For one terrifying moment she thought Imani was injured because the white shirt beneath the jacket clung darkly to her skin.
“What happened?”
Imani stopped.
She tried answering.
Nothing came out.
Her hands began shaking harder.
Finally she said, “They set a bucket over the door.”
Wilcox looked into the classroom.
Avery was standing again.
Harper remained near the desks.
Phones everywhere.
Imani added, “And Avery hit me first.”
Then the adrenaline ended.
She started crying.
Not loudly.
Her face simply collapsed after months of refusing to give Avery the reaction she wanted.
Wilcox guided her toward the nurse.
Nobody told her to calm down.
The school nurse found no serious injury.
Imani had redness along one forearm, soreness near her shoulder, and a small scrape where a ring had caught skin during the struggle.
She was also cold.
The nurse gave her dry sweatpants and a school sweatshirt from the athletic office.
Monique arrived twenty-five minutes later.
She stopped when she saw her daughter in borrowed clothes.
“What happened to what you were wearing?”
“Wet.”
“How?”
Imani looked at her mother.
“Bucket over the door.”
Monique closed her eyes.
“And then?”
“Avery tried to hit me.”
“Did she hit you?”
“Not clean.”
Monique sat beside her.
“Anybody else?”
“Harper jumped in.”
Her mother became silent in the way Imani recognized as far more dangerous than shouting.
Terrence arrived next.
He asked about injuries first.
Then he asked whether Imani continued once Avery and Harper stopped.
“No.”
He nodded.
Monique looked at him.
“Do not turn this into fight analysis.”
“I asked if she was hurt first.”
Imani laughed through tears.
The sound helped.
The investigation began immediately.
Lakeshore Ridge collected eighteen student videos before lunch.
The shortest clips began during the fight.
Those videos alone looked chaotic.
Imani striking Avery.
Harper entering.
Bodies moving between desks.