gunsforhire | Log: Kids Can Be Cruel

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Log: Kids Can Be Cruel

Who: Theta Ai (native), Delta Ai (Native), Omega Ai (Native) and various teachers, students and parents
What: Called into school after a fight
Where: Theta's school, Principal's office
When: Tuesday 11/24 lunch time
Warnings: Past violence, shouting

Theta's arms are wrapped around his stomach as he tries to not start crying again. His eye hurts enough and crying had only made it worse with the tears trying to push their way out from between the swollen eyelids. There's other aches in different places that are worse that when he falls off the skateboard. His knuckles on his right hand hurt, but that's a better ache; satisfying in a way he'd notice more if it wasn't drowned out by everything else.

He wants to curl up in a corner under a blanket, or at least bring his legs up to his chest, but there's a rule about no feet on the chairs, so he can't. There's a blank sheet of paper and a pen on his lap, left there after he refused to take them, but he's not uncurling until his brothers get here, and he knows they will, that's the protocol. It's just never been needed for him before.

Maybe the other kids' parents have arrived, he hasn't looked up to check and the sound of the door opening and closing or normal volume voices are beyond him now. His fist tightens around the mangled piece of plastic and wire until he feels it digging into his palm. He's not sure where the other one is, maybe one of the bullies still has it. If it's not broken, maybe he can get it back. Maybe Delta and Omega can get them to give it back once they get here. He hopes they'll be here soon so they can take him home.

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Delta isn't the sort of man who storms into any place. Even when it's after a fight with his older brother his rage is usually quick in it's intensity. But Delta has been working himself up on the way here, including acquiring the number of the closest branch of the police department, several different civil rights attorneys, and the news of every public and local interest section of every newspaper within the city because dammit this is not allowed.

So it is that Delta storms into the office, radiating his fury and disapproval, and refusing to look at the other children or the adults present. He just moves immediately to Theta and scoops the child up in his arms, no matter his size.

"I promise they're going to be in teh worst sort of trouble for hurting you," he growls to his brother.

Green enters his vision a moment before he feels hands on him, lifting him. That's all he needs for his arms to unwrap from around himself and instead latch onto Delta as he's picked up, letting out a small sob of relief. Things are going to be okay now, Delta's here, and hopefully Omega is or will be soon. He buries his face in the nape of his brother's neck, not caring if the others think he's a little kid.

He feels the vibrations of Delta speaking, but even this close, all he hears a faint hum, and even that he's not sure if it's just the vibrations or not. Delta's going to be so mad when he finds out that he lost one hearing aid and the other got broken. He won't be mad at him, but he's still going to be mad. It takes him a moment, because he doesn't want to let go, but eventually, he reaches up with his hand not holding his aid and taps Delta's ear lightly, careful of his brother's own implants.

The silence is something that makes sense. He holds Theta tightly. He'll ask what happened when Omega gets here, and he doesn't care about a single thing the adults have to say until he's got the firestorm of their older brother there. It's the tap that has his head pull back just enough to see it.

No purple framing either ear. Theta wasn't supposed to take them out at school. And that gets Delta seething. He knows what it means.

"You children are in more trouble than you can possibly imagine," he snarls as he pulls Theta close again. They'll get to hear the threat. Theta won't have to.

Delta pulls back a little and Theta wants to pull in close again, but he knows what his brother is looking for, so he waits until he sees the realization in his brother's expression before hiding his face and clinging to him again. His bruised eye throbs against Delta's shoulder, but he doesn't care, he needs the closeness more.

Delta knows, probably figured out what happened, he's smart. He feels the vibrations again, harder than before, and decides being deaf right now isn't entirely a bad thing.

Omega slams the door open, helmet under his arm, and he's too mad to enjoy the way half the room jumps as he storms in. Thank fuck Maine and Tex understand, let him get out early, because there is no way he was missing this. He goes straight to Delta and Theta, and he doesn't even try to hide how angry he is. All he's missing is dramatic villian music.

"What happened," he asks Delta, because like hell he's taking anyone else's word for it. He rests a hand on Theta's back. Someone messed with his brother, and someone is going to made an example of.

"I don't know," Delta admits to his older brother, snarl still in his voice. "What is clear to me is that the children in this room need severe discipline and will clearly never receive an allowance until they're out of high school. Because them and their parents are going to get to pay to replace Theta's hearing aids. Which Are. Not. Cheap."

The last words are crisp and angry, clearly punctuated with his fury. Let those children suffer the fear of the cost, of what Delta will do to them. "Beyond that, clearly someone has beat up Theta. There is no doubt in my mind that suing their parents is completely within reason if they refuse to pay."

