Still

02.

Chapter Two

Work had to be one of the biggest scams in the world. Sure, everyone had a profession that they loved, but waking up early to leave your house had to be one of the worst ideas anyone could have come up with. At this point in the day, Maia was on her second coffee and on her third meeting. Over the weekend, her caseload seemed to have tripled.

"You good, girl?" Her coworker, Naimi, asked as she entered her space. Naimi and Maia had began working in the department around the same time. Their ideas and interests in the field were similar, therefore they were placed on the same team with the school district.

Maia threw her head back and allowed it to dangle over the back of the black computer chair. "Girl, I'm so tired," she confessed. "I have so many case notes to write and I still have to leave for more visits."

"You planned all this on yourself on a Monday?"

Mai smirked and pulled her head up. "I was given more work and I found that if I got things done in the beginning of the week, I can sometimes leave early on Fridays."

Naimi thought about it for a moment. It wasn't her cup of tea to do any of the sort. She performed equally throughout the week and dared anyone to call her for anything outside of a true emergency during the weekend. "I guess. You said earlier you got called in yesterday?"

"Yes!" Mai looked over to the pile that had Tyler's case in it. She had her things sorted by the schools they went to and then she sorted them by age. "Diana gave me his case last week and I just did a quick overview of it. My plan was to go and visit the family today, because it was supposed to just be a simple check-in. Well, I get notification of a domestic dispute and his father has assaulted him."

"Oh no." Naimi groaned. "We separated him, right?"

"Absolutely. Zakari helped out and the dad is behind bars. He saw a judge earlier today, so I'm waiting on the details from that. I've placed him with a foster and I need to go and visit his mom later."

"Let me guess, she was being abused and never left?"

"Never," she replied. "Hopefully, I can get through to her, because if there's any indication that she'll go back to him if he's able to get bond or anything like that, the kid isn't coming back."

Naimi pondered on the information. These were those moments when people would look at a social worker as the worst human being in the world. On the outside, most people would say that they were taking a child away from their mother, but that wasn't the case. In many instances, they've seen where kids were put back in their mother's care and the mother would get back with their abusive spouse, creating horrific outcomes.

"Hopefully the judge keeps him in for child abuse. Ugh, are they making the kid testify?"

"I really hope not. They have the neighbor's statement and have the medical records. I don't see why they'd need to put him through anything further."

Working with the government was tricky. You were in a position to be an advocate for people that could not advocate for themselves, but there were times when the government would be the one to fail them. Maia could remember every single time a judge ruled against something that she recommended.

Naimi and Maia continued to talk for a bit longer until Maia left out to Tyler's home. "Mrs. Bailey?" She greeted the older woman politely.

Mrs. Rebecca Bailey was a forty-something year old, grumpy ass woman. The moment she saw Maia pull up, her face contorted and her hands went straight to her hips. She stood on the front lawn of the property, eyeing the younger woman as she professionally approached her. She eyed Maia's extended hand like it was the plaque.