It's good to see me, isn't it?
(No need to respond, that was rhetorical question!)

In other words, yours truly is back from her hiatus

Summary: Cynthia isn't happy, but Miss Benson is a little more understanding

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"Connor Murphy, home—now." Cynthia's tone had an edge to it that Connor only heard when she was very, very angry, and he knew that he was in trouble.

The walk home only took around fifteen minutes, but to him, it felt much longer than that. Neither of them said a word, and when they arrived home, Cynthia went straight into the dining room and motioned for him to sit down at the table.

He did so, feeling a little sick from the dread twisting itself in his stomach.

Cynthia ran a hand through her hair. "What is going on, Connor? First, you're late for breakfast. Then after I drop Zoe off, I get a call from Daddy saying that he dropped you off at school. And then I get a call from the school an hour later saying that you're absent. What are you doing?"

"I didn't want to go to school," he whispered, staring at the floor. "So I didn't go in."

"Where did you go?"

"Just to the playground."

"Do you know how worried I was?" she demanded, her volume rising. He winced, shaking his head. He had had no idea. "I called your dad, I called the Davidsons, the Harrises, asking if they knew where you were. Then I had to cancel lunch with my friend because I had to look for you! Do you know how scared I was? Jesus Christ, Connor, I didn't know what had happened to my baby!"

"I was fine. I was just at the playground," he mumbled. It wasn't like he would get hit by a truck on the very day he decided to skip school, right?

"But I didn't know that, did I?" she snapped, causing him to jump. "How would I know that you weren't hurt, or got kidnapped, or… or something?"

Connor twisted the hem of his shirt, starting to feel guilty. "Sorry…"

"Why didn't you want to go to school?"

"Because I don't like anyone there."

"And that's a good reason?"

"Yes."

"Connor."

"What?" he protested. "It is."

"You and I both know that's not a good excuse."

It's good to see me, isn't it?

(No need to respond, that was rhetorical question!)

In other words, yours truly is back from her hiatus

Summary: Cynthia isn't happy, but Miss Benson is a little more understanding

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"Yes, it is," he defiantly countered. "Everybody there is mean to me, and I hate them all."

"Connor, hate is a strong word—"

"No, but it's true," he interrupted, feeling himself tear up. He always teared up when he got angry, and he hated it. Hated that he couldn't control himself, that he always ended up crying like a baby, even though he was already eight years old. "I hate them. They're stupid shitheads."

"Language!" Cynthia barked. He simply folded his arms and glared back up at her. She sighed. "If you're not going to be reasonable, I'm going to pick Zoe up, and when your dad comes home, he'll deal with you."

"Fine." Connor said, grabbing his bag and storming up to his room, even though he was decidedly notfine. He felt a little guilty for making his mother worry, but at the same time, he wasn't sorry. Actually, he was a little proud. He'd skipped school! For the first time! But now, he was kind of worried about what Larry might say when he came home. Would he get yelled at? Or get his books confiscated? Grounded? He knew he wouldn't have to go to school and apologize to the substitute teacher—at least not yet—because today was Friday and he wouldn't go back until Monday, and hopefully by then, Miss Benson would be feeling better and return to school.

There was a knock at the bedroom door.

"Con!"

It was Zoe.

They were already home?

He glanced at the clock; apparently, he had been caught up in his thoughts for much longer than he had realized.

"Come in."

She entered and exclaimed, "You skipped school?!"

"Yup!" he grinned, popping the 'p' and trying his best to look incredibly proud about it.

Her mouth was in an "O" shape, and she finally said, "You're very naughty, Connor."

He giggled at her reaction. "I know."

"Sabrina Patel asked me if you were sick, and I said no. So she said that maybe you skipped. I said no you didn't, because I didn't expect you to skip, but then I didn't see you at school and when Mummy picked me up she looked very angry, and that's when I decided that you did skip! And I was right!" she explained, evidently pleased with her deduction.

"Why does Sabrina Patel talk to you?" Sabrina was in Connor's grade, not Zoe's.

She shrugged. "She's my friend, she's nice."

"Oh, I didn't know that," Connor hummed. "Did Mummy say anything?"

"About Sabrina?"

"No, about me."

"No, she just said that you were at home when I asked her. But she looked really, really angry."

"Oh no…"

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"Hey, Murphy, did you really skip school on Friday?"

Connor turned in his seat to face Jared Kleinman, who was sitting right behind him. "No, I went to the moon," he deadpanned.

"Holy shit, you really skipped!" Jared whistled, looking impressed. "Can we be friends?"

