I’d gotten Maddie dropped off and made it home with enough time to throw together a fast dinner before I had to get the two younger girls to their rehearsal. Rather than run back and forth, I brought my laptop with me and decided to work on the program while I sat in the back of the theater for the two-hour practice. Rehearsal was halfway over when Eleanor approached me and asked me to step out in the hall with her. I closed my computer and set it on the empty seat next to the one I’d been sitting in and followed her out of the theater.

Her thumb and forefinger stroked her chubby chin. She looked at me through her false eyelash. “Daisy. Well, this is just somewhat awkward for me.”

“Talking in the hallway?”

She gave me a condescending smile. “Such the...jokester. But, no. I’m very comfortable talking in the hall. I’m actually comfortable talking anywhere. It’s my theater training.”

Of course it was.

“We have... a bit of a situation,” she continued.

“We do?”

“Yes.” She paused. “And it involves you.”

I folded my arms across my chest, my defensive instincts immediately kicking in. “Alright.”

“Let me first state that I am oh so grateful for your willingness to assist with the design and production of our program,” she said. “Joanne Claussen has assured me that your work thus far has been nothing short of spectacular.”

“Joanne might be overselling it.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “But I trust her judgment and she has praised your efforts. So I want you to know how much I appreciate your work.”

“Okay,” I said, still wary. “You’re welcome.”

“Yes, yes,” she said, still stroking her chin, like a professor. “And I’ve very much been charmed by the acting abilities of your two daughters. They are lovely young ladies and we are lucky to have them.”

“Thank you,” I said. Normally, this type of praise would have thrilled me but her words were as hollow as her expression.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “But now we have...a situation.”

“So you’ve already said.”

She pursed her lips. “My daughter says that the two of you had a bit of a...run-in recently.”

A tiny knot formed in my stomach. “Okay.”

Eleanor raised her eyebrow. “Can you confirm that?”

I shuffled my feet against the tiled hallway floor. “Yes. We did. I found a backpack she’d left behind in one of the classrooms.”

She nodded. “So you did indeed find her knapsack?”

Knapsack? Who said knapsack?

“I did,” I said. “Joanne and I were here working and she asked me to close up the classrooms. I found it in one of the rooms.”

“I see,” Eleanor said, nodding slowly. “I see. And then what occurred?”

“What occurred?” I shrugged. “She came back to the room. I gave it to her. We left. That’s what occurred.”

She stared at me for a long time. It reminded me of the way I stared at my own kids when I thought they were holding something back or not telling the truth. Eventually, they would cave under my stern gaze and give up whatever they were withholding. Jake sometimes was able to do the same to me.

But there was no way in heck I was going to cave to a condescending pain in the rear end like Eleanor Bandersand.

“That’s what occurred,” she finally said. “That’s what happened?”

I shrugged. “More or less, yes.”

She held her index finger to her lips. “Ah, yes,” she said, tapping her lower lip. “It might be the ‘more’ part I’m interested in.”

“Eleanor?”

“Yes?” she said, leaning in.

“Can you stop talking like you’re on Masterpiece Theater and tell me what exactly we’re talking about?”

She stopped tapping and the corner of her eye twitched and I thought I saw her eyelashes stick together before unclumping themselves.

I waited silently.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment. Then she cleared her throat. “My daughter informed me that you were rifling through her things,” she said quietly.

I sighed, exasperated. “I wasn’t rifling through anything. I opened the bag in order to see who it belonged to. She and I had this exact same conversation.”

She folded her arms across her ribcage. Because her pants were pulled up so high. “My daughter claims differently.”

“She what?”

“She claims you opened the bag and were going through it,” Eleanor said. “Perhaps to see what was in it, perhaps not. But she says she caught you rifling through her belongings. And that is a problem.”

On cue, Madison came bouncing around the corner, a water bottle tilted to her lips. When she spotted us, she froze, her eyes wide.

“Madison,” I said. “Can you tell me exactly what your mother is upset about? Because I’m pretty sure that you and I settled things after I explained --”

She pulled the bottle from her lips and pointed at me. “She’s a liar, Mom. I told you. A big, giant liar. Whatever she says, she’s lying.”

“Go inside the theater, Madison,” Eleanor commanded. “Now.”

“No,” I said, irritated. “Don’t move. Do you remember the conversation we had?” She shot me a look of horror and I continued. “When you came in? When you started crying?”

She was a bundle of nervous twitches and fidgets, unsure of what to do. She ran her hand through her long blond hair, pulling it toward her face. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was using it as a magic curtain to hide herself.

“Madison,” Eleanor barked. “Inside. Now.”

Madison dropped the handful of hair, glanced at me, then sprinted into the theater.

We stood there, the hallway quiet again. My teeth were locked together, my jaw rigid. My heart hammered inside my chest.

Eleanor took a deep breath, then exhaled. “I think it would be best if you...kept your distance from the production.”

“Kept my distance?” I asked, my voice cracking. “Are you kidding me?”

“I am not kidding you, Daisy,” she said, shaking her head. “Far from it. I’m sorry that it’s come to this, but I can’t have our performers distracted and bothered by...our parents.”

My jaw throbbed. “The only one who is distracted and bothered is your daughter.”

“Who, I might remind you, is now the star of our show,” Eleanor said primly. “And it is vital that she is focused and prepared. Which can only happen if she is not distracted.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“So at this point in time, I have no choice but to ban you from all theater-related activities,” Eleanor said.

I opened my eyes. “Banned?”

“I think that’s where we’re at,” Eleanor said, lifting her chin.

I blinked several times. My jaw ached. My stomach hurt.

Banned.

“You’re going to ban me?” I asked, incredulous. “Because your kid is a liar?”

Eleanor’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? Did you just call my daughter a liar? I beg your pardon!”

“You can beg whatever you want,” I told her. “But your daughter is not telling you the truth. I found her bag. I opened it to see who it belonged to. She came into the room. End of story.”

“This is just embarrassing, Daisy,” she said, holding a hand over her heart. “I’d really prefer not to have a scene. Could you please just gather your things and go?”

My chest heaved. My head hurt. And my fists were rolled into tight little balls, ready to pound Eleanor Bandersand’s face.

I glanced at the theater. I had no idea what game Madison was trying to play, but I didn’t owe her anything. We’d made a deal. I’d agreed to help her, to keep her secret. And now she was telling everyone I was a liar. I didn’t owe that dumb kid anything.

I blinked.

Which is what she was.

A kid.

Under a lot of pressure. Who was making a really poor decision.

She was just a kid.

I took a deep breath and forced my fingers to uncurl from my palms. I turned toward the theater, then walked toward the doors.

“Daisy!” Eleanor said. “Did you not hear me? I’m banning you from the theater. Please don’t make me call security.”