Chapter 5 - Shattered Metal, Unbroken Spirit
Tanner’s face flushed red. He wasn't used to being challenged, especially not by the "robot boy."
"Make me, tin-man," Tanner spat.
Tanner shoved Maxwell hard in the chest. Maxwell stumbled backward, his heel catching on the leg of a desk. He went down hard. There was a sickening CRACK as the carbon fiber socket of his right prosthetic snapped against the heavy metal desk frame.
Pain shot up Maxwell’s stump. The class screamed.
"Maxwell!" Lily dropped to the floor, her paint-stained hands hovering over his broken leg.
Ms. Bennett rushed in, horrified. Tanner backed against the wall, suddenly realizing he had gone too far.
Within twenty minutes, Richard Wilson’s black SUV tore onto the school lawn. He burst into the nurse’s office, his eyes wild with terror, flashing back to the car crash that took his wife. But when he saw Maxwell, the boy wasn't crying.
Maxwell was holding Lily’s hand.
"I'm okay, Dad," Maxwell said bravely, though his right prosthetic hung at a broken, unnatural angle. "Lily protected me."
Richard turned his terrifying gaze to the principal, who was sweating profusely. "I want Tanner Green expelled. Today. Or my legal team will obliterate this institution."
But the real shock came when Eleanor Green arrived. Instead of apologizing, she pointed an accusatory finger at Lily. "This is her fault! If this street rat hadn't provoked my son, this never would have happened!"
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Lily’s grandmother, Martha, who had rushed from her waitressing job, stood quietly in the doorway. She was exhausted, wearing a faded uniform, but her posture was unbreakable.
"My granddaughter has nothing but kindness in her heart," Martha said quietly. "Can you say the same about your son, ma'am?"
