Ciara crumbled, laying her head down on the desk, and now the sobs started. But they only lasted for a few seconds before she clapped her hands together and rubbed her face.
“You can do it, Ciara,” she muttered to herself and I pretended that I couldn’t hear her. She needed to work up the courage herself, and while I waited, my mind raced with the possibilities.
I knew her parents and her older brother. None of them would hurt her. They wouldn’t stand for anyone else to hurt her, either. But that didn’t mean that something hadn’t happened.
“Miss James. Please, you have to promise that you’ll fix it. If I tell you, it’s going to ruin everything and I need to know that if it’s lost, you’ll at least be able to fix it.”
At that point, I would tell her anything, promise anything, to lift the worry from her shoulders.
“Whatever it is, Ciara. I will do anything I can to fix it. No matter what.” That promise would get me in trouble, I could feel it. Knowing that didn’t stop me from making it, though.
Even as she stared at me, trying to figure out if I lied to her, I swore to myself that I’d fix whatever it was.
I watched her make up her mind and decide that I wouldn’t lie to her. That she could trust me with her secret. I watched the transformation, the minute amount of peace that she felt in making a decision to tell.
“It’s Lucas, Miss James.”
My heart stalled in my chest. I kept my mouth shut, though, because Ciara licked her lips and kept going.
“We were working on the project together, trying to make a plan for the party, and he turned around. His shirt lifted up a little, and his whole back, Miss James ... It’s all bruises. Not the kind from falling down, either. They’re lines ... Like someone hit him with a stick.”
I exhaled, haltingly and broken, but I let her finish.
“I asked him about it, and he made me promise not to tell. But Miss James.” Ciara’s eyes filled with tears again and she reached for my hand. “He told me everything. And it’s so bad ... So bad.” Tears spilled over both our cheeks now, and I wiped hers away before taking care of mine with my sleeve.
“Tell me, Ciara.” I whispered, knowing we didn’t have long before the lunch bell rang and I would have to do something with the information she’d given me. “What happened?”
“She hurts him,” Ciara cried. She gasped, tears still streaming down. “Makes him do things he doesn’t want to. She’s so mean to him, Miss James.”
“Who, Ciara?”
But I knew. Even when she said it, I knew that Karen hurt her son. As I pulled Ciara into a hug, and promised her that I’d take care of it, I swore that she’d pay for what she did to her son. Her sweet, misguided boy, who didn’t have anyone to trust.
“Miss James,” Ciara sniffled. “Can you fix it? Can you help him?”
Pain still broke through and her body still trembled with the anxiety of telling me, but her voice also held hope.
“I can fix this,” I told her. I meant it, too.
Teachers didn’t have much power, if any at all. But we had the truth and by law we were mandated reporters of child abuse.
Not only that, but my best friend was the school nurse. His sister was a social worker, too. I knew for a fact that anyone wanting to hurt Lucas ever again would have to go through me.
“I need you to come with me,” I told her quietly. “We’re going to get Nurse Keller, and we’re going to go to the principal. I’ll do the talking, Ciara. But I need you to be with me, okay? So that we can help Lucas.”
I sniffed, wiping my eyes again to get myself under control. Looking up at the clock, I saw that we only had a few minutes until the bell rang.
“We’ve got to go, now. I’m going to have the front office call your mom and have her come get you for the day, too.”
When Ciara stared at me like I’d hurt her, I hugged her again. “You’re not in trouble, Ciara. I promise. But I think it’s best if maybe you get to relax this afternoon and come back to school refreshed tomorrow.”
Thoughts of what would happen with Lucas filled my mind. Sadly, there was a higher than normal chance that he’d get upset at whoever he felt was responsible for what would happen to him as a result. If Ciara was right and Lucas had a back covered in bruises from his mother, and he told even one of us about it, he would not be going home. Never again, if I had something to say about it.
“Let’s go, sweetie.”
Ciara grabbed her backpack, and I held out my hand for her to take. After checking the hall, we headed in the direction of Chris’ office, and quickly stepped in and shut the door.
The smile on his face fell when he saw the tears in both our eyes. In an instant, he wasn’t the school nurse anymore. There were only a few reasons that a teacher would walk a crying child into the nurse’s office, while crying themselves. Chris put the pieces together in front of my eyes, but I shook my head slightly.
“Not Ciara. I need you to call Lucas Keller in, please. After we finish with the principal.”
Rage, more fierce than anything I’d ever seen in his eyes, filled the air around him. He pursed his lips together, nodding slightly just as the bell ending lunch recess rang through the halls.
“I’ll watch your class for you.” He stepped to the door before turning back to me with a grimace and eyes that reflected the sorrow quickly filling every fiber of my being. “And I’ll make a discreet call to Bria. I’ll make sure she’s the one who handles the case.”
“Okay.” I waited for him to go before turning back to Ciara, who clutched my hand like the lifeline it was. “Do you want to stay here?” I asked her. “I can lock the door.”
That’s when Ciara surprised me. “No.” She said firmly, “I have to be the one to tell the principal, Miss James. I have to make sure that nothing bad ever happens to Lucas again.” She stared up at me with the same intensity she usually had, and all signs of innocence and insecurity were gone.
Learning the truth, that the world could be a really dark and terrible place, was not something I wished on a sixth grader. Hell, I didn’t wish it for any child. Now I had two on my hands, in my class. Two very special children who’d need help.
“Okay.” I wiped another tear from my eye. “You are stronger than most adults I know,” I told her as we used the back door from the nurse’s office to go straight into the front office, where the principal’s office was located. “Remember that, in the days that are coming, Ciara. Because what you’re doing isn’t easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Surprising me even further, Ciara simply nodded. “What’s easy isn’t always right. And what’s right isn’t ever easy, Miss James. We still have to do it though.”
I’ve never been more proud of a student than Ciara Moore. When she told our principal what she knew, what Lucas had told her. What she’d seen herself. I called her mom myself, and explained that I thought she should come in straight away. When she came to pick up her daughter, I told her as much as I could without betraying either child. I did ask her to wait, though. Since we had to call the police.
And there was only one officer I trusted.