To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 5

One morning before starting her class, Juvia was told by the Principle that she would be receiving a new student. An eight year old boy named Ciel Hughes, apparently he came from a poor background and was a trouble maker.

"I have to warn you Mrs. Fullbuster this boy is quite a handful. Only eight years old and he already starts fights." The principal said.

"I'm sure I can handle him. So where is he?" She asked.

"Over there."

She saw the boy sitting in a chair looking very glum and irritated. A good looking boy but his face was so serious and his eyes, was it her imagination or did they seem very sad? She quickly put on a warm smile and went to greet him.

"Hello you must be Ciel Hughes." She said.

"Yeah so?" He said.

"I'm Mrs. Fullbuster your teacher. It's very nice to meet you."

"Can't say the same for you lady."

Juvia was taken aback by his rudeness.

"You know you shouldn't speak to adults like that."

"Why? You're not my mother and you're not a cop."

"Well I see I have my work cut out for me. Let's go find you a seat."

"Whatever."

Juvia took Ciel back to her classroom, introduced him to the other children, and placed him at a desk.

"Okay class now today I will be reading Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer to you but I am going to give each of you a turn to read a paragraph from a page." She said.

She pulled out the book and started reading a few pages. She would stop a few times and let other students take turns reading a paragraph. It was a way of making sure the kids were paying attention to the story.

"Okay Ciel read this paragraph." Juvia said handing the book to him.

"Do I have to?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Well I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"I...I don't feel like it."

"I'm sorry you feel that way Ciel but this is a reading class and every student here has to read."

"Well I didn't want to be in a reading class."

Juvia gave him a stern look.

"I want to have a word with you young man."

"Uh-oh!" The children said.

She then went to ask the janitor to watch the class while she had a private conversation with Ciel.

"Ciel you do realize that if you don't do the activities I assign for you then you won't be prepared for any of the tests and I will have to fail you."

"Then fail me! I don't care!"

"Now there's no need to yell. I'm only trying to help you."

"I don't need your help. I don't need anybody's help, especially not yours."

"Is something bothering you?"

"Yeah you. Just kick me out of your class already and leave me alone."

"Well if you're not going to be corporative then maybe your parents will. I think I'll give them a call after school."

Fear and terror crossed the boy's face as soon as she said that.

"No! You can't talk to my parents okay? Fail me, expel me, heck hit me even but do not talk to my parents! Please!"

"Hit you?" She said in horror. "Why on Earth would I hit you?"

Just then Ciel made a face that looked as if he had said too much. Now it wasn't that children hadn't of begged Juvia not to call their parents before but none of them had asked to be hit as a punishment instead of reporting them.

"Look Mrs. Fullbuster I'm sorry for being rude but I will do anything if it will keep you from talking to my parents."

"All I want is for you to read like the rest of the class. Why won't you do that?"

"Because I can't read okay?!" He snapped before running away. In that moment Juvia's annoyance and anger faded. So that's why he didn't want to read in front of the class. He couldn't read and he was embarrassed and he didn't want the other kids to find out.

"So he can't read?" Gray said when Juvia told him about it later that day.

"No and it would seem that he's embarrassed about it."

"Shouldn't he be in a different class?"

"I'm going to talk to the principal about that tomorrow but... There's something off about him."

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I told him that I was going to call his parents he begged me not to."

"That's not unusual."

"No but he said that he would rather have me hit him than tell his parents."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. I've never seen a child so desperate not to have his parents involved."

"Just what kind of kid is he?"

"Well from what I know so far he seems to be a trouble maker, he's also very rude and his face it's very serious for a boy his age."

"Maybe he's pyscho." Gray joked.

"That's not funny Gray."

"Have a sense of humor will ya honey?"

Juvia just rolled her eyes and went to grab her Teacher's edition book off of the shelf. When she did she accidentally caused something to fall off. It was a picture frame that contained a photograph of her son on his first birthday. She picked it up and looked at the picture inside.

Suddenly she could hear it again. Her son crying for her. Without thinking she dropped the picture frame and rushed into another room. After hearing the sound of glass breaking, Gray went to investigate and he found his wife sitting in the nursery, clutching a doll that they were going to give to their new baby while fighting the urge to cry.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"We have to find out what happened to him Gray. I can't have this baby! Not until I know what happened to him!"

"Juvia we've been through this pain before. We have to move on."

"I can't! Not until I know if my son is either dead or alive! I can't stand not knowing! The nightmares! The flashbacks! It's torture!"

"Calm down. Think of the baby."

"I'm sorry. I thought that I had moved past this but I can't. I can't. Oh dear God why did I wait? I should've come the minute he started crying! He was calling for me to help him! It's all my fault!"

"No. No it's my fault, I left the door unlocked. I thought that I had forgotten to lock it and if I had just checked..."

"Gray I don't think we'll ever be able to move on completely until we know what happened to him. We need closure."

Gray just hugged his wife like he did so many other times during moments like these. But in his heart he knew she was right. They wouldn't be able to officially recover from this until they were either reunited with their son or buried his body.