💫🦁💫🌺💫🌸💫🦁💫🌺💫🌸💫

Leo had never felt so awful in his whole life. He got sent to the office. For being bad. This had never happened to him before.

Ever.

Dominick cried and cried, and Miss Abby looked at Leo as she felt the back of Dominick's head, at the goose egg that was rising there from where it had hit the blacktop.

Then mommy showed up, looking so pretty in her pink maternity top and fluffy winter coat. He could see Beanie making her tummy poke out a little bit. Mommy was softer in general these days, all over, not just her tummy, though that was what Leo noticed first.

Not that her expression was particularly soft or pretty. She looked so worried when she pushed open the door to the office. She saw Leo and came to kneel in front of him, putting her hands in on his legs. She had that grim line between her brows, and Leo was consumed with guilt, knowing he was responsible for its presence.

"Leo, are you okay?"

He nodded, and started to cry.

"What happened?" she asked, but the door to Dr. Shapiro's office opened before he could respond. Dr. Shapiro was the principal of Carstairs, and she'd always been nice to Leo. He could tell, though, that she didn't feel very nice at the moment.

"Mrs. Gardener?" Dr. Shapiro stood aside so his mommy could go in.

He sat and waited for a few minutes, swinging his legs in the chair. He could hear the rise and fall of the voices in Dr. Shapiro's office, though he couldn't understand what was being said.

Finally, the door opened, and Mommy emerged, looking so sad.

"Come on, let's go home." She reached for his hand.

Leo took it and slid off the chair, not looking around.

"We need his things," Mommy was saying in a clipped voice. "His coat and back pack?"

Sent home. He'd been so bad he was being sent home. He couldn't remember anyone in his class being this bad before, though of course Kenny had been sent home after his freak out on the playground.

He grasped his mother's hand as they walked to his classroom to gather his stuff. Leo's feet dragged as they got closer. He didn't want to walk in like that, right in front of everyone.

He opened the door, and the first person he saw was Dominick's mommy. She was getting Nicky's back pack and lunch from his cubby. She took a deep breath when she saw Leo, and he could tell she wanted to say something to him. She looked up and saw his mommy standing behind him, and kept her mouth shut, though.

They were silent as they walked home. Normally, Leo bounced when he walked, whether he was holding his mommy's hand or not, but today he didn't feel very bouncy.

"Do we have to tell?" he finally asked as they turned on to the street where they lived. "Do we have to tell what happened?"

"You mean to your father?"

Leo nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, big guy, we do." He felt her squeeze his hand. "This is really a big deal, I know you know that.

"Leo, it's never okay to put your hands on someone in a violent way, in a way they don't want, ever." Mommy's voice was quiet and serious in the cold, winter morning. "You know that, don't you?"

Leo nodded again. "Is Dominick okay?" he asked.

"We don't know yet," she replied, squeezing his hand again. "I think you pushed him harder than you meant to because of your cast, so he really hit his head hard. His mommy's taking him for a CT of his head."

"Like what I did when I broke my arm?"

His mommy nodded.

They rode the elevator up to their apartment, where Happy was so glad to see him at this unexpected hour. Mommy made lunch, though Leo wasn't very hungry.

Leo noticed while they were sitting at the table that the pink scroll he'd made for his mommy was no longer on the fridge. There was a big empty space in the center of the door.

Of course. Why would she want it? Why would she want a reminder of him, of a bed-wetting baby, of a bad boy who pushed people when he got mad and made them have to get CTs on their heads? Especially when she was going to have another baby, a real baby that was perfect and belonged to her and daddy?

"I don't want any more," he said, pushing his plate away. "May I be excused? I wanna go lie down in my bed."

"Really?" Mommy was surprised. She'd made him a peanut butter and banana sandwich, his current favorite.

He nodded, and she nodded back.

He went to lie down, head hung low.

Happy pushed his door open after a few minutes, looking curiously at the bed where he lay. This made no sense to her, Leo could tell. He didn't lie down in the middle of the day.

She came and sniffed at his face before jumping on the bed with him, lying comfortingly close so he could put his arm around her.

Leo told her about what happened at school. Happy listened intently, kind brown doggy eyes watching his face raptly.

Happy was such a good listener.

Out in the living room, Mouse sat down with some tea to wait for Henry.

He entered the apartment half an hour later, apologizing for taking so long. "There was a meeting," he explained. "If I left, it would set us back weeks in negotiations."

Mouse waved his explanation away. "It's fine," she told him.

"So? What's the upshot?" He sat next to her and took a sip of her tea.

"They're not sure yet, it kind of depends on the results of Dominick's head CTs." Mouse leaned into him. "I shouldn't have told his grandmother about how Leo broke his arm," she lamented. "It honestly never crossed my mind that she'd tell her grandson, you know? And for that horrible kid to throw it in Leo's face, I mean, Jesus, what a shitty thing to do." She shook her head as it rested on Henry's chest.

"I told his mother that we'd pay for the doctor's visit," she continued.

Henry nodded agreement.

"How's Leo?" he asked.

Mouse shrugged. "He's really upset. He wanted to go to bed, Henry. I was going to go in and talk to him, but I could hear him talking to Happy, so I left him alone."

Henry sighed deeply. "Poor kid. He's only five years old, he shouldn't have to deal with all this. I don't remember life being so fraught when I was his age, you know?" He shook his head. "And playground scuffles happened all the time, they were no big deal."

