School Fight, Tag: Tara, Sean

[Dustin Connoly]

Date: Friday, June 8, 2012.
City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Synopsis: Dustin gets into trouble at school. His older siblings are called.


Dustin petulantly swung his legs as he sat on a chair outside the Principal's office. An ice pack long forgotten lay forlornly on the seat next to him, looking bedraggled and half melted in the lax air conditioning of the school.

Stupid Archer and his goons had thought they were a match for Dustin. He had shown them the error of their way of thinking. Dustin couldn't be taken by surprise; all he did was watch the drones in school. By drones, he was referring to the students. Little worker bees. He couldn't understand their industry. So he watched.

Perhaps by observation he could figure out why they worked so hard on school work, on forming friendships and cliques, why they walked the line and said "yes sir" and "no ma'am."

Thus far, he hadn't figured out why. Instead, he had seen the change in the landscape, a tidal change in the cliques, a shift in the knowing eyes who couldn't quite meet his cold dead gaze, and knew something was up. He didn't know what, but he knew something was up.

Forearmed with intuition and insight, he had been more cautious going about his day. Planned the best entrance to the yard, thought about the best places for ambushes, lines of egress and areas to be prevaricated. He absconded with a baseball bat from the school gym after lunch, because after the gun it was his most familiar weapon, and headed for the yard.

Harry Archer and three other older, bigger toughs jumped him in the west quad, once a teacher had gotten distracted by a crying child by the play structure in the east quad. Dustin got slammed with a few blows to his face, meant to stun him into complacency. He didn't have such thing as a glass jaw, the only weakness he had was the family jewels, and it was a definite weakness of Archer and his goons. The baseball bat swung directly up between the legs of Archer, quickly putting him down.

Dodging another wild swing, Dustin tucked himself underside the wild arm and slammed the bat into the offending gut, before slashing his elbow down on the vulnerable neck. He had turned then, staring at the remaining two with his cold dead gaze. "Go ahead," he quoted good old Clint. "Make my day."

The two remaining bullies had run off to the satisfaction of Dustin, and he walked over to the groaning Archer who had his hands over his balls protectively as he groaned repetitively. Dustin cocked his head.

"Thanks, Archer. I had fun. We should do this again some time."

His only reply before the teacher had finally noticed the altercation and came running, was a whimper.

[Tara Connoly]

Tara had been asleep when the school had called. After a long night of chasing a murderous ghost around a shopping mall, she'd gotten home at around seven a.m., just in time to say good morning to the kids before passing out in her bed. She had answered her cell with a tired grunt, not evening opening her eyes.

When the principal told her what Dustin had done, however, she jumped out of bed. It took her a total of five minutes to get dressed, pass a brush through her hair, find her car keys, and get downstairs. Storming into the kitchen, she grabbed a Hot Pocket out of the freezer and threw it into the microwave. The coffee was cold at that point, but she gulped some down before rounding on Sean.

"The school called. Get in the car." She said, her face calm but her voice shaking with anger. All of the Connoly's were familiar with this phase of Tara's anger: it was the calm right before the storm, and they knew that the best thing to do was just stay out of her way before she exploded. No one wanted to be the one that she rounded on when she was in a rage.

She had driven to the school in silence, eyes locked on the road, knuckles white as she clutched the wheel. She seemed to throw off anger like heat, almost as if the rage was actually visible as it rolled off of her. She looked, frankly, just a tiny bit insane.

Pulling into the parking lot of the public middle school, Tara turned into a space just a bit too fast, slamming on the breaks with enough force to make the entire car shake. Taking a few deep breaths, she nodded at Sean and got out, slamming the door behind her. You could tell that she meant business when she took it out on her precious Range Rover.

She knew exactly where she was going as she stalked down the hallways; this wasn't the first time that she had been called in to deal with a younger sibling, usually Dustin. The administrative office probably had her on speed dial at this point.

She found her youngest sibling sitting outside the principal's office, alone. Taking a seat next to him, she stared at him, and then at the floor, obviously struggling to find words to describe her anger.

"Dustin, I just--" She stuttered, her voice low, "I cannot-- I am just so frustrated right now, there are no words-- you can't just..."

She took a deep breath. "Sean, please explain to your brother why we do not take down classmates with metal bats."

