Chapter 3When a Mother Loves Her Reputation More

When I drifted back to the field, I saw my own body lying face-down on the running track, completely motionless. My clothes had dried under the blazing sun. Pressed against the track, the side of my right arm was red and blistered from the heat. My lips were cracked and pale.

At that moment, the door to the sports equipment shed creaked open. Mr. Hodge, the PE teacher, came out with a bin filled with basketballs.

As he passed by, he noticed someone sprawled on the ground, catching him off guard. He called out, "What year are you in? Why are you lying on your stomach out here in the middle of the day instead of being in the classroom?"

But once he came closer and got a better view of my condition, his expression stiffened.

"What's going on with her?"

He crouched down and pressed a hand to my forehead, immediately jerking it backward the moment his fingers touched my skin.

"What the hell? She must've fainted from the heat!"

He dumped the bin of basketballs on the side and flipped me over before pulling his phone out to call 911. But the moment the call connected, a window on the third floor of the building flew open. Mom leaned out, bracing herself against the windowsill as she looked down.

"Mr. Hodge! What are you doing?"

Mr. Hodge, who'd just given the dispatcher the school address, looked up and shouted, "Your daughter fainted, Ms. Campbell. I'm on the phone with 911!"

"Drop the call! You drop that call right this instant, Mr. Hodge!"

He froze, the phone still pressed to his ear.

Mom rushed down the stairs at the end of the hallway and burst through the glass door of the classroom building. The heat hit her right in the face, and the wind swept her hair backward.

Ten seconds later, she reached Mr. Hodge.

"Drop the call," she repeated.

Mr. Hodge looked at his phone, then at me lying on the ground. "Ms. Campbell, take a look at your daughter first and—"

"I told you to drop the call!" Mom snapped before lowering her voice. "I'm warning you, Nathan Hodge. You need to think carefully. If you call 911 about this, what do you think the headlines will end up being?

"Will it say that a teacher from a certain high school made a student stand under the blazing hot sun, causing the student to faint? You think the school won't end up on the front page of every newspaper after that?"

Mr. Hodge swallowed hard.

"And when the Department of Education launches an investigation into this matter, do you think I'll be the only one who gets investigated? Shall I tell them about the time you made students run a mile in 100-degree weather for their fitness test?"

Mr. Hodge's phone was still raised to his ear. On the other end, the dispatcher kept calling out, "Hello? Hello? Please confirm the address..."

Mom stared at him, but his hand didn't move, so she snatched the phone from him and said, "Sorry about this. It was just a false alarm. The student is fine. She just has a bit of heatstroke. We can handle it ourselves."

She crouched down and grabbed my arm. "Get up, Julia."

But my body was like a sack of deadweight, flopping right back down after she tried to pull me up. She gave yet another hard tug, and my scalded arm scraped against the track, leaving a fresh trail of blood.

For a moment, I saw her expression wavering a little. Even she was startled by how hot it was. But she glanced behind her and saw that every window of the building was filled with faces. Dozens of eyes were fixed on her.

Mom gritted her teeth and snapped, "Just how much longer are you going to keep this up, Julia? The entire school is looking at you. How much more are you trying to humiliate me?"

Mr. Hodge became rather agitated. "Check her forehead, Ms. Campbell. That's not the normal temperature for someone—"

"Mr. Hodge!" Mom straightened up and glared at him. "I'm going to say this one last time—Julia's my daughter, and I know her better than you!

"She has always been like this, even when she was little. She fakes an illness whenever she doesn't feel like studying. If I bring her back inside now, everything I've ever said to the students throughout this semester would end up sounding like a complete joke!"

She looked down at my limp body sprawled out on the ground, her gaze stern and bitter. Leaning down, she whispered into my ear, "Just stick it out for one more period, Julia. I'll bring you back inside after that. I got you some ice cream. It's strawberry, your favorite."

Then she stood up again and declared harshly in front of everyone, "If you can't remember the words, then don't bother coming back inside! You can stay out here and reflect on yourself!"

She turned on her heels and walked back to the building, her heels clacking loudly on the concrete path.

Mr. Hodge shouted from behind, "You'll regret this, Ms. Campbell!"

Mom paused for a brief moment, but she didn't look back.