Free Another Little Secret by Jade Archer Page A

thoughts kept taking, Brody stepped farther into the room. This was hardly the time or the place to be thinking about such things—even if they were starting to play at the back of his mind almost constantly. Instead, Brody concentrated on the here and now.
    He could hear the sounds of a story being read aloud. The reader pitched her voice to illustrate the different characters—a cat and a mouse apparently on a grand adventure together. Letting the sound draw him farther into the room, Brody eventually peered over a hip high bookstand forming a sheltered alcove and spotted them—twenty eager little faces listening avidly to the last story of the day before home time. All eyes were glued to the pages of the book turned to face them.
    A normally rambunctious group, their focus and dedication to the story was really quite remarkable. But even though he tried not to disturb them, something about his presence must have telegraphed itself to the group. Twenty pairs of eyes turned to focus on him.
    “Wolf! Your brother’s here!” one excitable little boy shouted at the top of his lungs.
    The call was quickly taken up by two or three other, self-appointed announcers.
    “Wolf!”
    “Wolf’s brother’s here!”
    “Wolf!”
    Brody couldn’t hold back his grin. There was something infectious about the exuberant enthusiasm of kids that always got to him.
    He watched as Wolf disengaged himself from the group, clambering quickly to his feet.
    “Hey, Wolf.” Brody braced himself for Wolf’s usual animated greeting, but instead of the wild call of his name and a flying five year old leaping at him, Brody found his legs suddenly encased in thin, but surprisingly strong arms as Wolf’s head buried in his side. “Hey, what’s up, buddy?” Brody stroked his hand over the soft mop of his brother’s hair, but Wolf just burrowed closer and refused to look up or answer.
    Bewildered, Brody looked around the wildly decorated room, searching for some sort of explanation for Wolf’s strange behaviour. He spotted Ms. Gwen—Wolf’s teacher—moving purposefully towards them, her soft, kind face looking a little strained.
    “Hi, Brody. Do you have a moment?”
    Brody felt the worry that had started to edge its way into his mind kick up another couple of notches. What was going on?
    “Of course.”
    “Wolf, why don’t you go back and listen to the end of the story with the others while I have a chat with your brother?”
    Wolf apparently wasn’t buying it. He shook his head vigorously without looking up and tightened his grip around Brody’s legs.
    Brody, not sure what to make of the boy's dramatically out of character reactions, continued to stoke his hand over Wolf’s head. He looked to Ms. Gwen, hoping she might have some answers. This just wasn’t like Wolf at all.
    Ms. Gwen smiled, though it looked a little thin. She stepped away from the group of children, most of whom had gone back to listening to the story, but Brody still appreciated the gesture and her hushed tones. Whatever was going on, Wolf didn’t need the other kids hearing the adults talking about him.
    “I’m afraid Wolf got himself into a little trouble today. He and another little boy got into a fight. To be fair, I think Wolf was sticking up for one of his friends, but…we really can’t have him pushing and yelling at other children.”
    Brody looked down at the top of Wolf’s head as it pressed impossibly closer, as if trying to shut out the damning words.
    “We gave him and the other little boy some quiet time and had a little chat about the green and red behaviours this afternoon. Did you see the information we sent home about our behavioural programme?”
    Brody nodded. He’d read all the information in the welcome pack he’d received when Wolf first started. He vaguely remembered that they used some sort of colour code system linked with drawings and activities to teach the kids appropriate behaviours and reactions or something. Right now all