iii
“What the fuck was that?!” yelled Trixie after the young cheerleader had run away. “You can’t talk to people like that, Katya. Especially not students.”
Katya looked at her for a moment, trying to piece together her brain, “I know, I’m sorry! I just freaked out and let her get the best of me. I shouldn’t have yelled at her.” She said after 2 minutes of silence.
“Yelled at her?! You told her everything that was WRONG with her. You made it out that you believed her home problems were her own fault, that you think the parents are RIGHT to treat her like shit. She’s 15, Katya, come on.” Trixie yelled, tears painting her skin black from her mascara.
Katya was unable to look at her wife, too ashamed to see her disappointed face. They were silent for a while before Trixie let out a deep sigh and said, “I’m going back to my classroom. I have a meeting with Mr Charles after school. See you tonight.” She sounded sad, very sad, but calm. As she left, Katya broke down to tears. She had an extra lesson with one of her students, Adore, who had been struggling, but decided to reschedule. She couldn’t face anyone right now, and she knew ir.
This, however, became very difficult when she found 3 more students in her class looking for their textbooks. There was another group of about 3 girls who had entered, looking for their books, when Katya broke and simply said, “you know what, send the message to everyone who I’ve seen today. Homework is cancelled, everyone must do it in class tomorrow morning.” The three girls looked at each other, excitement evident in their faces, and grabbed their phones, immediately texting the news onto what Katya could only assume was the grade group which had everyone on it.
She packed up her bags early, making her way to the small apartment she and Trixie owned. When she opened the front door, she was greeted by the cat Trixie had had since she was 18, Kitten. When Kitten’s adorably oversized eyes stared at Katya, she immediately started crying. The eyes reminded her of Georgina Goode’s, the girl she had just told was a little dyke who deserved to be abused at home due to the was she acted toward other people.
She did not mean it, of course she didn’t, nobody deserved to be treated the way Gigi was. She would always keep an eye on the girl. Not to make sure she wasn’t being a bitch, she knew she was, rather to make sure she was okay.
The Russian teacher had always seen the shimmer of foundation and concealer, covering up dark bruises, or even the way Gigi would wear long sleaved shirts and pants, even on the hottest of days, to cover up scratches and other horrendous marks. On her back, Gigi even had multiple burn marks, the size of cigarette butts.
The staff had been told about her home situation. Many of the teachers had, in fact, called the police on the family. Due to Gigi’s father being so rich and successful, he was able to shut the police up about the situation, even get them to agree that his daughter’s lifestyle was “everything wrong with the world”.
Thinking about all the events of the day, Katya could not help but feel horrible. Not only for the fact that what she said about the blue-eyed student, but also what she had to live through on a daily. She was also worried for the girl, because she knew she would never have gone home early. The repercussions would have been far worse than the advantages. Katya didn’t know where she had gone. She saw all her friends leaving when she left, so she was not with them.
As Katya was stuck deep in her thoughts, she heard a key jiggle in the knob and knew it had to have been her wife.
“Hey,” Trixie said when she saw Katya sitting down at the table, now looking at the door, rather into space. Trixie could tell her wife had been crying more. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face was flushed.
“The school received a phone call from Georgina Goode’s parents before I left. She hasn’t come home and theyre ‘worried about her’.”
Katya’s heart immediately dropped. It was now 8:00pm and the girl was last seen running from her classroom, crying. She was not afraid for herself though, rather for the safety of the young girl who she was now certain hated her guts. She felt tears wet her face and then felt a warm embrace from Trixie, “I am so sorry, Trix. I never should have mentioned her home life. I am horrible. This girl is in danger because of me.”
Trixie quickly hushed her down, rubbing circles on her back, “it’s okay, don’t worry, Kat. We will find her, and when we do, we are getting her out of that home.”
***********
Gigi had awoken in Crystal’s arms; she was still sound asleep, and the blue-eyed girl did not want to wake her. She carefully untangled herself from Crystal and quietly exited her room, and then her house. She took a quick glance at her phone and her eyes widened when she saw the time. ‘9:27pm’ it read.
She started running home, knowing her way around the small town even though it was dark. The moment she opened her front door, her mother was standing in front of her. Arms crossed over her chest and a scowl on her face,
“Henry! She’s home.”