[Sean Connoly]

Tara was a fucking hurricane when she was pissed. Sean glanced up at her as she stormed around from where he was cleaning a gun at the kitchen table. Someone must have woken her up; it had only been a couple hours since she'd disappeared upstairs to crash. When she rounded on him, he fully expected to have to defend himself - he'd been down here all morning so it clearly must have been Caleb. But then she mentioned the school. Since he and Caleb had graduated, that usually meant one thing.

Dustin.

Sean sighed and dropped a rag over the gun parts. The Connoly's had had a wealth of trouble with the school system over the years. Especially since there wasn't a parent at home. He and Tara had taken to going together to these things ever since he hit eighteen, hoping to present a more stable home environment with two adults available. This family getting separated pretty much resulted in a hot mess.

He didn't want to say anything in the car ride over. Tara's anger was pretty easily directed at anything and everything and he didn't want to draw it to himself for any stupid things he'd done lately. Still, he couldn't help the "Jesus fuck, Tara!" as he careened into the dashboard when she slammed the car to a stop. "You good?"

Sean didn't entirely believe her nod, especially when she was slamming doors, but whatever. Their little brother was in a shitton of trouble, sure, but they needed to make sure he got out of the school trouble. Tara could just yell at him twice as much after to make up for it. He followed her into the school, though he definitely knew where the office was. He'd spent plenty of time there himself, not to mention coming for Dustin's meetings.

When they approached Dustin, Sean gave him a "you're fucking screwed, kid" expression, nodding at Tara. He shut up, however, to let his sister handle this. She was normally the better disciplinarian. So it surprised him when she asked him to explain why it was wrong. He noted the use of "your" with some amusement, but was game. He crouched down next to Dustin.

"Look, buddy. I know this kid probably deserved a beating, but you can't just take a bat to them, okay? Not only does it make the grown ups really upset, it's actually wrong and bad. Do you remember what we talked about?" he asked. "How the baseball bat at home is for burglars and monsters? That's because those are BAD guys. And our family takes down bad guys, right? But that kid's just a jackass, not evil. And we don't want to do things that makes US the bad guys." Sean was trying to explain morality to a sociopath. Oi.

[Dustin Connoly]

Wide eyed at Tara's approach, his brother's mouthed words did little to comfort Dustin. He could clearly see that Tara was nearly incoherent with rage. Dustin had no frame of reference for this reaction. He had never seen Tara this upset about one of his fights at school. He wasn't sure on how to interpret it, and instead put his focus to his brother Sean as he crouched down to explain. He wanted to defend himself, but these were his siblings. They weren't against him; they were trying to help him.

So, he guessed he should listen.

"Okay," he muttered reluctantly. He nodded at parts, to indicate that he was listening, and remembered their previous conversations clearly. He was still troubled though, on a particular point. Archer was more than just a jackass. He was a jackass aiming to beat the crap out of Dustin.

"What about the next time Archer and his cronies stalk me?" His fingers itched at the thought of being targeted again. He didn't like the idea of being defenseless, weaponless when it inevitably happened. He did all right at hand to hand, as much as an eleven year old could, but when it was just him against four other people, the odds were distinctly not in his favour.

Vulnerability wasn't a word that could be applied to Dustin Connoly. It wasn't even in his vocabulary. He saw a problem brewing, he took steps to stop it from running him over. That was the long and short of it.

Licking at the cut on his lip, Dustin looked down at his scuffed shoes. He looked every bit the apologetic boy. Appearances were deceiving with this boy, of course. While he was sorry he got in trouble, he wasn't sorry for teaching Archer a lesson.

The door to the Principal's office opened, and the Principal stepped out. She was a slight woman, but very capable. She greeted the Connolys pleasantly, but seriously.

"I think it's a good idea if you took Dustin home for the rest of the day. Miss Connoly, Mr. Connoly. As you know, we have a zero tolerance for fighting here, and the other students involved are also suspended for the rest of the day. We'll see you in class on Monday, Dustin, and for the rest of the school year, which is, admittedly short, you will serve detention after school."

[Tara Connoly]

Tara exhaled, pinching the bridge of her nose with two fingers, a motion that made her look about twice her actual age. Honestly, she would be surprised if her family didn't give her a heart attack by forty. She was going to have to start checking for grey soon.

"You hit him with a bat, bud. I think you scared him off for a while." She said flatly.

