Who: Irisa and Sarah What: School troubles Where: School office When: Start of June Rating: PG - Relatively low Status: Complete
Sarah had gotten her proposal accepted by the local government office and she was currently on a six month trial offering her services to schools and local charities as a councillor. She tended to visit the schools once every fortnight unless they called her for an emergency and this was what had happened today. A young girl had been causing a lot of issues and it had all come to a head earlier in the day.
Sitting in the office she waited for the girl to arrive, wondering what had happened this time. She’d noticed a definite trend in dream related issues on the net and hoped this girl wasn’t having those troubles.
Pissed off did not describe Irisa’s mood. Being escorted to the counsellor’s office was humiliating and it only served to piss her off even more. If only that stupid girl in the canteen hadn’t decided today was going to be the day to taunt Irisa, she wouldn’t have to be here. The moron of a girl had gone on and on about Nolan abandoning her and how she didn’t fit in and eventually Irisa had rounded on her and clocked her in the jaw. Luckily for the girl, a teacher had been going past and had restrained Irisa from doing more damage to her.
Now however, she had a teacher watching her to make sure she actually went into the room for the allotted time. The teacher knocked on the door and Irisa crossed her arms, scowling at the world while they waited for a response.
“Come in” Sarah called out, the door opening to reveal a very very annoyed looking girl. Oh dear, this wasn’t going to be easy she could already tell. “Thank you, I can take it from here” she told the teacher who had dropped off the young girl. “Please come in and take a seat. Would you like a drink?” she offered, “I have juice, water and soda”
The teacher opened the door and she glared up at him when he indicated she should go in. He simply gave her a pointed look and she rolled her eyes before heading in. The door closed behind her and Irisa was suddenly very conscious of how enclosed the room was. Checking her exits, she knew she could more than likely get out the slightly ajar window to her right, if not the door behind her. She shoved her hands in her pockets and headed for the chair opposite the woman. Slouching, she glowered at the wall to her right and ignored the question.
“I’ll take that as a no then” Sarah said, “Do you have an issue with the wall? Has it offended you?” she asked with a small smile, “I’m not a fan of the color personally but I like blue and greens”
Irisa turned her head to look at the woman, unimpressed by the attempt of humour. "Look, neither of us want to be here, if you sign the paper we can be out of here in a minute and we can both go on with our miserable existences," she told the woman, gesturing to the papers she knew the school wanted to say she wasn't and danger to anyone. "I'm sorry I hit the girl, I won't do it again, Jesus forgive and all that, are we done?" She rambled off, sounding bored.
“Oh we aren’t done in the least” Sarah said, “You may not want to be here but I am perfectly fine to wait as long as it takes for you to tell me why you hit the girl. The actual reason not whatever you’re about to spout off with” she added when Irisa opened her mouth.
Irisa set her jaw in defiance, glaring at the woman. "She called me little orphan Annie," she told her slowly. "And I hit her, ok?" She responded.
“Well no it’s not okay to hit people but we’re getting somewhere” Sarah said, “Why did her comment upset you so much Irisa?”
"Because I'm not an orphan," Irisa told her angrily. "I have a dad out there right now who's providing for me, so I'm not an orphan!" To Hell with the people named as her parents on her birth certificate, if they were alive or not, Nolan was her father and he was her little girl.
“It’s okay Irisa, would you like me to call your father? Would that help?” Because of course the school had no idea that Irisa was currently guardianless.
"No, it's fine, it just...got to me is all," Irisa grumbled, folding her arms. "People shouldn't say shit about what they don't know,” she huffed in annoyance. She missed Nolan desperately, but she was still angry with him, what was he keeping her from?
“No they shouldn’t but then people shouldn’t hit people when they don’t know what else to do either” Sarah pointed out, “How is home Irisa? Is everything okay?” she asked gently.
“Everything’s just dandy. Nolan’s away with work for the week, I’m staying with friends,” Irisa told her. It was plausible and she didn’t want to be put into care or get Nolan in trouble.
Sarah nodded, wondering if that could be the reason the girls comment had gotten to her so much. “Well it’s nice to hear that you have such good friends you can stay with like that”
“Yeah, Myrcella’s a good person,” Irisa sighed. “She’s helped me a lot since I came here,” she told her, playing with a loose thread on her trousers.
