry, honey." She said as she went on with her shift.

She received a call from her kids' school at noon.

-"Ma'am, you have to come to the school. Damian got into a fight." A bored voice said.

-"On my way," Andy responded.

After excusing herself with her boss, she went to the kid's school. When she got to the secretary's office, she saw three boys sitting, waiting for the principal, she guessed. She inspected them. Two of them were definitely bigger than her son, probably 10 or 11 years old.

One had his nose bleeding and the other one had an ice bag on his left eye. Then she inspected her little man. He had a busted lip but not too deep. Her eyes locked with Damian's, and she raised a brow.

She already felt so much pride in her heart.

-'My little man can kick ass!' But her face was emotionless.

A few minutes later, his English teacher, Mr. Roger, came. After him came four angry parents. They went directly to their kids with "OH MY GOD, BABY"s... and stuff like that. One turned literally red from anger.

The principal came out of his office. He shook everyone's hand, and they all entered the office.

-"What happened?" Angry dad number 1 said before the principal could even sit down.

Teacher: -"I caught Damian here beating these two."

gasps

Angry dad 1: -"What's the meaning of this!"

Angry dad 2: -"Yeah, right!"

Mom 1: -"I want him expelled!"

Mom 2: -"We're going to sue you!"

Angry dad 2: -"How this little kid could possibly beat these two?! How old are you, 5?!"

Andrea: -"He is 8 and he knows karate, for self-defense."

Her voice was quiet and calm, but she wasn't intimidated by their shouting or their threats. The principal shushed them again when they began with their screaming.

Principal: -"We don't condone violence here, Ms. Andrea. We will have t—" He stopped talking when he saw the scary look she gave him. She held her hand up and turned to her kid.

Andrea: -"What happened?"

Damian: -"I was going to class when the bell rang, and I saw them taking a girl to the boys' bathroom. He (pointing at the bleeding nose kid) had put a hand on her mouth. I entered the bathroom and saw them holding her, trying to lift her dress. I told them to stop and pushed him to free her. She ran out of the bathroom. And I left too, but that one (black eye kid) gave me a punch in the hall. That one tried to hold my arms, and I hit him with my elbow on his eye, and the other tried to punch me again, so I hit him with my palm and broke his nose."

Awkward silence. The kids had their eyes wide, and they were pale; they were looking at each other. Andrea looked at her little man with soft eyes.

Principal: -"Do you know this girl?"

Damian: -"I think she is in 6th grade."

Principal: -"Is this true?" Eyeing the two kids with a serious face.

Teacher: -"I didn't see any girl," he pointed.

Mom 1: -"He is clearly lying. We come from a well-known family. My baby would never do something like that!"

Mom 2: -"Who teaches an 8-year-old kid to fight like that?? He broke his nose, for God's sake. That girl is probably a girlfriend or something."

Dad 1: -"I demand he gets punished. He isn't even injured!"

Andrea said calmly: -"Dami, go get the girl with the secretary." He nodded and went on.

Principal: "I'm afraid I'll have to expel your son for two weeks. He can't hurt kids like that, Ms." He said with a stern look.

The four parents were looking at her with satisfaction.

Andrea: "I understand. But first, let us ask the girl and her parents to come here."

When the parents were about to protest, a knock on the door interrupted their tantrums.

-"Come in," said Andrea.

The secretary opened the door, and Damian came first. After him came a blond, cute little girl; she was just a bit taller than Damian.

She had bloodshot eyes from crying, and she was wearing a blue dress with a torn sleeve. She didn't even look up. Damian stood in front of her protectively, and when he did that, Andrea's heart swelled with pride.

Principal: -"Amanda, we are h—" again he was interrupted by Andrea's hand. He was getting irritated, but he gulped when he saw her deadly look. He subtly tugged at his collar, his discomfort growing.

Andrea: -"Miss, can you call her parents to come here? She can't talk until they are here," she said after looking at the girl with a smile and reassuring eyes.

The secretary looked at the principal, and he nodded. 35 minutes later, two very worried parents came through the door.

They looked at everybody, and the mom examined her little girl. She was crying now in her arms. The principal cleared his throat, but Andrea spoke first.

Andrea: -"Damian here can tell you what happened." She looked at her son, and he repeated what he said without thinking.

Dad 3: "Is that true, Mandy?" Clenching his jaw.

The little girl nodded and hugged her mother.

-"They were trying to look under my dress," she said with a low voice. She looked at Damian. -"He saved me."

That was all they needed to know to start shouting back and forth.

The principal shushed them all again when he noticed Andrea was on the phone.

Andrea: -"Yes, please, I'd like to report a s****l harassment." At that, the four parents were pale and sweating, looking from Andrea to the principal. The principal got really nervous; he even pulled at his tie on his neck.

