Page 131 of Grin and Bear It

“So, this is Meryl,” Colleen pointed to the first woman. “She’s the mum of two of Nat’s mates, the woman I introduced you to at the party.”

“And proud granny of Kai and Sven,” she said, holding her hand over her heart. “Those darling babies…” But her look of bliss seemed to evaporate. “But what if those boys shift when they are teenagers? What then? This… school will just exile them as it is trying to do to the Walker boys, after everything they’ve been through?”

That was a sentiment a lot of them seemed to express as we were drawn into the main group. Everyone here was talking about what had happened at the school, something that made me want to shrink back, hide, as they rehashed the incidents that brought back the sharp stabbing flashes of shame and pain. But then a pair of strong arms came around me from behind, right as I was trying to work out how to lose myself in the group.

I looked up to find Lin standing there, smiling down at me. And I knew that where one was, the others were not far behind.

“Gotta admit, I wasn’t sure if you’d come back,” Cole said, a flash of something real, naked, on his face as he took my hand. “But I’m glad you did.”

“We’re in this together, right?” I said, still feeling like I was made of spun glass, that I might shatter with one sharp tap, but somehow I knew they’d surround me, protect me from as many knocks as they could.

Which allowed me to focus on something else. Or someone else. Times two.

“Where are the boys?” I asked.

“This way,” Nash said, taking my hand and leading me through the crowd.

They were so much quieter,sitting with a small cluster of their friends. The twins’ body language hurt me, with the way their shoulders were hunched, their eyes haunted, but they were nodding along with the conversation, even if they didn’t contribute much. But as if via a sixth sense, they both looked up at the same time to meet my eyes.

They weren’t my students anymore, so it felt a little odd to note the pain in their eyes, the regret, the shame and the embarrassment, a peculiar mix of feelings I was carrying as well. Maddox nudged his brother in the ribs then he stood up, approaching me with halting steps, Knox following hot on his heels.

“Miss—” Maddox started to say.

“Not Miss anymore.” I smiled even as I felt tears form in my eyes. I’d built so much of my identity around working with kids, so those words were hard to say. Although after the display I’d seen from the Principal and AP, maybe that was a good thing. “Ellie, if you’re comfortable with that.”

“Ellie,” Maddox said with a nod. The fingers of one hand tortured those of his other hand as he just stood there, before he cleared his throat. “I’m…” He looked back at his brother. “We’re sorry, so sorry about what happened.”

“We fucked up, Miss… Ellie,” Knox said, with all of his characteristic brusqueness and I watched his frown form and then smooth away. “If we didn’t have those kids over, didn’t shift…”

“Boys, I need to let you know that, in life, you’re gonna fuck up—a lot—I’m sorry to say.” The boys’ eyes went wide then. “I know this because I do all the time.”

“Wedo all the time,” Tyson said, squeezing my shoulder.

“But what do we do when we fuck up?” I asked them.

“Drink bleach…” Knox muttered, the other boys around him chuckling, but I just waited him out. “Make amends and try to do better next time.”

“And we’ll help you with that,” I said. “Your Uncle Cole is going to dispose of all of his… adult artworks, at least until he puts a lock on that studio that even the most hardened criminal couldn’t get past.”

“I know just the guy to help out with that…” Cole said under his breath.

“And we’ve got some ideas about the making amends part,” Nash said. “Ellie’s house still needs fixing.”

“Nash…” I sighed.

“We’re family now and that’s what family does,” he said with a smug smile. “The twins will get some good hands-on learning. Maybe we can enrol them in TAFE and get them doing some trade certificates. Whaddya think, guys?”

The twins looked at each other then, something passing between the two of them before they turned back to us.

“If it gets us out of maths, sign us up,” Knox said with a grin and something in me lightened.

“So,beyond the issue with the Walker boys,” a man with a gruff voice said to the room, the discussion about what had happened now taking the form of an open forum. “What does this mean for all of our kids? Adolescence is always a tough time for kids, when their control on their bear is imperfect. Do we pull all the kids out and home school them?”

“Didn’t work too well during COVID,” one of the mothers said. “And kids need to be around other kids. The school shouldn’t be allowed to exclude the Walker boys or any of our kids.”

“I’ll be looking into the legality of that,” a guy in a sharp suit said. “Excluding children is quite a difficult thing to achieve without parent or guardian permission.”

“We didn’t give permission,” Nash added. “They basically threatened us with going public with what we are. We don’t need the shifter hunters getting wind of our population in Australia, so we copped it on the chin.”

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