Valerie jumped at the sound of her name like that. It was, without a doubt, something she would never get used to hearing no matter how many times it was yelled in her direction. Despite it all though, she was happy to see her mom, not that Mrs. Sullivan wasn't cool or anything like that, but still, this was her mom. "It's not my blood," she said in a low voice. By now she had calmed down some, enough to realize what she had done and that it had all been in pure anger.
In an even lower voice though, she whispered, "Am I gonna be punished?" She gave her the best Spinelli pout she could muster, complete with on command tear drops that ever so dramatically formed at the corners of her eyes, just threatening to fall at the slightest inclination that things wouldn't go her way. "I was just defending us, mom. They pushed me first. I swear. You believe me, right mommy?"