Chapter Text
Another week went by smoothly for four out of the five little friends.
Not so much for the littlest one of them.
Meanwhile things seemed to be improving at school for Trini, now that she had Mrs. Prince spending extra time with her, patiently explaining things to her while everyone else worked on their activities or played around, things at home were becoming gradually worse.
She spent a total of three nights locked into the tiny closet before weekend rolled around; and those were the days she counted as the less horrible ones. On those days, where her mother seemed to be upset enough to not want to even look at her, she would be dragged and thrown in the small cubicle as soon as she arrived home. It was awful, boring to the point of tears and, most of all, scary. Sometimes, if she looked around for long enough, Trini felt like the walls were slowly closing around her, crushing her and leaving her unable to breathe. The panic within her grew so deep at some point of Thursday evening that she eventually passed out. She was very confused when she woke up, already at the following morning when the door was being unlocked, wondering how she managed to sleep though the whole night when she usually never did.
Wednesday and Friday, however, were the worst in her opinion. Those were the days she didn’t get shoved into the closet and slept at her own bed. Well, she did sleep at Wednesday, not so much at Friday, that was the day her Papá had his friends over and they were too noisy for her to even try to fall asleep.
Those were also the days she got yelled at the most and a couple more bruises here and there.
The week, however, no matter how bad it was, proofed to be nothing near to how her weekend went.
---
Kimberly was upset the whole weekend; it was the first in a while where she didn’t get to see her best friend at all. So she made sure she and Josh were up extra early at Monday so they could go to school early. (Josh whined the whole time, but who cares?)
She slipped into her classroom, for the first time since she could remember before even the teacher arrived, and set her backpack on its rightful place. She then sat down on her favorite beanbag at the very back of the classroom and grabbed one of the books from the bookcase, deciding that it would be the best way to pass time before her friends arrived.
It didn’t take long, a few other kids had already arrived, when Kim looked up from her book and saw Billy walking through the door. A small frown appeared on her face, however, when she noticed his ever present beaming smile wasn’t there. She watched as he went to put his backpack away, Trini trailing behind him with downcast eyes.
After making sure his bag was as neat as he liked, on the exact spot he liked, Billy turned to help Trini with hers, the little girl slipping her left arm from the strap with extra care under the concerned gaze of her friend. Billy looked up, like he could feel the eyes on him and smiled a genuine smile when he spotted Kim on their spot. He turned to Trini while setting her backpack down next to his for her and said something to her – probably letting her know that Kim was already there, for once.
Big brown eyes lifted from their long stare at the ground and found a lighter pair already looking back at her. They didn’t light up like they usually did and the little girl didn’t smile like she usually did. But she didn’t hesitate in making a beeline to the open arms waiting for her, like she usually didn’t.
Kimberly smiled, content now standing up with her best friend wrapping her right arm around her middle in a gentle hug, her head coming to rest on her shoulder like it usually did. But when she went to wrap her arms around her in return, worry shoot up her small body.
Because Trini flinched, almost jumping out of her arms and yelped.
The looked down in concern but Trini was already avoiding her eyes, staring intently at her sneakers. Her demeanor reminded Kim a little of the day they first met, over a year ago on the first day of kindergarten.
“Trin?” The taller little girl whispered, glad that Trini hadn’t pulled away too much and her right hand was within reach. She took a hold of it gently and was glad that the other girl didn’t pull away “… Are you okay?”
“She hurt her arm” Billy, who had silently approached at some point, supplied for her in a very uncharacteristic small voice. His face also spotted an unusual frown in it as he stared solemnly at the girl in subject.
“What?” Kimberly exclaimed in concern, pulling the hand in her own and proceeding to lift the yellow long sleeve, looking for any mark on the tanned skin, despite the other’s weak protests.
“The other arm” Billy added, nodding to where Trini was painfully holding her left arm against her stomach. She took a startled step back before Kim could even reach for it, gaining a glare for her efforts “… She didn’t tell me though. And she didn’t let me tell my mom… I think she hurt it when she went to jump out of my mom’s car because she was holding it and cried a little bit... And I don’t think she feels like talking today…”
“Hey guys!” Jason’s voice chipped from behind the three kids but, for once, not even Billy turned to greet him.
