Disciplinary Action/Disciplinary Office/First Week/Diya/Light/Comfort

Try to talk to her more about the bullies

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"I really would like to get as much information as I can today since you're here," you tell her. "It might be hard to find excuses to get you in here to talk to me, I don't really know how we're going to manage that part yet. So, if you could tell me as much as you can today that will help a lot."

"Hmm.. umm.. will.. you'll really punish them?" She asks.

"I will," you tell her, "I already said I would."

"Why?" She doesn't even move her face from looking at the ground.

"Well... that's my job." You tell her. "I'm not supposed to punish the kid being bullied like you, I'm supposed to punish the bullies."

"But why!?" She asks again, lifting up her wrists to her eyes that have started tearing up heavily again. "I.. I.. I'm. I'm just a whore's daughter." She says.

"Diya, I don't care about any of that." You say to her, leaning forward with a serious and forceful tone. "I don't care. My sister doesn't care either. My sister is Ms. Moor, do you know about her?"

"Uh-huh." Diya manages to moan through her tears.

"She gave your sister a job," you tell her what she probably already knows. "She doesn't care about who your mother is, and I'm the same way. Actually, I don't like this town either. They're all a bunch of damn hypocrites. I think it's horrible that they just let you be bullied. It doesn't matter who your mother is, you're a student just like any of them and you deserve to be treated the same. All of the teachers may not like you or stick up for you, but fortunately, my opinion is the only one that matters here. None of the other teachers have to say anything. If I say that someone gets punished, they get punished, so you just have to tell me about it. You don't have to tell any of the other teachers about it."

It seems your words managed to get through to her, because about the time you finished with your heartfelt speech Diya has stopped leaning on the wall and is now staggering toward you. Just like last time, she grabs onto you with a big hug, and this time she's really crying. Your heart breaks as you hug this child back. This is the crying of someone who has been holding a lot of weight on their shoulders, and all it takes is one simple normal act of kindness to make them realize how shitty their life has been up until now, and the entire weight comes crumbling down on top of them. Even though her burden got lighter, she was no longer able to hold the weight and her hard exterior cracked revealing the frightened and tormented child underneath.

You pull Diya's legs up into your lap. You cradle her in your arms as she continues to sob and cry. It isn't until the bell rings, signaling that the school day has ended, that either of you make a move from this position. With a sniffle, and you with a very damp shoulder, she looks up at you looking very vulnerable. "I think we had probably better find you your pajamas." You say to her, getting another sniffle and a nod in response. You hand her a kleenex as she slides off your lap, and you walk over to the cabinets, opening them to reveal the selection of pajamas that you have. You pull a few out, laying them on the side of your desk, as she comes around to catch up. "Ok, which ones would you like?" You ask her.

She comes around and holds a few of the articles of clothing delicately, looking them over, before finally holding a pair with little bear ears to her chest with a big smile on her face.

"Those ones?" You ask her. "Ok, normally I would make kids change out here, but I'll go ahead and let you use the bathroom." You say, pointing her across the room. She seems to look like she's considering things for a second, and then she quickly walks the direction you're pointing and disappears into the bathroom. A moment later, you hear the sound of the toilet lid followed shortly by the unmistakable sound of the 12-year-old girl's pee going into the bowl. Seems she decided she needed to use the bathroom before she was going to change. You heard the toilet flush, the sink run, and then a long period of quiet as it seemed she was finally changing, and then a minute or so later you see a cute little 4 1/2 foot bear-girl walk out of your restroom clutching a folded up St. Truitt academy uniform nervously to her developing chest.

"U..umm. What do I do with this?" She asks, holding out her uniform a little for you.

"I'll be keeping that till tomorrow," you tell her, "just put it on the same hanger the pajamas were on, I'll hang them up for you."

She quickly rushes back into the bathroom and retrieves said hanger and then comes out, immediately dropping her uniform skirt and blazer on the floor as she tucks the shirt portion onto the hanger. She then bends down to pick up her skirt in order to add it to the cross-bar of the hanger, and then finally picks up the blazer she had just cast so unceremoniously to the ground in order to hang it up properly. She then brings it to you and you add it to the closet next to all the hung up pajamas.

With this, you gather up your own stuff and you are ready to go. Ms. Varano had already cleared up all the official paper work, which meant that today you got to go home early. Early for a member of the school staff that is. While the students may all get to go home at 3:30, the staff always has to stay on average about an hour or so later than that due to all manner of official business, records keeping, paper grading, lessons plan preparation, and other stuff. In your case though, you've got some official work for the school that's going to take you off the campus a little earlier than that.

• Maybe you should visit your sister on your way out
• You're in the clear, let's go see Luana and your... nieces.