CHAPTER 5
Nicholas woke up the next day to a barrage of missed calls and unanswered mails awaiting him. He trudged downstairs in just his pyjamas bottoms, hoping he doesn't have to run into Nadine before he had his morning coffee.
After he got home the night before, she was gone, fortunately. But unfortunately for him, he didn't know what to do about her. He just decided to ignore her. He had a billion dollar business to run so he had little time pondering on how to make the help leave. She was way down in the list of his priorities.
Who was he kidding? She wasn't even a priority. He chuckled to himself.
She was messing with his equilibrium and he hated that. She promised to stay out of his hair tho, which he had reason to believe she was actually trying to do because the coffee was made and she wasn't even there.
He poured himself a cup and heaped in two spoonful of sugar. He lifted the cup to his lips and inhaled deeply before he took a sip from the steaming cup.
Now he could really start his day.
He replied his mails and returned his calls. Most of his calls were from Emma and Philip. Emma called to update him about a meeting he'll be travelling to New York to attend in a fortnight. Philip wanted to know if he arrived safe.
By mid day, he was done glancing through the documents for the meeting he had in New York. He was looking into buying a company on the brink of bankruptcy.
When he was left with nothing else to do, he prowled around the old house, taking note of things that needed renovating.
He soon became restless and decided to go into town. He guessed news of his arrival already spread around town, nothing new passed by the notice of the town's grapevine. But he was surprised he was yet to get a caller. He remembered people here didn't mind their business that much. The thought reminded him of Sheila.
She was his good friend but he had mixed feelings about her. He wasn't sure if she was in on her cousin's deceit. Only one way to find out was confront her but he wasn't going to do that. He was over the past.
He drove into town, observing that few changes happened since he left. Two or more new restaurants he didn't remember being there were open and seemed to be doing well. He drove past the elementary school and parked for a moment to see kids waiting around for parents and guardians to pick them up.
Watching them reminded him of himself when he used to wait with his teacher to get picked up by his parents. He was usually the last to get picked up. At times they forgot all about him till his class teacher gave them a call, which they rarely picked.
He got what he deserved by throwing tantrums then and insisting they picked him up because other parents did that for their kids. He cried to gain their attention. It didn't really work out as his little self planned and before long, he realized the driver coming for him was better by a long shot.
At least his driver was never late to get him from school.
His attention was suddenly drawn to a group of six girls on the playground. They all looked to be around the ages of six and seven. The kid in the middle of the other five had on a bright yellow shirt under a black pinafore.
She stood out to him because she had her head bent while the others pulled at her ponytails and pushed her between them.
"Humans are the same everywhere, big city or small town. Peaceful small town my ass." he soliloquized. He was also a victim of bullying but not for long.
He looked around to see if a teacher was going to notice the kids but he saw that the nearest teacher to them was busy trying to get a young girl to stop wailing at the top of her lungs.
He neither wanted to get out of his car nor involve himself with little kids but he felt an irresistible urge to go help the girl.
Hell, but chivalry over ego anytime. He loved women of all age group and he didn't like to see them suffer, especially not at the hands of their own gender.
He got to them in a few strides but they didn't notice him immediately. They were so engrossed in their sickly game of push and pull.
He cleared his throat loudly and they all turned to face him, except the bullied girl who still had her head bent.
"Hello young ladies," he smiled at them and they all focused their undivided attention on him, giggling and chorusing 'hi'. Not too bad to notice he had the same effect on them that he had on their older counterpart.
He moved to stand beside the bullied girl in their middle. Then he pulled the braid of the girl nearest to him and gave another a little shove just to unbalance her. They both stared at him outraged. The girl he pulled her ponytail screwed up her face and burst into body wracking sobs. The one be shoved followed suit.
Not fun being made a scapegoat but he had to make a point. "That didn't feel good right?," he turned to the others and asked "I just did that to your friend, what do you feel like doing to me?"
The one he pulled her hair stopped sobbing long enough to voice her thoughts about him "I feel like shoving you too mister. You are bad"
"Then we are both bad because you've been shoving and pulling her hair for a while now," he faced her and said triumphantly, pointing at the still girl in yellow shirt.
They all stared at him mutinously.
"But she's not our friend. My mommy told me she's bad and I can't be her friend," the same kid piped up again. They all nodded at this. The other sobbing kid already stopped at that point.
"I don't know about that but she seems normal to me, just like you"
"She's not like me!," she screamed angrily and left stomping her feet. The others followed. It was clear she was the leader of the group.
Whoever her mother was, she needed to be spanked.
There goes his trying to make a point which was obviously lost on them. He could not believe he pulled the hair of a six year old and shoved another. This wasn't a corporate takeover or adult board meeting, not his zone at all.
He clearly wasn't in his right mind.
He bent to the eye level of the bullied girl who was yet to raise her head or utter a sound so far. Her hair was around her face like a curtain.
