NAOMI'S POV:

"This is the second time I've warned you about this." Smack!

I gripped the ends of the chair tighter as he laid down another piercing blow to my backside. I tried to stop from whining loudly so I would not wake up anyone in the hallway, that's the last thing I need right now. Smack!

I removed my hand from the wooden leg to cover my mouth but that only made it harder to breath as my nose was clogged. Smack! I wanted to scream out at this moment. It's been about twenty minutes since he put me over his knee and he has managed to lay down an increasingly painful blow within each minute.

"The next time I have to remind you of this I will send you straight to Room 113, do you understand me?" Smack! Smack!

"Y-yes sir" I cried hopelessly.

"Stand up." He returned the hairbrush to my desk before setting his arms behind him, allowing me clear access to get off his lap.

I got up quickly despite the prickling sting radiating from my bottom. Rubbing my end slightly before pulling up my pants, I ignored the tears streaming down my cheeks and my frantic breathing. Mr. Patry remained in the seat, scowling at me for several seconds before rolling the hem of his sleeves down.

"I suggest you go to bed immediately without touching anything else. It is nearly midnight and you have no business being up this late." He stood, returned my chair to my desk and walked angrily past me.

"W-will you tell Mr. Davis?" I asked, desperately hoping that he wouldn't interfere with our meeting later tomorrow.

"I have not decided. Now go to sleep, goodnight Naomi."

"Night sir." I said bitterly through my pain and frustration.

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Have you ever seen the way a tear falls from an innocent face? The way it clusters within an eye and then you get a small shiver that lingers throughout your nerves until that tear can no longer stay put because something is forcing it out. It realizes that there is no more room for it, that it has no place in that spot anywhere and, even though it is not its own choice, it has to move on to another place.

"Mom? Dad?" I looked around me and knew that I was speaking out loud, but I couldn't hear anything.

I don't even know what my own voice sounds like, how can I expect them to?

"Is anyone here?"

I started running down this long, narrow stone road in front of me but there was nothing else in sight. All I could do was hope that this road will take me somewhere, anywhere near to where I can find answers. Just then, I saw a strangle faceless figure in front of me. It was standing straight, stiffly awaiting for some reaction from me.

*Thud*

What the heck was that? I jumped off my bed and immediately shoved my hands through my hair frantically through my petrification. Pulling my vision in focus, I noticed that my cell phone fell off my desk. Glancing over at my alarm clock, my head ran in circles as I calculated how much longer I could lay back down before having to wake up for chores.

"I'm too tired to do math right now." I whispered to myself as I tried to find my pillow in the dark.

Surprisingly, the nauseous feeling coursing through my body has made me forget about the soreness of my backside from Mr. Patry just a few hours ago. I thought for a moment about the discussion I would have with Mr. Davis in the morning after Mr. Patry informs him of my punishment but I instantly shut that down. I wouldn't allow my head to contemplate this before trying to go to sleep.

"Where is this pillow?!" I exclaimed.

Compromising my confidence in finding it in the dark, I went over to my light switch and turned on the lights. Shielding my eyes immediately, I soon realized something very disturbing...

Feathers and cotton laid everywhere around the bed and most on the floor. I had unintentionally ripped up my pillow in my sleep.

"Oh God."

I can't believe I ripped up my pillow, I even tore apart the pillow case that I brought from my comforter set at home. In a flash, I realized that I was once again crying uncontrollably as I felt the wind being sucked out of my chest.

"I'm so sorry." I tried to stop crying but there was a lingering pain inside of me that couldn't resist letting it all out.

Running out of my room, I started heading down the hallway without shoes or my robe. Nothing but the large t-shirt and thin sweatpants I was wearing, determined to reach Mr. Davis' office as quick as I could.

"Naomi? What are you doing out of bed young lady? It's almost two in the morning." Mr. Patry walked towards me.

"I want to see Mr. Davis." I tried to say clearly through my shortness of breath.

"You're crying. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He noticed my hands were lightly trembling.

"Please, can I just see Mr. Davis?"

He took a step back and considered for a moment, but then he gave me a small nod and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Yes, come with me."

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MR. DAVIS' POV:

Gathering my thoughts, I conjoined the papers scattered around me and placed them neatly in the corner of my desk. I did a lot of overtime today...too much actually, because now I will not have any work to distract me tomorrow. I am regretting the distractive strategy I formulated just this past week for today and tomorrow because all I will have to do is to suffocate myself with my own thoughts. The "what if's" and "maybe's" have circulated through my mind for the last seven months and I've been dreading this day. I had put it in the back of my mind so it would not deter my work and responsibilities, Naomi has been a great distraction, but unfortunately no one can cheat grief.

