She listened, then shrugged.
“Boys tease each other. Lucas needs thicker skin.”
Lucas sat beside me, pulling his hands into the sleeves of his sweatshirt.
“This isn’t harmless teasing,” I replied. “He’s being singled out, and it’s affecting his confidence.”
The assistant principal promised to review the situation.
On the drive home, Lucas barely spoke.
That evening, I found his basketball schedule crumpled in the trash.
I smoothed it out and carried it upstairs, but I didn’t put it back on his wall. I wanted to give him time to decide what he needed.
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A week later, Tyler made another comment.
“My mom talked to your dad,” he told Lucas. “He knows you’re making this a big deal.”
Lucas didn’t tell me immediately. Instead, he went to his room and stopped responding when Derek called him to dinner.
