Epic Fail by Cristy Watson

Author:Cristy Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Lorimer and Company Ltd., Publishers
Published: 2017-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Life Lessons

It’s been four days since Kenzie went to see Bree. I have texted, phoned and rung her doorbell probably one hundred times since then. Kenzie doesn’t answer. I assume Bree told Kenzie the truth about posting the photo and Kenzie has retreated again. Things are back to just like they were before.

My right eye is swollen black and blue. For the three days since the weekend, I’ve had nothing but people staring at me. My teachers either ignored my face and talked to my shoes, or asked what happened. Being hit with a baseball seemed like the only plausible answer, even though it has been raining too hard for baseball most days. But folks accepted that answer and have left me alone. My dad is MIA. He has no clue what happened. And ever since Seth made me a convenient outlet for his anger, he’s actually stayed out of my way.

I don’t have any regular classes today. It is the first day of our peer mediator training. I feel an empty pang in my gut. I really wish Kenzie was here with me. I wish I had convinced her to come. I pick an empty seat in the circle and wait for the rest of the students to arrive.

Jessie enters the room and comes to sit beside me. “How’s it going?” she asks.

“Could be better. But I am glad to be here.”

“Me too.”

“Welcome, everyone,” says Ms. Golan, the teacher who was with us at the first session. “We are so glad you’re here.” By we, I guess Ms. Golan means the older students who helped us before. “Together we will embark on a four-day journey into conflict mediation and how it works. We will share skills you can use to resolve conflicts, and we hope to help you see your strengths. Your teachers picked you because they already know you have the right stuff for helping others. Our hope is that over the next four sessions, you will discover this about yourself, too.”

All I can think about is how I failed Kenzie. Will I really learn things to make me a better mediator? Will it help me support my friends? Will it teach me how to help Kenzie? As I’m caught up in my thoughts, Jessie leans in to me. It is the first time I’ve seen her since the session last week.

“Are you okay?” she whispers, pointing to my eye.

“Ah . . . yeah. Just a baseball. Nothing serious.”

“Oh. Sorry that happened.”

She turns back to listen to Hudson speaking to all of us. I have a feeling she doesn’t believe my lie. Why did everyone else just accept what I told them? What’s different about here and now?

Hudson begins to tell us about the importance of understanding the word harm, and how conflict causes people to feel hurt. He says our role as mediators is to help people talk about the harm that happened to them when they were in conflict with another. Then our job is to help them figure out how to begin healing that harm.

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