A/N: We are on the way to a very emotionally raw part of the story. This was the hardest thing to write for me so far because I've grown fond of these characters and I dread what lays before them. Sadly in a lot of cases it's darkest before the dawn.
I apologize for the shortness of this entry but the holidays have been ridiculous for me. But to make matters worse, my computer died!
Now I'm forced to write at my library which is hardly open this holiday season!
I wanted to update with more frequency but I'm limited right now and it will be time until I can afford a new computer.
Please drop a review and everyone have the happiest NEW YEAR!
The newly-renovated Hollywood Arts Student Library was an all-purpose study hall / computer lab that also had stacks and stacks of books. Naturally, there was plenty of non-fiction concerning the arts and humanities. But there was also an assortment of fiction, such as plays and poetry as sources of adaptation or inspiration for writers and actors. Speaking of inspiration, books of art, architecture and interior design were available for the visual artists attending.
It had been expanded from its humble origins and given generous donation of materials from past alumni.
Lauren and Billy were situated by a table with her laptop and his worn copy of Robert McKee's "Story." They were still outlining their ideas for the short film script.
"I like everything here but..."
"...but you hate the ending?" he finished.
She smirked.
"I just think the it was all a dream thing has been done."
While they quietly discussed the re-write of the last bit of the story, Mia was yawning in front of her computer a few tables down.
She was looking up some pictures to help brainstorm for costume ideas for Mr. Shapiro's class and emailing them herself to save for later.
A ding appeared on her screen that said: "New Message."
Mia had a good nose for spam and other digital trickery to fool you into opening something suspicious.
But this one didn't have the usual red flags. It was a message from a Hollywood Arts user, usually Lauren to remind her of an assignment or Chase to quietly tease her from the computer across the room. If Mia wasn't too busy, she would reply and a whole discourse would go, back and forth, and the teachers were none the wiser.
It looked like one, only the FROM box was left blank.
Mia was a little tired and didn't think anything of it, so she opened it.
The note that unfolded snapped the teen girl out of her torpor. She gripped the monitor hard while her face got closer to re-read what it was. Mia had to be sure she saw what she thought:
It was some stock photo of a cemetery and above it were the words: "What to get dad for Father's Day? How about some flowers?"
Disgusted, Mia closed the window and stood up to see if anyone was looking funny out here. She needed to know what shit stain sent that to her.
Then another ding. A new message.
Mia had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach when she ignored her better judgment and opened it.
"Don't be so pissed off. Like your dad was the first to go to the store and never come back."
"WHO ARE YOU!" she demanded.
Everybody was now looking up because of the shouting, including Billy and Lauren.
Mia scanned the library and saw the sea of faces around her.
Ding.
"Did he die of embarrassment because you were his daughter?"
"STOP IT, FUCKER!" Mia seethed, closing out the message.
Yet another ding appeared even faster this time.
But Mia didn't open it. Instead, she picked up the keyboard and started wailing on the PC.
Mia's screams were punctuated by the smashing of plastic. Students backed away from the carnage of hardware, little pieces flying from the force of her blows.
Lauren rushed to her, concerned but Mia still enraged shoved her aside. Luckily, she was able to keep her footing. Billy wasn't so lucky. He attempted to stifle her with a kind of bear hug to calm her down but that didn't work. Mia elbowed him and threw him to the floor. Billy held up his arm defensively like she was going to hit him while he was down.
She looked down at him with anger in her eyes but refocused her attention to the true target.
The librarian came running over, "STOP IT! STOP THIS AT ONCE!"
Mia paid her no mind and continued to decimate the computer.
The poor woman tried to pull her away but Mia wouldn't relent.
Then Edgar DeBiase came in and bellowed for Mia to stop. She flipped around to his surprise and swung, her fist missing him by an inch from him backing up in time.
"Alright, ALRIGHT! That does it, Mia!"
He grabbed her firmly by the wrist and this time she wasn't able to squirm away.
"LET ME GO! GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF MEEEE!"
"This behavior ends NOW!" he warned.
Billy got to his feet and tried to join Lauren in following Mia but the librarian blocked the door to discourage any onlookers.
"You two," she told the teens. "Please find something to help clean this mess up."
Tori looked up from her papers when the familiar voices of her daughter and Edgar could be heard echoing just outside.
The exact context was unintelligible but their raised voices informed her immediately that it was pretty bad.
She got up quickly and opened the door before they could enter first.
"Edgar? Mia?" Tori said. "What is going on here?"
"Sit down!" he ordered her.
The heat coming off her daughter was palpable. Mia was furious about something.
"Mia what happened?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Mia just charged into Tori's office and shut the door. It was a cacophony of stomping and swearing and things being knocked over.
Tori covered her face in exasperation.
"Okay, Mia needs to calm down before I can get a clear word out of her." She turned to Edgar. "So, what happened?"
"Your daughter..." he began with poor-disguised venom in his tone. "Caused a scene in the library, disturbing students and taking her frustrations on school property!"
She shook her head like she didn't quite get that.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on, what?"
"I don't know if some devil crawled inside Mia but she completely destroyed one of the school computers, scared the ever living out of the other kids!"
"Did she explain herself?" Tori asked.
Edgar threw up his hands.
"I don't know crap!" he huffed. "She just shouted and screamed. It was like trying to control a...wild animal!"
Tori wasn't appreciating his tone and she really, really hated the insinuation that Mia was this unhinged beast.
