Again, her daughter refused to answer, burying her head in her pillow to stifle her tears.

The doorbell rang and Tina quickly opened it thinking Bette had forgot her key. She was surprised it wasn’t Bette standing there.

“Hello Ms. Kennard, is Angelica home?” Angie’s friends were standing there looking afraid at the expression that greeted them on Tina’s face.

“Yes she is, but she’s grounded right now.”

Bette pulled up as Tina talked to Angelica’s friends.

“She can’t come out until we get to the bottom of what happened in school today. If she really started a fight, don’t count on her coming out anytime soon.”

Tina watched her ex-wife make her way up the driveway and onto the sidewalk leading to the house. She smiled at how attractive Bette looked, her hair curly, her dress more casual since she had shed her jacket. She was wearing Tina’s favorite outfit, a black vest with black pants and her heeled boots. The pants accented every inch of her slim body. Tina smiled at Bette’s carefully planned look, her arms well toned, her skin glowing. Tina suddenly got the familiar feeling she always got when she saw Bette, the excitement in her stomach was just as strong as it had been the first time she saw her.

Tina looked down at Angelica’s friends and hid a smile. They were watching Bette just as intently as she was. The group of young girls hardly blinked, it was obvious to Tina that a few of her daughter’s friends had a crush on Bette. The others just seemed to admire her for her confidence and “coolness” factor.

Bette made her way past Angie’s friends, smiling at them, as she kissed Tina on the cheek.

“What happened?” she asked causing Tina to shrug, not knowing how to get the information out of her daughter.

“She locked herself in her room so I have no clue.”

Bette looked at the young girls in front of them, she arched her brow in question, the group not responding. Tina smiled at the fact that just a moment ago, the young group couldn’t tear their gaze away from Bette. Now, they all avoided it like the plague.

“Cathy, you want to tell us what’s going on?” Bette was hopeful knowing Cathy would be more likely to tell the story of the fight before their daughter would.

“Angie was picked on Ms. Porter,” she said quickly, just as Bette expected.

“Picked on?” Tina leaned against the door jam, her backside slightly touching Bette’s front causing her to take a deep breath to calm her hormones. She often found herself fantasizing about Tina, needing that perfect lover she once had. But they had worked hard on forging a friendship and she didn’t want to ruin that by pushing for more.

“Yeah,” one of her other friends spoke up, “I was there and heard what that other girl said.”

“Which was?” Bette asked.

“I’d rather not say,” the young girl looked away.

“Why?” Tina asked nicely this time, her anger fading at hearing that Angelica was defending herself rather than instigating it.

“It isn’t very nice,” Cathy said.

“Cathy,” Bette smiled at her, “We’ve known you since you were 5 years old, you can talk to Tina and I about anything. I hope you know that.”

Cathy just nodded as her other friends began to look nervous.

“If you guys want to go you can,” Tina said, “but Cathy we’d like to know what happened so we can help Angie. That’s all we want to do.”

Tina opened the door wider as Cathy stepped through. The other friends quickly made their exit telling Cathy to call them when she got home. They stood in the living room as Bette bent down to Cathy’s eye level.

“Honey,” she started calmly, “no matter what you say we’re not going to be angry with you or Angelica. Whatever was said has obviously hurt her deeply and we’d like to help her.”

Cathy avoided Bette’s gaze, looking all around, and then taking a deep breath to relay the story.

“The other day this mean girl that doesn’t like Angie because she beat her out for her spot on the squad saw Ms. Kennard drop Angie off at school.” Cathy shifted her stance nervously. “The next day you drove us Ms. Porter.”

“Okay,” Tina nodded her head waiting for the story and growing a tad impatient. Bette put her hand on Tina’s forearm to settle her down so Cathy would continue.

“So this girl started calling Angie names.”

“What kind of names Honey?” Bette asked.

“She called her a, well, she called her a bastard saying that she didn’t have a dad. She said stuff about you and Ms. Kennard being lesbians.”

Tina felt her anger beginning to rise, she was slightly amazed at how easily Bette picked up on this and, though working to control her own temper, was able to put a hand around Tina’s waist to calm her down.

“So she called Angie a bastard and Angie knew what that meant?”

Cathy nodded.

“What else did she say?” Tina wanted the entire story before she confronted Angelica. She knew that one day her daughter would face something like this, that she would likely be subject to teasing because of small-minded people. However, she wasn’t prepared for her to face that this early in her life.

“She called you names, mean ones, and Angie let it go for the first few times.”

“The first few times?” Tina was feeling her anger getting to a dangerous level. Bette looked at her and shot her a look that told Tina to gain control so that Cathy wasn’t afraid and would tell them all she knew.

“How long was this going on?

“A few weeks. I told Angie to tell you, but she was so angry for the names you were being called. She didn’t want to make you upset by telling you what the girl said about you. Then the boys started saying that Angie was into girls and called her a lezzie and a few other things. The boy that liked her even stopped talking to her because he said since there weren’t any men in Angie’s family she wouldn’t know how to hold onto one.”

“Men?” Bette had heard enough. “He’s in the 7th grade and I hardly would classify him as a man for God’s sake! She’s too young to be even thinking of boys right now!”

It was Tina’s turn to take the conversation over as Bette stormed into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine.

“Okay Cathy,” Tina said as she put her hand on Cathy’s shoulder. “You did the right thing telling us what happened. We’re going to talk to Angie now, she can call you later or maybe tomorrow okay Honey?”

Cathy nodded and hugged both Tina and Bette on her way out, a sign of their closeness as she had always thought of them both as second mothers.

“So,” Tina took a sip of her wine as she looked at Bette, “I tried to get her to open the door but she won’t budge. Now that we know what happened I say we lay our cards out there and talk to her through the door until she comes out.”

Bette closed her eyes and took a deep breath before taking a large sip of her wine.

“Okay we can do that.”

Tina smiled at her as she took the sight of her ex-wife in, letting her eyes travel the length of Bette’s body.

“Big date tonight?” Tina asked, pushing the small pang of jealousy down deeper.

“No,” Bette smiled, “I had a ton of meetings today so I dressed up.”