Trail Mix 14 and French Vanilla 9
Author: Casey
Story: Shifts: Index - Just post-Shifts
Challenge: Trail Mix 14 (office) and French Vanilla 9 (façade)
Toppings & Extras: Sprinkles, Caramel
Word Count: 719
Rating: G
Summary: Mariah’s parents have to deal with the repercussions of her picture at a parent-teacher conference.
Notes: As soon as I wrote the pocky (see above), I had to write this. Just took me some time to find the right prompts and right thoughts.
(okay, could one of the mods remove the Guava tag? That was an accident and I now can't remove it :/ Sorry!)
The only one happy about the arrangement was Josh, because he got to walk home from school with Ellen and play with her, Drew and Finn for the afternoon.
Bill and Catherine met Mariah in her classroom as the day ended, armed with excuses, white lies and hope that this could be relatively painless. Mariah, who had already gotten in trouble at home - five whole half days of practicing her control, which drove the active five-year-old mad - feared she would only get in more trouble.
Mrs. Thompson pulled three chairs over to her desk. “Please, have a seat.”
Catherine motioned Mariah to sit between them and she crawled up into the seat, maintaining a sulky expression. The adults shook hands, being polite, and then settled into the seats.
Almost instantly, Mrs. Thompson spread Mariah’s picture out between them. “I’m concerned about Mariah’s assignment and her response to it.”
“But he,” Mariah began before Catherine’s hand descended on her shoulder and she shut her mouth.
Bill sat forward. “I’m sorry. We should have told you earlier. Last spring, we met Mariah and Josh’s biological parents.” He pointed. “Oriana is their mother and Abraham is their birth father.”
Mariah scowled. “Bad.”
All three adults ignored her. “And...?”
“Eleazar is her uncle and he and Oriana are very close. Lynne is her older half-sister,” Catherine explained. “That’s why she drew all of them as well.”
“And the flames?” Mrs. Thompson asked skeptically.
“That...” Bill trailed off, glancing at Catherine.
“Eleazar works in pyrotechnics. He spends a lot of time with fire and has shown Mariah and Josh a few tricks in the last year. I’m sure she was just pushing that knowledge onto what she unfortunately hopes would happen.”
The teacher looked at them blankly.
“Although she and Josh have a great relationship with Oriana, Eleazar and Lynne, their, and our, relationship with Abraham is rocky at best. He has done some terrible things and,” here Bill put a hand on Mariah’s shoulder and she leaned into it, reassured by that and his feelings, “it has been tough for them, and all of us.”
“He should burn,” Mariah muttered rebelliously, ignoring the way Bill squeezed her shoulder warningly.
Mrs. Thompson sat back, taking a moment to absorb all this. “I understand all that, but Josh...seems adjusted.”
“I’m afraid that’s just entirely their personalities, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Catherine said apologetically. “Josh is quite content letting Mariah be the vocal one. He can also be more reasonable,” she said with a pointed look at her daughter.
Mariah scowled back. “Abraham’s a bad man,” she said, enunciating slowly, afraid her mom just wasn’t getting it.
“Not right now, please,” Bill said, interjecting and turning back to the Kindergarten teacher. “Catherine and I have discussed this at home and I promise Mariah will not be saying this sort of thing in front of the class again. Right, Mariah?”
“Right,” she grumbled, staring fixedly at her knees.
“And we’ll check Mariah’s homework from now on to make sure she’s doing it correctly.”
Mariah scowled now. “I did it right! I had to include my immediate family and I did.” She paused and, for the sake of honesty, added, “and added Elie because he’s Oriana’s brother.”
“Mariah, we talked about this. You know what we mean,” Bill told her sternly. “Now, what were you going to say?”
“Do I gotta?”
“Yes.”
“Mariah.”
At the double attack from her parents, she gave in and her shoulders slumped. “’m sorry, Mrs. Thompson.”
“And?” Bill prompted.
“I promise not to do it again,” she recited. “S’not my fault,” she added under her breath, quelling slightly again at her mom’s look.
“It’s true, Mariah, there was nothing specifically you did wrong in the assignment,” Mrs. Thompson said after a moment. “But you understand why it is not appropriate, right?”
Mariah hated that word but she nodded. “Yes.”
“Thank you,” her teacher said. “I appreciate you all coming in.”
As soon as the adults had been polite again and stood, Mariah scampered to her backpack, grabbed it and hastened out of the room to wait for her parents. She was pretty sure from their emotions that they were more amused than anything else at this point, thankfully.
But none of this changed one simple fact.
