She had been inside reviewing ceremony schedules when a student ran into the office saying two seniors were fighting outside. Porter reached the courtyard expecting swinging fists and found Talia standing apart while three students surrounded Claire.
“What happened?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Claire spoke first.
“She shoved me.”
Talia looked at her in disbelief.
Porter raised one hand.
“Everybody stop talking.”
She turned toward Ethan.
“Were you photographing?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Ethan looked at his camera.
“Almost all of it.”
That answer changed the investigation before anyone entered an office.
Talia was taken to one conference room.
Claire went to another.
No one was injured beyond a faint red mark on Talia’s wrist and the soreness Claire reported from being pushed backward.
Denise arrived twenty-five minutes later.
She entered the room still wearing hospital scrubs beneath a cardigan because she had left work immediately after Talia called. Talia sat at the table with the damaged graduation cap in front of her.
Denise saw the dent first.
Then she saw the dirty tassel.
Her expression changed.
“She stepped on that?”
“Yes.”
“On purpose?”
“Yes.”
Denise picked it up carefully.
The embroidered strip inside remained visible.
YOU CARRIED US TOO.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Denise asked, “Did she hit you?”
“She tried.”
“Did you hit her?”
“I pushed her off after she kept coming at me.”
“Did you keep going?”
“No.”
Denise nodded.
“Okay.”
Talia waited.
“That’s it?”
“For right now.”
Denise sat beside her.
“You don’t need to present your case to me before I’ve even watched the evidence.”
Talia’s face tightened.
She had not realized how badly she needed to hear that.
The tears came suddenly.
Not because of the damaged cap.
Not entirely because of Claire.
Months of watching her own tone, face, words, reactions, and anger finally became heavier than maintaining them.
Denise pulled her chair closer.
“You’re allowed to be mad.”
Talia shook her head.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Talia stared at the cap.