Who: Cissie King-Jones, NPC: Janet Kessler, NYS Child Services Case Worker. What: A rather unpleasant visit. When: Backdated to Tuesday, May 7 Where: 143 Chambers Street, 23rd Floor Why: Someone’s in trouble! Rating/Status: PG/Complete
Well… maybe it wasn’t Monday, but there were not two ways about it. Cissie King-Jones was in trouble. Big trouble. But it was a trouble that she was more than happy to be in. Maybe she should have warned Dr. Money before she’d gone out and spoken at the protest – next to Captain America! - but Cissie knew the good doctor wasn’t dumb. She’d been in this line of work a long time and Cissie was pretty sure that she knew that she’d been up to something.
Her case worker was a different story. Where Dr. Money had told her yesterday that she had thought what she’d done was a good thing and that she should be proud of herself, Mrs. Kessler, the state-employed case worker was very clearly unhappy. She kept looking at the file, at the articles that had been sent to her and printed out, and then back at the girl sitting slumped in the chair on the other side of the desk with a clear look of disapproval. Cissie couldn’t help but wonder what the hell made her so… grumpy.
Cissie slumped to the side, her head resting on her hand as she counted the number of spots on the window, waiting for this meeting to either start or end. She wasn’t sure which they were closer to at this point as the talking hadn’t started and she’d already been in this chair for fifteen minutes. It was no secret that Cissie and Janet Kessler didn’t exactly see eye to eye. Janet was Cissie’s case worker, she was responsible for keeping track of her, making sure she didn’t fall through the cracks of the system. A system that had seen fit – rightfully – to take her away from one overbearing parent and put her in the custody of this woman who Cissie knew wasn’t all that happy about having another child’s case. Not that she could blame Mrs. Kessler. Cissie had Dr. Money, she was pretty sure that she’d be fine just under her care, but that wasn’t the way things worked. Which lead back to the office and her now-falling-asleep butt in the chair across from the caseworker.
The look that Janet kept shooting at Cissie was halfway between disapproval and that thing parents did when they weren’t certain what to say because what you’d done was just that far outside their area of experience. At this point Cissie just wanted to get to the point. Get to the chastising, to the grounding, do something, try to act like her mother and let the argument start!
“A protest, Suzanne?” Oh and there was that too. Kessler insisted on calling Cissie her full name.
Cissie didn’t say anything but shot her a look that said, ‘Yeah. So?’ using her mouth to produce a puff of air, causing a few strands of hair that had fallen over her eye to go flying upwards temporarily. “It was a big success,” she said finally, sitting up a bit straighter, deciding that being pleasant was probably the way to go. “Captain America showed up, and so did the president and I got to make a speech,” she smiled at this. She was proud of all of it. Everyone who had showed up. And especially for not chickening out, Bart deserved the credit for that musical encouragement…
“And you decided that this was the right way to make your position on this known? That having a position and doing something like this so publically was the right way to go?” The words stung and Cissie’s eyes hardened a bit. It hadn’t necessarily been how Janet had meant the comment, but it was how it was received.
“At the time it seemed to be, yes,” she replied calmly. “There’s no reason that anyone should be able to get away with revoking anyone’s rights. Not like that. The act is wrong.”
There was a sigh from the older woman. “That isn’t what I meant, Suzanne, and I think that you know that. I thought that we agreed that you were going to try and be a normal student. That that’s what you wanted. I remember you said that.”
Yeah, back in January when they’d first talked she had said that. But time changed things. That had been before Dr. Money and her first meeting, before the meeting that ultimately changed her mind about the costume. Before she’d started patrolling again.
“Things are different now,” Cissie said after a moment. “I tried normal and found that it didn’t agree with me. So I’m trying to do things my way. And I really thought that you of all people would be more pleased that I was getting interested in something like the political process.” Maybe she was being a bit flippant, but this woman didn’t understand…
“Maybe volunteering with a campaign, Suzanne. Not organizing a protest in Times Square.”
Cissie just rolled her eyes. “Because there’s such a big difference between the two of those.”
