~Prevaricate~

"Cirrus." Cold room in a cold building and grey everywhere, greyer than ash. Ash used to have fire, redorangeflame bright as stars, and here never did. Grey of concrete, of bulletsheen. "Cirrus, tell me what you've done."

The girl with crossed bony arms and ill-shod feet beatbeating against the legs of her chair offers a shifty shrug. "Nothing."

"Cirrus, it's okay. You're not in trouble. You can tell me."

"I didn't do anything." She scowls and kicks the too-high chair's rung harder than necessary. Ow. Would've been nothing if...well, Alby can go soak his head in battery acid. It doesn't hurt one bit. That's right. Isn't anything at all.

"I heard that you've been getting in fights. If there's something going on that you want to talk about, I'm always here. Is it something at home? Is someone hurting you?"

"I'm fine. There's nothing at home and there's nothing here. I'm hungry. Can I go home now?" Vicious kick. Ow, fuck.

Ms. Tam frowns and arises from her chair. "Cirrus, let me see your foot."

"Why?" You got a fetish? she bites back. The Tambourine may be an idiot like all of them but she's less disagreeable than most. She doesn't deserve a heart attack and ensuing "Oh god I'm so sorry I didn't mean it like that what's happening at home Cirrus who's having sex with you what's happening to you poor lamb."

"Because I asked."

Well, gosh, there go all my objections. Eloquent as hell, Principal. She grumpily slides onto the ground, does not wince when she lands, pulls off the shoe, and holds up Exhibit One. Here comes the storm.

Ms. Tam's eyes almost pop out and roll across the floor. "Is it broken?" she manages in a strangly whisper.

"No. I'm walking on it."

"Cirrus, that's- that's not okay. Is it sprained, then? Who did that to you? I need you to tell me right now. Do your parents know? When did it happen?"

Cirrus eyes the purpleblueblack lump of appendage. "It's just bruised. It'll probably heal soon. It doesn't hurt much." Hell, there's no escape now. Tam's eyes are more bulged-out and watery than soggy crackers in a bowl of soup.

"I need you to tell me the answers to my other questions. This is a- an incredibly awful thing to do to a little girl. I mean, you're ten, Cirrus. Whoever did this to you may not get away with it. Tell me now, please." The phone's already in her hand.

"I dropped my encyclopedia on it. That's all, I swear. I did it. My parents know. It happened yesterday." Alby Drane in the schoolyard. Mommy and Daddy have no idea. Yesterday, that's right. Hushhush now, don't say it. Keep it closer than those tears are to falling down Tam's nose.

"Whatever else happened to it, I don't think your parents know. I wouldn't let a child limp three miles to school and back. Please don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. They know. It doesn't hurt much, they said it was fine." Three miles. Damn, it hurts, and only one and a half so far, and at home there's raking the leaves, and sweeping, and, and-

"I think I better call them and tell them it's not fine. Unacceptable, in fact. Let's see what they have to say about this."

"No!" Damnit. Here it comes again. Don't teachers know tattling will make it worse? Doesn't she see just stomping my foot was being let off lightly? "They don't know. They would've been too upset. I didn't...it wasn't an encyclopedia. Alby Drane stepped on me."

Ms. Tam nods briskly, her battle won. "Why did he do it?"

"He called me rebel scum," Cirrus mumbles. "He said when the Capitol wins they're going to take me and my sister and they'll- and we'll deserve it. And I called him a supremely kickable groin and a misbegotten whimpering puppy, then he said he's going to tell the Capitol to bomb my house so he can piss on my corpse, then I said I'd knee him so hard he'd have nothing to piss with, and then I acted like I was about to so he stomped on me. Okay? That's all. Don't tell anyone, please, he'll just-"

"Don't tell anyone? I'm going to tell his parents so they can put him in counseling. What he did was terrible and violent. There's no excuse for it, and since you obviously wouldn't be a rebel it was totally uncalled for. I'll also have to tell yours. They need to take better care of you."

"No, you don't understand! You can't! They take care of me fine, it was all my fault, and he'll just make it worse. If he doesn't his friends will, and they'll get angrier, and come after me more, and you can't!" And I am a rebel, the proudest rebel you've ever seen, and you don't understand that these kinds of kids won't wait for the Capitol to take me and Alma to- they'll do it themselves, don't you see? And don't get me taken away because you think they aren't caring for me, you can't do that, I'll have nothing-