drunkstrategist (drunkstrategist) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-05-06 18:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2019 may, ~25 points, ~~cassie holmes (crappyartist), ~~haymitch abernathy (drunkstrategist) |
Who: Haymitch and Cassie
Where: Community centre
When: After Cassie’s argument with Nat
What: Surprise visitor
Warnings: Low/None
Status: Closed | Completed gdoc
Haymitch’s last group had finished and he was in the office the centre let him use doing some paperwork. Most of the time he went home straight away but today he knew he’d put off the paperwork too long and taking it home wasn’t an option since Steph seemed to think any sheets of paper must be for her to draw on, even bits he tried to hide away in drawers.
Getting up he moved to grab a coffee from the machine in the hall and caught sight of a familiar face, “Hey sweetheart” he said, “You okay?”
***
Cassie hadn't exactly been thrilled about the argument with her mom. They weren't going to see eye to eye on school ever probably and this was the first time in a while that they'd had a big fight. She immediately thought of the worst case scenario of them deciding she wasn't worth the trouble and disowned her. It kept her on edge, angry and defensive and ready to just snap and it was the kind of feeling that she hadn't had in a while. It was the feeling that usually led her to getting drunk off her ass and she got as far as the liquor store before she realized what was happening.
That it took her a good twenty minutes before she left the liquor store's doorstep didn't matter. She left empty handed, which was the important part. The slip up was enough for her to seek out Haymitch though, so she headed for the Community Center since she didn't want it to be a Thing.
"I stood outside the liquor store for longer than I'd care to admit," she said. "You have a few minutes?"
***
“Always” Haymitch said with a nod, gesturing to the office, grabbing a second coffee before closing the office door behind them.
“So what happened?” he asked, making no assumptions as they sat down, he took the chair next to her rather than behind the desk. It could be a big thing or a small thing, he knew sometimes it didn’t take much to make that craving reassert itself. But he was proud of Cassie for coming to him, she may have gone to the store but she didn’t go inside and that was the kind of progress he liked.
***
“I got into a fight with my mom,” she answered as she dropped unceremoniously into one of the chairs. Cassie has sat at an angle, assuming he’d take the seat next to her. He usually did something like that, to make her feel better or whatever. It helped, even if she wasn’t about to admit it.
“I skip school pretty regularly and it was never a big deal but all of a sudden this letter got sent home about my attendance and how if I miss too much, I’ll need to go to summer school.” Cassie fiddled with the hem of her hoodie to keep her hands busy. After a few moments of silence, she huffed. “I still don’t see what the big deal is but she acted like it was the end of the world.”
***
“Ah” Haymitch said nodding, “You know your mom is probably just worried about you. I mean skipping school enough to get a letter home sounds like it’s a little more often than it has been” he shrugged, “Parents make a big deal out of things when they worry”
***
Cassie just shrugged. “It’s not like it matters or anything. And it’s not like she went to a normal school and crap. She just doesn’t get it. It’s boring and dumb and not even a little bit useful. So what if I want to skip and spend time with my friends?” It was different when she was being homeschooled and could have tailored lessons. The high school was just so slow and lame.
“It’s not like I’m dumb. I was passing all my classes and I still would be if attendance wasn’t such a big deal,” she complained.
***
“You know maybe you’re onto something, she didn’t get to go to a normal school so maybe she wants to make sure you get the most out of it” Haymitch suggested, from what he knew of Natasha’s background her schooling involved learning how to hurt people, which isn’t the greatest way to grow up. “You won’t get to spend time with friends over summer if you’re at summer school though” he reminded her.
“I know for a fact your mother does not think you’re dumb. Nobody who knows you could think that Cassie”
***
Another shrug. “I don’t think anyone thinks I’m dumb. It’s just annoying when they’re all about school like it’s some big, important thing. It’s not. It’s just the normal thing that normal kids do and I’m not normal. I’m not ever going to be normal whether I go to school or not.”
The idea of going to summer school wasn’t the worst though. “I skip with friends though so if I have to go, he probably will too,” she pointed out, as if it made any of it better. “And what’s to stop me from skipping summer school, anyway? I can ace whatever test they give me.” Cassie was pretty sure of that, anyway. And if not, it didn’t even really matter so who cared?
