Ana bites her lip, watching as Jabari walks right past them and up to his room. Ana and Tim have been picking him up from school but he never talks to them, not like he used to.
It's been two days since the incident and he hasn't muttered a single word to them.
Ana is passing by his room when she hears sobbing inside.
"Jabari?" Ana calls, putting down her basket of dirty laundry and knocking on his door.
"go away!" Jabari yells.
"Jabari, please, just talk to us, we can fix all of this if you just tell us what's going on" Ana pleads, feeling helpless.
"nothing is going on!" Jabari exclaims.
Ana sighs, resting her head against his door.
"please" Ana murmurs. "let us help"
"go away!" Jabari cries.
Ana bites her lip and does as he asks, leaning down and picking the laundry up again.
Ana enters her and Tim's bedroom to see Tim on the phone with the principal of Jabari's school... again.
"we are his parents, I should be able to-" Tim is saying over the phone only to be interrupted.
The interruption seems to be all Tim can take because he tosses the phone back down on the bed.
"they won't tell us what's going on?" Ana guesses since it's the same thing they've been told since they found out about the bullying.
"he thinks that because we're first time foster parents we're being overprotective" Tim answers.
"he's crying in his room right now" Ana scoffs. "how are we being overprotective by making sure that he's not being bullied at his new school?"
"we can't fix it if we don't know what's going on" Tim sighs, sitting down on the bed.
"Jabari isn't going to tell us and if the school isn't..." Ana trails off, looking down at the shirt she's currently folding.
Tim and Ana go quiet, both at a loss of what to do.
"he hasn't played Just Dance since it happened" Tamara says, standing in the doorway.
"wait, what?" Tim looks up.
"Just Dance, he hasn't played it, I can usually hear the music from my room, I haven't heard anything" Tamara replies.
"you think..." Ana trails off, her eyes widening.
"I think that there is a stigma against boys dancing and Jabari is a new kid so..." Tamara starts.
"so they'd want to find something to make fun of Jabari for" Tim realizes.
"and it's such a new passion for him... being shut down would probably hurt more than if he'd been doing it for years" Ana continues.
"but how do we fix that?" Tamara asks.
Ana shakes her head. "I-I... I don't know, we can tell him over and over again that he can do anything he wants to do and not let other people tear him down, but it's a lot easier said than done"
"and those shitheads at his school will only ruin any progress we make with him" Tim sighs.
Ana looks down at her phone when it dings with a reminder.
"oh, Tim, you have your appointment in thirty minutes" Ana says.
"what appointment?" Tamara asks.
"a suit fitting appointment" Tim sighs.
YOU ARE READING
Altruism | Part Five : Family
Action"Let me be your light at the end of the tunnel" - Ana Cabrera Ana Cabrera is a Cuban immigrant. She lives in a three bedroom apartment with her grandparents and is a rookie starting in the LAPD. This is Part Five. To find Part One, follow this link...