"We live in a different world," Mouse replied. "And I think it's a good thing that what you're calling 'playground scuffles' don't happen as much. If someone put their hands on Leo the way he did to that other kid, you'd want his head on a platter, you know you would, Henry Gardener."

"Ooh, full naming me," Henry answered with a little laugh. "And yeah, you're right, you're right. I'd want to strangle anyone who did that to Leo.

"It's different, though," he tried to explain. "Leo is not a bully, he's such a kindhearted child. That Dominick kid is a bully, a thug."

"He doesn't live with his parents anymore," Mouse supplied. "Both of them got remarried, and he seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle a little bit. His grandmother stepped in at the last minute, or he might have wound up in foster care."

"Really?"

Mouse nodded. "I guess his behavior at home was getting out of control, so his mother asked for him to spend more time with his father. That didn't help, and neither did therapy, and so his grandma finally said she'd take him.

"His mother looked pissed off big time, though, this morning," Mouse concluded. "I thought she was going to take Leo's head off when she saw him."

"Should I talk to him?" Henry wondered aloud.

Mouse pondered. "Maybe leave things alone for a little bit," she finally offered. "Wait until tonight, or maybe even tomorrow? Leo's on such a hair-trigger right now."

"Great, this is all just wonderful," Henry murmured. "Welcome to the fabulous life of being a parent, Mouse Cameron."

In his room, Leo sighed as he looked at his dog. In the quiet apartment, he could hear his parents perfectly.

The time had come for him to leave.

His parents needed a break.

Leo lay tensely, waiting for his parents to go to bed.

Dinner had been a weird, strained affair. His daddy was obviously trying not to get upset, or bring up anything controversial, but it was like the elephant in the room that everyone pretended not to notice.

Leo had escaped to bed as soon as he could, and turned his Channel Master on right at nine. As he hoped, Lottie assured him that he could go and stay with them.

Finally, near eleven, he heard his mommy and daddy go to their bedroom and shut the door.

He pressed the talk button and said, "I'm coming now, okay?"

His talkie-talkie crackled back immediately, and he heard the one he believed was Brina.

"Okay."

He carefully entered the hallway and walked to the front door, looking over his shoulder every few steps to make sure his parents didn't come out of their room. His new slippers, the ones he'd gotten for Christmas, made his steps close to silent. They had Pikachu on them.

Happy padded after her boy, and Leo thought she looked worried. Who could blame her? The last time he'd done something like this, he'd wound up in a pile of sheets and shelving with a broken arm.

Leo stood in front of their front door, breathing rapidly. He couldn't remember ever leaving the apartment alone before in his life. But he had to.

He had to.

He shifted the Channel Master, which he'd brought with him, to his other hand. He turned the deadbolt, which sounded so loud in the stillness, then opened the door. He felt the little gust of cooler air that blew in from the hallway.

He stepped out into the hallway, feeling very little and frightened. He turned to pull the door shut, and nearly ran into Happy, who seemed to be under the impression that she was going with him.

"No, Happy, you have to stay here, girl," he told her, shaking his head. He body blocked her, forcing her back into the apartment.

She looked at him reproachfully as she stepped back, her fringe moving as her eyes looked at his face. This was so wrong, she seemed to be saying.

"I have to, I have to," Leo said in a whisper. "I'm sorry, Happy, I'll miss you."

He resolutely shut the front door, with his dog on the other side of it, and turned to walk to the end of the hall, where the red door stood like a sentry.

He pushed on it, and was worried for one, frantic second that he wasn't strong enough to move it. Nothing happened for a second, then the heavy door swung ponderously outward.

The air that blew in this time was downright chilly, and Leo wished he'd thought to wear his coat, or at least his robe. His SpongeBob pjs weren't very warm.

He looked into the stairwell, which was dark. He could tell from the sound of his own breaths that it was a large, cavernous space.

He had to be brave.

Leo stepped into the stairwell, and let the door close behind him. He didn't know how high the penthouse was, but he knew he'd have a lot of stairs to climb.

"I'm not even afraid," he whispered to himself. "I'm a big boy."

Luckily, every door had the floor number next to it and Leo counted out loud as he climbed in the darkness. Every sound echoed weirdly, and sometimes it sounded like someone was in the stairwell with him.

"I love my mommy, and I love Happy, and I love Merry and Chrissy," he chanted to himself as he climbed. He grasped the cold railing, partly for support, partly to help keep his bearings.

"Twenty-four," he read out loud, looking at the barely visible numbers next to the door. Surely the penthouse had to be soon? How tall was this building, anyway?

"Leo? Are you there?"

He held the talkie-talkie up to his mouth and pressed the button. "I just passed the 24th floor," he told the voice on the other end.

"I think you're getting close," came the response.

Above him, he heard a door open, and he could see light spilling into the stairwell.

"I see you, I see you," he called as loudly as he dared. Seeing the light made it a lot less scary, and Leo picked up his pace.

He reached the door, which had "PH" next to it, and stepped into a large foyer, illuminated only from light from somewhere deeper in the apartment.

The girls who'd been holding the door released it, and turned to face him.

They were wearing matching pjs in different colors, with cats all over them. One had curly red hair, and freckles all over her face. The other had curly dark hair, and dark skin, too.

They were smiling at him.

"Hi, I'm Leo," he finally said, smiling back at them.