Chapter Six:
You forgot that you were worried about what school would be like after beating up your tormentors. Finding out that you might not know the only family you have left half as well as you thought you did does that to a guy. Your head was so full of Bro the night before, that you almost forgot that the morning was going to come.
Yet, come it did, like a drop kick to the face.
Perhaps ironically, you find that school is extremely anticlimactic and that pretty much nothing happens. You notice that a few people say hi and more people talk to you in the lunch line (any improvement over none is more). If you weren't so stressed out, you probably would have been really happy about it. You can't bring yourself to be happy. You wish you had your shades.
Your inevitable counseling session lands right on top of Biology, which you are more than happy about. You can ask John to help you with whatever they cover. Leave the biology to the ectobiologist.
You are a little surprised to find that Miss Adler, the counselor, has her office in the library. You enter Miss Adler's office with as little trepidation as you can manage. You are even more surprised to find that her office was probably a storage closet at one time. The office now has a conference table shoved into it with, at least, six chairs tucked along its edges. There are lots of squeezable and fluffy stress relief items scattered amongst binders and folders full of papers and books.
Miss Adler is a small woman with lots of laugh lines and crow's feet. Her hair is salt and pepper colored, cut short in a pixie cut and spiked straight up. She has lots of really big gaudy jewelry hanging from her thin wrists and long neck. She's pretty much one of the most non threatening things you've ever seen.
She is writing something in one of her huge folders when you walk in and she immediately puts it to the side, a big smile reaching across her face.
"David! Can I call you David?" she says, reaching out to shake your hand.
You accept the handshake, but don't actually move your arm, just hold her long fingers in your calloused hand for a moment.
"Dave," you correct her, taking a chair, making sure to leave a seat between yourself and her. She doesn't comment on it.
"Dave," she says out loud, reaching down to the paper in front of her to make a mark. You guess that folder is most likely about you.
"Dave, it's nice to meet you. I'm Miss Adler," she says, putting her hands down on the table and obviously focusing her full attention on you, something that makes you nervous without your shades.
You're tempted to tell her you know who she is, she had to sign your excuse slip and you had to find her office, after all. But, you hold the smart ass comments back. This is serious business.
When you don't say anything in return, she continues, "I've heard you got into a little trouble last week."
You start to open your mouth and finally explain yourself, finally explain that you didn't touch the boys who accosted you, though you do take responsibility for their injuries, as you did confuse them into hitting each other. But, you don't get the chance to form words.
A large girl with dyed orange hair opens the door and pokes her head in. "Miss Adler?" she asks, as she pokes in. "Is it okay if I talk to you?"
"Of course, Lisa, come in!" Miss Adler responds quickly.
Lisa takes the chair across from you and spends the rest of the period talking to Miss Adler about her father, who had passed out piss drunk the night before and threw up on himself. Lisa was upset, because she wasn't home when it happened, and was afraid her father had drowned in his own vomit. You didn't talk again until it was time for you to leave.
Actually, even in successive weeks, you very rarely say a word to Miss Adler. But, you do learn a lot about the kids at your school. You learn that Lisa is always getting into trouble for inventive delinquent behavior. She is also terrified of alcohol (of which she is constantly exposed to both by her bad news friends and her dad's friends), because of how it destroyed her father after her mother left. You learn that one of the linebackers on the football team struggles with extreme anger issues and comes to Miss Adler when he feels he handled it badly or well to receive feedback.
Your personal favorite is Courtney, a tiny little blond freshman who has to deal with sexual advances from her best friend's father. Courtney, despite the depravity of her situation, is almost like your favorite soap. Her friend is, at the moment, not talking to her after Courtney finally explained why she doesn't want to come over to her house any more. And, her mom is currently constantly calling and hanging around the guy, because she's a desperate divorcee. You've actually given advice to Courtney and often stop to talk to her in the hall. She's cute, if dumb. And, you find yourself worrying about her.
Almost a month goes by after your first encounter with the mysterious creature known as your guardian and you still haven't talked to Bro. You've started checking his room before and after school, something you never would have dared to do when Bro still hid swords in the fridge and your iPhone on the roof. You notice that he's usually asleep in his bed in the morning, but gone in the afternoon. You stayed up one night and noticed that he's usually home around midnight. You don't know where he goes on the weekends.
You don't talk to Miss Adler about your Bro. After listening to your classmates problems, you feel guilty for even complaining about a missing Bro / Dad figure. Mostly, you talk about new friends you're making and new enemies you have frothing at the mouth.
You hate to tell Miss Adler, because you actually really like her, but probably the best therapy was to meet so many other kids with bigger problems than yours. They make the thought of whining about Bro go stale in your mouth.