***
“Being normal isn’t all that bad you know. I imagine your parents both want you to have a life that’s as close to normal as possible” Haymitch said, it’s what he wanted for Steph.
“Mmmm” Haymitch smiled a little, catching something that he wasn’t sure Cassie had meant to say. “So who is the guy you skip with?” he asked her, because yeah Cassie wasn’t a model student but she also wasn’t the kind of person to argue with her parents when she knew that honestly she was in the wrong.
***
Cassie rolled her eyes at him. "Being normal isn't likely to happen and I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm never going to be." Sure, she was closer to normal now than she'd ever been before, but that didn't mean she wanted it even to be recognized as 'normal'. Normal was weak and sheltered and boring. She wasn't any of those things.
She made a face, annoyed that she'd slipped and he'd caught onto it. "He's my friend," Cassie replied defensively. "His name's Briar and he's like me. He didn't grow up like other people here did. He gets that school isn't important here. Why everyone else seems to think it should be worthwhile is beyond me."
***
“You know it’s not a bad thing to be” Haymitch pointed out, “A chance at a normal life is something your parents didn’t have so it makes sense they’d want that for you” For Haymitch it wasn’t something to be scoffed at but rather cherished. And he knew Cassie understood the reasons her parents wanted that for her.
Haymitch nodded, “And this Briar already got told he’s going to be stuck in summer school huh?” he said casually, realising where her change in perspective was coming from even if she hadn’t yet.
***
"Yes it is," Cassie replied immediately, with a great deal of belief behind it. She thought it was one of the worst things in the world to be. She didn't ever want to be normal, no matter how close to it she might get. She never wanted to be seen as weak and that was exactly what being normal was.
Her look turned to one of mild confusion when he asked about Briar going to summer school. "What does that have to do with anything?" Cassie asked. One didn't have anything to do with the other as far as she was concerned, so she didn't understand the point he was trying to make. What did it matter if Briar was going to summer school?
***
Weak and normal were not words Haymitch associated with each other, had Cassie said as such Haymitch could point out a number of people who were trying to live normal lives here who were definitely not weak. Her own parents being two of them. But as it was he left that to focus on, what he suspected, was the real reason for all of this current issue.
“Just wondering if perhaps your increase in skipping school came before or after your friend found he’d be in school over the summer. I mean easiest way to still hang out together would be both of you being in summer school together, right?” he said, tone and voice still casual. Haymitch never accused he made suggestions and let those he was talking to think over it and work through the possibilities. Sometimes they were right and sometimes wrong but it usually helped to get to the truth one way or another.
***
Cassie's initial reaction was to sputter out a denial. "Don't be ridiculous." She didn't do things for others. She did them for herself, because she wanted to. It didn't matter what Briar did or didn't do. Sure, she'd been disappointed to hear that he was probably going to end up in summer school, but it was also the end of the year. Everything was wrapping up and some classes wouldn't even have any more tests, so what did it matter if she was there or not?
"We'll probably end up skipping out of summer school anyway if I have to go." Right now, she was in that sweet spot of having missed enough days to be in danger of having to go but not enough days to be required to attend. "So what does it matter that he has to go?" Haymitch was sort of right though. She had started to skip more after he'd told her. Cassie frowned at the realization.
***
Haymitch just stayed quiet for a while, letting Cassie work through it. She was a bright girl and he had a feeling once it had been pointed out to her she might start to actually think about it.
“Sometimes things influence us without us even realising it” Haymitch offered after a while, “It’s perfectly natural and there’s nothing wrong with that. But maybe that frustration with your mom doesn’t actually all deserve to be directed at her”
***
“Yes there is,” she replied defensively. “I don’t do things just because of some boy.” Except Briar wasn’t just some boy. He was someone she wanted to hang out with, the person she wanted to tell stuff to and learn things for because they interested him. Hell, she’d even been thinking of getting a little plant tattoo. Was that just because of Briar, too? It was even more complicated when the idea of them having a kid got layered in too, although she was willing to mostly think that it was all just a bunch of crap.
