A/N: Here's chapter 8. I'm so happy that people like my first ever fic. It's weird having people you don't really know reviewing your work. Anyway, Here you go. Enjoy!
This was the day that Olivia and Mason were dreading. The first day back at school after their dad went to jail. They knew what the kids at school would be like. They would laugh, point, and make snide comments. They might not even speak to them. Who knows what some of the other kids' parents might have said. It was the gossip of the PTA that Stanley Walker was arrested for tax evasion. Nobody else's mum or dad was in jail. Nobody else at school was the child of a criminal.
'Olivia, Mason it's time to get up.' Karen was dreading today as well. She was also scared what the other kids were going to say to Mason and Olivia. The last thing they needed was other kids making fun of them. Olivia emerged from her bedroom still half asleep. 'Morning honey. What do you want for breakfast?' Karen tried to sound as normal as possible.
'I'm not hungry.' Olivia snapped back.
'Honey, you need to eat something or you'll get sick.' Karen tried her hardest. She hadn't yet noticed that Olivia was crying. 'Please just try to eat something. Oh, honey, come here.' Karen pulled her stepdaughter into a hug. 'What's wrong?'
'All the other kids are going to laugh at us. They're going to make fun of us because Dad's in prison.' Olivia sobbed. Karen didn't have anything she could say that would make Olivia feel any better, so she just hugged her tighter. When Mason entered, he simply walked over to Karen and Olivia and joined the hug.
'Are you sure you don't want anything for breakfast?' Karen tried to get both of them, especially Olivia, to eat.
'I wouldn't mind some toast please.' Olivia quietly said. Mason nodded in agreement. After moments of silence while Karen was making the toast, Olivia added, 'Sorry for snapping at you earlier.'
'Don't worry about it, honey.'
---
An hour and a half later. Karen was standing outside the school gates with Olivia and Mason.
'Don't let the other kids bother you.' Karen tried her best to encourage them.
'We'll try not to.' Mason said miserably as he and Olivia walked into the playground.
'I'll see you kids later.' Karen shouted with a tear running down her cheek. This was when she noticed one of the other mothers giving her a dirty look. 'What are you looking at?' Karen snapped as she returned to her car.
---
Once inside the school playground, Olivia and Mason both took a seat on a wall in the far end of the playground. It wasn't long before what Olivia and Mason were dreading happened.
'My mum says that you two don't deserve to go to school because you dad didn't pay his taxes.' A girl about the same age as Olivia and Mason smugly said. The girl looked like the class bitch and had two other girls standing behind her.
'Get lost, I don't care what you have to say.' Olivia coldly responded to the girl's comments. She shocked Mason with the tone she used. The three girls laughed before walking away. 'Who do they think they are?' Olivia asked nobody in particular. A few seconds later, they were approached by somebody else. This time Olivia and Mason were happy to see them.
'Hey. Are you okay?' Elliot asked quietly. He had no idea how Olivia and Mason would be.
Olivia shrugged in reply before saying: 'We've already had somebody laughing at us and we've only been here fifteen minutes.' Olivia looked as if she was about to burst out crying. To all the kids' dismay, the bell to signify the start of the school day rang. Elliot, Mason and Olivia proceeded to enter the building, where there would be no escape from the other kids' laughter and mean comments. Elliot couldn't help but think to himself. How were Olivia and Mason going to cope?
'Good luck.' He quietly mumbled to himself.
---
An hour into the class and Olivia and Mason hated the day. Kids kept looking at them like them like they were some kind of circus freaks. Even the teacher was treating them differently. Then came the worst possible lesson. Citizenship. Today's topic was taxation. When the teacher announced this, Mason rolled his eyes and Olivia buried her head in her hands. Today of all days. Things were made worse when a couple of snooty kids giggled from the other side of the classroom.
'What is tax?' The teacher asked. When no children attempted to answer, she picked a child at random (or so she said) to answer the question. 'Mason, do you know?'
'Fat chance!' One of the kids giggled. Olivia just looked at Mason and shook her head. She couldn't stand the kids' laughter. The teacher wasn't even telling the other kids off for commenting.
'Well, tax is money adults have to pay to the government.' The teacher continued with the lesson. Olivia exchanged uneasy glances with Elliot and Mason, who were sitting at either side of her. Mason looked as if he was about to burst with anger.
'Olivia, what happens when adults don't pay their taxes?' Another kid cruelly and sarcastically asked.
'Will you just knock it off!' Mason couldn't take the mocking anymore.
'Mason, lunchtime detention for shouting out!' It was funny how the teacher heard the shouting out this time. Olivia was shocked. How could the teacher punish Mason when all the other kids had been laughing at them all day?
'Why? All the other kids have been saying horrible things to me and Olivia and you didn't give them lunchtime detention!' Mason was nearly in tears, but by answering back to the teacher he was just making things worse.
Olivia was also sobbing. 'Mason, just sit down before you get into anymore trouble!' She knew that she would end up getting in trouble as well trying to defend him of he answered back. Today was not the day for them getting in trouble. Who knows what horrible comments the other kids could come up with? 'Olivia and Mason get in trouble all the time. They'll end up in jail like their dad!' Olivia could already hear it.
Mason did as his sister told him. For some reason he felt like he had failed her. 'I'm sorry.' He quietly apologised to his sister. Olivia just shook her head to tell him he had nothing to say sorry for.
---
Lunchtime rolled around. Up until then, there had been no snide comments made regarding Olivia and Mason's dad. Well, not since Mason was given detention. The other kids didn't want to also get detention, so Olivia and Mason had been safe. But now there was nobody to stop the kids making fun of Olivia. Mason was safe in detention. When the bell for lunchtime rang, Olivia didn't wait for the teacher to dismiss the class before walking out the door. Not that the class teacher tried to stop her. Olivia went and took a seat on the same wall as she sat on earlier. The second she took a seat, she burst out crying. She kept picturing her dad being taken away in handcuffs. She couldn't bear to think about what it was like for him in jail. Then she thought about Mason. He was stuck in detention for trying to protect himself and his sister from other kids' comments. She couldn't help thinking that it wasn't fair that he was in trouble too. She suddenly felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.
'Hey. That was really horrible on there, wasn't it?' Elliot did his best to comfort her. He had no idea how she felt. Olivia didn't reply. She just turned round and hugged him, and sobbed into his shoulder. Elliot was the only one in the class who did not treat her, or Mason, differently after the events of the weekend. Then again, why would he? He was almost family.
---
The end of the long day at school arrived. Olivia and Mason were exhausted. Then again, they hadn't had much sleep. Elliot was going to go to Jack's apartment, so he walked part of the way home with them. All three walked home in silence, until they had to split up to go their separate ways. The only interaction between them came when Elliot said:
'I'll see you guys later.'
'Bye.' Olivia replied glumly. Mason merely waved.
---
Olivia and Mason walked for another ten minutes in silence before reaching the front door of their home.
'Do you mind not telling Karen what happened today?' Mason feared he would get in even more trouble if his stepmother found out he got detention.
'Sure, honey.' Olivia feared Karen's reaction to Mason getting detention when all the other kids didn't even get a warning.
---
A/N: I just realised how horrible Olivia, Elliot and Mason's class is. Kids are so evil! Lol. There's Chapter 8. Thank you to Panema, The Filmmaker Cannot See, Karengraciewalker and all4christ0398 for reviewing. Enjoy!