Raven? Detention over Bully

NB: Underlined are things I'm not sure of I just put words in because I know there were names given but I don't know what they were and they sound sort of right. 

And I put Raven? in the title because she's having the name that is Raven's civilian identity and using her powers etc but I'm still in that river in Egypt stage even though I've suspected and now I've had the dream...

~~~~~

I sit with my hands one on top of the other in my lap and look down at them while the principal talks to Mom about what happened.

“We're not entirely sure what happened,” he explains.

“I see,” Mom says, though she knows well enough without even being told. She saw the kid with his parents outside the office, and the way he reacted to me when I came within a few feet of him when we were brought into the office.

“Suffice it to say, Rachel and Todd had an altercation and we have to engage in some disciplinary action, and we're still trying to get all the details and narrow down anyone who might have been a witness,” I can feel his gaze shift towards me, “We're going to be speaking to Todd and his parents, of course.”

“Understandable,” Mom turns to me, “Well,” she says, “I didn't raise you to lie, so explain yourself.”

“He constantly picks on other kids,” I tell them both, looking up but keeping my voice even and pushing down as much of the emotion as I can. I can feel Mom's anger with me because I used abilities on him and in school too. She wants a damn good reason for it.

The principal though. He's mostly just tired and bored. He hates dealing with this parent stuff. He's curious because he's never met Mom, but I get the feeling he's had to deal with Todd's before.

“He was laying into...” crap, what was that boy's name? “...Liam because he's gay and I just it,” in this instance it'll be okay to say it because that's normal. Mom did say 'lie', “pissed me off because that's not right, so I gave him a piece of my mind. I...kinda got in his face. How would he feel if he was in that situation? What a...terrible person he was for treating Liam like that. I...may have backed him into the locker and...smacked him. I was...really...mad, but I'm...not exactly sorry. He's an asshole.”

“Rachel!” Mom has admonished tone, but I can feel her relief and amusement now, to a certain extent anyway, considering what I...actually did, and everything and it was not physically smack him.

“Hm,” the principal says, “School policy dictates there a couple of options when there are physical altercations. Generally it's one to three days suspension depending on the severity and the number of prior offenses.”

“You're going to give her days off school?” Mom says, “Well, at least it's not days off for skipping.”

The principal gives the vaguest hint of a smirk, “Some of our policies are...not necessarily ones that I might agree with but they're sent down by the school board who...anyway...she admitted fault and this is her first...incident. I'm going to say if you take her home for the rest of the day that counts as one day suspension, and then we'll have two days detention on different days than Mr Barns, of course. I think you two should keep your distance from each other.”

“That won't be a problem,” I agree.

“Good.”

“Thank you, Mr Hargrove,” Mom says.

“You too, Mrs--”

“Miss.”

“Miss Roth,” he shakes her hand, “I'll have my secretary mail the paperwork to your house and Rachel can bring it back once it's signed.”

Mom puts her arm around my shoulders and leads me out, muttering at me, and I do my best contrite which is tricky for several reasons. I can feel the evil glares and the utter disgust and anger from the Barnses who are not Todd as we leave.

The principal comes out of the office and there emotion turns expectant, “Mrs Washington,” he addresses the secretary, “Can you call up Liam Rispoli, please? I'd like to speak with him.”

And there's that dread, fear of a different sort and guilt. Todd, of course, realizing that he's not going to be able to play the poor innocent victim any more.

~~~~~

Mom waits until we're in the car before the proper 'discussion' of events begins.

“What were you thinking?” she demands, turning the radio off, “I've trained you better than that.”

“I wasn't thinking,” I admit, “I let anger get the better of me.”

“That can't happen,” she says, “You can't let that happen. You know why,” her hand is shaking as she turns the ignition on the car and backs us out.

I look out of the window at the sports field across the street from the parking lot, “I know.”

“That boy is a douchebag, and he...deserves to be taught a lesson but the risk...”

“I know.”

“I'm going to have to do some severe scrying tonight to make sure we're not going to have to move. You understand that?”

I nod, “I'm sorry.”

“Maybe I should just home school you until teenage hormones aren't a thing. Your powers are difficult enough to manage...and middle school I remember what it was like for me. Kids are assholes. You're right.”

I know she's half talking to herself at least at first but it stings the idea of being stuck at home, “I'll do better.”

“I'm sorry, honey. I'm just freaking out. I don't want you to get hurt,” she reaches over and squeezes my arm over my sleeve and gives me a tearful smile, “You're the most precious thing in the world to me,” she sighs, “and thing is a bad word to use, but you know what I mean.”

“Yeah.”

She turns the radio back on, and the rest of the trip is mostly her haphazardly humming or singing bits and pieces of songs and jingles and me fidgeting with the zipper on the binder thing they make us bring our stuff to school in.

Please don't let me have screwed stuff up.

