The Lost Pack

** Paige’s POV **

The day I buried my parents, with my newborn son in my arms and my teenage sister clinging to my side, I made myself a promise: survive, no matter what it takes.

“I’m sorry, Paige, but there’s nothing I can do. Jaxon has caused another child to require hospital treatment. Following school policy, we have no other choice than to exclude him permanently,” Mrs Bailey, my son’s head teacher, says.

“It was clearly an accident. He would never purposely hurt someone, especially not his best friend,” I defend, unable to believe they can exclude such a young child.

“I’m sure he didn’t intend to hurt him so severely, but the fact remains that he did. I have to consider the welfare of our other students. Which means we can’t accommodate him in this school any longer. I am going to write a recommendation for him to be considered for a place in a school more suited to deal with his behaviour,” Mrs Bailey explains with a sympathetic smile.

“So you are just giving up on him?” I ask, a pit of dread and anger growing in my stomach.

“Not at all, we just think…”

“Forget it, and you can shove your recommendation. We don’t need anything from you,” I snap as I stand and storm out of the head teacher’s office.

My son waits outside for me, his little face lighting up when he sees me.

“Come on, Jax, let’s go home.” I smile at him, not letting him see how furious I am right now, as I hold out my hand to him.

Jaxon slips his small hand into mine, turning to wave goodbye innocently at his headteacher as we head out to my car.

“I’m sorry, Mummy,” Jaxon says, as I rest my head against the steering wheel of my car, whilst I take some breaths and try to hold back my tears.

Jax is only six; he shouldn’t have to see me cry. He’s a sweet boy, very loving and so clever, but recently he has this excessive strength in him he can’t seem to control. It’s breaking my heart that he is struggling this way.

“It’s okay, baby, everything is going to be okay,” I reassure, schooling my features into a smile as I look back at him in the rearview mirror.

“I will say sorry to Robbie tomorrow. I promise,” he looks back at me with his big blue eyes that look so harmless.

How can I tell him the school permanently excluded him, and that he can’t return to his friends, or that we’ll be lucky if Robbie’s parents don’t call the police?

“I think some time away will be best for now, but maybe you could draw Robbie a nice picture, and we can take it around to his house at the weekend. How does that sound?” I ask as I start the engine and pull away from the school.

“Okay, I will draw him a super big robot