Seven (lucky_seven) wrote in schisms, @ 2019-03-17 20:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | !character: caspian finn, !character: laura kramer, !complete, !log |
Who: Laura & Caspian
What: The beginning of the end
When: Monday, March 18, evening
Where Laura’s apartment
Rating: Lowish - minor injury
Status: Complete
Standing in the doorway to the tiny apartment’s only bedroom, Laura watched her daughter hurriedly toss her things into a bag. It felt like the room was spinning and she reached her hand out to grip the door frame to steady herself. This wasn’t happening, this couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. She would wake up soon, and none of this would be real.
But it was reality. Suddenly, in the span of only a few short hours, Laura felt like her life was suddenly slipping away. It began simply enough. When Laura went to pick up Caitlyn from school, the teacher pulled her aside. She was concerned about Caitlyn’s performance on her latest tests. She wasn’t doing as well as she had been, as well as the teacher knew she could. Laura took this seriously, and on the way home tried to talk to her daughter about what she was going on and how she could help. But Caitlyn was upset almost immediately, angry that Laura had talked to the teacher ‘behind her back,’ angry that Laura thought something was wrong. Laura tried to calm the girl down, but all of her efforts failed and Caitlyn just became more and more upset at her mother. By the time they arrived home, the child was in a tizzy.
Trying to find a way to settle things down, Laura attempted to have them go about the day as usual. A snack and some downtime, followed by homework. But when the time came to focus on academics, Caitlyn became upset again. Confused and worried, Laura sat with her, trying to work through the problems with her, but her own lack of education was clear. Laura made the decision to keep Caitlyn home from dance that evening, to try to find out what was bothering Caitlyn so much, and to help her with the schoolwork problem. But that decision proved to be the wrong one. Furious now, because she so loved her class and her friends there, Caitlyn lashed out at Laura, throwing things and screaming. Laura reached out to hold her daughter, but emotions were running high and her hands were hotter than usual. Not enough to actually burn the girl, but definitely hot enough to startle both mother and daughter when Caitlyn cried out and reeled from the touch.
Without hesitation, Caitlyn ran for the phone, calling her father and begging him to come get her as soon as possible. She wanted to stay with him, for good, she didn’t want to stay with her mother any longer. Laura watched and listened in stunned horror, unable to intervene for fear of hurting her baby again.
When the little girl squeezed past her now, doing everything possible to avoid contact, Laura went numb. She couldn’t figure out what happened, and why, and how to fix this. Could she fix this? Or was this just the beginning of the end?
Hearing the knock on the door, Laura robotically moved to answer it, but Caitlyn got there first, tossing her arms around her father as she burst into tears.