They picked me up and drove straight to my aunt’s place. They wanted me out of town for a bit. Somewhere calmer.” Shirley blinked. “And the police? They were at the school. People thought—” He shook his head. “They never came to our house. Whatever that was, it wasn’t about me. Could’ve been some meeting, some campaign thing… just wrong timing.”
“Everyone assumed it had to do with me, but it didn’t,” he sighed. “So you were safe the whole time?” she whispered. “Safe and incredibly bored,” Richard said with a soft laugh. “Mostly eating cereal, playing video games, and pretending not to hear my parents arguing about whether the school was negligent,” Richard added.