Shade and the Skinwalkers by Marilyn Peake

Author:Marilyn Peake [Peake, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

My room was pitiful. Kai and I had to share the same mattress. I didn’t even own a sleeping bag.

I tried to give her space. I rolled over and flattened myself against the wall. I was so tired, at least I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, my alarm went off at 7:00. I debated about staying home from school, but I had promised Kai she’d have some personal space when I left.

I dragged myself off to the bathroom to shower. As the warm water cascaded down on my head and I lathered my hair with shampoo, I felt there would never be enough soap and water in the entire world to wash away all the terrifying memories of the day before.

I got dressed in the bathroom, then snuck into my bedroom and grabbed a jacket. Kai never budged.

Lunch felt strange. Everyone was talking excitedly about the success of our newspaper publication. I had so much on my mind that I couldn’t share with anyone at school, the laughter and happiness felt jarring. I just didn’t feel like doing happiness.

When the subject finally turned to somber topics, I felt more at home. Wolf Song brought up the topic of the forum. He said, “We’re getting a lot of traffic on the forum.” He turned to me. “Shade, there are some pretty serious topics being discussed over there. Seems like the same situation you described at your old school. Kids get comfortable talking online, especially when they have the option to use a fake username. I think we need to talk to a couple of kids over there, encourage them to see the school psychologist.”

I finished chewing the bite I’d just taken out of my sandwich, then asked what kinds of problems.

He said, “Someone was threatening suicide last night. Violet and I ended up talking him out of it. He said he’d been seeing a shrink, but stopped. He promised to go back and then check in on the forum at least once a day.”

Violet added, “Yeah. He felt suicidal after his girlfriend broke up with him. He said his dad told him she was too good for him anyway; he’s a 4 and she’s a 10, and he ought to aim no higher than a 5.”

Moonjava said, “Ouch.”

Starshine said, “That’s so cruel.”

I said, “At our old school, those of us who were running the forum started working together with the school psychologist. She was really helpful. We went to her when we were in over our heads and felt like kids might end up getting hurt if we didn’t handle things right. She reached out to students in a friendly way, so they didn’t feel threatened or like we had betrayed them. One time we talked a suicidal student into making an appointment with her and things turned out so well, we actually got a letter of congratulations from the School Board. How’s your psychologist here?”

Moonjava said, “Not so good. This is a poor county. We have one psychologist who travels around to a whole bunch of schools.

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