The insults drew more bodies from the academy's wrought-iron gates. Parents who'd been lingering by their cars. A nanny. Two men in expensive overcoats who should have known better. They gathered in a loose semicircle, pointing, their faces twisted with the particular cruelty that comes from feeling righteous. Some pulled out phones to film. One woman spat at me. The saliva landed on the pavement by my shoe.
I looked down at it.
Then I took off my coat. Full-length cashmere, worth more than most of their cars combined. I folded it once and dropped it into the trash bin by the academy's entrance.
I turned to face Luna directly.
"First, you told your son to bully my daughter. Now you're hitting me in public." My voice was steady. Quiet. The kind of quiet that should have warned her. "Who gave you the audacity to act so lawlessly?"
Luna stood with her chin lifted, her posture borrowed from women far more powerful than she would ever be. She flicked her hair behind her right ear with that sharp, practiced motion of hers.