What goes on behind the words (is there pity for the plain girl)

Support Squad

A.N. not technically me updating again - this has just been sitting in my drafts gathering dust so if you're still here and rooting for this story, I hope you enjoy but in the meantime, please show my new Oneshot collection some love! <333

After Marjorie's mumbled apology, Charlotte left, reeling from the sight that she had just witnessed. Today, she had learnt more about the Knight siblings than she had learnt since she first knew them. In the staff room, she put the kettle on before Carly came barreling in.

"Oh my god, I wish I hadn't eavesdropped today, I usually like knowing things but this is horrifying." she groaned before swiping Charlotte's half-brewed tea and heaping in sugar and milk. Charlotte poured a separate mug, feeling too sympathetic to care about remaking the tea.

"How much did you overhear? She asked gently.

"All of it. Oh my god, I feel so bad for Autumn and Reece. I can't believe that they had such a horrible childhood. I'm never complaining about anything again now."

"No no no, don't do that!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Look, what they went through was horrible and yes, we saw how badly it still affects them, especially Autumn, but that doesn't mean we can compare pain. Just because someone else had it worse, it doesn't mean that you didn't have it bad; you can absolutely complain about your life as well, even to Reece!" Carly smiled at Charlotte, inwardly relieved of the guilt she'd been carrying around for always offloading on Reece.

"Thanks, Char," they sat in silence for a second. "Wait, how do we go from here now?" Carly asked after a while.

"About Reece and Autumn?" Charlotte checked. At Carly's nod, Charlotte shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if we should do anything to be honest, because they probably didn't want to tell us in the first place in case we treated them differently."

"But we can't carry on like how we did." the apprentice argued.

"No, we can't." Charlotte agreed. "I'll speak to Marjorie and Winter to see what they say and we can go from there, ok?" she messaged both the people in question who came up to the staff room as soon as she sent the message.

"Everything alright, Char?" Marjorie asked her gently. She knew the event of today hadn't been easy on anyone. Winter looked positively dreadful.

"Yes, yes, we were just discussing how to go forward from here."

"I've been wondering that myself." Winter agreed. "Marjorie has already spoken to Reece about helping Autumn's panic attacks but I don't think changing how we treat them is going to do anyone any good."

"No! No, we absolutely cannot do that, they'll strangle us!" Marjorie responded. "But we also can't not do anything."

"That's what I said!" Carly piped up. Marjorie wasn't even surprised that she was eavesdropping.

"I suppose no further prodding should be done for now," Winter replied. "And let's try not to mention their father, or their mother for that matter."

"Agreed. For now, I think we just keep utilising the alliance and go from there." Marjorie replied, reaching over to steal Charlotte's tea.

"Woah woah what alliance?" Carly exclaimed, prompting Charlotte to quickly explain whilst remaking her tea for the third time. "Oh, can I be in the alliance too? I mean I find things out way earlier than you guys do." 

"Not until you find yourself a Knight to emotionally support."

"Ugh fine! Not like I wanted to be in the stupid alliance anyway."