Gina opened her eyes the next morning to find herself fresh and wide awake for once. Still dressed in yesterday’s clothes and she was in her bed.

Weird.

When did she get to bed? Didn’t she fall asleep on the couch? Leaving her room to try and get her bearings, she spied something that wasn’t originally a part of her place. On the kitchen counter was a small glass jar with some kind of dried herb inside. And a note.

I apologize for bothering you so late, but when you fell asleep, I felt like you would be more comfortable in your bed than on the couch. I hope the coming day reveals what you wish to do for yourself. Take care of your injury and try not to push yourself too hard.

Sleep well, Ms. Miller.

Like a bullet fired from a gun, Gina recalled everything. The hospital, the bar, running into the woman, and seeing Nick with a bunch of other men before that woman helped her. Then that same woman gave her this tea to calm her nerves. It put her to sleep like a rock. But still tasted like wood. Not really to her taste, but if it helped that much, surely it was good for her.

Then a second thought came to mind.

I forgot to ask her name again...! Gah, I’m an idiot.

But what the woman did for her was one that Gina would never forget, or be able to repay. That she was sure of.

Leaving the note where she found it, Gina went to get dressed, but instead of wearing a skirt, this time, she decided to wear something else, after what happened on the street and earlier that day, she didn’t want anyone to think they could do what they wanted easily.

Keeping her hair in a bun and wearing comfortable jeans and a long-sleeved white cotton shirt, she placed on her glasses and grabbed her things for class.

Wearing running shoes instead of flats, because if she had to run, she at least wanted it to be easier on her and not the one who was trying to catch her.

Upon reaching school, Gina headed to the faculty office, where a few teachers, the ones she didn’t like, were there gossiping with each other about some mundane things. Not that she cared in the slightest.

“Oh, Ms. Miller!” one of them proclaimed when she walked past in silence. “You look different today; did you do something with your hair?”

Was she serious?

“No,” Gina replied as she put away her lunch. “Nothing’s changed with my hair.”

“But you seem different,” the other added. “Normally you say hello,”

“I had other things on my mind,” Gina says as she walks past them to leave.

“It must be because of her parents.” The first whispered loudly. Which was done on purpose to egg her on. “They came here asking why she hasn’t married; if you ask me, she’s getting a little long in the tooth past marrying age. And with Mr. Hilmarsson no less. A man like him could do better than her any day of the week.”

It worked.

Gina stopped in her tracks when hearing this. Turned around and walked right up to her, getting into the old woman’s personal space. “Take my advice, Mrs. Klein, if you want to gossip about someone, do it when the intended target cannot hear you. Because if I was a more confrontational person, I would have slapped you for what you said. I’m well aware Amalie’s father can do better than me. But my parents are the ones trying this whole nonsense, not me. I have no interest in the man whatsoever. Say what you want, to whoever you want, like my parents, since you seem so chummy with them. But leave me out of it. This is the only time I will ever tell you because there won’t be a second.”

Mrs. Klein stood there with her mouth agape, Gina was aware that this woman and several others were in her parents’ pockets. Not for money, but in the hopes to gain influence and higher-paying jobs at better schools. As if that would ever happen.

Gina then turned and walked to the door, stopped and added. “Speaking of my parents, you know they’re just using you, right? Whatever you think they’ll give you, it will never happen. Trust me, I have the misfortune to be their daughter.” And then left afterwards saying nothing more. But found herself smirking at the woman’s gasping response, wondering where Gina ever got to be like that.

A wonder indeed.

In the past, Gina would have just let the woman say that while pretending to ignore her, but that was two days ago. Two days was more than enough to change at least a small part of her.

Though in actuality, she just took a page from Layla’s book when dealing with people, and that woman whose name she never got. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to start seeing a difference.

And weirdly, she felt good about it. Proud even.

“Ms. Miller,” Madam Andrews spoke spotting her in the hallway before switching to French. “Good morning, you seem to be better, I like the jeans I think they suit you.”

Gina smiled and responded in French. “Good morning, Madam Andrews, thank you, and yes, I’m starting to think that as well. I just figured it was time for a change, and what better way was to do it with my wardrobe? It’s nothing big though.”

Madam Andrews shook her head sending her curly hair about, she was a small stout woman, around five feet in height but with a warm welcoming personality. She was one of the few teachers Gina liked. “Small or not, it can change a person.” Her dark brown eyes then noticed Gina’s wrist. “What happened with your hand? That looks painful.”

Gina held up her wrist. “It’s not that bad, thankfully. I just have to be careful is all. It’ll heal up in no time. Don’t worry about it.”