"Could you please stop referring to Mia in this way?" asked Tori.
"Do you have a sane explanation for what she did?" he countered.
She looked in the direction of her closed office door.
"I don't know, kind of didn't get her side of the story."
Edgar shrugged, "What side is there? All that happened is she lost her damn temper and now we have a pile of junk where a PC used to be."
Tori held up her hands.
"I will replace the computer, Edgar. Jeez!"
He folded his arms.
"I'm sorry, but the school board might not think that is good enough."
"Is what good enough?" Tori shrugged.
"Far be it for me to comment on how a parent should do her job," Edgar said. "But as the administrator of this school, you are supposed to punish any student..."
"Mia WILL be disciplined!" Tori interrupted.
He paced around, shaking his head.
"Will she? I dunno, you seemed eager to just throw money at the problem."
"This isn't a damn bribe, Edgar!" Tori pointed. "If Mia broke..."
"She. Did."
Tori rolled her eyes.
"Fine," she huffed. "Since Mia is responsible I will replace what was broken. This has nothing to do with..."
She walked a bit away from her office, gesturing for Edgar to follow her. Tori didn't want Mia to overhear everything they're discussing.
"You don't have to worry about Mia, as my daughter OR my student. Let's get that out of the way!"
Edgar appeared unimpressed.
The man had been a thorn in her side from almost the beginning. There was a certain secret envy he harbored because Tori was well-liked by the faculty as well as the student body. And Edgar was certain that this favoritism resulted in Helen nominating Tori as her successor. It only got worse once Tori took the position.
Every "T" had to be crossed and every "I" dotted if Tori was going to meet the frustrating teacher's approval. Whenever Don from the school board came around, he was prepared to kiss butt and find any reason to throw Tori under the bus. This was the biggest reason she made Mia promise her that she would stay out of trouble. There were already murmurs of nepotism on Tori's part (all unfounded criticisms) that she used her influence to keep Mia in school.
Tori was worried that an outburst like this might land her in water even hotter than her daughter because now all eyes were on her.
"Punishment aside, I am not just going to give a judgment based on your assessment alone. Like you said, it was a crowded library so maybe there were some witnesses? Plus, we still haven't heard it from Mia."
"Oh, that's going to be very productive," Edgar retorted while rubbing his temple.
"What was that?" huffed a confused Billy.
The sandy haired guy couldn't lift his left arm very high. He was pretty sore from the force he fell to the floor. Mia throwing him off like a mechanical bull was so unexpected that he didn't even attempt to break his fall. Jenna would likely have had much better reflexes in that moment.
Lauren handed him an ice pack for his arm.
"It was like a switch was flipped and she wanted blood."
The girl sat beside him.
"I've seen this before. Truth be told, it's been ages since Mia had a meltdown like this."
A sad look came over Lauren's face.
"I really thought she was doing better," she sighed. "Something got under her skin."
A couple of students were walking in front of them when Billy flagged them down.
"Hey, you guys!"
They turned to the sitting pair.
"What's up?" asked the bespectacled girl.
"You were in the library with us earlier," Billy said. "Did you see what happened to Mia?"
"You mean before she went cuckoo-bananas?" chuckled the shaved-headed boy with her.
Lauren looked at him with a disapproving glare.
"Did you see anything?" she pressed.
The boy shrugged.
"When she started shouting, I thought it was something on her computer so I took a peek."
"And?" asked Billy.
"It was a note I guess..." he replied. "Something...something...dead...I think I saw dad in there too."
That made Lauren raise an eyebrow.
"What?"
The kids looked at each other and started walking away.
"Sorry, that's all I remember," he said as they left.
"I didn't see anything," the girl in the glasses added.
Lauren folded her arms and shot Billy a concerned look.
(It looks like we have a cyber bully who targeted Mia. Her father was always a taboo subject with her. I never brought him up but...when she did I tried to be supportive because I knew remembering was hard. I can only imagine what that creep wrote! Poor Mia; whoever did this KNEW that would be the thing to set her off.)
"Come on," she said.
"Where are we going?" Billy asked.
"Principal's office," Lauren explained.
"I'm pretty sure something of this caliber would call for a week's suspension at least!"
Tori gritted her teeth, the gusto this small man had to nail her flesh and blood to the wall.
She knew he hated her but using Mia to get to her was pretty low.
"Principal Vega!" Lauren said, bursting in.
"Lauren, what is it?" she asked.
"We think we know what happened," answered Billy.
Edgar turned to the newcomers.
"Well, we're all ears!"
"Somebody sent Mia something awful about her dad," Lauren explained.
"What did it say exactly?" Tori asked.
"Um," Billy started a little uncomfortably. "We don't really know."
"What does that mean?" Edgar asked.
"Uh, well, we asked some other students and they caught a glimpse of something...certain words..."
Lauren leaned forward to help her well-meaning but tongue-tied friend.
"Miss Vega, please! I know Mia. She wouldn't do this if someone didn't push her buttons..."
"So, that gives her a free pass?"
He looked around at the others.
"I mean seriously? Mia couldn't control her temper and doesn't face consequences for her actions?"
(I hate when this asshole has a point.)
"Lauren, Billy, I appreciate you telling us this but could you please leave us alone right now?"
They nodded and left.
"Mia will be sent home until the second week of March," Tori stated. "Now, if you'll please leave, I need to talk with her."
He walked away without a word.
Tori could just feel it in her guts that this was far from over.