"What the hell?" Jared seemed to think that things like swearing and skipping school and other bad things were cool, and Connor was pretty sure that he was just trying to look cool, although he really wasn't. He had weird blue glasses, was kind of chubby, and he always tried too hard to fit in with the popular kids when he obviously just wasn't one of them.

"Where did you go?" Jared pressed.

"None of your business," Connor curtly replied, turning back around. He didn't want to talk about it.

He glanced up again, and relief washed over him as Miss Benson stepped into the classroom. "Good morning, class, I've missed you while I was sick."

"Are you feeling better now, Miss Benson?" Alana Beck asked.

"I'm feeling much better, Alana, thank you for asking," Miss Benson smiled.

All the teachers liked Alana. She was smart, received good grades, and never got into any trouble. Even though they didn't really talk, and he didn't remember how it had started, she and Connor had a little friendly competition to see who got better grades on their tests and homework. Most of the time, Alana would do a little better than him, but that didn't mean he didn't try. Most of the time, he placed second in class. But the teachers always liked Alana much more, because she was polite, smiled a lot, and didn't fidget in her seat like he always did. The first time he got a higher score on a test than she did, he had been over the moon. But then she'd looked like she was going to cry, and for some reason he felt so bad that he'd actually said sorry to her at lunch, which was weird, because he actually felt really happy that he beat her, but then he never liked to watch other people cry. It probably didn't really matter that much in the end anyway, because she beat him by two whole marks on their next assignment.

"Connor Murphy?" Miss Benson called, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Yes, Miss Benson?"

"Meet me after class, I want to talk to you."

A few of the children sniggered and whispered to each other, while Connor nodded and spent the rest of the class dreading what she was going to say to him. The substitute teacher had most likely told her what had happened, that he was a really bad kid and that he had skipped school. Would she be mad at him? Disappointed? Maybe she didn't like him anymore, and then he would have nobody left at school who didn't think he was a freak.

When class was over, the students slowly filed out of the classroom, leaving just him and Miss Benson in the room together. He could hear lockers being opened and closed in the hallway. Miss Benson got up and shut the door, then came next to Connor's desk, pulling a chair to sit opposite him. He looked up at her.

"I heard you didn't come to class on Thursday," she began. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"I… I skipped," he admitted, his cheeks beginning to burn.

"Is there a reason why?" she asked gently.

"You weren't in class," he said, suddenly realizing how stupid his excuse sounded out loud. "And I didn't want to go to class because it's boring without you."

But instead of laughing at his stupid excuse, or scolding him for skipping, Miss Benson simply smiled and said, "I'm glad to enjoy my lessons. But Connor, I'm not going to be your teacher for forever. Someday you're still going to have to go school even when I'm no longer teaching. And you should like your subjects not because of your teacher, but because you love to learn.

"But when the teacher is boring it's no fun to learn," Connor grumbled, tracing circles on the desk with his index finger.

"Then you've got to look a little harder to find the fun in it," she said. "Sometimes, when I look through the material I have to teach, it looks boring, so I have to look extra hard for the fun parts to show them to the class. But sometimes, the teacher's not going to do it for you, and that's when you have to learn to do it for yourself, do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think so," he nodded. There was a pause, then he cleared his throat and asked, "Are you mad at me?"

She reached across the desk to pat his hand. "I'm not mad at you, Connor. I was a student before, too, and I think we as children have all thought about skipping school, even if we didn't actually do it." She laughed, and he found himself smiling.

"Did you ever skip school?"

"That… that's not a question I'm obligated to answer," she replied, winking at him.

"You did! Didn't you?" he grinned mischievously.

She grinned back. "Like I said, I'm not saying."

Connor was pretty sure that when an adult laughed and said they didn't do something, that meant that they did do it, but he didn't want to push it.

"I know what it's like to dislike school," she continued, "but Connor, I've seen you in class, you love to learn, you get good grades, you work hard. You have a lot of potential, so I want you to promise me that you're going to continue studying hard and not skip school, even when I'm not your teacher anymore. Think you can do that? For me?"

Connor didn't know if he could do it, but he was going to try. Because it would make Miss Benson happy, and it would make his parents happy too. So, yes, he was going to try his best. "Okay, I promise."

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honestly this chapter would have been completed a lot quicker if i hadn't been binging law and order: svu instead of writing. but oh well.

remember! comments motivate me ;)))

also hmu on tumblr (thewickedverkaiking) for updates on my writings or if you wanna chat