Chapter 1: She walks to school with a lunch she packed
"Edwin! Lizzie" Come on! We're gonna be late"
"Casey! Get out of the bathroom!"
"Edwin, where's my jacket?"
"On the couch"
"I'm leaving! If I don't go now, I'm going to be late. Since SOMEONE refuses to drive me"
SLAM.
"Marti! Hurry up! I can't afford to be late today!'
"Coming Daddy!"
SLAM. SLAM.
Derek drank his orange juice as he watched the chaos around him.
"Edwin! Lizzie! NOW!"
SLAM.
The front door slammed again this time as Nora, Edwin and Lizzie headed out leaving just Derek, George and Marti in the house.
"Marti! Marti! Let's GO!"
"I'm coming daddy!"
Derek rinsed out his glass as he watched the daily proceedings with semi-interest.
"Derek" his father called "I'm late for an important case and so I need you to take Marti to pre-school."
"But…"
"Derek" George said sternly, his voice leaving no room for argument.
"Fine, fine" Derek grumbled as he headed up the stairs to gather up Marti.
SLAM.
The door clanged as George followed the others out and headed to work.
"Smarti?" Derek coaxed as he headed into her room, "Smarti it's time for school."
"I'm coming Derek" she squeaked. Derek opened the door and what he saw made him stop in shock. There was Marti, running around the room in a frantic tizz that was very unlike her usual attitude.
"Smarti?" Derek asked confused, "What are you doing?"
She was impeccably dressed in a way Derek realized with a start she had often been over the past weeks, he just hadn't realized. Her shoes were tied though her fingertips were red with the effort of tying them all by herself. Her face was clean but the skin around her mouth was scrubbed red as if she had spent ten minutes scrubbing off non-existent dirt. Her hair was brushed back, neatly laying flat against her head, odd for Marti or any six year old.
As Derek watched she stumbled around her room trying to make her bed; a difficult task as she was not tall enough to reach all the way up across the middle of the bed. Her room looked as though she had hurriedly thrown it together, with toys peaking out from under the bed and socks hanging out of the drawers. And as she struggled with the bedspread, Derek couldn't help but think how unlike his Smarti the entire room was.
"Smarti, c'mon Smarti." Derek tried to wheedle her out of finishing her hurried cleaning job. "We gotta go to school."
"No!" she screamed, "It's not clean yet."
"Marti, it's ok-ay!" groaned Derek, unable to stop himself from wondering if this was Casey's influence. They were going to be SO late. "You can finish cleaning your room when you get home."
As he spoke, he leaned over to help her pick up the bedspread and lay it flat on the bed.
"No Derek." She whined, "If it's not clean when Daddy gets home I'll be in trouble and then he'll be mad."
Derek plucked the pillow out of her hands and placed it next to the others on the bed. "Smarti, we need to go." He commanded as he picked her up to carry downstairs.
And that's when it happened. As Derek's hands grabbed her arms she screamed louder than Derek had ever heard. She squirmed out of his arms and threw herself cowering into a corner across the room.
Derek froze. This was new.
"Smarti?" he spoke softly trying to alleviate whatever fear was driving her.
"Smarti? What's wrong? It's me, your Smerek. I'm not going to hurt you. What's wrong?" While speaking he slowly moved ever closer until he was only a few feet away from her huddled body.
"It hurt." She whispered just loud enough for him to hear.
"What hurt?" Getting an idea, Derek slowly took her arm and rolled up her sleeve. There glaring up at him from her pale skin were dark purple bruises in the shape of fingers. The shape of a hand was tattooed all up and down her arm, as though her arm had been grabbed and held tightly multiple times by many people.
Marti's head fell and she shook out her hair, hiding from the world behind a dark impenetrable curtain.
Derek gazed slack jawed at her bruises. Carefully he dropped her arm and rolled up her other sleeve to find a pattern almost symmetrical to her other arm. He ran his hand lightly over the bruises and she whimpered as his fingers gazed the hurt. At hearing her make a noise and realize he was causing her pain, Derek snapped out of the trance he had entered upon seeing her abuse.
"Marti" Derek whispered, serious now, "Marti, who did this to you?"
Marti shook her head unwilling to answer him.
"School" she whispered after Derek repeated the question.
"School, right" he muttered, realizing that neither of them could sit there unmoving all day. The law prevented it. Suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"Smarti!" his hand tilted her chin up so their eyes met as he questioned her intently. "Did your teacher do this to you?"
Her eyes dropped from his, she shook her head in the universal gesture for no. Derek watched her closely for a minute, unable to determine if she was lying.
Well, he finally decided, until he was certain it was not her teacher doing this, there was no way in hell he was letting her go to school. Which means...
"Marti? How would you like to go to high school?"
Marti lifted her head as a smile slowly grew on her face.
"Okay Marti" Derek smiled down at the little girl holding his hand. "Welcome to Thompson High."
Derek and Marti traversed the hallways headed to Derek's locker. All the girls made it a point to wave and giggle at Marti and smile coyly at Derek in a failing attempt to grab his attention.
"Hey Marti" greeted Sam as the duo approached Derek's locker.
"Hi Sam" she snuck behind Derek's leg as she whispered out the greeting. Derek frowned down at her brown head in confusion. Sam shrugged and turned to Derek.
"Why's your sister here dude?"
Derek shrugged. "Well, she threw a fit, so by the time I got her ready there was no point in her even going so, here she is."
"Is that even allowed?"
"Dunno."
"Smerek?" Marti tugged on his pants leg.
The use of his nickname surprised him into looking down into her questioning eyes. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't heard it all morning.
"Smerek, can I go see Casey?"
"Um….sure" Derek grabbed Marti around the waist and settled her onto his hip. "Let's go find Casey."
"Who's Casey?"