"Harold, I am sorry to disturb you...Naomi wanted to see you." Jim appeared in my doorway, Naomi shriveled behind him.

I snapped myself out of my thoughts and studied her closely; her eyes were glassy and her face was beating red from her crying. Her adrenaline had left her flushed, almost a ghostly pale as she stepped into my office. I could easily detect when her cries were the result of a punishment, but this was something more than that. This was absolute anguish and in this moment, I forgot all of my pain. She was the only thing I could focus on.

"Come here beautiful." I motioned her forward as I made my way to the front of my desk and knelt down to her height.

She came to me immediately, wrapping her arms around my shoulders while resting her head against my collarbone. Her hug was comforting against my own grief, but I know now that she needs consolation much more than I.

"What's the matter? A bad dream?" I glanced up at Jim, who was standing clueless in the middle of the doorway still.

"N-no, well not any more bad than usual."

"Then what is wrong?"

"I...um, I ripped up my pillow in my sleep." She whined with her head still against my shoulder.

"What?" I leaned back some to look her in the eye, Jim's expression met my level of curiosity.

"I didn't mean to! I'm sorry." She exclaimed.

"Hold on, you did it while you were sleeping? Or after you woke?" Jim questioned.

"I did it while I was sleeping, I woke up from my dream and noticed that I tore it apart." She began speaking clearly now.

"I think she should spend some time talking to our psychologist." Jim suggested.

"I don't want a psychologist, I just want to talk to Mr. Davis." She snapped towards him.

"Okay, okay let's all just calm down." I interfered to maintain the peace before Jim's temper explodes. "Jim, will you let me speak with her alone?"

"Of course." He looked down to her once more before turning and exiting the office, closing the door behind him.

"Talk to me Naomi." I picked her up swiftly and sat her down on the couch seat next to me.

Her tears began forming again and it was not long before she broke down into sobbing.

"I miss them so much." Her voice became raspy towards the end and it was becoming hard to understand.

"Shh, take a deep breath." I held her hands so she could not cover her mouth, though that did very little to improve her accent in the moment.

It pained me more than anything to see her like this, she is such a smart and wonderful child and she most certainly did not deserve this. But it was out of my hands, it's always out of my hands.

"I can't stop thinking that, that they're dead. And then I start to wonder whether or not I should even care." Her depressive state turned immediately to a bittern scorn.

"You should care, do not let your animosity fester into something that you may regret later." I held her closer to me. "But I understand your thoughts and questions, living with this much uncertainty can take a toll on your conscious...which is why I think you should talk to the counselor here at Braxton."

"What? No! Mr. Davis I am not good at talking about..."

"It will benefit you in more ways than you can understand right now Naomi. No one, let alone a child your age, should be so overwhelmed with despair that they rip up their pillow in their sleep.

Her shoulders slumped slightly as she relinquished her argument. Of course I wish there was some way that I could help her though this, but I cannot take the risk of letting this animosity grow further. She need's more help than I know how to give, all I can do is be there for her whenever she needs me. That's all.

"I'll get you a new pillow from the storage closet, then I'll walk you back to your room. You should try to go back to bed."

I took her hand and led her off of my couch, steadying her carefully as she was still panicked with nerves.

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JASPER'S POV:

Mr. Patry decided to request an extended stay, which my father accepted without hesitation, after I punched a hole in his wall. Since then, I've been trying to keep a low profile, I've even dodged a lot of social opportunities over the last few weeks just so I couldn't risk getting into any more trouble. But that's becoming a bit of an issue as the Administrators directed a field work punishment to seize the opportunity of the crisp summer weather. Therefore, every morning at six, I have to meet one of them outside for a variety of conditional exercises and yard work.

"Good morning Jasper." Mr. Davis stepped out in front of me, looking rather sluggish as if the early time finally began to bother him.

"Morning sir." I yawned, not even fully comprehending that he was in sweatpants and a white t-shirt rather than a suit.

"You umm," He stopped and stared awkwardly at the track and football-outlined field ahead of us. "you're going to do twenty-five full suicides and then pull the weeds from the front fountain by the gate. This needs to be completed by 9 a.m. so you can attend breakfast, then Mr. Patry will give you another set of instructions."

I hated increment running, it always made you feel more tired than you actually were. So, I was relieved that he said twenty-five full and not fifty-halves.

"I'll be running around the track," He popped one headphone into his ear. "You better get started." Glancing down at his watch, he pressed the sides to begin a timer after popping in the other headphone bud.