"Hello lady, I'm Nicholas. Are you alright?"
"I was alright before you interfered. I'm not going to thank you for that," she said without even looking at him.
She just exhibited a classical characteristic of her gender. Women are so complicated that you can never understand them. What was so wrong in being her knight in shining armor and coming to her rescue?
"I didn't need one young lady."
"Then we are good."
She turned and stomped away like the others. She didn't even look up for once throughout their interaction. He guessed she had been crying and didn't want him to see her tears.
For a six year old, she was too damn proud for her own good. He admired that tho. He watched her march off and stayed off on her own, trying to redo her braided ponytails.
She was fiercely independent to boot. He liked the little girl. He realized he didn't even get her name. So much for a night in shining armor, he thought as he went back to his car.
............
Allowing Nichole go out of town with her uncle and aunt seemed like the best decision she had made in a while. For a few seconds after she saw Nicholas, she had the urge to race into his arms and spill it all to him but she didn't. And she wasn't planning to in the nearest future. He didn't deserve to know about the child he didn't want. She didn't for a moment delude herself that he would have been over the moon about the news, far from it. He would have probably just denied being her baby's daddy like he denied her pregnancy years ago..
That action had cut her really deep. She wasn't going to put herself through that again.
She stopped at the only elementary school in Folks to pick up Nichole. She was going to drop her off at her uncle's. Today was the last day of school.
Nichole was so happy when she heard she would be vacating out of town with her godparents. The look on her daughter's face had made her determined to send her on the trip with her own money. It was the least she could do for her perfect little girl who never made demands on her. She didn't want it to seem like she was offloading her kid on her uncle and aunt. That wouldn't be fair to the couple.
Nichole was so unlike little girls of her age. She was really independent and loved to do things by herself. Lately, she had been trying daily to learn to braid her own hair. She never allowed her help her with her bath since she turned six. The only thing she still allowed her do for her was read to her before she sleeps every night.
Nadine noticed her daughter amongst the group of kids almost immediately. She was staying alone at the far end of the school playground staring into space gloomily. That wasn't the look she was expecting from her. She was so happy hours earlier when she dropped her off, she could hardly stop bouncing around.
Immediately, she guessed Nicole had been bullied again. She felt the rage rising as she opened her truck's door and stormed in the direction of the nearest teacher.
She stopped in front of her and asked with her hands on her waist, "I really want to know what you stand around here doing while innocent kids get bullied."
Right then, she didn't even remember the name of the woman. She knew she was the fourth grade teacher and she wasn't the cause of her daughter's bullying but she needed to lash out. She was the sole cause of it all.
"Excuse me?"
"I asked what you stand around doing while my daughter gets bullied," she didn't hesitate repeating herself and she was getting really loud. That attracted the attention of a few kids around them.
"I'm sorry Miss Waters but I can't be everywhere at once. You should take up the case with the school authorities not me. I can only warn off the girls when I catch them red handed but that really doesn't solve much"
All the fight went out of her. What she said wasn't far from the truth.
"I'm sorry Miss Maggie. I never really meant to lash out at you. I guess I overreacted."
"I understand. But you have to talk to Nichole. She needs to stand up for herself. You can't always have her in your sight to protect her from the bullies," she added sympathetically.
"Sure, I'll do that. Thanks a lot. Have a nice vacation," she turned to see her daughter standing by her truck just staring at her.
Just great. She was about to get scolded about embarrassing her in front of her schoolmate by snitching to the teacher.
But she didn't do any of that when she got to her. Instead, she got into the truck and Nadine did the same.
"Hi. How was school today?,"she started a conversation desperately.
"Just ask me what you really want to know mommy."
"Wow. I didn't know you now read minds Nichole"
"Mom! Stop doing that."
"Doing what honey?"
"You are taking me lightly again. I'm not a kid anymore. I'll be seven before you know it."
"I'm sorry honey but I never meant to do that. Did you get bullied again?,"she asked seriously.
" Yes, I did," she replied with a quiet pride in her voice "and I didn't even cry until a man came to help me," a smile lit up her whole face suddenly.
The man must be one hell of a gentleman. He definitely left a huge impression on her little girl.
" Really? I'm so happy to hear that. Is he someone I know? I should thank him."
"He told me his name," she tapped her head dramatically trying to recall his name. She sighed in defeat when she couldn't. "I can't remember. You don't need to thank him because I never asked him to save me from the girls in the first place."
"Oh." She didn't know what else to say. Nichole was so proud for a six year old.
"But I like him. You won't believe he pulled Frankie's hair and even shoved another girl. He's so silly," she said and started giggling.
She concluded that whoever her daughter's knight in shining armor was, he was a pretty childish one.
It served Frankie and the girls right tho. She would have kicked them if she wasn't trying so hard to act her age. Besides, it wouldn't be a fair match.