𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 ─── school meetings

New York, 5th February 2009

"𝔈llie!" The woman turned at the call of her name, looking over as Leah ran towards her. "Ellie. Is Al alright? I..."

"He's fine, Leah." Ellie grinned at the girl. "I've just got to go and sort all this mess out. Don't worry about him."

"Okay, it's just..." She trailed off, before licking her lips. "It wasn't good, Ellie."

"So, I've been told," Ellie grinned at the girl, though her insides were twisting. "I'll get him to call you later."

"Thanks."

"Mrs. Castellan?" Ellie turned at the sound of her name, watching the woman look her up and down in poorly disguised shock. She knew that the older lady was probably wanting to know how young Ellie had Alabaster, or even if she was a fit mother, but Ellie was running on little sleep and wasn't in the mood for this bullshit.

"Yes."

"Please come in." Ellie entered the room, immediately looking at Alabaster, who was sitting hunched over in his chair. From what she could see, he had a black eye, busted knuckles and a split lip. There was another boy, and his father, sitting in the chairs opposite of Alabaster, who looked considerably worse for wear than Ellie's kid did. She could have beamed in pride but thought that it probably wasn't an appropriate time. "Have a seat."

"Thank you."

"I need to talk to both of you about Alabaster and Joey." Ellie nodded, crossing her legs as Alabaster refused to make eye contact with her. The smaller teen was staring away from her, glaring daggers into the floor. "They had a fight in the school halls and would not break it up. Now, I do not tolerate such things in my school, and I would like to get to the bottom of this."

"Look what he's done to my son's face." Ellie turned to look at Joeys father, before twisting to face Alabaster. She could already tell that this wasn't going to go well.

"Al, what happened?" He glanced up at her, before glaring at Joey vehemently. "The truth, now."

"The truth? Your son hurt my boy for no reason at all, that's the truth,"

"I doubt that my son would ever do that," Ellie growled in response, looking back at Alabaster. "What happened?"

"He was being rude about Leah and her friend."

"He was, was he?" 

"Yeah." Alabaster glared at the boy once more. "Kept calling them names, harassing them. I simply made him stop."

"How dare you accuse my son of such behaviour!"

"Alabaster, Joey is the star of the football team, a good student and well respected in the student body. Why would he do such a thing?" The principal asked, as Ellie turned her glare on the woman. She wasn't believing Alabaster because Joey was the star of the football team?

"Are you calling my son a liar?" Ellie asked, raising an eyebrow at the woman in question. The principal licked her lips, trying to backtrack. "Surely we can just ask the girls themselves, to see if this is all true or not?"

"There's no need for that," The Principal tried to placate, as Ellie narrowed her eyes again. She was tired, this was out of line and she had left Beans at home with Ethan so she was nervous. It was not a good combination. "I'm sure we can resolve this peacefully, without involving anyone else."

"I want that boy suspended."

"Right back at you," Ellie growled in response. Luke was waiting in the car, as he and Ellie had been out on a lunch date when she got the call about Alabaster, and she was more than happy to send him a text to get Luke in here and intimidate some people if she had to. "He was harassing some of my son's friends. So, he should be punished so that he knows that this behaviour is downright disgusting and will land him more trouble when he is older."

"I'm sure it won't come to that, Miss. Castellan."

"Look at the wounds on my boy. He'll need stitches."

"He will not," Ellie replied, as Alabaster kept his head down. "I'm a trained nurse, sir, and those will not need stitches."

"How dare you insinuate that I'm lying?" This was turning into a shit show, and Ellie was done with it. Did they not know how to act like mature adults?

"Fine! How about they're both suspended for three days, and have community service when they get back." The principal nodded reluctantly, as Joey's father stuttered in protest but Ellie couldn't care less. "Good. Come on, Alabaster, we're leaving."

Alabaster nodded, grabbing his bag from the floor to follow Ellie out of the Principal's office.

"Next time, please keep your son under control and away from young women." Joey winced at Ellie's sharper tone, though she felt no remorse, as she led Alabaster out of the principal's office. "What dicks!"

Alabaster snorted at that, as they continued out of the front of the school. It was only when they were in the parking lot did she speak again.

"Did you get some good hits in?"

"Yeah."

"That's my boy!" Ellie pulled Alabaster into a side hug, as Luke appeared into view, standing in front of the car, his sunglasses over his eyes. 

"Sorted?"

"Yeah, Al's suspended for three days but if I were to negotiate anything else then I'm sure that Joey's father would have pulled the whole 'I'm the head of the PTA board and I can tell you what to do and my child's the star athlete and would never do such a thing' card," Luke rolled his eyes, before pressing a kiss to Ellie's lips as he opened the door for her.

"At least it's only a suspension." Ellie nodded.

"Yeah, let's just hope that this is the only one he gets!"

"Sure thing, mum." Ellie nodded at Alabaster's response, as Luke slammed her car door and walked around to the other side, shooting a glare at Joey and his father, before they took off home. "He really did start it though."

"Oh, I'm not doubting you at all," Ellie replied, looking back at him. "You just sometimes have to know which people are gonna co-operate and which won't. If I were you, see if Leah and her friend will file a harassment thing to the school."

"A harassment?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, Joey's a dick," Alabaster replied, texting someone on his phone.

"Could always threaten him." Ellie slapped Luke on the shoulder. "What? It would stop him from doing anything."

"As much as I love that idea, please remember that we don't particularly need any more run ins with the police."

"How unfortunate," Alabaster snorted at Luke's words, as they grew closer to the house. "Okay, chances Ethan's died whilst we were away?"

"Low."

"How disappointing," Ellie slapped Luke on the shoulder again as they reached the house. The gates to the driveway opened as they approached, and all three of them were glad to see that the house was still standing (miraculously). Luke stepped out of the car first, before holding the door open for Ellie. Alabaster had already opened the front door and was stepping inside.

"Idiot, we're back!" Ethan appeared, a grin on his face, as Ellie narrowed her eyes.

"Please tell me you haven't killed them,"

"I have not," Ethan replied. "They're upstairs, asleep."

He passed Ellie the baby monitor, before turning back to Alabaster with a grin.

"Heard you got into a fight. You win?"

"Yeah," Alabaster grinned, though stopped at the sight of Ellie's glare. "It was very wrong of me."

Ellie nodded, before leaving to go upstairs as the boys huddled together in a circle.

"Right, I've just sent his address to both of your phones," Alabaster began, as the others nodded. "We need to scare him into not doing anything ever again, to Leah or any other girls, because otherwise he won't get the memo."

"Okay, we can go tonight," Ethan put out there. "We'll wait until Ellie's asleep and then leave. Should only take us like ten minutes."

"This is a good plan," Ellie watched the trio of idiots with a raised eyebrow, wondering just how dumb they were.

"That's a shit plan!" They all jumped into the air, as Ellie glared at them, with Wren and Alex in her arms. 

"Ellie! Language, please!"

"They can't understand what I'm saying," She grinned down at her babies, who both giggled, before glaring at them. "You go through with this, I'm divorcing you, disowning you and kicking you out of my house."

"You don't mean that..."

"Try me, bitch!"

"Ellie!"

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

Luke's exasperated with Ellie, cause she keeps swearing in front of Beans, I have absolutely no clue what this chapter is. Alabaster got into a fight with a kid called Joey because he was harassing Leah (love an overprotective 'friend') and Ellie was called in for a parent teacher talk. 

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx