Watershed Regional High School served four towns of insufficient size to build, operate, and maintain a separate school for any one town alone. As a result, the towns pooled their resources and built a school for all of the ninth through twelfth graders within their borders.
Built in 1998, the school was state of the art, from fire resistive reinforced concrete construction built to withstand earthquakes that most in America did not realise could affect New England; it also housed first class lab and athletic facilities, as well as an excellent library for its students. Current enrolment was approximately eight hundred students.
Addison Khentavra K’avahra Lorrie-T’yaeli, her name newly changed, began the second semester on 2 January, her first full semester at the school. Addison finished middle school at Henna Village the previous June, but the issues arising from llhaesa’s spectacular re-emergence kept her from high school until November.
Joining her as a new student was Casey Brooks, enrolled by Saehressa after authorities granted preliminary approval of her guardianship. While Addison already had several weeks of attendance at the school and was with friends she grew up with, 2 January was Casey’s first day, with no prior connection to anyone in the school.
After llhaesa and Saehressa encountered Casey on the streets of Boston, Saehressa moved into action, guided by Ronnie and llhaesa, and over the last several weeks, authorities had tracked down his parents, who wished nothing to do with the soon to be fifteen year old, and readily signed away all parental rights to their child.
With their signage, approval came for Saehressa to place Casey in school, while adoption paperwork worked its way through bureaucratic channels. Along with Saehressa, llhaesa agreed to co-guardianship should anything happen to her mum.
In the seven or so weeks since joining the t’yaeli family, Casey had up and down moments in learning to trust again. Trust once lost, is not easy to regain, and he predictably struggled, though he also expressed pride in being a part of his new and rather prominent family.
As with Addison, Casey wished to change his name, but this element also required him to wait for adoption proceedings to conclude. Given his exasperation over the legal entanglements, in the interim, with his proper name on file, the school principal acquiesced and consented to Casey using a formal name of Casey T’yaeli in class.
Llhaesa asked Addie to pay attention to Casey, to keep track as best she could of how things unfolded for him, and if Addison sensed a problem for Casey, she should call llhaesa, Jahrae, or Ronnie immediately. With Saehressa teaching part time at Henna Village, llhaesa felt it was best for the three of them to see to any urgent issues at Watershed.
This would turn out to be fortuitous advice; llhaesa suspected there might be issues. While Casey admitted little to this point, she privately felt there were indications that his claim of gayness might possibly involve a gender issue as well. Llhaesa said nothing of her suspicions to this point, preferring life and time to take its course.
When Saehressa enrolled Casey, the school followed the prior trail of his education and obtained records from Boston that showed Casey spent part of the ninth grade in school, and then disappeared. His grades were above average, and testing indicated a high level of natural ability.
Watershed placed Casey back in the ninth grade, and sanctioned his enrolment in difficult coursework, knowing the T’yaeli-Salston extended family was a strong support network for the young student.
The first day proved non-eventful, at least on the surface. Behind the scenes, some of the small numbers of more judgemental students were forming opinions on the newcomer that would manifest in their conduct later.
Casey was tall and thin, and he seemed taller just in the less than two months with his new family. Not quite as tall as llhaesa yet, he was within reach of matching her and Saehressa’s height.
He was somewhat uncoordinated, given his body had grown rapidly over the preceding eighteen months. His predisposition was to gravitate toward women, with whom he was most comfortable, and his opinions trended toward very liberal.
While he loved to play soccer and basketball, he was better at the latter, given his propensity to trip over his size eleven feet. If asked to identify his favourite pastime, Casey would say without hesitation, “art.”
A few days after he returned to Henna with Saehressa and llhaesa, Saehressa called her daughter gushing over the young man’s drawings that were casually sitting on Anita’s living room coffee table.
“’Essa, I’ve seen enough student art to know this child has exceptional talent,” she claimed at the time. When llhaesa saw the work, she immediately agreed with her mum’s assessment, and upon enrolling him at Watershed, shared this information with the school. They slotted Casey into an intro art class, the principal overriding the maximum class size for what was an urgent and likely worthwhile need.
The first two days passed without incident, but after his third day of classes, Casey returned home looking rather morose, a contrast to his usual talkative and upbeat personality.
Saehressa noticed this immediately, and, sitting down alongside him on the sofa, asked what was wrong. “Nuthin’, was his terse reply, his eyes looking downward towards the floor and away from Saehressa.
Refraining from commenting for the moment, Saehressa relaxed backward against the back of the sofa and thought of how she wished to approach the matter with Casey. Finding a suitable path, she then chose to speak. “Casey, we all carry fears, upsets, and worries, all while trying to go about our work and live our lives.
We need to trust each other. Not just me, or llhaesa, Jahrae, Ronnie, Addison, Serada, or Elsrensia; we all need to trust one another, we all need to share our issues, and give each other the opportunity to comfort us, to perhaps see a solution we do not see. The important thing is not to take it all upon ourselves to stand alone against an issue we face.
