Repairing the Broken
Chapter 1
Case 290856
Starting Notes: The following entries were written down and submitted after each session while working on case 290856. The new History teacher: Cory Matthews requested I work with and try to help his daughter and her friends; their friendship has reached a rather rocky impasse. After receiving permission from and interviewing the parents of the students I then went onto monitoring them in the High School. At first I believed there was no reason for me to intervene, until the other day when Lucas Friar told Riley Matthews she was quote "Too much for him right now" having learnt all I have from the parents this seemed to have crossed the line and I have now decided to intervene."
Entry One:
I set up the room appropriately, five chairs evenly spaced out in a circle around the middle of the room all-facing the outer walls of the classroom. I thought it was necessary for me to remain at my desk that was situated at the front of the room in front of a blackboard partially spanning the wall it was mounted on. I sat on the corner of my desk playing with a yo-yo, I know that their outdated but they're just so much fun. Anyway getting off topic. They entered my classroom one after the other; all of them confused as to why they were here. They each sat in their designated seat, starting from the first chair on the left and going around the room in a clockwise motion I had: Riley Matthews so happy it almost made me depressed, next was Farkle Minkus, I'm just going to say it: the kid is a genius. Isaiah Babineaux he well, he talks a lot. Lucas Friar the Cowboy in the big city; and last but not least Maya Hart the broken rebel of the group, I'm not going to lie I knew from the moment they sat down this wasn't going to be a short case so I thought 'I better get started' I walked to the middle of the room and quickly checked to make sure that all their backs were facing me.
"Right well hello all, I'm Murray Farring I teach English here at school. Now to address the elephant in the room, I am indeed Australian as you can tell by my accent" I began once I had assured that they were all facing the right way.
"Excuse me Mr. Farring?" Riley started as she raised her hand into the air,
"Please, call me Murray, and yes Miss Matthews?" I replied; she lowered her hand.
"Murray, what are we doing here?" She asked,
"Well why do you think you're here?" I asked,
"We don't know, if we did she wouldn't have asked," Maya interrupted,
"True, true. When I'm not teaching English I'm helping students individually and as groups through, let's say rough patches." I explained,
"But we aren't going through a rough patch" Lucas stated,
"Oh I think you do Mr. Friar and so do your parents, so I will be at my desk marking work there will be no turning your chairs around until you tell me a story." I started to explain,
"What story?" Maya asked,
"The story, your story, the true story Miss Hart. Also there is to be no gossiping or chitchat, you're only allowed to talk about the problems at hand." I continued. Farkle raised his hand and went to speak "do I need to repeat myself Mr. Minkus?" I interrupted, Farkle lowered his hand
"No Sir," he whispered,
"Good" I concluded before returning to my desk. I marked in silence for twenty minutes as no one said a word; Isaiah seemed to be struggling the most with the silence, so much so that I felt sorry for him. I looked at the clock on my desk and noticed the session didn't have long to go, "I don't hear much talking" I stated,
"We don't know what to talk about" Farkle stated,
"Yeah!" Isaiah called out the relief of finally saying something was clear in his tone.
