“We’re not sure, but the school has a zero tolerance policy for fighting. That means both students involved need to be disciplined in the same manner for the same fight.”

“But you have no idea what it was about?” Tina sounded like a lawyer defending her daughter, making Angelica smile, but she looked away to hide it.

“Neither student is talking so until they do, no I don’t know what happened.”

“I highly doubt that Angelica would start a fight. It’s not her nature to be aggressive like that.” Tina cringed inwardly at that statement, knowing that her daughter had a lot of Bette’s personality traits and thus it was natural for her to get aggressive.

She took a deep breath and looked back at Angelica. This time mother and daughter made eye contact and Angelica saw it, the disappointment etched in her mother’s stare. It brought tears to her eyes, Tina always seemed to have that effect on her when she was disappointed.

“Ms. Kennard, there’s little I can do when the district has a strict policy on this. Whether she was defending herself or not, Angelica was fighting where the appropriate response would’ve been to report what was going on to a teacher. Her punishment is clear by the district’s policy, she’s suspended.”

Tina rolled her eyes making Angelica crack a small smile.

“I can’t believe you think a child has time to alert a teacher in the midst of a fight, it just isn’t realistic. I know my daughter and she wouldn’t have started a fight, which tells me that she was defending herself.”

“It’s policy Ms. Kennard,” Tina could see she was making no progress talking sensibly to the principle.

“How long is this suspension?”

“Well today is Friday so it’ll be for the remainder of the day, all of Monday, and she can return to school Tuesday morning.”

Tina got to her feet, ignoring Mrs. Snell’s outreached hand, and grabbed her purse turning to leave.

“Thank you for calling me and I can assure you this won’t happen again. I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Tina’s voice was hardened. Angelica knew that it would be an argument as soon as they were alone, yet she wasn’t interested in talking to Tina or Bette how their choices were now creating issues for her in school.

“Let’s go Angie and we’ll talk about this when we get home.”

Bette answered her cell phone on the first ring hoping it was Tina with news on Angelica. She hadn’t been able to get through the rest of the catalog she was working on, she merely paced the length of her office waiting for Tina to call.

“Hello?”

“Hey it’s me,” Tina sounded very angry. “She’s suspended until Tuesday morning for fighting.”

“Why was she fighting? That’s not like her Tina,” Bette was astounded that her daughter would be involved in a fight.

“I know it’s not, I have no idea what happened, and she’s not talking. Maybe you should come over after work so we can talk about her punishment in person? I know how busy you are with the show, but I think we should handle this one together.”

“That’ll take a while seeing as she probably has a hot date tonight since she’s the great Bette Porter,” Angelica mumbled with her arms folded across her chest.

Tina whipped her head around as she stopped at the light, “Angie did you want to say something to me?” Tina hadn’t heard what was said, just that she had mumbled something with a sarcastic look on her face.

“No,” Angelica looked straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact with Tina. “You’re acting like I can’t hear you though, I am right here in the car Mom.”

“I’ll see you at the house when you can get over here,” Tina pulled into the driveway and hung up the phone. Angelica got out of the car, ran to the house and into her room, locking the door all before Tina even had a chance to grab her purse and briefcase to make it inside.

Angelica sat down on her bed with tears in her eyes. She had never been in trouble before, never been picked on either, but now in a new school it seemed things were changing. She hated the feeling of being in trouble, of being teased and feeling the need to defend herself. She didn’t think her mom’s would understand, all her life they’ve acted as if her coming into this world was under the most normal set of circumstances.

Regardless of how her mothers acted, Angelica didn’t feel like everyone else. If the standard of what her friends had was considered ‘normal’, she was reminded each day that she didn’t have that. Angelica was the only one in their group that had 2 mothers, adding to that they were separated. Most of her friends’ parents were still married to one another. Angelica knew her family was unique, she had 2 moms, a handful of aunts that were very diverse themselves, and an uncle that was once considered her “manny”. Angelica often was frustrated that added to all of those facts, she was biracial, with only Bette being able to understand what that meant.

Her friends knew her family, they often would tell her how they wished they had her family instead of their own. However, they weren’t the ones being teased for it. Her friends would gush at how “cool” Bette and Tina were. When her friends knew she was spending the night at Bette’s, they often would ask to have a sleepover so they could spend time there too. As they got older, her friends even began to idolize her aunts, wanting to hang out with them as if her they were their friends. Angelica felt lucky to feel so much love, but lately, that love wasn’t enough when kids at school picked on her for her mothers’ choices.

Today was no exception, it went as the last 2 weeks had gone in a new environment, she had entered junior high school. Angelica had been so excited when she ran home after cheerleader tryouts, gushing to Tina that she had made the squad. Tina was so excited, they both immediately called Bette who rushed right over with pizza and a cake to celebrate. Angelica felt that this school year would be the best yet. She was making new friends and now had her chance to be on a team, to feel that closeness with new girls her age. The only problem in Angelica’s new found social life was Melissa, the girl that she beat out for the one open spot on the squad.

The day after the team was announced Melissa waited outside for Angelica before school started. Angelica got out of Tina’s car with her other friends and started to make her way inside the school. Melissa stopped her once Tina had pulled away.

“Who was that?” she asked in an angry tone.

“My mom,” Angelica ripped her arm out of Melissa’s grip. “What about it?”

Melissa walked away, making a mental note that Tina’s skin tone didn’t match Angelica’s. The next day was much of the same, however, Bette had dropped her off. Angelica was again questioned, and without thinking, she admitted that Bette was also her mother. Angelica would never assume to deny either of her parents, but when the words had left her mouth causing Melissa to laugh, she knew she had made a mistake. Melissa quickly spread it around school in record time that Angelica’s parents were lesbians.

Angelica wasn’t certain what happened today that made her angry enough to fight back. She heard Melissa and some of her friends call her names and begin to poke fun at Bette and Tina. It was the exact behavior that had been going on for 2 weeks. Angelica walked up to Melissa with the intent of putting an end to the teasing. Her friends tried to hold her back, but she pushed her way through a crowd and grabbed Melissa’s shirt, shoving her against a locker. She pulled her closer and repeated the motion again, this time harder. Melissa grabbed Angelica’s shirt to steady herself. She then swung at Angelica, making contact with the side of her head. That’s when the teacher broke through the gathered crowd to stop the fight and send them both to the office.

Tina knocked on the door bringing Angelica out of her thoughts as she held her teddy bear close to her chest. Her tears fell fast down her cheeks.

“Angie, please talk to me, tell me what’s going on?” Tina’s plea was heartfelt and yet Angelica couldn’t bring herself to tell her mother the awful things that were said about her and Mama B.

“Baby, please I want to help. I know I was angry but I’ve had a chance to calm down and I need to know what happened.”

Tina’s plea was met with silence aside from the occasional sniffle from the other side of the door. Tina tried the doorknob, already knowing it would be locked, remembering Bette’s words of advice about taking the lock off the door in case of an emergency. This wasn’t an emergency, but Tina still made a mental note to do that over the weekend.

“I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me,” Tina was getting impatient.