𝐒𝐓. 𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄 𝐈𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃, b.

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

❝𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭❞

—𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄

"your kids are dying, you idiot!' i yelled at ms. berry from my seat, watching as she sighed from behind her desk. i did have reservations about storming into ms. berry's office and letting her have it, but this was too big to ignore. i would rather be the bitch that ratted everyone out to the teacher rather than sit back and watch this happen to someone else.

"i know, billie," ms. berry resigned.

"so you knew?" i questioned. "you knew about the boy that was shot dead not even ten minutes ago? you knew that this shit was going on and still did nothing to stop it?"

"i heard the shot," she whispered. "it was jahseh, wasn't it?"

"good god, you even have a fucking guess as to who it was that did it!" i exclaimed, absolutely appalled. "so i was right to assume that this shit happens on a regular basis. that this isn't the first time something like this has happened."

"it's not, unfortunately this is as common as it gets. and if jahseh did it that means that it was gang related, so i don't have to go through the guilt of lying to the child's parents." ms. berry glanced up at me. "it was gang related, wasn't it?"

"yeah." i nodded my head. "so what the fuck are you gonna do about it? me and a whole bunch of other people just watched a student get murdered at point blank range. you do know that members of your student body hauled the boy's body off right? that there's blood on the courtyard grounds? that no staff came to help and nobody gives a shit that somebody just died right here on your fucking property?"

she just nodded.

"you have to do something about this! you can't just sit here and look at me like a lost fucking puppy when i'm telling you what's wrong, you should be coming up with solutions! confiscate the weapons, disband the gangs, put us on lockdown or something-"

"you say it as if it's that easy." ms. berry shook her head. "confiscate the weapons, sure, and they'll just get them right back or get more from the outside. there would be absolutely no point. disband the gangs. billie, when has anyone ever successfully disbanded a gang? as nice as that sounds, that's impossible and we both know it. and putting the school on lockdown is asking for an uprising. it'll do nothing but get the students rowdy and restless, then something will really break out. i appreciate your concern and your passion to make things right, i really do, but you didn't think that we've tried all of these things already? st. george has been around for over thirty years, we've been here and done that. this is where we are now, and we've prevented violent uprisings and staff killings. yes, the kids are dying, but a few sacrifices to protect the entire student body and its staff?" ms. berry finished, giving me a look that implied that her logic made sense and that these were the correct morals to have as someone who runs a school for children.