Chapter 123 – Home Visitation – Holly Hayfield

This week was a busy one and I was glad that the weekend was finally here. Not only did Ms. Sampson drop more work into my lap than usual, but more problems cropped up with Helga and her class schedule. Too much of my time was devoted to trying to get her on track. At least now she was finally up to speed on things.

There wasn’t time for me to sit back and relax, even if the weekend was here. Ms. Sampson dropped one final task on me as I was preparing to leave my office for the day. She called it a ‘small favor’, but I instantly realized it would be anything but.

A number of girls were suspended in the wake of the after school brawl. This wasn’t a comprehensive and full suspension of every girl involved. This was more akin to blind firing randomly in the hopes of setting an example. The list of girls I turned over to Ms. Sampson was flipped on its head as she used it as a starting point for a list of her own.

She suspended over two dozen people. None of them would be returning to school until the middle of next week. This was a light punishment as far as suspensions went. It was the scale of it that surprised both me and the other students. This sort of mass suspension event was rare at this school.

Before, Ms. Sampson was reluctant to go around suspending students on a whim. Now, under pressure from the PTA, it was becoming her default weapon of choice. No one was given detention and there was no sort of ‘investigation’ to the level of involvement each girl had in the brawl.

Instead, she drew up a list of Black Brittney’s groupies and Naomi’s girlfriends and simply wrote up suspension notices. Annoyingly, I got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time while she was working on this project. She found me and my office and had me write up half the suspension notices myself, to my chagrin.

I wouldn’t have volunteered so many names if I knew that this was how she was going to use that list. To make matters worse, the ‘small favor’ she asked of me was an after school task that required me to make house visits to the girls that were suspended. I’d be dropping off packets of ‘remedial homework’, which was just busy work by another name.

Val was the one helping me with this since Alyssa was busy today. After I made Alyssa a member of the student council, something that Alison Yale was furiously vocal about, Ms. Sampson decided to put Alyssa to work for her own uses. Thanks to her new scooter, Ms. Sampson discovered that Alyssa was the perfect little errand girl that she always wanted.

While Alyssa was doing that immediately after school, Val and I left to visit the houses of the suspended girls. Jay wasn’t happy about this since it meant she’d have to wait until her mother got off work for a ride home. Val was ecstatic to volunteer for this job because it gave her a perfectly valid excuse to dodge the after school PTA meeting.

“No one was home?” Val asked as I approached the motorcycle parked on the curb.

This was our sixth stop along a busy trail of students to visit. We weren’t planning to visit all of them in a single day, but we hoped to knock out most of the list by tonight. The members of the student council were planning to see a movie together Saturday afternoon and we wanted to be finished before then. My ravings about doing something normal over the weekend finally hit home after a week of hard work.

“No, I left the homework on the porch. If they were home then they weren’t interested in talking to me.” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. I’m dressed more formally than usual. I probably don’t look like a student without my uniform. They might’ve thought I’d be some meddlesome school official.”

Val smirked.

“This theory is probably a fact given that the past three or four houses never opened up the door either. I mean, if it was just my older brother home he’d probably ignore the door too.” Val said.

I sighed as I got onto the motorcycle.

“It annoys me to no end that they refuse to even talk to me. I know I shouldn’t take it so personally, but this is part of my future career. People should be more concerned about how their children are doing in school.”

Val clacked her tongue disdainfully.

“Look at this slum, Holly.” She said, gesturing to the neighborhood around us. “You think any of them give a damn about that sort of thing? I know you mean well, but these people probably have bigger things to worry about than their kid being suspended for half a week.”

I put my arms around her and leaned my head against her back sorrowfully.

“I know that…” I said a little defensively, “It’s just… I don’t know… It feels like their family not investing anything into them is part of the problem. This creates a vicious cycle. They won’t succeed in school or stay out of trouble without the proper support. Their parents should be happy to see me.”

“And if that were true then these girls probably wouldn’t be attending our school in the first place.” Val said sagely. “We all ended up here somehow, maybe some just in a more obvious way than others. If you really want to reform them then it probably won’t happen on a house visit, let’s be honest.”

She was speaking the tough truth, but I wasn’t in the mood to hear it. I couldn’t even say anything in response because she was completely right. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted, honestly. It was just depressing to be straight-up ignored house after house.

“So where’s the next stop?” Val asked, revving the motorcycle in place.

“Umm… One second, let me consult the map.” I said as I pulled out my phone, “It looks like this was the last house in this area. The next house will be a bit of a drive. It’s Naomi’s house, actually… It’s…”

“Ah, don’t worry… I know where she lives. Hang on tight. I want to beat the traffic back on the main road.” Val said.

