For the first time in weeks, Carol exhaled without feeling her lungs collapse. She allowed herself to dream of calm—of her daughter finding balance, of teachers seeing the girl beneath the troublemaker. She whispered to herself as she folded laundry that night: “Maybe this time it will work.”
The fragile peace was shattered the next afternoon. Diane stomped through the front door, dropping her bag with a thud. “Guess what,” she said with a grin that didn’t reach her eyes. “We’ve got a new principal. And you’ll never believe the name—Winters. Dark, no?” Carol froze before she even heard it.