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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"You'll do to me what your son did to my brother?" Omega asks, eyebrow raised. Then he snatches the device from the boy, with the most sarcastic thank you he can muster.

Omega hands it to Delta. "Do you think this could be repaired? I don't."

Delta takes the device and frowns down at it. "The interior circuits look too messed up. And here, there's a crack in the chip itself. There is no fixing this, not with all my tools. Plus the plastic covering is there to protect it from dust and shocking the person wearing it. I can't just buy a replacement one that fits him."

The parents shift uncomfortably. The teacher inches closer to the door and the headmaster rubs his forehead again. The mother looks pained as she shakes her head sadly.

Theta grips Delta a little tighter as his brother lets go with one hand. He glances up to see why and winces at the sight of his hearing aid. He'd guessed it was probably broken, but part of him had hoped it would be okay. He'd liked his aids.

Omega looks at the woman, the one reasonable person in the room. "School staff act in loco parentis," he tells her. "It's possible that they would be held responsible, not you."

"That being said, the other parents being unreasonable while they are here counts against them," Delta assures the mother as well as he puts the hearing aid in his pocket. No need to make the sight of it upset Theta more. "Omega, I need to take him outside."

The parents mutter protests, but the woman nods, looking a little more relaxed. 'Thank you,' she says. 'I hope getting his hearing aids replaced is as easy as it can be. And I'm sorry again for what happened.' This she says with a glare at her son, who shifts and looks at the floor.

"Okay. You take him outside, I'll discuss with these chucklefucks what they're going to commit to in writing," Omega says. "For repairing them and ensuring that this doesn't happen again."

Delta's going to leave him alone with them. He almost feels sorry for everyone left in the room. Almost.

"Of course," Delta tells his older brother, his voice a touch sweet. Don't kill them too much. They need to pay.

He squeezes Theta tightly and heads for the door. The principal definitely won't be stopping him now.

Delta's moving and Theta raises his head. Are they leaving? Yes! They're finally leaving. Why isn't Omega coming with them? He'll come soon, right? He grips Delta tight.

Omega turns to the principal with his best evil smirk. "Do you have a pen?"

Oh Delta, it would be wrong to cackle evilly when leaving your brother behind to deal with everyone. But he leaves him none the less. Though he does stop by the side of the woman who was being reasonable, and he does smile.

"Thank you, ma'am. You've been amazingly understanding about this and what it means to our family to keep Theta safe and healthy. Thank you."

The headmaster hesitantly hands him one from a pot on his desk.

The woman smiles back a little sadly. 'It's a shame you have to thank me, but you're welcome,' she says. She glances at Theta, wrapped around Delta's torso and facing away from her. 'All the best to him.'

Omega takes the pen and a pad of paper from the desk. "First I'm going to need names, addresses, and phone numbers," he says. "Where to sent the bills and everything." He writes headers on it and hands it off to the angriest-looking man.

Then he turns to the principal. "And I want, in writing, how you're going to make sure it never happens again. So we can add that to his IEP." The Individualized Education Plan is as close to a legally-binding document as Omega's going to get.

The man's fury only increases at being handed the pad and pen and he clicks the pen off and does nothing.

'Oh, for heaven's sake,' the mother snaps, taking the items and writing down her details, then handing pad to the woman next to her with a daring look.

'Measures have already started being put into place after you came yesterday,' the headmaster says.

Omega glares at him. "Really? Then how did this happen? Writing. Now. And add how you're expelling all these kids, firing that useless teacher, because clearly Theta isn't physically safe with them here, let alone learning in the least restrictive enviroment."

The headmaster swallows, but nonetheless starts writing. 'Expulsion and firing aren't something I have absolute authority over. It will have to go through the board.'

Things are going about as well among the parents. 'But-'

'If it was Amelia in that kid's position, you'd be doing exactly what these two have been so write your details down and stop making excuses,' the mother says, cutting off the other woman's protests.

Omega is about a hundred and ten percent done with this bullshit. "Then who on the board do I talk to?" he yells. "Why does nobody here grasp the severity of the situation? Do I need to start plucking eyeballs, let you realize what you did to my brother?"

Why do they keep arguing?

'Ah, you don't,' the headmaster says nervously. 'I'll take the matter to them and we will be decided in a couple of days. The expulsion or suspension of the children by tomorrow at the latest. Firing is a bigger issue.'

"I don't trust you to pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel," Omega tells him. "But you're also enough of an idiot that I'm better off just googling it. I highly doubt you'll give them an honest recounting of events, either way."

Idiots. All idiots. At least "school does not manage to keep him safe" ought to keep the court off his back when Theta misses school.

The headmaster turns red, then purple. 'I will recount the events accurately, including your methods of dealing with it,' he splutters. 'The decision is not in your hands.'

"Really," Omega snorts. "What are you going to tell them? Are you going to mention that what was broken is my brother's only way of hearing, say, a storm siren?"

He glares at the parents. "Bet none of you realized that," he says. "That now Theta is, essentially, under house arrest until he has new hearing aids. These are custom electronics. I can't just go down to the store and pick up even a temporary pair!"

The headmaster opens and closes his mouth and goes red again. One of the kids starts sniffling, none of the paretns have a reply for Omega, except for one of the fathers taking the pad to write his details down.

"Yeah." Omega folds his arms. "Didn't think you thought of that. Because they're just hearing aids. Not important. He must not really be all that deaf if he's in a normal classroom. If they never strapped him down and drilled holes in his skull for permanent implants."

If Theta wants them, Omega will be wholly behind him. Because he's seen what a difference it makes with Delta, how people treat Delta. But not until and unless Theta asks.

The mother's son shifts closer to her, and despite her earlier anger at him, she wraps one arm around him, her face gaunt. It's amazing how much the threat of the clouds can bring the severity of a situation to reality.

The headmaster clears his throat and when he speaks, it's quieter than before. 'We will see the situation through.'

Omega takes the pad from the last parent, rips the sheet off. "You better," he says. "I need to go get the ball rolling on replacing them."

And he leaves, before he murders someone. Why does it take a goddamn death threat to get anything done?

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Log: Kids Can Be Cruel

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