Val’s words made me consider things as we were driving across town. Although she didn’t show it as readily, I knew that Val cared deeply about this type of thing as much as I did. It was the reason she was sitting through boring PTA meetings and performing her role as student council president beyond the traditional scope of that job.

It was a bleak reminder that things weren’t all sunshine and rainbows at our school yet. As much progress as we made, there was still a deeper element to our school culture that couldn’t be easily touched. So many students came from broken homes and broken families. Was there anything a school could do to heal such an individual so that they performed well?

On the way over to Naomi’s place I was asking myself about how much a student’s home life paid a factor into their behavior and grades. Arriving at Naomi’s place, however, I had to second guess myself. Naomi’s place was average, standard American suburban, even. It wasn’t what I suspected given Naomi’s own behavior and performance.

Part of me assumed that the inside wouldn’t be as nice and comfortable looking as the outside. I was wrong. An elderly lady, her mother I assumed, happily welcomed us in. Val politely said that she was going to wait on the steps. Naomi’s mother wouldn’t accept that due to the weather and ushered the both of us into her living room.

“This is a nice place you have here Mrs. Su.” Val said in her practiced angelic voice, “Naomi must be incredibly happy here.”

I couldn’t tell if this was part of the act or a deliberate jab at Naomi since Naomi was so frequently at Sam’s place recently.

“Oh, I wish that were true.” Mrs. Su said in a winded, longing tone. “She’s been going through a rough time and is having trouble in school.”

That sounded like an understatement.

“About that,” I said. “That’s why we’re here. We have homework to drop off for her.”

“That’s very sweet of you two. I wish my little girl was like you. What was your name, darling?”

“I’m Holly Hayfield, counselor and student council vice president.” I said and gestured to Val, “This is Valentina Ivanovich, student council president.”

“Ah, I remember your name!” Mrs. Su said to me, “You’re the counselor my husband spoke to over the phone.”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Honey, please come in here! A nice young lady from Naomi’s school is here to visit us!”

What followed was an unnecessarily long meet and greet with Naomi’s parents. They seemed like genuinely nice people so I didn’t want to spurn them by being impolite and cutting the conversation short. They were an older couple so they sort of reminded me of my grandparents.

Unlike the other houses we stopped at, these two were genuinely interested in the things going on at our school. Apparently Naomi talked so little about school that they didn’t know about the recent reforms. At first they were dubious, but then they were completely bewildered and amazed at the changes that Val and I had a hand in. Their praise felt nice after being ignored for several houses.

After a few minutes of interacting with them I found my mind drifting off to my earlier musings. If this is what Naomi’s home-life was like, then how did she become the way that she was? Were things not as normal here as they appeared? Or maybe she was like Sam, trying to break a mold that her parents set for her? That would explain why they got along so well.

After talking about our school for a few more minutes I asked Mrs. Su to take me to Naomi’s room. Val said she’d stay behind in the living room. Mrs. Su seemed almost disappointed to be leading me to Naomi’s room, like she didn’t really want me seeing her. Why not? As much as I wanted to ask, I chose not to. Although I was a counselor, Naomi was my friend. It felt wrong to pry too much here.

We made it to Naomi’s door and I was beginning to see the first quirks of abnormality inside this house. Naomi’s door had some sort of external bolt-lock mechanism on it that kept the room locked from the outside. Mrs. Su wordlessly undid the bolt and unlocked the door as if this was absolutely normal.

The lights were off inside the room and it was hard to see anything. There were only a few small cracks of light coming in through the window. The window was boarded up with wood panels on the outside of the house. What the hell was this prison? Mrs. Su turned on the light and I was taken aback by all the graffiti on the walls of the bedroom.

There were so few unpainted spaces that the white wall was hardly visible. Everything was covered in spray paint of overlapping images and artistically decorated calligraphy. Naomi didn’t react to me cautiously walking into the room. She was in bed, on the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, with the covers pulled over her face. She didn’t even seem to realize it was me stepping in.

The rest of the bedroom was fairly normal for a teenage student. She had her own desk with an expensive looking gaming computer and gaming chair. There was a TV support built into the wall but the TV itself was missing. A clearly visible discoloration line marked where the TV once rested. I found it mildly amusing that her parents saw fit to remove her TV but not the computer.

“Just knock at the door when you’re ready to leave and I’ll come get you.” Mrs. Su said softly before turning to leave.

“O-Okay…” I said, not understanding what she meant by that.

Then, as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her, I could hear the sound of the locking mechanism reengaging. That’s what she meant?! I was locked in here too? Was this how they were handling Naomi after the brawl or was this something that had been going on for a while? Her parents obviously weren’t as normal as they looked…

“Holly…?” Naomi asked groggily as she peeked her head up from under the blankets, “Is that really you or am I still dreaming?”