"Help is good. It's important to have people you trust around. Nobody can keep things inside forever, it always gets to be too much and something happens" Sarah advised watching Irisa carefully.
“Look, you don’t know the first thing about me, so stop pretending we’re going to be best buddies or whatever. I’m fine, I’ve had a bad couple of weeks and one idiot said the wrong thing to me at the wrong time and I put her down, that’s all there is to it,” Irisa all but growled at the woman. The girl was lucky Irisa hadn’t had her knives with her. She’d probably have ended up in a cell instead of this office though, so small mercies.
That had obviously struck a nerve, “I’m not going to be your best buddy Irisa. But I’m also not going to be convinced that you’re fine with this sort of attitude you're showing me. Now whatever you say here is confidential but I am going to need to speak to your father if you don’t drop this tough girl routine and start talking to me. I need to assure the school this won’t happen again and right now I’m not convinced” Sarah was patient up to a point but this girl obviously had issues which had the potential to be destructive.
Irisa scowled across the space between them, weighing her options. If she wanted to speak with Nolan face to face she was screwed and she didn’t want to go into the system. If she wanted to get out of this, she was going to have to be liberal with the truth. She could do that. She and Nolan had been doing it all her life. “How much do you know about me? What does your file say?” she asked, jutting her chin at the papers on the table between them.
“Honestly, there isn’t much. Born April 1st, moved schools more times than I could count, official guardian Joshua Nolan, mother unknown, issues in class with following instruction and skipping classes” Sarah looked up, “In short it shows me that something is going on with you. You aren’t a model student sure but there’s never been such violent incidents before”
Irisa quirked a little smile at the last sentence, she’d never pretended to be a model student, she didn’t learn from books. “You know that Nolan’s not my biological father? That I’m adopted?” she asked quietly.
“It doesn’t mention an adoption, it just says under Parents: Joshua Nolan and then in brackets guardian” Sarah looked at her carefully, “Irisa have you recently discovered you’re adopted? Is that what this is about?” she asked softly.
“Just found out? No,” Irisa had a little laugh and shook her head. “No I’ve known that for years,” she said looking out the window and sighing. She played with the arm of the chair and lifted her legs up on the chair she was sat on. “I have a friend though who’s been looking into my past for me. Find out where I came from. He came to me the other day and told me he had some information but he wouldn’t tell me what it was. Said it would change things and he wanted me to think about it before I gave him my answer,” she explained.
“Ah I see. Well it sounds like your friend was right. Looking into your past is a pretty big deal and even if you don’t think it will change anything, it will. It’s inevitable” Sarah said, “Do you feel that you want to know? Or need to know?”
“Of course I want to know, or I wouldn’t have asked him to go looking for me,” Irisa told her. “I just don’t know if I should. There’s a reason Nolan adopted me and took me away from everything I knew. Despite him being an idiot, it was probably a very good reason,” she looked down to where she fiddled with the edge of the arm of the chair. “Maybe so however you knew that before your friend went looking for you but you still asked him” Sarah pointed out, “Are you worried about how Nolan will react? Is that maybe why you’re hesitating now?”
Irisa stayed silent for a minute. “I don’t want him to think I’m ungrateful. That what he did for me meant nothing,” she shrugged. “Because it did. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him,” she told the woman.
“You don’t think he knows that? It’s natural to want to know where you came from Irisa” Sarah told her, “It doesn’t mean you love him any less. I think he’ll understand that, and you can always talk to him and explain that”
Irisa gave a little laugh at that. “Yeah, Nolan and I...we’re not great on the feelings front. This is probably the most I’ve ever said to anyone in one conversation,” she smiled wistfully.
“Maybe you should break the habit then and just tell him” Sarah said before smiling, “I feel kind of special now. Even if I did almost blackmail you into it” she added, acknowledging what she’d done but not ashamed about it. She could be cunning when she needed to be.
Irisa looked off into the distance and considered it. To be honest, everything would be so much easier if he were here. They’d been a team for as long as she could remember and not having him nearby was like having a limb ripped off. She wished he would come home soon, then she could tell him he was an idiot to his face. “Well it’s definitely special, coz it’s never gonna happen again,” she said, a slow smile spreading over her face.
“Now don’t go ruining my buzz” Sarah joked, “Let me bask in the accomplishment for a little while” She hoped they had a little rapport built up now because she had a feeling the school would be requesting they meet a few more times before Irisa got to get rid of her.