“Trini! Are you hurt? Is your arm hurting? Do you think you really hurt it? Why won’t you let me see it, let me see it!” Kim demanded, her voice getting that annoying tone it always got when she wanted something but wasn’t getting her way (the tone that always got Josh calling her spoiled brat, even though he got the exact same tone when he wasn’t getting his way)
“Trini’s hurt?” Jason worried, getting into the small circle between Billy and Kim, looking between his friends in worry and confusion.
“We’re pretty sure her arm is hurt” Billy nodded, eyes still glued on his friend who seemed to be folding into her self in a way he had never seem before “… But she’s not talking. She won’t let us see either. Didn’t let me tell my mom”
“Maybe we should tell Mrs. Prince?” Jason suggested, waving his head towards the general direction of the teacher’s desk where she was putting down her things, having just arrived at the same time as he did.
His suggestion brought a reaction out of Trini. Not the one they expected, though.
She finally looked up, eyes wide and pleading and shook her head quickly, so quickly it looked almost frenetic. She started nibbling on her bottom lip, gaze darting from one of her friends to the other, lingering a little longer at Kim, meeting her eyes in one of their many silent conversations.
Kim gave a heavy sigh and took one step forwards, trying to brush off the way Trini visibly tensed up at the sudden movement. Crocking her head to the side slightly, she watched their teacher for a moment, averting her eyes back Trini when Mrs. Prince lifted her head and landed her dark eyes on them.
“… My mommy always tells me we have to tell an adult when we get hurt” Kim whispered, a wave of sadness washing over her when Trini’s eyes dropped to the floor again. She reached out, grabbing her good hand and squeezed gently.
“Why you don’t want to tell, Trin?” Jason asked in utter confusion. Whenever he got hurt, even when he would pretend it didn’t hurt to his friends, he would run to the nearest adult for help. Adults always knew how to make things better when you got hurt and they never made fun of you for looking for help. Not wanting to tell an adult you’re hurt, it just didn’t make sense to the little boy.
Trini offered a tiny shrug as an answer to Jason’s question. Her head was spinning, her heart beating fast and her parents’ words going on repeat on her head. She had already made one mistake, her friends knew she was hurt, she couldn’t make another mistake. She couldn’t let any adult know and she couldn’t tell her friends why.
She wanted to cry. And maybe a long nice nap too. Yeah, a nap sounded amazing right about now.
“I don’t understand either” Billy scratched his head, having similar silent questions to Jason’s “… And my mom always tells me too that whenever I get hurt I should go to a responsible adult and tell them. But my dad also says that forcing someone to do anything they don’t want to, is wrong. So, if Trini really doesn’t want to tell, we can’t force her. Plus, if isn’t really bad, like a small bruise or scratch, there’s no really need to?”
“Is it bad, Trin?” Jason took one step closer, stopping slightly behind Kimberly. Trini immediately shook her head, raising her eyes again but not making eye contact with anyone.
“Can we see then?” Kim raised a suspicious eyebrow and nearly groaned in frustration when Trini shook her head. “Why?”
“And why you’re not talking? I know you don’t like talking all the time, but why?” Jason pushed, crossing his arms above his chest, his concerned gaze burning into Trini as much as Kim’s frustrated one.
The smaller girl felt like she was suddenly back on her tiny closet, feeling the walls closing around her while her whole body ached and screamed in white hot pain. She felt like her lungs were slowly stopping working and there wasn’t enough air around her.
“Good morning guys, what’s going on in here?”
The smooth voice that sounded like what she always imagined an angel would sound like brought back from her half panicked stated and she felt her shoulders sagging in relief.
That lasted about one second before she tensed again, eyes widening as they snapped around to find the dark eyes of her kind teacher much more near than she first anticipated.
Diana studied the four children, taking in their startled appearance for apparently not hearing her approaching. Kim’s eyes locked with her for only a quick moment before they were back on Trini while the other three kept staring frozen at her. Billy looking deep in thoughts, Jason looking torn and Trini looking downright terrified.
“Oh, Mrs. Prince!” Billy’s loud voice grabbed her attention and she looked at him, opening a gentle smile at his sudden enthusiasm “Are we going to do more addiction today? We have math today, I checked my schedule – twice – are we doing more math problems?”
There was something off about him. Like, for once, he wasn’t being genuine about his over-enthusiasm about something small like mathematics. And the way his eyes drifted back to Trini for a spilt second gave him away. Diana almost raised a brow but forced her smile to stay in place.