Madam Andrews didn’t look convinced. “Still, it must be hard when you want to paint. Oh, speaking of, the painting you gave me has been talked about in my family, my son loves it a lot, even my mother. You have an eye for it. If you ever wanted to be a painter rather than a teacher, I wouldn’t blame you.”

Gina kept her smile, making sure it wouldn’t change or falter, she didn’t want to say something that might upset her. “Thank you, I’m glad they like it. Anyhow, I need to get to my class; I’ll talk with you later, maybe at lunch?”

“Sure, I’ll see you later, oh and stick with the jeans, they really do suit you!”

As Gina made the short distance to her classroom she stopped when she was just about to reach her door, Nick Green was there, leaning against the wall. But when she got close, his arrogant grin changed to one of confusion. Like he hadn’t expected her to be fine.

“You seem shocked,” she stated as she stood by her door. Key gripped tightly in her hand. “What? Did you think something happened to me when your buddies left you last night?”

“What?” he said. “What are you talking about?”

She just looked at him plainly. “How dumb do you think I am? I saw you, last night, across the street.”

He scoffed. Still trying to play it off like it was nothing. “Gina, I think you’re confused, that wasn’t me.”

Yeah, okay. “Sure, and I don’t have a fracture from where you grabbed me,” she held up her braced wrist. “Or did this not happen too?”

Nick didn’t say a word as she unlocked her classroom door. “Nice friends you have, by the way. I didn’t hear much, thankfully. But I know they said I was a ‘slut’ and that I’m ‘easy’ and that you sent them. I know the sex was only for connivance between you and me, but the shit you pulled I don’t stand for.” She glared at him. “Go fuck yourself with a bargepole, you bastard. Never come near me again.” Then entered her classroom and locked the door behind her before he had the chance to say or do anything else.

Verbal confrontations were one thing, physical ones were another.

She could only do so much, after all.

* * *

Thursday was pretty much the same as yesterday, with a few differences, Nick had seemingly left her alone, which was good, and the teachers that would gossip openly behind her back would now scurry off when seeing her, it seems word got out quickly that if they kept it up, then Gina would respond with violence.

Not that she actually would, she just wanted to be left alone.

The other was that Mia hadn’t come to school that day. Gina worried it might have something to do with the girl’s parents. But without definitive proof, she wouldn’t be able to do anything. Though, even if she had proof, Gina doubted the principal would hear her out. Especially after he threw her under the bus for something he knew about as well.

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Gina hoped to try and speak to the girl, she had tried with Mia’s friends. Though, Jill, in particular, seemed to be a bit more distant than before. Not interested in anything recently, not her friends, school, nothing.

That was concerning.

She had talked to Jill’s parents, and they didn’t seem to know what was wrong. They were thinking of sending their daughter to a therapist to find out what could have happened for Jill to suddenly change like she had. Worried it might be a type of anxiety disorder or even depression but had no intentions to rule anything out until they spoke to a professional first.

A smart thing to do in any situation. Gina did promise that she would do her best to keep an eye on Jill if anything changed. And she meant it.

As much as Gina didn’t like children, she didn’t want any kids to be hurt.

She let out a breath, rubbing her hands over her face, pushing her glasses up to the top of her head before her eyes landed on her cell phone. She wanted to call Layla, to hear how she had been doing, besides when they met up again last night and a phone call here or there, she hadn’t seen much of her old friend. And it made her worried.

Then a knock jolted from her thoughts nearly jumped out of her seat and looked to the door. Only to see Alastor Hilmarsson, standing in the doorway, wearing a light-coloured dress suit, a light grey vest and trousers, a lavender dress shirt, and dark brown leather shoes. He wasn’t wearing a matching coat, just the vest. Given it was still warm out it made sense.

“Apologise,” he says with a faint smile. “I don’t mean to interrupt you while you’re so deep in thought, I did knock earlier.”

“Mr. Hilmarsson,” she said with a bit of relief, thank goodness it wasn’t Nick. “Yeah, no, for sure. I’ve had a lot of things on my mind lately. It’s okay, you can come in.”

He strode in quickly after she said that, walking towards her desk and placing his briefcase on a table near her desk that was designated for student assignments, opened it, and then placed a neatly finished three-page worksheet of yesterday’s assignments. Gina’s eyes went wide and shot to the man’s ever-smiling face. She didn’t even have to look at the whole thing to know that Amalie finished all of it. For that’s what Amalie always did.

“You seem surprised, Ms. Miller,” Alastor said softly. “You thought she wouldn’t finish her schoolwork?”

“No, it’s not that, I just thought that she wouldn’t want to because she hated me.”