A hand on his back that isn't Delta's is literally the only thing that could have made him raise his head and look around. Omega's here. He looks angry, which is a bit scary, but knowing it's all directed at the bullies makes him feel better. He's safe now. Delta will protect him and Omega will defend him.

The headmaster clears his throat as the parents start up a round of protest. 'Everyone settle down and let's sort this out before making any rash decisions,' he says, loud enough to be heard over them.

"Rash decisions?" Omega snaps. "Like not accepting responsibilty? Like pretending this never happened?" He rubs Theta's back while he talks, since Theta can't hear him. "Since we were just talking about this yesterday, and clearly noting was done, I find your suggestions laughable. How about we call the police and let them sort out assualt, willful destruction of a medical device, and child endangerment?"

"And a lawyer, because this school is clearly failing in its responsibilities to provide for the proper education of a disabled child," Delta adds with a snap, just as the door of the office opens and another pair of adults enters.

They, of course, hear Delta's comment and quickly seem very flustered by it as they try to move over to their child without being noticed.

The headmaster goes red in the face at the threats. 'I am not denying this is a serious incident, but there is no need to take it beyond the school grounds. Since your complaints yesterday, we have taken action, but there has not been enough time for those actions to yet become effective. We apologise for this, but these things take time.'

'Your kid's not just the victim here,' one of the parents adds harshly. 'He hit Cameron, he could have broken his jaw!'

Omega moves to stand right in front of the parent, and he seriously considers tossing her out the window. "Your kid tried to remove his ability to hear, don't villify him for self-defense! And I'm sure, by that slimy little smirk, your shitstain of a son did plenty of hitting himself!" He snaps his fingers to punctuate the sentence.

"Unless you can cough up the hundred thousand dollars to replace them right here," Omega continues to the principal, "it most certainly needs to "leave school grounds," because I don't trust the lot of you to make good on it. What sort of adults are these children exposed to that they would even think this is appropiate behavoir? Not the kind I'd trust to put someone out if they were on fire!"

When the first words out of the principal's mouth are damage control, when the parents blame Theta instead of apologizing, any chance of Omega co-operating goes right out the window. He wants the kids expelled, the teacher fired, and the hearing aids replaced, and only Delta is going to get him to stop running his mouth.

Well, that's a definite overestimation of the cost to replace Theta's hearing aids, but Delta doesn't mind in the slightest. In fact, he's enjoying the mouth running at full force. He even turns to look at the parents with utter contempt in his gaze.

"Our Theta was, clearly, teamed up on by your miserable little brats. One of your children has a hurt jaw, the other, from the way he's holding himself, maybe a few bruises to his chest. Theta, on the other hand, has black eyes, potential fractures of his orbital bones, a busted lip, and that goes without mentioning the fact that your children literally attacked a handicapped child and destroyed the expensive equipment that enables him to hear. And you're going to try and pussyfoot around the serious situation you have yourselves in?"

He carefully transfers Theta to his hip and gives the principal a very severe glare. "You see, this is why my own guardian chose not to mention my hearing disability to my instructors when I was here. Because you and your staff are incapable of protecting a child with such an obvious difference from the others. You, these children, their parents, and a particular teacher you employ, all further my complaints yesterday of unfair treatment and prejudice against people with physical impairments. The only option here is to get lawyers involved, with suits against you and the teacher for failing to create a safe environment, these parents for the medical bills and the damages to Theta's hearing, and clearly expulsion for these children who decided that when Theta wouldn't give them his hearing aids to use as TOYS, they would raise a hand to him in violence."

He's managed to get his voice back to cool, chill even. "Of course, if you should all choose to ignore the reasonable and legally requisite results to the actions that have come to pass today, I will have no qualms at all in talking to every media outlet that will have me about the situation and the treatment of my little brother, not to mention involving the authorities."

Because Omega's rage is worlds more effective when set up counter point to the threats Delta is more than willing to follow through on. Bad cop, meet 'good' cop.

Theta shifts easily with Delta's adjustment, well used to the movement since he was a baby. Even though he's bigger now and in this instance it's a bit harder with one of his hands curled around his broken aid, he still knows how to hold on best so he won't fall and he won't put too much pressure on Delta. Settled, he hides his face again.

There's a long silence following the two brothers' rant in which most of the parents look ready to erupt, the principal turns about five different colors in the space of thirty seconds and the other teacher eyes the door as if wondering if he can make a break for it.

The silence is broken by one of the mothers slapping her son on the back of his head. They're at the back, not one of the main group, but she looks furious.

'I thought I'd brought you up better than to be a bully,' she says angrily while he rubs the back of his head and scowls at the floor.

The movement seems to jolt the others out of their freeze, though none of them look about to hurt anyone other than the Ais. The headmaster clears his throat, trying to return to his usual shade. 'Perhaps we shouldn't discuss further matters in front of the children,' he suggests.

