TW : VIOLENCE

date : January 22, 2019

"STOP IT!"

Arms, covering head. Breath, knocked away. Gone. Gone. Slow, struggling, agonizing breaths forced into lungs.

Mocking laughter. Hair, pulled, as if it was to be ripped out of the scalp. Eyes forced to look up. Then head, tossed aside, and the rest of the small body following.

A smirk on his face as the older boy clicked his tongue, looking down with distaste. "Keep ya smartass remarks to yourself next time, yeah?" he hissed. A glob of saliva sailed from his mouth and splatted on her t-shirt. His sneaker clad foot reached back before slamming forward, digging into her ribs. She fell, again, curled up on her side on the ground.

The other third years looked at their classmate with veiled sympathy as the boy left his target heaving for air, slowly picking herself up from the ground. Her arm flailed out to brace herself on her locker. "Are you alright, Astra?" Charlotte, the girl beside her whispered.

Astra squeezed her eyes shut. She felt dizzy, felt the bruise on her eye forming already. Her head lolled backwards, hitting the locker with a dull clang. "I'm fine," she whispered through a grimace. I'm fine. Her ribs ached, but not in a broken sort of way. At least, she hoped it wasn't a broken sort of way.

Charlotte shook her head slightly. "You're lying. Here." Charlotte pulled Astra's arm over her shoulder and pulled her along. "To the nurse with you."

Astra put up feeble resistance. "I can walk, I'm fine," she insisted. Her steps were shaky as her head swam. Charlotte kept hold of her arm determinedly.

∆

She held the icepack to her eye as she sat nervously in the nurse's office. Mr. Hayden had Grandpa Eli on the phone.

Roderick and Nico burst through the door. "Who the hell did it?" Rod demanded, seething with rage, roughly taking Astra by the shoulders and forcing her to look at him. She winced. Nico pushed Roderick away and knelt down in front of her with concern swimming in his dark brown eyes.

"How bad are you hurt, Asa?" he asked softly. Astra's mouth remained firmly shut and she shook her head, eyes trained on Roderick, now pacing with a look of pure hatred on his face. Nico tapped a soft finger on her leg. "Asa, look at me."

Mr. Hayden hung up the phone and sat Roderick down before coming back over to Astra. "Your grandad's coming to pick you up, alright?" he said. Astra nodded.

It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Nico and Rod what had happened. Her voice just wasn't working. And that scared her.

∆

Grade 1 concussion. Black eye. Bruised ribs. A thousand questions ringing in her throbbing head. Astra sat in bed with her head between her knees. She had only spoken to the doctor since the incident.

Keep ya smartass remarks to yourself next time, yeah?

She had told him no. She told him no, she wouldn't do his homework. It was his. Shouldn't he do it himself? He was the one being held back a grade. Why should she have to pick up his slack?

Why should I pick up your slack?

He punched her.

bam

Like in a comic book.

WHAM

Astra swallowed hard.

CRASH

Like last time.

October 19, 2018

The end of Friday. The beginning of the weekend. The final class.

Maths.

Astra was not particularly fond of maths. Mrs. Fielding was, however, her favorite teacher, and she would be lying to say she was not excited for the class. After all, she seemed to be getting the hang of everything.

Astra stopped at her locker and swapped notebooks. She did not chat in the halls often. Usually no one approached her to chat. Which was fine. No one at school really interested her anyway. Which was not to say she was unpleasant or antagonistic. She just… preferred her own company, usually. It was nice when someone did choose to speak with her, though they usually didn't want to talk about anything truly worthwhile.

Astra opened her folder to check if her homework was there. Yes, there it was, marked by her mother in green pen to be one hundred percent correct. Wonderful.

Suddenly, Astra's homework was no longer in her hand. “Nice figures, Norrick,” a taller, burly boy said, looking over her paper as he held it above her head. Standing at only four feet and two inches, this was not some great feat, to hold something out of Astra's immediate reach.

“Give me my work back,” she commanded. Her voice was firm. Derek, for that was the boy's name, chuckled and rolled his eyes at her.

He creased the paper. Folding it into uneven sections and creasing it with his dirty nasty fingernails. “Don't fink I will,” he said, smirking.

Astra's hands clenched into fists. “Give it back, now.” Derek laughed. He laughed and tapped her on the nose.

“You're cute, like a lil angry rabbit, innit?”

She snatched at the paper. He shoved her against the locker, hard, dull brown eyes holding a dangerous light. His hand was worryingly close to her neck. His four foot nine inch frame made it easy to taunt her with the paper, her poor worked after solutions swaying sadly in the air-conditioning induced breeze.

She shoved him. “That's my work, Derek. Give it back and leave me alone.” The taller, older boy simply laughed again, crumpling her paper.

Crumpling her work.

Astra reached again, off balance. Derek shoved her to the ground. The eight year old caught herself, the contact with the hard tile sending a sharp jolt up her arm. Derek pressed his knee into her stomach and pushed her down again, her head hitting the tile. “My work now,” he said with a shrug.

∆

January 22, 2019
Astra took a few shallow breaths, feeling like her airways were closed. Had that really happened? Had it really affected her this badly? No, no… it couldn't. It wouldn't.

The first time he had taken it by force. Taken it for no reason with no warning. Left no mark. Mrs. Fielding had suspected something, Astra had been called to explain what was going on. So she did. And the school gave Derek proper rebuke for cheating.

She mentioned nothing of his physical violence. She hadn't thought that would be an issue. She had been wrong.

But I'm ok. It doesn't matter that I was wrong. Because I am okay.

Liar.