How do you explain to an eleven-year-old boy that fighting is bad, when the entire family business revolves around fighting? Maybe this was all just a case of monkey see, monkey do, and she should try to start hiding him from the family business a bit more. Though at this point, it looked like the damage was already done. She took a second to silently curse the day she had taught him how to use a machete.

"Look, Dustin," She started, getting out of her chair to kneel in front of him so they were eye-to-eye. "I'm gonna be honest, kiddo, you need to behave at school because if you don't, they're gonna start asking questions about our family, and if that happens, they might call Social Services again. Remember the last time they tried to split us up? And you ended up with that Mormon family with all the cats?"

She took a second to make sure that he remembered. It was not a good week for the Connoly family.

"Now, I'm not going to let anyone take you or Abby away ever again," She said sternly. "But dude, you need to help me out here. You have got to keep things on the DL while you're at school, got it? We'll set up a new punching bag in your room, you can take some swings at that when you want, but if somebody messes with you here, you do what all the other kids would do and go tell a teacher. That's why they get all our tax money. Okay?"

She stood up when the principle came out into the hall, suddenly feeling a bit like a little kid herself. She always did when faced with Mrs. Sheely, who was her English teacher back before she got promoted. When that woman talks to you, you listen the hell up.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Sheeley." She said as she ushered Dustin out of his seat and towards the exit. "I promise it won't happen again."

"It had better not, Miss Connoly." The woman said, her stare more intimidating than a charging werewolf. Tara nodded once, and then pushed the boys out the door.

[Sean Connoly]

Sean was at a loss when Dustin asked what he should do when the bully came after him again. Generally, his answer to dealing with assholes was to kick the shit out of them. Hey, he was part Irish, and all hunter, it was in his blood. But it was also counter-productive to this little talk here, where they were trying to discourage fighting. Thankfully, Tara had his back and pointed out the unlikelihood of the boy picking on him again. Probably true.

Sean moved aside and let Tara take over the talk, now that she seemed unlikely to scream. Man, being a good influence on a younger generation was hard. He and Tara were too young to really be parents, but they were all Abby and Dustin had at this point. Personally, he thought his sister was doing a great job, especially with the way she pointed out the benefits of not getting Social Services called on them. Again. The last time Sean had been taken out of the house, he'd been seventeen and had gone to an overly preppy black family. While not as awful as some of the homes they'd all been too, it was pretty obnoxious. And nothing beat home and family.

"Yeah, Buddy, or come to us," Sean added, clapping a hand on Dustin's shoulder. "We can... talk to parents, or something. You don't need to beat on another kid to solve your problems. That's why we've got family; to help each other out."

Sean didn't say anything as the principle joined them. Mrs. Sheely had had him in her office more times than he could count, and he thought she remembered it all too well. He always felt like she was there to talk him down, no matter how old he got. Really best Tara handle her. He just did his best to look like he was in total agreement with them, nodding when looked at.


Once they were out of the building, Sean shook his head. "Man, you're lucky, kiddo. Just detention? Piece of cake."

[Dustin Connoly]

He totally understood what Tara and Sean were trying to tell him, and he suspected whoever presided over his detention would drive the point home. He could only hope Archer and his goons really had been scared off by the attack. Having a reputation for being psychotic would definitely help his school cred.

Delight sparked his eyes at the memory of the cats. He hadn't the time to kill one or two, but he sure had fun imagining what it would be like to torture them. Instead, he had left behind a pile of mutilated toys and the sense that the horrified Mormons were glad to see him go. He had definitely been glad to leave. The cats aside, the Mormons left a lot to be desired for happiness in living with a family. Nothing beat his own dysfunctional family, and he never wanted that to change.

"Yes, Tara," Dustin replied. He respected Tara and Sean, was properly afraid of consequences when they were around. He sure liked the idea of a new punching bag for his room. He tried not to get confused about how much that seemed to be a reward for misbehaviour when Tara and Sean seemed so mad and disappointed that he had been caught fighting at school.

Once out of the building, the sunshine seemed bright and blinding. He looked at Sean when his older brother commented about how lucky he was. Sure. Lucky.

Instead, Dustin was glum. "Yeah, for the rest of the school year. It'll be ages and ages." He exaggerated, but in his defence, even though the remainder of the school year was less than three weeks, time seemed to extend much longer for a kid. Especially when forced to do something he didn't want to do.

"Can we have cake for dinner?"