Elie really needed to burn Abraham.
Story: Shifts: Index - Just post-Shifts
Challenge: Trail Mix 14 (office) and French Vanilla 9 (façade)
Toppings & Extras: Sprinkles, Caramel
Word Count: 719
Rating: G
Summary: Mariah’s parents have to deal with the repercussions of her picture at a parent-teacher conference.
Notes: As soon as I wrote the pocky (see above), I had to write this. Just took me some time to find the right prompts and right thoughts.
(okay, could one of the mods remove the Guava tag? That was an accident and I now can't remove it :/ Sorry!)
The only one happy about the arrangement was Josh, because he got to walk home from school with Ellen and play with her, Drew and Finn for the afternoon.
Bill and Catherine met Mariah in her classroom as the day ended, armed with excuses, white lies and hope that this could be relatively painless. Mariah, who had already gotten in trouble at home - five whole half days of practicing her control, which drove the active five-year-old mad - feared she would only get in more trouble.
Mrs. Thompson pulled three chairs over to her desk. “Please, have a seat.”
Catherine motioned Mariah to sit between them and she crawled up into the seat, maintaining a sulky expression. The adults shook hands, being polite, and then settled into the seats.
Almost instantly, Mrs. Thompson spread Mariah’s picture out between them. “I’m concerned about Mariah’s assignment and her response to it.”
“But he,” Mariah began before Catherine’s hand descended on her shoulder and she shut her mouth.
Bill sat forward. “I’m sorry. We should have told you earlier. Last spring, we met Mariah and Josh’s biological parents.” He pointed. “Oriana is their mother and Abraham is their birth father.”
Mariah scowled. “Bad.”
All three adults ignored her. “And...?”
“Eleazar is her uncle and he and Oriana are very close. Lynne is her older half-sister,” Catherine explained. “That’s why she drew all of them as well.”
“And the flames?” Mrs. Thompson asked skeptically.
“That...” Bill trailed off, glancing at Catherine.
“Eleazar works in pyrotechnics. He spends a lot of time with fire and has shown Mariah and Josh a few tricks in the last year. I’m sure she was just pushing that knowledge onto what she unfortunately hopes would happen.”
The teacher looked at them blankly.
“Although she and Josh have a great relationship with Oriana, Eleazar and Lynne, their, and our, relationship with Abraham is rocky at best. He has done some terrible things and,” here Bill put a hand on Mariah’s shoulder and she leaned into it, reassured by that and his feelings, “it has been tough for them, and all of us.”
“He should burn,” Mariah muttered rebelliously, ignoring the way Bill squeezed her shoulder warningly.
Mrs. Thompson sat back, taking a moment to absorb all this. “I understand all that, but Josh...seems adjusted.”
“I’m afraid that’s just entirely their personalities, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Catherine said apologetically. “Josh is quite content letting Mariah be the vocal one. He can also be more reasonable,” she said with a pointed look at her daughter.
Mariah scowled back. “Abraham’s a bad man,” she said, enunciating slowly, afraid her mom just wasn’t getting it.
“Not right now, please,” Bill said, interjecting and turning back to the Kindergarten teacher. “Catherine and I have discussed this at home and I promise Mariah will not be saying this sort of thing in front of the class again. Right, Mariah?”
“Right,” she grumbled, staring fixedly at her knees.
“And we’ll check Mariah’s homework from now on to make sure she’s doing it correctly.”
Mariah scowled now. “I did it right! I had to include my immediate family and I did.” She paused and, for the sake of honesty, added, “and added Elie because he’s Oriana’s brother.”
“Mariah, we talked about this. You know what we mean,” Bill told her sternly. “Now, what were you going to say?”
“Do I gotta?”
“Yes.”
“Mariah.”
At the double attack from her parents, she gave in and her shoulders slumped. “’m sorry, Mrs. Thompson.”
“And?” Bill prompted.
“I promise not to do it again,” she recited. “S’not my fault,” she added under her breath, quelling slightly again at her mom’s look.
“It’s true, Mariah, there was nothing specifically you did wrong in the assignment,” Mrs. Thompson said after a moment. “But you understand why it is not appropriate, right?”
Mariah hated that word but she nodded. “Yes.”
“Thank you,” her teacher said. “I appreciate you all coming in.”
As soon as the adults had been polite again and stood, Mariah scampered to her backpack, grabbed it and hastened out of the room to wait for her parents. She was pretty sure from their emotions that they were more amused than anything else at this point, thankfully.
But none of this changed one simple fact.
Elie really needed to burn Abraham.