"Oh, I think we should," Omega says, because like hell he's letting Theta out of his sight. "Normally I'd say it's important for Theta to hear that he has a right to be safe at school, but that's not going to happen, is it?"

No, it's not, because right now Theta does not have that option. Though if he ever picks his head up, Omega will provide a translation of what everyone's saying. A loose translation.

"So let's have it in front of the children. Let's have it in front of everyone. Because I am very interested in what you have to say that is not appropiate to discuss in front of children old enough to know better."

"These so called children are all older than Theta," Delta agrees, "and yet they can't respect property or another child. They better be here for this to understand what a terrible thing they've done!"

The principal is a clear idiot, and Delta wants to shout him down. "And I thank you, ma'am, for at recognizing the facts of your son's behavior while all these other parents sit here and pretend that their children have done nothing wrong."

The woman nods only briefly, and Delta is certain that boy is going to be dealt with. but it's not enough.

That gets Delta even worse glares from the other parents and Theta, who had just raised his head a little, immediately buries it again at the sight of them. Things are still scary. He's heard a faint hum, so there must have been shouting at some point, but that's all he could make out.

The principal has gone red in the face again, but at last relents. 'Very well, we'll discuss the matter now,' he says, still trying to remain in control of the situation. 'Obviously immediate suspensions for all students involved, effective until Wednesday next week.'

"Unacceptable," Omega snaps. "Theta will not be punished for defending himself when you all," he points at the school staff, "did not. And he will not be in school as long as these children, who have a pattern of interfering with his learning and threatening his health and safety are here. If they were adults, they'd be doing two to five years for assault with intent as a hate crime. I think expulsion is not too much, considering."

They're pulling Theta out of school at the earliest oppurtunity. But the principal doesn't need to know that, and whatever happens here is going to follow Theta to his new school.

Delta actually laughs when the principal implies that Theta will be suspended. "Yeah, no. What Omega said. Because when his options are to defend himself or be beaten, he has the right to defend himself. It's as simple as that. If they were adults Theta would be forgiven his actions in defending himself, because how is he supposed to run away from the situation when confined to the school, when he has no one to defend him?"

It's as simple as that. He finally lowers Theta and begins to sign to him.

THEY AREN'T GOING TO COME TO SCHOOL AGAIN THIS YEAR.

Edited 2015-11-25 17:52 (UTC)

'Defense or not, it was an act of violence,' the headmaster insists, earning a scoff from the woman who had cuffed her son. 'We haven't let other children who hit back off before and we can't change the rules for one child.'

Theta doesn't want to let go. He grips Delta for a long moment before realizing what he's trying to do. Reluctantly, he sits back down in the chair, watches, then hides the broken aid in his pocket so he can sign back.

I DON'T WANT TO COME BACK.

YOU WON'T, BUT YOU DON'T WANT A SUSPENSION ON YOUR RECORD, Omega signs back.

"I bet you could if you tried real hard," he spits at the principal. "I realize you're an incompetent little shit-for-brains who couldn't manage to realize there was a problem in your own school. I'd like to see you try to keep him away from the education he has the legal right to. I think it would be funny.

"In fact, someone might suggest that your policy is, inherently, punishing toward the victims more than towards the little criminals who assaulted my younger brother," Delta answers simply.

He strokes Theta's hair before turning back to the other adults. "Pay for Theta's medical issues, and his implants, and agree to see your children expelled for the school year, and we will consider dismissing any lawsuits we would clearly raise against you."

That works for him. See if he can break any of them.

'Please watch your language around the children,' the other teacher says, the first thing he's said since the older Ais entered the room. His voice shakes a little despite his attempt to sound authoritative.

WHEN CAN WE GO? Theta asks, keeping his eyes on his brothers and so unaware of the uproar among the parents that's erupted at Delta's insistence.

"Right," Omega says. "Because that's the biggest problem in this room. My language. Not that you stood by while a child was assaulted, while one of your students was humiliated and hurt. God forbid I accurately describe the situation, right?"

WHEN WE'RE DONE, Omega signs back. THEY WANT US OUT OF HERE AS SOON AS THEY CAN GET RID OF US SO THEY CAN BLAME YOU.

Edited 2015-11-25 20:58 (UTC)

SOON, Delta reinforces for Theta before turning toward the teacher in the room.

"I don't think anyone wants us asking what exactly the teachers were doing when they were supposed to be watching the children," he snaps. "We won't watch our language at all. Not in the face of violence."

'There is no need to make the situation worse,' the teacher insists, though he sounds even less confident as he did the first time.

BECAUSE I HIT BACK? He rubs his sore knuckles with his other hand. Is it supposed to hurt that much when you hit someone? He'll have to ask Nida.

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