“What did you say, Talia? I cannot hear you.” A deep, loud voice responded.
“SHE’S HOME!” Gigi’s mom now yelled.
Gigi looked very much like her mother. She had her beautiful porcelain skin and blonde hair. She did, however, have her father’s piercing blue eyes, making her absolutely gorgeous. As she stood in front of her mom she couldn’t help the tears starting to form in her eyes. She knew no matter what, she was going to get hurt. And there was nothing she could do about it. She heard her fathers heavy footsteps coming down the white spiralled stairs, before seeing him in the hall. He stared at her, shaking his head while stepping closer.
Gigi knew she was definitely going to bruise. What she wasn’t expecting was to be full blown knocked out. The only scent that had filled her nostrils during her father’s slaps and punches was whiskey. He was clearly drunk as a skunk and by the look in her mother’s eyes, everyone knew.
She couldn’t remember a lot when she woke up the next morning, her alarm on her bedside table reading 5:43am. She was awake extremely early, but knew she couldn’t get back to sleep.
She got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She stripped down, out of her pyjamas which she assumed her mother had changed her into when taking her upset. She could now remember her mom yelling at her father to stop, crying and clearly terrified for her daughter’s life.
As she looked at her body in the mirror, all the new bruises were shown, bringing back more and more memories from the previous night.
As Gigi got into the shower, the burn of the water on her back immediately told her she had been cut last night, and from the level of pain she was feeling, she knew it was a big one.
When Gigi got out of the shower, she chose to wear something simple that would not draw too much attention. She slipped into some black skinny jeans, a mustard long sleeve shirt which she tucked in and some simple black vans. When she felt presentable, she quickly left the house, seeing her mother just as she closed the door.
She grabbed her bike and started making her way to the school, quickly messaging Jaida that she did not need a ride anymore. As she plopped her bike into the designated stands, she saw Katya, or Mrs Z, and Trixie getting out of their cars. She quickly and quietly ran into the building, knowing if she saw either of them, she would start crying again.
Inside, she stayed quiet. Her friends had received the message and decided against asking why she left and where she went yesterday.
When the curly haired girl entered the building, Gigi’s face lit up. She quickly ran over to her and quickly apologised. For leaving without saying goodbye. She assured Crystal that she was okay, but when Crystal looked unconvinced, she simply stopped talking, feeling a few tears threaten to roll down her face.
Gigi took a deep breath in and made her way to her first lesson with Shea. When she discovered it was Music, she felt sick to her stomach. She did not need this right now. No.
As she entered, she noticed Mrs Mattel was on the phone with someone. She seemed very angry and when Gigi heard her say, “she can’t be left alone with these people. They’ll kill her if we do not act now.” She knew it was about her. As she took a seat in the back of the class, she felt her breathing grow heavier. She knew what was happening, she just didn’t want to believe it. Georgina Goode was having her first in-class panic attack.
Sure, she had these all the time at home, or with Shea, but never in class. She was always glad they didn’t happen at school, but today the universe was running against her. She looked over at Shea, who saw the panic in her eyes. Shea almost immediately got up, a little too fast, causing her chair to tip. She ran to the front of the class where Trixie was, still on the call:
“Trixie, please, it’s an emergency.”
Trixie put down the phone with a quick “I’ll call you back,” and asked Shea what was wrong.
“It’s Gigi, ma’am.” Trixie grimaced at the thought of being caught “ma’am” but beckoned for Shea to continue.
“You see, she does not have the best home life.” Trixie did already know this, from the situation that had occurred yesterday in her wife’s classroom but decided to act unbeknown.
“Gigi is having a panic attack. I need to take her to the nurse. Please, Trixie.”
Trixie took a quick glance at Gigi. She knew the girls wouldn’t fake this, but she wanted to make sure the girl hadn’t reached the worst stage yet.
She quickly nodded and asked Shea if she knew how to handle it. She responded with a quick nod, grabbing the hall pass and running to Gigi who stood up and took Shea’s hand, following her.