Principal: -"Ms., I don't think it's really necessary... they didn't get to do anything..." he tried to reason with her, his voice tight with discomfort and a bead of sweat tracing his temple.

Andrea put her hand on the phone.

-"You said you don't condone violence. This isn't normal violence; this is s****l harassment. It has to be reported so if these criminals escalate, they will know who to look for... Oh, yes, please, we are at 'Two Rivers School'... Thank you very much." She said it like she was explaining something obvious; she even smiled.

She hangs up and looks at the girl's parents and nods. Then she looks at the girl and smiles again.

Andrea: -"Don't worry, Amanda, these delinquents are going to get punished for what they did to you. You just tell the cops everything that has happened. You won't get into any trouble. And if this has happened before, or they had bullied you or anyone else, you have to tell the cops, okay?"

She looked at the principal with a stern gaze.

-"Now, I know my kid is expelled for his self-defense, but I want those two kicked out of school for sexually harassing an 11-year-old and for punching my 8-year-old son." -"And this teacher, I want his salary suspended until further investigation. He is supposed to keep an eye on the kids, not let them snuggle girls in the boys' bathroom. He shouldn't get paid if he isn't doing his job."

-"I bet you my year's salary this isn't the first time these perverts have done this, and if you don't investigate, I will. And by the time I'm done with them, they'll end up in a reformatory, so I suggest you 'Karens' put them in a military school. You should be ashamed of yourselves for teaching your kids it's okay to behave like this," (looking at the parents).

-"Damian, you did good. Helping a girl in that situation is what anyone with a good heart would do, and you defended yourself against two bigger kids who punched you and touched you without your consent. But the rules here are that violence is not allowed, so what you had to do was call Mr. Roger so he would handle that situation, even if he was too late." She said that sarcastically, looking at him.

Mom 3: -"I'm so thankful you didn't, little man."

Damian: -"I don't like bullies. I would have helped anyone who needed it," smiling at Amanda.

Amanda: -"Thank you very much," she said, blushing.

The cops came, and after they left, Amanda's parents thanked Andrea and Damian. Damian and Amanda became friends on the spot. Then she left with her parents. Andrea and Damian waited in the car for Diana to come out of school.

-"Mami, you're really not mad? I know you said not to fight anybody here, but I didn't think, I just reacted," He said after a moment of silence, his voice small with lingering worry.

-"Baby. You did exactly what I wanted you to do. You saved a girl AND you didn't let anyone bully you. I'm so proud of you. You are a good man, and you know how to kick ass!! Like Bruce Lee said 'Be water my friend!' and you did. You adapted to the situation! Now let's go celebrate! You are officially my favorite superhero! Come here, my big baby," She said while kissing his face everywhere.

-"Mooom stoooop! I'm not a babyyy!" he said when she began rubbing her cheek with his. He squirmed, laughing.

When they picked Diana up, they called Cris to get baby Sam ready, and they all went to eat out and spent the day doing stuff like bowling or laser tag. They came late at night, and she looked at her phone.

She had missed Nathan's call. She hesitated before calling him because it was almost midnight, but she wanted to hear his voice, so she called. He picked up at the first ring.

-"Hey, princess," Nathan said, happy.

-"Hey, how have you been? I saw your missed call, and I knew you couldn't go to sleep without talking to me, so I had to call," she said, smiling and biting her lip.

-"He he, you got that right. I haven't slept since yesterday. We had a serious situation here, and just today we fixed it. I wanted to have dinner with you tonight at the warehouse." He said sheepishly.

-"Was it really serious? Is it your work?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

-"No, no, just a few members of our community were missing, and we had to look for them. Now they are safe, so nothing happened." He said like it was nothing.

-"Oh, okay then. Either way, I couldn't have dinner with you. I spent the day with my family. We went celebrating," she said, grinning.

-"Really? Why is that?"

-"My little man got expelled for two weeks!"

-"Wait, what? I... don't understand."

-"Yeah, he elbowed a 12-year-old kid and broke another's nose." She said excitedly.

She told him what happened, and he listened happily on the phone. He loved to hear her voice excited and proud about her pups. Hell, he was proud of him. He couldn't wait to meet him.

From the rock he was laying on, staring at her window, looking longingly at her talking while laying on her bed, he could see she was enjoying herself, and that made him and his wolf happy. He shifted slightly, the rough stone biting into his arm, grounding him in the moment. He wished he could be there with her, hugging her while she told him all that in person.

He noticed her voice sounding sleepy, but she continued talking, so he didn't stop her.

She fell asleep a few minutes later, and he just listened to her breathing with his heart swelling. Saying 'Good night, princess,' he hung up and started taking his shorts off.

-'Tomorrow we tell her,' Shadow said.

-'Yes, on our night date,' he replied while shifting. He passed a warrior who bowed to him, and he went to the pack's territory.