“Of course, Bill. Practice makes perfect, right?” At Billy’s nod she returned her eyes to Trini, frowning ever so slightly at the girl who was now glaring holes at the floor. She bent down, close enough so she was practically right in front to the two small girls. She lifted her hand and rested it gently on the small Latina’s upper arm, frown deepening when the girl didn’t lift her gaze and visibly flinched away from her touch “… Trini, sweetie…”
Triiim
“Hi guys! Oh, good morning Mrs. Prince”
Diana sighed, cursing internally as all the kids began to walk to their seats, the ones who were still outside playing, running inside among a very hurried Zack Taylor – who surely had just arrived, just in time not to be late.
For once it was Trini who dragged Kim away, walking past her teacher with impressive speed on her tiny legs and straight to the group usual little table and plopping down at her seat without raising her eyes for a single second.
Diana slowly stood up, watching Billy and Jason also head for their table and ruffed Zack’s hair gently, a genuine smile forming on her lips at the goofy grin her gave her before running to put his backpack away and ran back to the last empty seat on his friends’ table.
She walked to the front of the class, eyes remaining on the group’s table, watching as the kids kept trying to talk something with Trini but she ignored them.
When all the kids took their seats she finally averted her eyes and forced her best smile, wishing her students a cheerful good morning and proceed with the Monday routine to ask the class who wanted to share what they did on their weekend.
She didn’t miss how, as the class started, Trini didn’t sit comfortably on her chair, fidgeted and shifted a lot more than usual and kept her left arm still in her lap.
---
As the morning went on, Trini was unusually distracted.
Usually she had trouble focusing but she always tried her very best. Not today though. Her focus was somewhere else.
After about an hour since she accidently hit her arm jumping out from Billy’s mom’s car, it had stopped hurting so bad. Just a constant dull ache that turned into blinding pain whenever she tired to move her wrist, but no longer hurt when she moved her arm or wiggled her fingers.
Her eyes lifted up in surprise when she felt a gentle nudge on her right arm and her shoulder relaxed when she found Kim looking at her with a small smile, standing up with one hand held out to her. She also quickly noticed the boys’ abstinence.
“It’s reading time. Come on”
Trini smiled back, ignoring the pounding in her head and accepted Kim’s hand in her own. She allowed herself do be dragged like she always did and sat down next to her best friend on their shared bean-bag without much complain.
Of course she nearly cried when she sat down on the soft bean and it came in contact with ever inch of her back.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and released Kim’s hand, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor with Zack and Jason instead, making she her back didn’t make contact with anything.
Zack looked confused and Kim looked hurt. She didn’t see it however, focusing instead on Billy as he ran his eyes through the books on the little bookcase by their seats. Jason raised a brow but also didn’t say anything.
“Billy, can you finish reading the book you started last week for us?” Zack required with a hopeful smile. He had spent his whole weekend wondering about the end of the book.
Billy smiled and nodded happily, soon finding the book in subject; exactly where he had put it after Friday’s reading time.
It wasn’t an unusual occurrence; since all the kids were still on the beginning stages of learning how to read while Billy had already mastered the skill by the time he was 4, sometimes instead of each of them grabbing a book to read on their own, Billy just grabbed one everyone agreed on and read it to them; just loud enough only for his friends to hear and not to interrupt the other children around the room.
Of course if defeated the whole propose of reading time for the other four, but since it wasn’t something that happened every day (more likely once or twice a week), Diana just left them be. Partly because she thought it was a good thing not only for Billy, but also because she didn’t have the heart to interrupt such an adorable scene.
Billy quickly found the page he had stopped and started reading.
Trini was soon absorbed into the story; she didn’t notice Kim sliding out of the bean-bag until she was sitting close to her right and her hand found her own once again.
She relaxed automatically, laying her head against the other’s shoulder and sighing in contentment when her cheek rested gently against the top of her head.
Diana watched from afar after she helped another couple of kids with their readings;
Billy completely engrossed on the story he was reading with impressive ease, Jason’s eyes following every one of his little movements with careful eyes and a small smile on his lips, Zack with a big grin on his face, eyes closed and half laying with his back against Billy’s bean-bag, looking like he was picturing every little detail of the story being told while the girls also listened on, both looking more relaxed than they had earlier on the day as they cuddled together.
Every day she found a new reason to be fascinated by the little unusual gang.
She smiled and went to help another student in need of assistance.
---
“Tag, you’re it!”