The rest of the school day went normal. Gigi was finally thinking she would get out fine. No tears apart from the panic attack she had so awfully experienced after overhearing Trixie’s conversation. Her last subject was Art. One thing the girl had forgotten was who the replacement Art teacher after Mrs Oddly went to have her twins.
As she entered, laughing at something Shea had said, she caught the ocean blue eyes of her Russian teacher, “Mrs Z”.
She immediately looked away and went to take her seat next to Crystal. The two immediately started talking about random stuff that didn’t really make sense but was a good distraction from the woman in front of her.
The class had been assigned to draw something, anything really, just to keep them busy, while Katya was messaging somebody on her phone.
Crystal decided to draw Gigi. She was getting every detail perfect and it looked exactly like a black and white picture when she had finished after just 10 minutes. She decided to add a little surprise to the drawing, telling Gigi to look away while she completed it,
Gigi focussed her energy on Katya. She was leaning against her desk, still talking to someone. Gigi sketched out the picture. It made her life much easier that the teacher stayed put, only typing on her phone.
At the end of the lesson, Crystal and Gigi showed each other their drawings.
Crystal’s was of herself and Gigi. Crystal was kissing Gigi’s cheek while Gigi scrunched her small button nose smiling.
Gigi’s was more boring than that, but a little bit better detailed, as she had a reference and Crystal did not.
They had to hand in their artworks and add either a description or a simple quote to describe why they chose it.
Crystal chose: “True love is only ever shared through happiness.” This made Gigi’s heart flutter and her stomach go crazy with butterflies, but they disappeared after Crystal mentioned them being the “bestest of friends” at the end.
Gigi decided to add a simple: “Misunderstood, like me. I’m sorry.”
As they handed it in, Gigi was sure to leave hers at the top. She took the longest time to pack away simple things like pencils and her sketchbook.
When she dropped the sketch onto the tall pile, she saw her teacher immediately pick it up. A smile fell onto Katya’s face and when she looked up to take Gigi aside for a quick conversation, she found the young girl had left.
Katya folded the drawing carefully and placed it into her pocket. She shoved the rest of the drawings into a folder and making her way to Trixie’s classroom so they could leave for the day.
When she was about to open the door, she heard distinct chatter. Gigi’s voice came from inside, so she decided to wait for them to finish, innocently listening in on the voices.
“I hope you are feeling better, I could see your panic in class today” she heard Trixie say.
“That’s okay, I’m sorry about yesterday. I was acting bitchy and deserved what I had coming.” Gigi responded.
Katya’s heart dropped when she heard the girl speaking. She was apologizing when it should be the other way around, except Katya, not Trixie.
“No, you did not. I’m not sure if Katya has spoken to you yet, but I know she wanted to.”
That was no lie. Katya had been looking for a way to pull Gigi aside to apologise for everything that had happened the previous day, but she still had not found the right time to do so.
Katya decided to enter after around 2 minutes of silence, she didn’t bother knocking, knowing Trixie wouldn’t be angry. As she entered, she saw Trixie giving Gigi a tight hug. The type of hug your mother would give you after you fell off your bike to cheer you up. As she approached the two, she was about to start talking when Gigi pulled her into the hug too, clearly not caring that Katya hated being touched.
After 3 minutes in the hug, the three pulled apart. To a stranger, they would definitely seem as a family. Katya was certain that was not the real-life case though. She really did believe that Gigi hated every inch of her.
“Gigi, I am so so- ” She started.
“I know, it’s okay. Don’t worry.” Gigi interrupted, grabbing all her bags to leave.
“No. It does matter. What I said was not okay. I really do hope you have not lost all respect in me, that is the last thing I want to happen. I really do hope you forgive me, however, I understand if you do not.” Katya said, rambling a little bit.
“Really, it’s okay.” Gigi said, before continuing, “Great pâté, but I'm gonna have to motor if I wanna be ready for Jaida’s.” She stated, quoting the Heathers. This caused both Trixie and Katya to laugh and relieving some of the tension
Okay, this was great and cool, we don’t like hate each other anymore but I really do have to go. See y’all Monday.” Gigi said after a few more giggles, to which Katya simply responded, “stay safe!”
Gigi quickly and sarcastically replied, while exiting the room:
“Okay, mom.”