Wickedness Of A Child (Emison)

21

[E]

"Mom..?''

My mother looked apologetically at me and kept her arms folded tightly around her, like hugging herself were the only way to keep herself together. ''Honey, I'm so sorry that I'll have to do this.'' Her eyes were red and puffy, a clear sign that she had been crying recently.

''What is this about? Why are you here?''

Principal Murphy stood up behind her desk and locked her hands, her eyes firmly staring into mine as a confirmation that she wanted my attention. ''Emily, I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside while I talk to your mother.''

''Alright..'' I hesitatingly replied and headed out of the room. In the corner of my eye I spotted Principal Murphy closing the door gently behind me, right before she requested that my mother should sit down. After that, it became quiet. I had walked too far away from the door to hear anything. I wasn't even sure I wanted to know what they were talking about.

''Emily!'' A male voice spoke up behind me. I swung around and became face to face with Mr. Patowski. He's also known as our lawyer.

''Oh, Mr. Patowski. Hi. What are you doing here?''

He looked difficultly at the surroundings. It was like he avoided my gaze. ''Uh. Your mother and I had to come here because of.. special circumstances.''

''I'm not a mind reader, Eric.'' I pointed out and distinguished his first name for the first since in ten years. Eric stared shockingly at how I chose to use his first name when I hadn't in such a long time. ''Sorry. It's just easier to call you that, instead of Mr. Patowski.'' I explained.

''I can't really tell you more than I already have. Especially not here.'' Eric lowly said between gritted teeth and referred to all students walking in the corridor. ''It's not out for the public.''

''So when can you tell me? I'm basically being on the hold on something that involves me, otherwise you two wouldn't be here.'' I emphasized and felt how I got closer to getting a real answer, when the door to Principal Murphy's office opened and she waved us in.

Eric and I hurried up across the corridor and walked in to sit down. Eric sat down next to my mother, and I ended up sitting across from them with the Principal to my left. I did want to see all of their faces as they explained this to me.

''Emily..'' Mom were the first one to speak up, and she reached out her hand to get physical contact with me. I didn't move, so she pulled her hand back and laid it casually on her lap. Mom didn't make any intention of saying anything else, so Eric spoke up.

''Now I can tell you why we're here, Emily.'' He began and crossed his legs with his hands professionally locked on his left knee. ''Five days ago your mother called me and told me that she had received three letters from the police.'' Eric stopped and reached for his briefcase. He pulled out three envelopes and handled them over to me.

I opened the first one and unfolded it. It was a police report. It didn't say who it was from, other than the police department itself, so I went on to the next one. It was the same. Same with the third one. They all were police reports that claimed that I had physically abused three of my former classmates before I got transferred to Jefferson.

Eric cleared his throat and continued, ''I started to dig deeper into this, and no matter how hard I've tried and how many times I have twisted and turned every letter in those envelopes around, I can't come to any other conclusion that It'd be sick for someone to report you for something like that. And since you are here in Rosewood I couldn't contact you to get it confirmed or denied. My question for you now is, are the background for those reports true?''