Brooklyn Montgomery is the younger sister of Travis Montgomery. She's seventeen-years-old and has been in foster care since their parents died almost five years ago. With Travis and Michael's job as firefighters, child protective services didn't wan...
'Brooklyn went through something a while back.' Alyssa tells him. 'It was between her and a male teacher in a science lab. You probably heard about it on the news.'
'Oh.' McKaine sighs and nods.
'I better go find her and calm her down.' Alyssa states. McKaine nods.
'Take your bags with you. I'll get the guidance counsellor to come and find you.' He tells her. Alyssa nods, picks up hers and Brooklyn's bags and walks out of the room to try and find Brooklyn. When she walks out into the hall, she sees Brooklyn sitting on the floor with her back against the lockers.
'Bryn, you okay?' She asks her girlfriend, cautiously.
'Just leave me alone, Lyssa. I need some space.' Brooklyn states as she stands up. 'The school should fucking know what sets me off. CPS should have told them about what happened!'
'CPS are quite crap at communication. Even I know that.' Alyssa raises an eyebrow. 'Let's go outside and get some fresh air.'
'Alyssa, I just need some space.' Brooklyn states. She spins around and hurries off. Alyssa walks quickly behind her.
'Bryn, where you going?' She asks, concerned.
'To get some space!' Brooklyn shouts. She turns into the janitors closet, slams the door and locks it.
'Brooklyn!' Alyssa bangs on the door. 'Brooklyn, come on.' She tries to force the door open but it's no use. 'Brooklyn!' She bangs on the door once more. As she does, the guidance counsellor, Kate runs up to her with McKaine.
'Alyssa, where's Brooklyn?' Kate asks.
'In here.' Alyssa points to the janitors closet. 'She's locked herself in.' Kate and McKaine look between each other and then back at Alyssa. 'Brooklyn isn't a violent person. Being in the lab with the Bunsen Burners and then Mr McKaine touching her just brought up bad memories and she lost it.' Kate looks at McKaine.
'Mr McKaine, it might be better if you returned to your classroom. I'll deal with this.' Kate tells him. McKaine nods and walks off. When Kate turns back to Alyssa, she sees that she's getting her phone out of her bag. 'What are you doing?'
'Calling her brother.' Alyssa replies.
'We don't need to do that just yet.' Kate shake shakes her head.
'Look, when she's in this kind of mindset, her brother is the only one who can bring her out of it.' Alyssa tells Kate. 'She's not long out of a psyche ward, she shouldn't have come back to school so soon.'
'Alyssa, just give it another five or ten minutes. If she doesn't come out, you can call her brother then.'
'Fine.' Alyssa sighs.
'You said that Brooklyn isn't a violent person-'
'She's not violent unless she thinks she's in danger.' Alyssa cuts her off. 'Like the rest of the human race.'
'Is she violent towards herself?' Kate asks.
'Do you mean has she ever self-harmed or tried to kill herself?' Alyssa raises an eyebrow.
'Brookyln's safety is key. If she's a danger to herself, we're going to have to force the door down. The janitor isn't due in for another two hours so we'd have to call the fire department but by then it could be too late. Brooklyn could have done some serious harm to herself.'
'That's why we need to get her brother here, now!'
'Is he her legal guardian?' Kate queries.
'He's going to be.' Alyssa nods. 'He's sorting out paperwork with CPS at the moment. She's staying with her brother's friend until it's all finalised.' The frustration in her voice is evident so Kate nods.
'Call her brother.'
Just ten minutes later, Travis is running down the hallway towards Alyssa and Kate.
'Where is she?' He asks. Both Kate and Alyssa point to the janitors closet. Travis nods, walks up to the door and softly knocks on it. 'Bryn.' He says. 'Bryn, c'mon open the door.' He hears quiet sobs coming from lower down. He crouches down. 'Bryn it's okay. You're safe, you're not in any trouble. Just open the door and we can go and have a little chat somewhere.' After a few moments, the door unlocks and opens slightly, but instead of walking out, she pulls Travis and closes and locks the door once more. 'It's okay.' He reiterates 'You're not in any trouble.'
'How could I not be in any trouble?' Brooklyn scoffs. 'I pushed a teacher over!'
'You pushed him because you thought something bad was going to happen.' Travis reminds her. 'You were protecting yourself.'
'This isn't me.' Brooklyn laughs nervously as she shakes her head. 'I don't react with violence. Like at the home - that wasn't me either.'
'Bryn, it's going to be okay.' Travis walks closer to her. He puts his hands on her shoulders. 'Keys was a bad person, but he's dead now. Not all teachers are like him.'
'But I can't help but think they are.' Brooklyn's eyes brim with tears again. 'I keep having nightmares, every time I see a teacher's face I see him, every time a teacher asks to speak to me in private I think that it's all going to happen all over again. I can't keep doing it. I just can't. I can't handle it on my own.'
'Bryn, you are never on your own. You have me, you have the guys at 19, you have Ryan, you have Alyssa.' Travis says to her. 'Don't you ever think that you have to go through anything alone.' He continues. 'It's okay not to be okay.' He brings her in for a hug and kisses the top of her head and places his chin on the top of her head. 'Don't ever forget that.' He whispers.
~~
A bit of a short chapter than what I usually do but I wanted this to be a filler chapter to build more upon the relationship between Travis and Brooklyn and potentially (hehe) create a rift between Alyssa and Brooklyn.
Let me know what you think!
Much love
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