Niam

Chapter 12

I feel OK Monday morning and get ready for school as usual. once I get dressed, Daddy comes and puts a hand on my forehead.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"I'm fine. I don't like roller coasters." I say. Daddy nods and pulls something out of his pocket.

"Put this under your tongue and keep it there until it beeps." he says, and puts the stick thing under my tongue. When it beeps I yank it out and give it to Daddy. "Yup. You're fine." he says.

Today Louis drives me to school, and I spend the whole ride gripping onto my car seat because Louis is a terrible driver. He walks me all the way to the kindergarten hallway, then sends me to class.

I walk about halfway down the hall before hearing Emmy say "Niam." I whip around and see what looks like tear stains on her cheeks. Both of her wrists are really bruised. I gently taker her hands, and she winces away from me.

"Shh. It's OK. Just let me see them." I say. She holds her hands out and both of her wrists are slightly swollen. "Who did this?" I ask.

"We gotta go to class." she mumbles.

I follow her into the classroom and take my backpack off, turning to see Emmy unable to take hers off. I reach over and slide one of her arms out of the strap carefully, then take her backpack off completely. We both make our way over to the carpet where we have to sing our morning songs. Then the teacher gives us worksheets to do. I get three letters into my sheet and hear a sniffle from next to me. Emmy has tears pouring down her face, and she's trying to move her hand to write on the paper.

"I can't do it!" she cries. I pull her into a hug, careful of her wrists, and look to see if the teacher is looking. When I see that she isn't, I quickly do all of Emmy's worksheets for her. Emmy looks at me gratefully.

"Who did this to you?" I ask again. She shakes her head.

We walk to lunch and I force Emmy to sit next to me. If she sits across from me it would be harder to help her. I pull pieces off of my sandwich and put them in Emmy's mouth. Her tiny wrists now twice their normal sizes. "Emmy. Please tell me who did this to you. Please!" I beg.

"M-my dad p-pushed me and I f-fell down the front p-porch." she sniffs, starting to cry again. I pull her against me and start to rub her back.

"I want you to call my daddy next time!" I tell her.

"M-my dad w-won't let me use the p-phone." she cries.

"Come on Emmy, I'm taking you to the nurse. You need some ice." I say, looping an arm around her waist and walking her up through the office and into the nurses office.

"Hello kids! What's wrong today?" the woman asks. Emmy bursts into tears again and I pull her into a hug.

"Her wrists are all bruised." I say. The nurse has Emmy sit down and puts ice on both of her arms.

"How did this happen?" the woman asks. Emmy shakes her head.

"Well I'm going to call your parents. It looks pretty bad." at this Emmy's eyes get wide. "which parent are you with today?"

"M-my dad." she stutters. The nurse picks up the phone and punches in a bunch of numbers, after a few moments She puts the phone down.

"He didn't answer." she says, then dials again. She waits a few seconds and puts the phone down again. "calling your mom this time." she says and dials again. "Sweetheart your mom can't get off work. What do you want to do?" she asks.

"One of my dads or uncles could come get her!" I pipe up. The lady says something into the phone, then hands the phone to me.

"Go ahead, call them. I'm going to get a cupcake." the nurse says.