“Ms. Miller, regardless of how my daughter feels, she isn’t the type to not finish something once she gets started.”

That surprised her. “Why is that?”

Alastor merely smirked, as though he found her confusion amusing, what a weird man. “There is something that we do in our family, and that is once we make a decision, we must see it through. No matter where that may take us.”

“Where did that start?”

“With my mother,” he said. “It was someone she always told me from a young age, and it’s what I tell Amalie now.”

Briefly, Gina wondered what Alastor’s mother was like, given his beauty, she must have been on par with the Goddesses of Old.

“Anyhoo,” Alastor changed the topic back on track. “I shouldn’t take up much more of your time, I know you’re busy. May I have Amalie’s next assignment?”

“Yes, of course.” She took it out of her bag and handed it to him. Not being aware that she handed it to him with her injured wrist.

“It looks like I was right about seeing a doctor,” he said as he glanced at it. “I hope it wasn’t a fracture.”

A chill went down her spine as she let go of the paper and grasped her wrist with her other hand close to her chest. It was scary just how accurate he was predicting that. “It was,” she all but whispered.

“Would you like for me to have a word with him?”

Gina shook her head. “No need, I already told him off. As well as telling him that we’re done, I have no intention of being near him if I can help it. The man is an Ass, a total creep, I just didn’t see it until recently.” She then thought of Layla, the woman, and even Darcy. “I’ve gotten so tired of people pushing me down. I just want to be me.”

His smile grew. “That’s a wonderful thing, Ms. Miller. I wish you all the best with whichever you choose to do going forward.” He then placed Amalie’s new assignment into his briefcase and headed to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Gina smiled. Despite how she initially felt, Alastor seemed to be a good man deep down. Amalie was lucky to have a man like him as her father. Anyone would.

* * *

Gina continued her work while ignoring her parents’ calls, keeping an eye out on Jill trying to see if she would be willing to talk, but she wasn’t, she was like a mollusc, tightly coiled in its shell not wanting to come out. Something deeply traumatized this girl but no one was getting through, not even the girl’s parents. Just what in the world happened?

If Gina asked too many questions, Jill would just run away, none of the others in Mia’s group knew what was going on, and Kaya, who had stepped away from them all didn’t know either. She was just more concerned about Amalie, not that anyone could blame her for it.

Then, on Friday, something changed. Mia was dropped off at school, way earlier than any of the other kids. The girl looked exhausted, broken. But there didn’t seem to be any signs of injuries. But she looked thinner, and a bit lost.

Gina was about to call for her, but Madam Andrews did so first. “Mia, why don’t we get you inside, they say it’s going to rain in a little bit. If you’d like, we can get you a snack, you still like apples, don’t you?”

Mia nodded and then followed after her, but not before making eye contact with Gina, causing the grown woman to almost flinch. The look of absolute defeat in such a young girl’s green eyes was soul-crushing. Her parents had done something and no one seemed to care.

“We’ve tried calling CPS,” Andrews told Gina when their classes were together in the library. Speaking in French so that the kids wouldn’t pick up on it. “At least on three separate occasions, but nothing changed.”

“Why? I mean, you’ve seen her. I don’t think her parents gave her any food.”

“I know; it’s why I always pack extra in case I notice a child has nothing to eat. But it’s hard, and there are many that even we don’t see. And that makes it even harder.”

She was right, but the fact that CPS did nothing on three separate times made Gina feel like the world was just a bitter and spiteful place. It wasn’t all the time, she knew that, but there were moments, dark moments that made her think the worst of humanity. And how she wished the whole world would just burn.

When the bell rang for the third recess, Gina quickly called out. “Mia, can you stay for a little bit please, I’d like to talk with you.”

The little girl looked annoyed but complied, when all the kids were gone, Gina pulled up a chair and sat across from her.

“I know you want to go play with your friends, but I wanted to talk with you, and see how you’re doing.” Mia didn’t say a word. “You were gone these past few days, I was worried.” Again nothing. “Did something happen at home?” Silence.

Alright, maybe a different tactic.

But what? She glanced to Mia’s desk, seeing some artwork peaking out and that gave Gina an idea. A way to open Mia’s heart just a teeny tiny bit.

“Mia, do you like to draw?” Mia looked at her with confusion but nodded. Progress. “I do too. During my breaks, if I’m not eating or watching you kids play I’ll go to the art room and draw something. I always found that doing something creative was a way for me to remove a lot of the anger and frustration I feel. It was a way to help me vent. Some pieces, I never showed anyone, not even my parents. To me, and for many others, art was just a way to help express what I could never say aloud.”

Then Mia asked a question that partly surprised her.