Billy looked around confused for a moment, his expression blank as he stared at a smirking Zack – who was backing up from him slowly. Then he dropped his head to the side, brown furrowing.
“Are we playing tag?”
Zack shrugged and took off running around the playground.
“We are now” Kimberly smirked, getting up from the sandbox, wiping the dirt away from her clothes and took off running as well. Jason shook his head and also stood up, wiping his hands on his worn out jeans.
“Alright, I’m it!” He declared and Trini opened a small smile, standing nearby the place Zack had ran to, still holding her arm and not looking anything like her usual self. Jason got ready to chase his friends until he noticed Billy still in the same place, still looking confused. A small smile tugged on the corner of his lips “Billy?”
“Hm…? Oh. Oh! That’s when I’m supposed to run away right? Right… Right!” The little boy nodded to himself and turned on his heels, ready to take off running.
Only to collide hard with something and fall back on his butt.
“Watch where you going, Billy Cramstons” A boy from third grade grumbled. He looked at the little boy on the floor – who was still looking up with shock – and shook his head in disgust, turning in his heels and walking away murmuring something under his breath.
“Billy! Billy!” Jason was on his knees next to his friend in an instant, hands hovering above him in panic for a moment before he gripped his arms tightly “Are you okay, are you hurt?”
“Billy! What happened?” Kimberly was by their side in a blink of an eye, being the fast little thing she was, and was also on her knees, hands touching her friend while looking for harm “Did he push you? Do I need to call Josh? Or the teacher?”
“I’ll call Mrs. Prince” Zack declared before he could even reach his friends and was running away before anyone could protest, yelling his teacher’s name on the top of his lungs along the way.
“He okay?” Trini whispered, anxious eyes staring at her silent friend as she stood directly behind a kneeling Kim, her fingers had found its way to grip the material of her white shirt tightly with her good hand. The older girl startled for a moment at hearing the other’s voice for the first time during the day.
“Billy! Billy, answer us!” Jason panicked.
Billy was overwhelmed.
Still shocked and shaken up by the unforeseen turn of events, eyes wide and face blank.
He tried to speak, really did, but the hands touching him, seemly coming from everywhere where physically making it hard for him to breathe and his head was spinning.
His hands shot up to cover his ears and his eyelids closed tightly, not being able to handle the surroundings anymore.
“Touching… Touching… Too much… Too much… Too much touching, too much noise… Too much” He began to rock back and forth, in an attempt of calm himself while also hoping to get the hands touching him to go away.
It was too much.
“Stop touching him” Kimberly exclaimed suddenly, jumping back and nearly knocking Trini down on the process, realization of what was happening hitting into her like train.
It wasn’t the first episode that the kids witnessed. Billy didn’t have episodes often – his level of autism not being too grave after all – but it had happened before.
It was only their lucky that, so far, it had never happened at school or whenever none of the parents were there to take control of the situation.
“What do we do?” Jason asked, pure panic written on his face and eyes still fixed on Billy, who had his hands covering his ears as he rocked back and forth, murmuring under his breath.
Kids started to gather around.
Trini began to feel her anxiety to arise, her face growing pale and clumsy, a lump tightening her throat and knuckles growing pale from her grip on Kim’s shirt.
Her friend was in distress – he looked like he couldn’t breathe – and she knew how that felt. He was scared – frightened and shaking – and she knew how that felt. Her mind began to conjure images that weren’t there, voices not really to be heard, harsh words whispered on nothing as she stood there frozen, unable to do anything to help.
(Useless. Pendeja. Brat. Why can’t you do anything right? Idiota. Just shut up! Dumb. Freak. Cállate!)
“Alright guys, there’s nothing to see here. Let’s give Billy a little space, shall we?” Diana’s calm voice broke through all the chaos in the playground.
She made a quick job of – after Zack let go from her hand and with the help from another teacher – to get the other kids to get away from the scene until it was only her and the five children on the corner of the playground.
“Hey Billy, sweetheart? Can you hear me?” She was kneeling in front of the little boy now, hands hovering next to him, where he could see but making no move to actually touch him.
“Too much… Too much…”
“I know, sweetie, but can you please try and pay attention on me please? Just for a little while?” Her voice was calm and steady, eyes fixed solemnly on the panicking little boy while still feeling four other panicked pair of eyes on her.
“Too much…”
“You like numbers, don’t you Billy? I know for a fact that you are really amazing with them! Do you like numbers, Billy?”
