This chapter was written by InsidiousCynic!

Monday, September 14 – Davi Crisostomo

Marking is by far my least favourite part of teaching. That, and cleaning up after kindergarteners after they have an “accident”. At least nowadays I only have nine students. Plus, three or four of them rarely hand anything in at all, so that lightens my workload…and burdens my conscience. I understand D.K, I sorta understand Zane and Thaddeus, but Ava’s a mystery. I mean, how can I learn anything about her? She never wants to talk. I talked to her father once, but all he wanted to talk about were grades. He was amiable enough, but he seemed convinced that Ava just wasn’t applying herself—said that she just needed some motivation to work. But that’s not what I see. I see a girl on the verge of despair.

So as I handed her back the latest assignment—another F—I asked her to see me after class.

“Hey Ava.”

“Hey Davi.”

“Another F.”

She had trouble making eye contact. “Yeah…”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, I had trouble understanding the assignment.”

“Well if you were having trouble, you could have come to me for help.”

She nods apathetically. “I know. I’ll try to do better next time.”

She turns to leave.

I gulp.

“Um, one more thing Ava.”

“Yes?”

“How are you doing? In general?”

“I…” her voice wavers, she sniffles and blinks back the tears. “I’m fine.”

She quickly steps out of the classroom, leaving me behind in the empty classroom to contemplate my total helplessness.

Stop feeling sorry and do something Davi.

I find Hannah and D.K. chatting in the hallway.

“Hey Davi,” says D.K, smiling.

“Hi girls,” I say. “Hey, can I ask you two to do something for me?”

“Sure,” says Hannah. “What is it.”

“Could you keep Ava company? I think she really needs some friends at school right now.”

“Sure,” says D.K.

“Great,” I say “And D.K, a C? I know you can do better than that. You know this stuff.”

D.K. smirks. “But I’m a C student. Clever, conscientious and cute.”

“Yeah,” I retort, “and crazy, compulsive and chatty.”

“Ouch,” said Hannah.

“See you later.”

“Bye.”

I head to Pastor Macdonald’s office. He’s the chaplain of the school, but he’s always running between the school and the church, so the chances of him being there are pretty slim. He likes to keep busy, doing everything from yard work to home visits. 

I knock on the office door.

“Come in,” says the pastor.

“Hey pastor.”

“Oh, hi Davi,” he says, grinning. “What’s up?”

“There’s a student in my class that I’m concerned about. Avalon Jacobs.”

“Oh I know her,” he says. “She’s Judge Jacob’s daughter.”

“Judge Jacobs?”

“The new judge in town. I talked to the family once. They’re all kind of…”

“Kind of what?”

“Distant. Quiet. They like to keep to themselves.”

“I don’t think Avalon’s doing well. I…well maybe you can talk to her.”

“Sure, sure. You know, I was talking to Zane last week. He and Thaddeus…” the pastor trails off, shaking his head. “It looks like we’ve got our hands full with this new class.”

“Yeah,” I say.

Then there’s a long pause.