“And my mom still seems to think that I’m going to be normal some day and I won’t be. The quicker she realizes that, the quicker they can kick me out and find someone new to try to fix.” Clearly she was only a charity case to them if they wanted her to be normal. Cassie was so determined to not see the truth about Briar that she was focusing on the worst case scenario. The only that played on her insecurities, even though she should have been over them by now. At least, that was how she felt. Like she was just spiraling downwards and it was going to end with them deciding she wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
***
“Now you listen here, your parents love you very much. Even when you’re being an idiot over a boy” Haymitch told her, holding up his hand before she could speak. “I get things are frustrating for you at the moment and you seem to have got it into your head that being ‘normal’ is the worst thing in the world but if you think for a moment your mom and dad are going to kick you out because you are basically being a typical teenager then you need a kick up the backside”
Haymitch knew that sometimes tough love and home truths were the way to go, “Your mom doesn’t want you to go to school to turn you normal sweetheart, she wants to give your extraordinary self the chance at normalcy in at least one area of your life. She wants you to have the best chances you can in this crazy place we’re in here. A chance to be your best self” He told her a little more gently though just as firmly.
***
It was a good thing he’d held up his hand to stop her otherwise she would’ve probably tried to bite his head off for trying to tell her she was being a dumbass. If looks could kill, the glare she leveled at him would’ve incinerated him on the spot and it only softened fractionally as he continued. She still resented that she was being dumb over a boy, but that was more at herself than Haymitch or her mom and dad. It was just easier to take it out on them.
“Well she could have just said that,” Cassie huffed. “Instead of making a big fucking deal about attendance. Normal is overrated.” It was definitely the worst thing in the world. “I’m not going to agree that my best self needs a piece of paper that says I passed chemistry,” she added defiantly.
***
It was not Haymitch’s first rodeo with a teenage girl raging at the world while having boy issues. And he let the glare glance off him, at the end of the day as long as it helped her he could weather the evil looks. She was too smart to carry any kind of grudge for an extended period of time. And this was what he was here for, listening and advice.
“Uh huh and you would have, of course, listened and discussed it with her rationally at the time” Haymitch said, eyebrow raising as he looked at her with small smirk twitching at the corners of his lips.
“Hey, I’d agree with you but those pieces of paper are important to some people and they do help sometimes” After all if Haymitch hadn’t have gotten his own piece of paper he wouldn’t be able to help the amount of people he could now he was qualified.
***
"Oh shut up," Cassie replied with a roll of her eyes, although she wasn't quite upset about his smirk. He gave it out good and she liked that even when she was in a mood. Which she most definitely was right now. "You may be old, but that doesn't automatically make you wise," she pointed out without any real heat to it. He was, annoyingly, right in that it probably wouldn't have made a difference what her mom said.
"Maybe it helped you, and god knows Dad's got like twenty of them in his world, but me? A piece of paper isn't going to make any difference at all." She wasn't ever going to think otherwise on that and that included college. No way was she wasting that time and money sitting in more school. "If I have to finish out high school, fine. Whatever. But that's the only piece of paper I'm going to get forced into."
***
Haymitch held up his hands as if to say he was saying nothing, though the smirk remained. He did chuckle a bit at her statement though, “No argument about that here” he assured her, age did not mean wise, in that he absolutely agreed with her. He didn’t consider himself wise at all, he just understood people.
“I think that’s fair enough” Haymitch said, school wasn’t for everyone and if she wasn’t going to be happy staying on to college then there wasn’t any point in doing it, “But you do still need to get that one piece of paper, even if it’s just to prove you can. And you won’t get that if you keep skipping. Is it really worth having to do summer school?”
***
Cassie groaned in annoyance. He definitely had a point there as much as she hated to admit it. “You’re really annoying, you know that?” It was as close to telling him he was right as she was going to get. She would get the stupid piece of paper and graduate high school if she had to, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. It certainly didn’t mean she wouldn’t do it her way, either.
“Like, the most annoying adult I know. I’m pretty sure.” She pushed herself up off the chair but didn’t turn to leave just yet. “Thanks,” Cassie added quietly, since she did appreciate his help. Now she just needed to figure out how to apologize to her parents for skipping.
***
“Yeah? I’m getting a plaque for that. Or maybe I’ll add it to the office sign” he told her with a bright smile, Haymitch knew it was her way of agreeing without actually saying it.
“Anytime sweetheart” he said softly in response. Pleased that she’d come to him, that she felt she could and had indeed done so. It was the kind of thing he tried to ensure those he helped knew they could do, his door was always open.