I don't want to have to move again.

 ~~~~~

It seems we're okay because I don't wake up the next day to Mom ordering a Uhaul and the boxes having been drug out of the garage. Instead it's Mom with a cup of coffee having brewed an entire pot instead of just a couple of cups like she normally does and having toast on the go too.

I get out orange juice and pour myself a glass, as Mum drains her coffee quickly and pours another into a travel cup, “Have fun in detention,” she says, finishing preparing her toast, “I won't be able to get you until an hour or so afterwards so don't get into any more trouble.”

“I'll walk down to the library.”

“Walk,” she repeats.

“Yes. Walk.”

“Okay,” she kisses me on the cheek, taking her toast carefully with her and her coffee too and heads out the door.

I have time to take it slower, reading through work that I did yesterday that I was missing in classes, and reading through one of Mom's spell books and making more notes in my journal which I make sure to lock back up. Can't take these things to school no matter how tempting. I put the book back on the shelf in the closet in her office and lock my journal in the cabinet in my room. I gather everything together for school then lock up the house and walk to the bus stop.

My .mp3 player is on and slipped into the pocket of my binder, so that I'll be listening to things and it'll be easier to tune out some, if not all, of the bus and everyone who is at the bus stop too, given we're picked up at the gateway to the apartment complex and depending on how many people show up there can be up to eight people getting on.

I sit down on the wall by the little garden they have by the apartment entryway that's designed to show how fancy a place this is considering it's income controlled and keep my eyes closed and just focus on the music. There's only two other kids at the bus stop right now but there's five minutes until the earliest time the bus arrives and it's not as if it takes longer than a couple of minutes for anyone to really get out here.

Once we're on the bus when I wind up with a softer track I can feel the other kids occasionally muttering or whispering about me. It's on and off throughout the day too, but I'm used to it, really. I've not been at this school that long, and I don't really talk to people, and now I've gone and done something that's made me stand out.

I just knuckle down and ignore things as best I can and focus on getting through classes until the detention can be over and done with. 

~~~~

I sign into detention, and sit down towards the window. The teacher covering detention is not one I've had before. There are only two more names on the list for signing in, another girl and a boy, who is not Todd. I didn't see any sign of him in school today and the rumor mill is swirling with all sorts of different theories about him, ranging from him having been transferred to me having put him in hospital to him being suspended as well.

“Get out your homework, and start doing it quietly,” I'm told, so I get out the book and stare at it obediently.

After a little while someone flops into the seat next to me, but I don't pay them any attention. Until they start to talk to me.

“Psst,” she says, “What are you in for?”

“Miss Anderson,” The teacher says, “be quiet and do your homework.”

“Yes, sir.”

She dumps her binder on her desk and unzips it melodramatically and begins tapping her pencil on the paper. She has reddish brown long hair, and is wearing more preppy type clothes, a pinkish purple t-shirt, and a white skirt that comes between the middle of her upper thigh, and she's tan.

The teacher is looking at the list and the clock, and sighs, “I'm going to go and see where Mr Something has gotten to. If you're not here when I get back there will be consequences.”

I say nothing, but she salutes him and he goes out of the room.

She edges her desk slightly closer to me, “So,” she says, again, “What are you in for?”

I look over at her, “Two days.”

“That's not what I meant,” she says, batting her eyes at me, “I'm in for getting into an argument with Mr Scagliotti about his teaching method,” she says with a smirk, “because I got sick of him sending girls to the office for their straps showing and all that type of bullshit,” she waggles the pencil in my direction, “Now. I told you mine. You tell me yours.”

“I'm in because of a...thing with Todd Barns.”

“That was you?” she says.

“I'm sure you've heard all sorts of stories and none of them are true,” I tell her.

She laughs, “There's bound to be some truth to them, besides...” she continues, leaning in, I instinctively pull back, but there doesn't seem to be any dual meanings with her, she's genuinely curious without any maliciousness behind it unlike other girls normally dressed like her, “...I may have the forethought to actually talk to Liam because Todd Barns is a complete asshole.”

“A total asshole,” I agree.

“And I was pretty sure if whoever had done something to Todd had actually sent him to hospital or killed him there would have been news crews and police and all sorts of things.”

I nod, “That would make sense.”

She gives me a broad smile, “And two days detention's not too bad, really?”

“It could have been a lot worse,” I admit, “How long are you in for?”

“Scagliotti wants me in for the whole week because I'm an unruly menace instigating chaos,” she waves a hand, “but he's got terrible...” she pauses not being able to come up with the word, “...priorities and I'm thinking of organizing a boycott.”

“A boycott?” I ask, but then we hear the teacher's footsteps in the corridor she scoots her desk back where it's supposed to be.

She puts a finger up to her lips but then she says, softly, “I'm Corey.”

“Rachel.”

The door opens and we go back to our work as though nothing has been going on. Though I'm sure he knows that we've not been working.