"Very well, I'll give you all something to talk about" I insisted, I stood up and walked over firstly to Maya stopping in front of her and for a moment I stood looking down at her. "Miss Hart, you are a very troubled and broken girl. Your father left you and your Mother at a young age; you blamed yourself thinking you weren't good enough. You believe that you have no potential let alone a decent future that is why you pretend not to try at school; you are in fact rather self-centered so much so that you can't see what your crappy life has done to your best friend over there." I explained, she was clearly horrified by what I had said to her and was unable to come up with any sort of reply. I moved onto Lucas again standing in front of him for a moment, he clearly readied himself for what ever it was I had to say. "Mr. Friar you have anger issues to say the least, it's the reason why you were thrown out of your school in Texas and the reason why you were forced to move to New York something that has made you feel guilty this entire time because you were also forcing your Mother to come with you and thus splitting up your family, and not only did you leave your friends behind but hers as well. You fear that it will all repeat and you will force her to move and start all over again." What I said had struck a cord in Lucas bringing him to the verge of tears but I quickly moved onto Isaiah, he looked up at me with a cheeky but confidant grin. "Mr. Babineaux you have an inability to keep your mouth shut, you fear that if you stop talking people won't notice you, your fear was part of the reason why you followed Lucas to New York because he noticed you and you were noticed because of him. You don't think about what it is that you're saying and that is why you get into so much trouble because of it but you think it's okay thinking that Lucas will always be there to get you out of trouble." Isaiah's smile was quickly wiped from his face and clear shock overcame him but Isaiah staying true to who he is; opened his mouth and went to say something so I moved onto Farkle; "You can be socially awkward, being comfortable around only a few people most of whom are in the room. You feel then need to impress people with your intelligence, believing that besides that there is much to you and that without an almost constant reminder that you are basically a genius people would not really take an interest in you." Finally I walked over to Riley, her eyes were already glassy and red she was trying so hard not to cry. "Miss Matthews; your need to always fix people and things relates to your inability to fix your best friend, she would cry to you and there wasn't a thing that could be done and it drove you mad. In order to fill that hole it created, you started fixing everyone else, you're so happy all the time because it makes her happy and because of her you try to always see the bright side of things or the best of people, hoping that one day you being who you are might be enough to fix what is broken in Maya." I walked back over to my desk and sat down returning to my work. "There, you have many things to talk about now." I concluded, I looked down at the student's work in front of me and seeing the mark I wrote 'F' and circled it at the top of the page and placed it on a pile to the right of me and moved onto the next student's work. The school bell later rang and little progress had been made but I feel that I was correct in my suspicions. "Today's session is over, I will see you all tomorrow at the same time dismissed." I said, quietly they stood up form their seats, grabbed their bags and left the room. The approach I have taken is a hostile one I won't lie, but I believe they won't talk to each other about what I said hell they probably won't even talk to Cory about it. If they don't I was right, if they do I was wrong.
The following day they had all arrived on time for our next session. They rested their bags by the sides of their chairs and sat down in their designated seats; I meanwhile sat at my desk my right elbow rested on the desk while my right hand gently cupped my lips. I studied them carefully and they were clearly still hurt by what I had said to them,
"Raise your hand if you spoke to Mr. Matthews about what I said yesterday?" I asked, no one raised their hand "okay now raise your hand if you spoke to someone else in this room about what I said yesterday?" no one raised their hands, I nodded my head a few times accepting that I was correct before standing up and walking to the front of my desk leaning on it once in the right position. I sighed and scratched the side of my head for a few moments before looking over at Lucas. "Mr. Friar stand up" I calmly instructed, he quickly obeyed
"Yes Sir?" Lucas inquired
"Please I said call me Murray" I reminded,
"Sorry, Murray"
"Now Mr. Friar, this whole love triangle that's going on I'm guessing you haven't made a decision yet, correct?"
"Yes,"
"You may be seated Mr. Friar, thank you" I insisted and waited till he had sat back down before continuing. "I had hoped you would talk to one another because than it meant that I was wrong. You all fear that when Mr. Friar makes a decision someone is going to get hurt; even worse than that it will be the end of you, of this group. Deep down you're aware that there isn't a thing you can do to stop that, hell even Miss Matthews over here has accepted that and I mean she is she. So what's happening is that you are all distancing yourselves from one another or softening the coming blow in other words. You might be doing this on a subconscious level or not, I'm not sure but it's something we do as a means of protecting ourselves. Would anyone like to say something?" I continued and looked around the room. Isaiah raised his hand and I sighed upon seeing it, "Yes, Mr. Babineaux?" I asked
"Well Murray, teacher Sir, I'm just saying what we're all thinking and that is that what you said yesterday was hurtful. And we know what's at risk here and I don't think what you said yesterday was helpful at all if that's what you're trying to be so I think you owe us an apology." Isaiah stated confidently still facing the back wall of the classroom.
"Did I hurt your feelings Mr. Babineaux?"
"Yes you did"
"Well you better get a helmet, some armour while you're at it because life hurts Mr. Babineaux. I am sorry if what I said yesterday hurt you, but I assure you that it was indeed helpful because it showed me just how fractured this group is. Now the reason I cannot do much more to help you yet is because I'm not caught up; granted I know the stories your parents have told me but I don't know your stories and it's not like someone has recorded everything that has happened from the moment you all met till now that I could watch. Thus it is up to you too bring me up to date." I explained walking back to my desk and sitting down, "so when you're ready, there are stories to be told" I concluded.