Man I miss doing work with music. The Administrators never let the students listen to music during punishments, apparently it was too good for the lot of us. I made my way to the end of the field and stared out at the long, lopsided area around me. The sun was already beating down despite it being so early and I could already feel the pain in my side.

"Let's go." He called out not too far from me. _____________________________________________________

Running, running, and more running. I've played plenty of sports in high school but these conditional requirements combined with yard work has probably been the hardest physical tasks I've ever had to do. And I've even cut down a tree and removed the stump entirely from the ground by hand. It didn't take me too long to finish the suicides and that was a relief but my relaxation was disturbed almost immediately as I was reminded to remove the weeds from the rock garden near the front fountain.

I couldn't stop even for a minute because the fountain was in direct sight of the track. Mr. Davis has been consistently running for the last hour. Even from a distance I could see the beating redness of his face, there may have even of been a vein sticking out of the side of his forehead. He made no effort to hide his discomfort today, as depicted by the obvious faces he was making during his run.

"This is torture." I threw the gloves down on the ground and kicked the bag of upturned weeds near my foot. "Why has no one figured out a better way to do this?!"

I've only finished about a third of the rock garden and breakfast was approaching faster than I could keep up. Pulling the weeds is tedious enough, but this isn't the first time I've had to do this. You have to make sure you don't disrupt the placement of the rocks or pull up too much dirt, otherwise the Administrators will make you dig up the entire area and then wash off the rocks before returning them.

"You have about forty minutes left, why are you just standing there?" Mr. Patry suddenly appeared behind me.

The sight of him normally made my skin crawl, but considering as though this entire ordeal is the result of his compliance to my father, today my feeling was entirely spite.

"Just taking a moment to make sure I didn't miss anything in this area." I cocked my head and pretended to study the west section of the rock garden.

"Alright, well hurry up. This better be finished before we go inside for breakfast, otherwise there will be severe consequences." He threatened.

"Yes sir." I said through my teeth.

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NAOMI'S POV:

I've spent most of the morning and afternoon in my bedroom, aside from chores and meals of course, rereading some of the chapters from Bless Me Ultima. I want to make sure I'm ready for our meeting tonight since he gave me another chance. He could have easily of required that we postpone until next week, but he gave me the opportunity to make up for it tonight despite the fact that I broke curfew last night and was caught by Mr. Patry.

I think somewhere in the back of my mind I've noticed that Mr. Davis has been so estranged over the past few days, as if something was wrangling his mind. Even Mr. Patry noticed it this morning when I was on kitchen-duty, he had to snap him out of it when they began speaking to the cooks. He's usually so attentive, especially when it comes to matters of the Academy, even before the adoption he was never distracted. Or at least not that I noticed...I was too focused on keeping my nose clean so I could get out of here.

He had given me so much solace since Mr. Patry and he delivered the news about my parents, so I think it is time that I give him some as well. I want to make sure he knows that I am there for him as much as he is for me.

"Hey Naomi, what're you going to do tonight?" Mackenzie asked as she ran up the stairs to catch up to me.

"I'm busy, what are you going to do tonight?" I didn't want to disclose our bookclub to anyone else, everyone already thinks I get special treatment.

"Oh, I was going to invite you to a bonfire..."

"No thanks, I learned my lesson from last time." I rolled my eyes over the thought of Sarah and how much she got away with.

"Oh no, it's just going to be me and Jessie. Sarah isn't coming." She realized the reasoning for my hesitation instantly.

"Jessie doesn't follow Sarah around like a puppy anymore?" I glanced down the staircase to see if anyone was listening.

"Sarah got out." She stopped instantly. "She left Braxton last sometime last weekend."

I beamed immediately. "Oh my god, of course she did." Sarah kept her nose clean by diverting the attention away from herself and placing it on someone else.

"Yeah, but I mean good for her..."

"Listen I have to go to Mr. Davis' office real quick. Can I talk to you about it later?"

"Sure, I'll see you later." She gave me a snide look because she did not have such strong feelings against Sarah as I did, but I can't think about that right now.

While everyone exited to the right to return to the dormitories, I turned to the left to cut through the west wing to get to his office faster. There was, of course, some glances and subsequently some whispers as everyone's eyes turned to me but I ignored them. I'm tired of the relentless gossip in the Academy, it's as if our pain was being measured in a contest.

As I walked down the hallway, I could see a hanger on his door knob, but I could not make out the words. Getting closer, I clearly read the words now, Do Not Disturb. Despite this, I still felt the needs to get closer and make sure I understood what I read. In the eight months I've been here, I've never seen Mr. Davis put a sign like that on his door. There was no one else I wanted to see in this moment but him but I'm not sure if he was even inside.