Wonder

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 go home and talk about it with your mom and dad, and maybe in
the morning you’ll figure it all out a bit more.”
“That sounds like a good plan, Mr. Tushman,” said Mom, nodding.
“Thank you.”
“Everything is going to be okay,” said Mr. Tushman, walking over
to the door, which was closed. “I know you’re a nice kid, Jack. And I
know that sometimes even nice kids do dumb things, right?” He
opened the door.
“Thank you for being so understanding,” said Mom, shaking his
hand at the door.
“No problem.” He leaned over and told her something quietly that I