Billy’s eyes squeezed tightly for a long moment of silence as he struggled to focus on the gentle voice before him, to ground himself on something – just like his therapist taught him to do.
“Yes… Numbers, yes, I like numbers, numbers, yes”
“Good. Guess what? I like numbers too! Why don’t we… Me and you… Count for a little while huh? What about that?”
“Count… Count is good. I like counting, counting’s good”
“It is” Diana nodded to herself, a gentle smile on her face when the little boy – looking tired and flushed – opened his eyes at her with a deep frown and still rocking back and forth “Why don’t you start Billy?”
“… One… One, two… One, two, three…” Billy’s voice shook and Diana nodded happily at him, holding her hand a little closer to him while still not touching him.
“That’s good Billy, keep going”
“… One, two, three, four… One, two, three, four, five… One, two, three…” The little boy reached out, looking like he didn’t even know what he was doing and wrapped his hand tightly around her fingers, the mist behind his eyes gradually disappearing “… Four, five, six… One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… One, two, three, four…”
---
After calming down the little boy, Diana had to call his mother and Candace showed up no longer than ten minutes later, looking worried like only a mother could.
She took him home early, leaving four worried little kids behind.
Diana sighed, sitting at the group’s table during activity time to assist the littlest one but soon realized her efforts were useless.
Trini had been out of it since she first arrived at school; after the recess incident however, she simply wasn’t up for anything anymore. The same seemed to go for the other three, who were too busy staring blankly at their worksheets to even try to answer any of the questions in it. At least it seemed like Zack tried briefly at some point before deciding that doodling around was a better use of his time.
“Alright” The teacher finally sighed, releasing her pen into the table and grabbing the attention of the four kids before her. “Who wants to talk first?”
“Talk?” Kim frowned, dropping her head to the side a little in confusion “Talk ‘bout what?”
“About what happened to Billy”
“It wasn’t our fault!” Zack hurried to exclaim, a little louder than he should and landing himself a few stares. Diana smiled reassuring at him.
“I know it wasn’t your fault, Zack. But sometimes, even when something happens and it isn’t our fault at all, it’s good to talk about it… About how we feel about it. It helps us to deal with it”
“What do you mean, to deal with it?” Jason asked. Diana linked her fingers on top of the little table and looked between the four little confused faces.
“Well… What happened to Billy, it was quite scary, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. It always is” Kim agreed, nodding her head quickly “But today was more, cuz his Mommy and his Daddy weren’t here to help him like always”
“He was breathing funny” Jason averted his gaze down to his lap, fidgeting with his hands on top of it “… And we made it worse because we kept touching him…”
“… So, it was a little bit our fault, right, Mrs. Prince?” Kim asked with a deep frown, nibbling her bottom lip worriedly. Diana immediately reached out and grabbed her little hand gently.
“No, honey. You guys were worried and didn’t know what to do. It’s okay, nothing of what happened was your fault”
“But we shouldn’t have kept touching him” Jason deadpanned “We know he doesn’t like it and we kept doing it”
“Well… Yes. But you know what? It served for we to learn didn’t it?”
“Learn what?” Zack wondered and Diana looked at him, smiling gently.
“What to do and not to do when something like that happens again. Now you guys know not to touch him unless he touches you first when something like that happens, right?”
“Right” Kim nodded seriously, her frown slowly melting away from her face. Besides her, Trini kept her eyes down and nibbling on her bottom lip.
“And count with him?” Jason asked confusedly “It helps him, right Mrs. Prince? Count with him, it helps him… Why?”
“Because it helps him to focus on something. It helps him to concentrate in only one thing” She tried slowly and Jason nodded, still looking slightly confused none less.
“So… When he gets like that again…” Zack started, a deep frown in his face as he tried to organize his thoughts “… We have to not touch him… And help him to count?”
“Well, you can do that to help him, sure. But is also very important that you find an adult, as soon as possible so they can handle the situation” She explained gently “It’s very important that whenever something like that happens, not only with Billy, or when someone is hurt in any way, that you call an adult so they can help you”
Zack hummed in understanding and nodded along with Jason’s very slow cautious nod. Kim just turned her gaze to Trini who met her eyes for a moment before looking down to the table in front of her.
Diana didn’t miss this little interaction. She frowned.
Trini held her left hand a little closer to her tummy and all four kids suddenly looked guilty.
