"Julian's mouth was bleeding, Jack," said Mr. Tushman. "You knocked out a tooth, did
you know that?"
"It was just a baby tooth," I said.
"Jack!" said Mom, shaking her head.
"That's what Nurse Molly said!"
"You're missing the point!" Mom yelled.
"I just want to know why," said Mr. Tushman, raising his shoulders.
"It'll just make everything worse," I sighed.
"Just tell me, Jack."
I shrugged but I didn't say anything. I just couldn't. If I told him that Julian had called
August a freak, then he'd go talk to Julian about it, then Julian would tell him how I had
badmouthed August, too, and everybody would find out about it.
"Jack!" said Mom. I
started to cry. "I'm sorry.. ."
Mr. Tushman raised his eyebrows and nodded, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he
kind of blew into his hands, like you do when your hands are cold. "Jack," he said, "I
don't really know what to say here. I mean, you punched a kid. We have rules about
that kind of thing, you know? Automatic expulsion. And you're not even trying to explain
yourself."
I was crying a lot by now, and the second Mom put her arms around me, I started to
bawl.
"Let's, um... ," said Mr. Tushman, taking his glasses off to clean them, "let's do this,
Jack. We're out for winter break as of next week anyway. How about you stay home for
the rest of this week, and then after winter break you'll come back and everything will
be fresh and brand new. Clean slate, so to speak."
"Am I being suspended?" I sniffled.
"Well," he said, shrugging, "technically yes, but it's only for a couple of days. And I'll tell
you what. While you're at home, you take the time to think about what's happened.
And if you want to write me a letter explaining what happened, and a letter to Julian
apologizing, then we won't even put any of this in your permanent record, okay? You