“Do your parents hate you too Ms. Miller?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you mentioned your parents, and how they’re some of the people you’d never show your art to.”

Did they hate her? It was a question that always bubbled to the surface but one that Gina suppressed time and time again.

“Yes, I think they do.”

“Why?”

“Because I wasn’t born a boy.” And that was something Gina always knew because it’s what her parents always told to her face. Even when she was as young as Mia.

The next thing that came out of the little girl’s mouth nearly shook Gina to her core.

“Then you should kill them.”

After a brief moment, Gina answered. “I can’t do that.”

“Why?”

“Because murder is wrong,”

Mia frowned. “But they hurt you.”

“Yes, they did. But killing them would solve nothing at all, they’d be gone and I’d still be hurting from what they did to me. Just because someone hurts you, doesn’t make the pain go away when they die. It might just make it worse.”

“You don’t know that.”

But Gina did, years ago, when her brother was still here, she thought about killing all three of them for how they had verbally abused her and pushed her to her breaking point. Her brother always mocked and even hit her knowing he could get away with it. When she realized such a part of her existed, it scared her so bad she went to live in the college dorms. She didn’t want to hurt anyone; she just wanted them all to leave her alone. She never even went home during Christmas or breaks, and in her second year, her scumbag of a brother ran away. Guessing he couldn’t take being in the spotlight with no scapegoat to laugh at when responsibilities began to pile up in what they wanted him to do.

Then they suddenly wanted her home for the summer, for Christmas, too bad for them, she already had a job and worked while in school. Best three years of her life. How she wished it was for all eternity.

Gina got off the small chair and knelt to be lower than the girl so that Mia would be looking down at her instead of eye to eye. “Because I’ve been there. Not to the extent you’re going through, I don’t even know what it is, but I’ve been hurt by family enough to the point where I’ve thought about it. You shouldn’t throw your life away for such horrible people, even if they’re your parents. They’re worth nothing to you. People like them, like our parents, are nothing more than pathetic cowards, and you’re better than them.”

Mia then noticed the cast on Gina’s cast on her right wrist and pointed to it. “But didn’t they do that to you?”

Gina didn’t hide her injury, seeing that the girl was being a bit tiny open with her, Gina wasn’t about to slam the door in the little girl’s face to keep something like this private. “No, this... this was done by someone else.”

Mia frowned. “Who?”

“I got into a disagreement with a teacher.”

“Who.” It wasn’t a question. She wanted to know as if to confirm or dismiss something that was at the forefront of her mind.

Gina didn’t want to go into detail but giving Mia a name wouldn’t hurt. “Mr. Green.”

Then something changed.

Mia began to shake, it was only for a moment, but the look of dread remained on her face. Had Nick done something to her?

She wasn’t in the principal’s office when the children were taken as parents were called, but Gina had heard rumours that a teacher had done something. All Gina could think of was it somehow did with Nick, which turned her stomach.

Not wanting the girl to spiral, Gina stood up and offered the girl her hand. “Mia, let’s go outside, if you want to tell me more you can, but I won’t force you.”

Mia seemed surprised but took Gina’s hand and walked with the woman to the playground, thankfully no sign of Nick. Being outside seemed to help relax the girl, and the moment she saw Nancy, she lightened up, let go of Gina’s hand and began to run to her, only to stop and look at Gina before heading off to play. Probably for the best right now.

With an exhausted breath, Gina leaned on a nearby swing set, this was going to be hard, granted, Mia was someone that could be volatile, but she still liked things like any other kid. And for her to be getting hurt by her family was disgusting beyond all measure. And if Nick was somehow hurting Mia too was enough to make her blood boil.

But what could she do about that? Be it Mia’s parents or even Nick, given the principal, nothing would change.

This was going to drive her up the wall in aggravation.

Though it stopped, momentarily, when Alastor came once again with this same charming smile and many suits that he wore.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Miller.” He said as he entered the classroom and placed Amalie’s finished work on her desk. “You seem tired today. Everything alright?”

“I’m getting there,” she admitted with a bit of a smile of her own. “How are things on your end?”

“Nothing new, thankfully.” Then to her surprise, he went to leave. “Have a good rest of your night, Ms. Miller.”

That… that was different. Usually, Alastor would stay and talk before saying that he would see her the next day, not just leave like this.

“Wait,” Gina shot up from her desk as Alastor had begun to walk away. “Don’t you need the assignment?”

Alastor looked at her with a puzzled smile. “Ms. Miller, you don’t give assignments on Fridays.” He then smiled almost slyly. “Have a good weekend.” And then left, he said nothing about coming by on Monday to collect anything, which could only mean one thing.

Amalie would be back.