Callie was a your average 10 year old girl in most respects. She played soccer. Was in Girls Scouts. And loved to draw and write.
Like right now. Right now it is Science period. Where she should be learning about volcano's and magma, and lava. Instead. She's writing. To the untrained eye she is vigorously writing down every word her teacher is spewing out of their mouth. But the teacher knows better. He knows she's writing a story. It likely had a boy in a far away land saving lives and beating anyone that got in their way.
So of course the choice for the teacher is always, do I confront Callie? Or do I let her continue to quietly write and not disrupt the class? Usually, he let her write. Her grade was...passing. And at least she wasn't distracting all the other students.
All the teachers in the school know about Callie. That she is the sweetest, most caring person you will ever meet in your whole life. But there's something wrong with her. She's a little too okay with death. There are times they swear they saw marks on her wrists. But they pray they're imagining, cause how do you talk to a 10 year old about self harm? None of them know. So they pretend they don't see it. They focus on the happy Callie. The one who stays late to help them clean up. The one who stays after lunch and helps the janitors. They actively choose to ignore the fact that there are times when her eyes look as haunted as they're grandfathers from war times.
In contrast her brother is just plain quiet. He's not bad, not really. He just doesn't interact. With anyone. He seems nice enough. But as a 7th grader that has been in this school for 2 years already they honestly know nothing about him. Not for lack of trying. Many different teachers have tried to engage him and get to know him. He just wasn't interested. Other than his quietness though he seemed fine, so they mainly let him be. Only forcing him to socialize for group projects.
"Callie." The mechanical pencil flies across the paper like it itself is on a mission. "Callie!" There's a slight hiccup but it doesn't actually stop. Flowing on the paper with a surety that all the teachers envy. Especially the English teacher that had hoped to be a writer some day. "Callie! The bell ring! Go eat!" Mr. Science teacher speaks sternly and with a twinge of anger coloring his voice. He's supposed to be meeting his girlfriend for lunch in the lounge and Callie is ruining it, again. "NOW!" Callie jumps out of her seat like he struck her and presses herself against the wall with wide eyes and ragged breath. For a split second Mr. Science feels bad.
"Sorry sir. I got lost. Sorry." Within 30 seconds Callie has grabbed all of her stuff and has left the room. Leaving a sour taste in the teachers mouth. It was one of those moments he regrets instantly and will likely regret for years to come. Mainly because of her eyes. A pained expression crosses his face as he sees her eyes in his mind, terrified eyes looking right through him.
"Shit..."
===========================================================================
Callie sits in the cafeteria with an apple and a bottle of water sitting in front of her. The usual debate going through her mind. Eat it now and be hungry later. Or be hungry now and eat the apple for dinner? Desperately Callie tries to distract herself with her notebook. It's her refuge. Where only her eyes stray. In a land far away filled with magic and people who don't care about what's under your clothes. Her notebook is her safe haven. There are kings and queens that love their children. Aunts and Uncles that spend time with their family. Grandma's and grandpa's that spoil children with love and affection.
She wishes every day she could live there. She wishes she could take Prince Jacobs place and go on crazy fun adventures. But that's all she allows herself to wish. She wants the adventure. That's all she wants. A crazy fun adventure.
Sometimes she writes about her oldest brother, as if he didn't ditch her the second he turned 18. Like she meant nothing. Her best friend and protector. She writes about how brave he is. How he goes head to head with the king when the king is wrong. How he protects his younger brothers. Brother. And Prince Jacob.
Before he knows it lunch is over and he has successfully forgotten all about the apple and water, to the unfortunate effect of leaving it on the table as she goes on to her last class of the day. A class she tries to focus in...hoping some day she'll hear about someone like her in the history of this world.
She never does. But she knows she can't give up hope. That was the one thing brother always told her, every night as he rocked her to sleep, "Hope is all you have that is all yours, and yours alone. Never allow anyone to take that from you. You're far too special." He rocked her past all her nightmares and into deep sleeps that she wishes she could get back to.
"Callie!" A startle and glare later Callie is effectively back in the reality of class. "Are you even listening?"
"Sorry ma'am. Got lost. Can I help you with something?"
Ms. History desperately wishes she could be mad at the small child, but she knows for a fact that the question asked is an honest question. Callie would give you her shirt if she hadn't already gotten yelled at for doing so multiple times this year.
"Yes. Try to stay here. We're learning about the civil war this week." A spark of interest enters her eyes.
"Ooooo, my dad says our great great grandpa was in that!" A small smile flutters on her teachers lips.
"Well then. Looks like you already have a subject for your report due now don't you?" And all joy left the body of the little girl faster than the teacher could blink. A whole new child took their place and shut down so completely it would have terrified any teacher who hadn't witnessed this happen before. Ms. History had hit a sore spot. "Or you can pick something else Callie. It's okay." But it was no use. Callie was gone now. A shell is all that's left for the day. So the teacher passes out the papers that detail how to get the best possible grade on this project and desperately tries to forget the lost look in the 10 year olds eyes.
Callie tries to forget the anger in her dads voice as he screams at her brothers. "Grow up! Your great grandfather would be so ashamed of you Pansys!" Spit flying into their faces. "How the hell is your sister tougher than the two of you combined? How did I get so cursed? Stand up for yourself you weak little shit! And you! Stop protecting him! He needs to learn to take care of himself!" Her oldest brother looks at their father was contempt and then looks at Callie sadly.
"Yes sir."
Why didn't he come back? Doesn't he know we need him?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I figured the first part was so short I should add the second bit to it this week for anyone that ends up reading. So. Yea. Here ya go.
