The Sinsinati's

not good

We were sitting in the living room. I was reading a book while Yui rested her head on my shoulder. We were happy, still thinking about earlier that day. We had told Maria to try and walk home by herself. She knew the way because she had been walking to the shop, that was right around the corner from the school, almost every day. We also wanted to give her some independence. Although I did want her to have that independence I was also worried. With everything that had happened, with my father and all, I couldn't help but think about the chances of something happening to her. But I had some comfort in the fact that the protection spell hadn't alerted me. I continued reading my book, but then we heard the front door swing open and Maria drag herself in. I turned round to look at her and my heart sunk. I nudged Yui, to try and wake her up. She opened her eyes and looked at my horrified face. She followed my gaze until her face was the same as mine, because Maria was struggling to stand up she was hurt so bad. She then started to stumble towards the living room door way, before falling to her knees. Yui and i jumped up and ran over to her. I picked her up and sat her on the couch. We knelt down beside her. She looked awful. She was covered in bruses and scratches, her clothes had been torn to shreds, she was covered in dirt and her hair had been cut, revealing her eye. The rest of her had been messed up. It was tangled and had grass and dirt through it.

"Maria, what happened!?!" Asked Yui

"i tried to make new friends... but..." she said

"but what!?!" i asked

"instead they hit me" she said. Yui and i looked at each other then back at Maria. "and they throung me in the grass and then they came at me with scissors. They cut my hair and when they saw my eye they started calling me bad names, still hitting and kicking me" Maria was crying now.

The crying only made it worse as the salty tears ran over the open wounds and made her cry harder.

"and the school did nothing about all this?!?" i asked

Maria shook her head. "apparently, this kind of thing is normal there" she said

"not with us it isnt" i yelled

"come on, lets go get you cleaned up" said Yui

She lifted Maria up and carried her to the bathroom to clean her up and deal with the wounds. I paced back and forth across the room, rage bubbling inside me. I didnt understand why she had been treated this way, infact i dindt understand any of it. But there was one thing i was sure of, Maria was never going to that school again, but i was. I decided in that moment that i was going to comfront the school, and the sudents who had done this. I grabbed my coat and rushed out the door, slamming it behind me. I walked to the school and swung open the door. Then i looked at a clock and realised that Maria had left early, ran away during break. To be haunest i didnt blame her. Knowing what she had endured, and to have the bravery to just walk away, i was actually proud. I stormed towards the front office and tapped on the glass. Sitting behind it was a midle aged woman, chewing on gum and talking on the phone. She looked up at me and was about to tell me to wait but saw the anger in my face. She hung up the phone and asked me what she could do for me.

"My daughter ran away from this school today" i said

"Oh, are you Maria's father?" she asked

"yes" i said "do you know why she ran away?"

She said nothing.

"because today was her first day and when she tried to make friends she was beat up!" i yelled "she is covered in bruses, scratches, dirt, broken glass from her glasses, her hair cut and tangled!"

The womans face had a shocked expresion on it, like she had seen a ghost.

"She could barely walk" i said, trying to get a response out of her.