I waved awkwardly.

“Yeah, it’s me…” I said, not sure how to even begin asking about her situation.

“Holly!” She shouted as she jumped out of bed.

She ran over to me and threw herself at me, almost knocking me over. She put her arms around me and hopped off the ground to put her legs around me also. This was absolutely ridiculous because I was smaller than she was and couldn’t support her weight for long. We fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs as she tried gripping me tighter and tighter.

“Holly! I can’t believe it’s you! You’re the first person I’ve seen outside of my family for days now! How’d you convince my parents to let you in?! How did you know where I lived? I’m so glad you’re here! Give me a kiss!”

I fought Naomi away as she tried kissing me more energetically than ever. Maybe I really should’ve insisted that Val come with me. I pinched Naomi’s nose and twisted, causing her to wrench away in pain. She finally let go of me and tried pulling away.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay, I get it! Let go!”

I pinched harder.

“Promise me that you won’t try something like this again the moment that I release you.”

“Okay! Okay! Fine! I promise!”

I released her and she rolled away. I stood up first and reached over to help her up too. She stood up suddenly and pulled me into another hug.

“Naomi…” I said in exasperation.

“No kissing this time, I promise!” She said. “Just… Just let me hold onto you. I need it. I’ve been in solitary confinement for days now.”

I sighed and hugged her back.

“Your parents… Do I even want to know?”

“Things usually aren’t like this, if that’s what you’re asking.” Naomi said. “They were freaked out when a police officer came around asking questions. They’re just overreacting. Things will return to normal once I go back to school.”

“I hope you’re right about that...” I said.

She pulled away from me and smiled brightly. She looked so different without her usual makeup and accessories that she looked like someone else when she smiled. She was wearing a colorfully graphic long-sleeve shirt and matching shorts. I could see the faint hints of tears on her face and she looked exhausted. She clearly wasn’t taking this lock-up well.

“I’ve come to drop some homework off.” I said, reaching for my bag, “It has your regular classwork in it along with some additional review assignments that the vice principal sent out. Here.”

Naomi through her hands up dramatically and fell back onto her bed.

“Ugh! More homework, just what I needed!” She cried, “Why won’t she just let me take my vacation in peace?!”

“Well… It’s not really supposed to be a vacation…”

“This is torture! Why do I have to be cooped up all day with nothing to do but stacks and stacks of homework?”

She was just complaining childishly now and not even facing me anymore. I left the homework packet on her desk and closed my bag back up. I gave Naomi a serious look.

“I don’t know how much you’re in contact with your girlfriends, but…”

“I’m not,” She said, “I still have my computer but I’m not connected to the internet. They took my phone away too.”

“Then I should tell you that you and Black Brittney weren’t the only ones suspended.”

“What?” Naomi asked.

“Ms. Sampson went on a campaign of mass suspensions after dealing with you two first. A lot of your girlfriends got caught up in the random selection.”

Naomi sat up in her bed and gave me a pained look.

“You’re serious…? How many…?”

“I don’t know how many of your girlfriends specifically, but the overall number was about 27 or 28 students. That’s from your group and Black Brittney’s group combined.”

“Holy Hell,” Naomi said, standing up and putting her hand over her mouth.

“Their suspensions are shorter than yours so they’ll be back in school by Wednesday.”

“I can’t believe she went and suspended so many people…” Naomi said, more to herself than to me.

I had mixed feelings about how to respond to this, but decided not to hold anything back.

“You know, this wouldn’t be happening if you and Black Brittney weren’t clashing all the time. Why don’t you rein your girls in and put this violence to an end?”

“I can’t.” She said simply.

“What do you mean you can’t? You’re their leader, are you not?”

“I floated the idea after the first brawl but most of them responded to it poorly. My girlfriends feel like we lost. Of course it’s only natural to yearn for a rematch.”

I held back a sarcastic laugh, but couldn’t hold back a frustrated scowl.

“Naomi, did that police officer not tell you the news? Did you not hear about Leigha’s body turning up in an alleyway?”

She furiously waved her hand in dismissal.

“There’s no way one of my girlfriends would do that! It had to be one of the other people in that warehouse party. There were a lot of people there… It could’ve happened to anyone.”

“But it happened to someone your group happened to be fighting,” I said sternly, “Naomi, this fighting has got to stop.”

She sat back down on her bed and squeezed one of her pillows.

“Even if I wanted to, how could I get things under control now? I mean, especially after Leigha…”

“Leave that part to me.” I said. “I’m going to have this same conversation with Black Brittney and we’ll come to an understanding.”