I know that is not an easy thing to do. We cannot simply snap our fingers and find that we can speak, or we can trust. Nor will we make each other feel that our unwillingness to speak is wrong. Know that I do not think you wrong for your choice to this point.
What I do wish you to know is that the rest of it is there, the rest of us are here, and that this is safe space for you.”
Casey got up slowly and walked away without saying anything, heading for his room, and Saehressa heard the door to his room softly close. Anger was not the issue here, something deeper and more entrenched was at work.
Saehressa took to her feet, avoiding and navigating the obstacle course of boxes still left over and unpacked from the move into their newly purchased home. She would not follow Casey into his room; that was safe space, not to intrude upon without invitation or request with subsequent consent.
Instead, she set out to make dinner. Casey was a pasta lover, and Saehressa stocked up on various whole grain pastas. She began to throw together a sauce, adding a fair amount of sun dried tomatoes, diced eggplant, and mushrooms to tomato paste and sauce, adding in various herbs and spices, with a touch of raw, unrefined sugar, a splash of salt, some garlic, oregano, a few Bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, and sage.
As the sauce simmered, its wonderful aroma spread through the home. After an hour, as Saehressa went about her work suppressing her worry and instead acting visibly happily and softly singing, Casey appeared from the hallway, standing at the entry to the kitchen area. “May I help?” he quietly asked, as if fearing rejection.
“Hi Casey, and you certainly can be of great help! Would you stir the sauce for me, and give it a taste, see if it needs anything more in terms of spices or whatever.”
“OK. Saehressa, I have been thinking some, and well, um, ah, would it be ok, um, if I called you mom?”
Saehressa felt her heart open wide, spewing forth love for this child. “Of course you may, though you have a choice, I think.”
“A choice? What do I have a choice over?”
“Well, here in the United States, people commonly use the term ‘mom,’ On Arrhazon it would translate closer to ‘mum,’ a term used in many other English speaking countries.”
“Mom or mum,” Casey mused aloud, picking up a wooden spoon and stirring the tomato sauce, while repeating the words once again, as if that would help him decide which was better. “Mom…mum. Mum! I like mum, if you do.”
“Mum is perfect for me, young man, and you get to share using the word with llhaesa, Jahrae, Ronnie, and Elsrensia – how is that for a deal?”
“I like it!” Casey carefully fished out a bit of sauce with the spoon, first turning away from the pot, and then blowing on the spooned sauce softly to cool it to a point where he could taste and evaluate. After a couple of seconds, he brought the spoon to his mouth and tasted. “Mmmmmm!”
“I take that to mean it is ok, no additions necessary?” Saehressa smilingly asked as Casey moved to the sink to cleanse and rinse the wooden spoon.
“It is perfect as is!”
The two worked as a dinner preparation team, and Saehressa silently relished his helpfulness. How could parents ever chase such a child out of their home and onto the streets?
An hour later, Casey filled a pan with water, added a sprinkling of salt, and set the water on to boil. Once it began to bubble and roil, he emptied the contents of a box of thin spaghetti into the water, stirring it such that the entirety of it fully immersed.
Just after 6:30, they sat down to enjoy the result of their efforts, spaghetti with homemade sauce and an accompanying salad fashioned by Casey. Manoeuvring crystal fork and spoon utensils to extract salad from the matching crystal bowl, Casey casually commented, “some of the students were making fun of me today.”
Saehressa tried not to act alarmed, though she felt her stomach sink into her lap. “Oh?”
“They called me a girlie man and a klutz.”
“When did this happen, Casey?”
“In lunch period, a group of them were sitting at the next table over. I was sitting with two others from my previous class.”
“How many students said this to you?”
Casey thought for a moment before answering. “I think there were three making the comments, but everyone else was laughing. One of them threw a carrot at me. It hit me in the back of the head, but it didn’t hurt.”
“I see. How did you react?”
“I said nothing, and ate my lunch.”
“That was a wise decision, Casey.”
“It hurts though. How did they figure it out so quickly?”
“Figure what out?”
“That… that… oh, I don’t know!”
“Casey, people say these things to try and make themselves look better than another. By putting you down, they are saying to the others, “Look at him, look at how he is different, and don’t look at my differences!
They have something inside they think others will make fun of as well, so they lash out at others to cover their inadequacies.
Other kids do not generally think of this in such terms, but most eventually do when older, when they have children.
The way to show them up is not to show them up. Be you, do not hide, just go about your day, and ignore them as if they do not exist.”
“Being me is the problem! I cannot be me; everyone would laugh even more than now!”
“That is the second time you hint at something of which I am not aware. I am only a few documents away from being your legal guardian, from being your… mother. What I am saying – we have to trust each other; do you trust me, Casey?”
“I don’t know!”
Saehressa stood up and moved over to Casey, scrunched down and encircled him with her left arm. “Perhaps in time, you will – I hope you will.” Saehressa said the words deliberately, softly, and with much love. “There is nothing you could tell me that would make me care less, make me love you less.”