She looked between all of them.
“Guys? Is there something else you want to tell me?”
They were all quiet for a second. Then Jason opened his mouth.
“Mrs. Prince? Can you help me please?”
And it was only her luck that Amanda Clark called out in that specific moment.
She almost sighed when Jason closed his mouth again, cringing slightly when someone kicked him under the table. The teacher couldn’t see, but Kim grabbed Trini’s good had under the table and gave it a small reassuring squeeze.
“No, Mrs. Prince. We’re just worried about Billy” The little girl smiled innocently and now Diana really did sigh.
“Try to do your work, guys. If you can’t do it, is okay for today. But at least try, alright? Call me if you need anything” She looked between all the four pair of eyes for a moment longer, watching them all nod before getting up from the little chair.
---
“Mrs. Prince?”
The teacher looked up startled at the little voice coming from the doorway.
The dismiss bell had rang a few minutes ago, most of the kids had already left the school grounds so she wasn’t exactly expecting a little one showing up at her classroom door.
Most of all, she wasn’t expecting the little one her eyes found when they lifted from the sheets she was busying herself grading.
“Trini?”
The little girl didn’t look up. Her eyes remained locked with her little worn out sneakers, looking like she was trying not to jingle her left hand too much and nibbling on her bottom lip like she did very often.
The teacher pushed her chair away from her desk and got up. The noise seemed to startle the little girl, who looked up with big brown eyes that were filling with tears at an alarming rate. Diana frowned, took a couple of steps forwards and crouched down, reaching her arms out in invitation.
She was only mildly surprised when the little 6 year old dashed to her, her right hand gripping onto the collar of her shirt tightly as her face hid onto her neck. When she wrapper her arms around her in response, Trini flinched and her body started shaking with silent sobs.
Diana frowned.
“Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” She whispered softly, frown deepening when Trini flinched away with a small gasp from her hand when it started rubbing small circles on her back. She sobbed harder and clung to her more, shaking her head against her neck. “Trini? Please talk to me… What got you this upset?”
Trini’s cries were hard enough to rock her whole body but she barely made a sound. Her sobs were silent, painfully so, and her gasps for air started to get more desperate as time went by.
“… Not ‘pposed… Not ‘pposed to te-tell”
“What?” Diana asked gently, resting her hands on the girl’s hips and softly pulling her away from her body, just enough so she could see her face. Trini hiccupped, her eyes squirting painfully as more tears fell and her little arms reached out, trying to get back on the safety of her teacher’s embrace but Diana remained firm, holding her by her hips and trying to make eye contact with her “Trini, honey, what are you not supposed to tell? What’s going on?”
The first loud sob left the little girl’s lips and she opened her mouth. She froze.
(“If you ever tell anyone, you’ll wish we left you on the closet forever”
“You think that’s bad? Try telling anyone and you’ll know what bad really means”
“You think your friends and their amazing parents care about you? They don’t. And they’ll do so much worse than we do if you tell; they’ll see just what a stupid little whore you are. Penteja”)
She shook her head, feeling like the walls were about to close around her again. She felt like running, not knowing why she ever thought of coming here in first place.
But her friends had already left for their houses and they had those disappointed eyes because she made them hide something from their sweet teacher and the guilt got to her.
She didn’t know why she lunched herself forwards again instead of trying to free herself from the hands on her. She didn’t know why she clung to her teacher’s shirt again instead of running. And she definitely didn’t know why her breathing began to calm down at the long fingers running through her hair, the soft whispers on her ear.
She closed her eyes and leaned more into her teacher’s chest, ignoring the burn on her back from where her other arm cradled her gently. Ignoring the pain on her left wrist as she shifted it to lay on her shoulder. She could barely feel the pain that shoot through her scalp anytime anything touched the back of her head.
“Trini, sweetheart… Please… Tell me what’s going on?”
“Trinity”
Teacher and student froze. Trini’s body tensing up and Diana’s arms tightening around her protectively.
Both sets of brown eyes lifted to the woman standing in the doorway, face free from any emotion as she watched on the interaction of the two.
Trini went pale.
Diana felt anger building up inside of her.
June Gomez crossed her arms above her chest and raised a brow, looking genuinely concerned. Diana somehow knew it was all for the wrong reasons.
“What’s going on, sweetie?”
Trini knew she was in more trouble than she has ever been in her entire short life.