“There really is!” The older woman’s voice snapped, her eyes flashing for a moment, hand slamming onto the desk. She paused for a moment taking a breath before continuing. “It is my job to make sure that you are safe; that you’re in a safe environment; Judge Clements is very interested in making sure that you are not put in a position like you were before, Suzanne.
The young archer frowned slightly. “You mean in a position with an adult calling the shots and not letting me have any room to do what I want to?” It was a rhetorical question, but Kessler replied snapping, “A position where you aren’t safe! Where you’re putting yourself in or are in any danger. You called out that we needed to stand up for heroes.”
“So what?” Cissie sat back in the chair, keeping her back straight, a challenging stance. “I wasn’t wrong. They’re being targeted. If someone doesn’t speak up then no one will. I have friends who are being effected. What am I supposed to do?”
“Not put yourself in the middle of everything and possibly get found out? That would be a start!”
And this was a reason that Cissie really didn’t like Janet Kessler. It was true that Cissie hadn’t done anything like this before, but Mrs. Kessler’s idea of her being normal was to push away everything she’d been. When she’d been told about Hawthorne and that she was getting placed there, Cissie’s first question had been if they had an archery team, because it was something she enjoyed and she was good at (even if just standing and shooting had felt wrong at the time). Kessler had said that it might be a good idea to distance herself from bows and arrows and join the cheerleading squad. That had clearly not happened. While Cissie saw Dr. Money on a regular basis (weekly sometimes biweekly meetings) and had started to trust her, she saw Janet Kessler when something went wrong or when she’d broken some arbitrary rule that hadn’t been spelled out before. Who was going to find her out? Who would care? It wasn’t as if she’d been known for ANYTHING.
On the other side of the argument, Janet only wanted to keep Cissie safe, but dealing with an ex-teen hero wasn’t easy. The easiest way she saw was to keep Cissie grounded: give her a schedule, fill it with non-archery related activities and make sure that no one ever made the connection between her and this little-known (if known at all) hero. Clearly that hadn’t worked… But she had a lot of cases, many of whose children were younger and worse off mentally or physically than Cissie was. In fact, she was one of the lucky ones – being placed at Hawthorne instead of in a foster home. She’d made the recommendation herself as Cissie was seventeen and would be out of the system in a year anyway. But now… Something wasn’t working.
Janet steepled her fingers and leaned forward. Her eyes were closed for a moment. She had her suspicions. She’d been getting reports from Dr. Money and was reading between the lines – there was still only so much that she could do given that doctor-patient privilege applied, but she was sworn to tell if Cissie was doing something that would get her killed. But there had been nothing. “I need you to be honest with me, Suzanne,” she said finally after a moment. “You’re not doing anything dangerous are you?”
There was an eye roll by the teenager. “According to you this protest was dangerous, so I guess the answer is yes.”
The answer wasn’t satisfactory. And in truth it probably didn’t matter; the girl wouldn’t have told her the answer she wanted, whether it was true or not. Kessler pursed her lips together and shook her head, sighing in defeat. “Alright. Just think about what I said? I’ll see you back here in a month. Do me a favor? Lower profile please?”
The blonde pushed herself up from the chair and started walking around awkwardly. She’d been sitting in an odd position and now in addition to her butt her leg was also asleep. Cissie grabbed her backpack and headed out the door with a halfhearted wave goodbye. She hated this. What was it with adults and not praising what you actually did right? Why did she have to leave this office not with a pat of the head for actually DOING something, but a feeling of being deflated. Sometimes dealing with her was almost like dealing with her mother. By no means as bad, but still… this was her life. Couldn’t she have some say? It wasn’t like she was trying to make waves or anything. She’d have to talk to Dr. Money about this tomorrow.
Janet watched Cissie walk out the door, the pen in her hand tapping the pad that was sitting on the desk. She wished she could get inside that girl’s head, that she could make her understand. She pulled Cissie’s file to her and put pen to paper writing the word “Heroing?” in small letters at the bottom and circled it several times. Maybe she’d been a bit naïve to think that she could handle a case like this. Yes Cissie was better off than some of her others, but dealing with a teen like this seemed to require a bit more supervision. She’d have to figure something out…