“Enter” I heard Ms. Lourdes shout from behind her door.
I opened the door and the woman before me looked nothing like the intimidating headmistress we saw this morning before class. Instead, she looked nervous and tired. When I looked at her from close up I saw she used make-up to hide the obvious signs of fatigue. It was clear she had been overworking. The strict personality that radiates when she talks in front of the student body seems to have been a well-played act.
“Ah Claire, enter, it is good of you to join. The police would like to ask you some questions. I called your mother and she gave me permission to sit in on the interview as your guardian.”
What!? Did they call my mother? I did not want that, I did my best not to worry her. My mother was a single working parent that ran her own business and the last thing I wanted was for her to worry about me. My mother and Ms. Lourdes went way back, I do not know the specifics but I know she often visits mom at work, and she had sometimes been the babysitter when my mom was in a pinch when we were still too small to be left alone. I used to call her aunt Bernie back then, but her real name is Bernadette. So it should be all right to trust her. I nodded to show I understood.
“The interview will be conducted by Ms. Lyst who has been trained to talk with minors. While detective Gerard Menfroid and myself will be present in the room.” Ms. Lourdes said. I could hear a bit of worry in her voice.
“Sit down Claire”. I went over to the large desk, sat down, and took a quick look around the room. It was the principal's office alright. Some school trophies were displayed but mostly there were file cabinets all around the room. Like all Catholic schools, it had a rather old-fashioned look. You would have expected the file cabinets to have been replaced by digitized documents ages ago.
“You can call me Anna,” Ms. Lyst said, using the first name technique to close the distance.
My attention snapped back to Ms. Lyst. Seeing her from this close, I felt intimidated by the beautiful radiant calm adult in front of me. I still had no idea what was happening but I felt treated like a criminal.
“Could you tell us a bit about your relationship with Louisa?” she asked.
I nodded and started to tell I had not known Louisa very well.
“Hmm that is odd because she talked of almost nothing but you in her diary, some details would only be privy to close friends I would think.”
Ms. Lyst said, watching my reactions closely.
What was happening? I felt like I stumbled into a real-life Kafka story.
“What do you mean? She ran away every time I tried to talk to her”
“Yes, we heard reports from several sources of your bullying. We heard that in the end, one sentence from you was enough to have her running away crying.”
Bullying? Me? The person that did her best to be friends with everyone. I started to become nervous, it seemed like I left a witch hunt to be interrogated by the inquisition.
“I am sorry, I don't quite follow?” I said
Ms. Lyst then showed me a copy of Louisa's diary with a righteous smirk on her lips. And I could not believe my eyes. It was showing a detailed account of almost everything I had done in the last few months. She had even talked with my mom about my childhood years and had a picture of me as a toddler. If not for this situation, I would have felt a bit crept out instead of flabbergasted.
Then to deliver the critical hit, Ms. Lyst took out a copy of Louisa's suicide note. Apparently, she had overheard me saying that I do not understand people interested in same-sex relationships and that had devastated all her hope and dreams. That sounded like something I could have said. Heck, the same went for any romantic relationship. I was just not interested in that kind of a waste of time. And these declarations often kept unwanted confessions away. But this time the words I used to protect myself and keep a respectable distance from everyone had caused someone to kill herself.
Having this realization my mind started to go blank, what was happening? This cannot be real. When I snapped back to reality Ms. Lourdes was holding me and wiping my tears with a handkerchief.
“There there, Claire,” she said. “What are you doing Ms. Lyst, is this what you call facilitating in a positive and constructive manner toward children?”
“In order to create, sometimes we must first destroy” she answered matter of factually.
“This interview is over", Ms. Lourdes said.
“OK we will take a break and continue this afternoon, that way Claire can think a bit about what she is going to tell us”
I was well in shock and before I knew it I laid down in the infirmary and fell asleep. I was woken up by Ms. Lourdes and taken in again for a second interview. She guaranteed me that she had a stern talking with Ms. Lyst and that the same would not happen again. Instead, they wanted to discuss some options with me.
Back in the office, I sat in front of Ms. Lyst and Ms. Lourdes. This time they let me do my story on how I perceived Louisa and how things seemed in my eyes.
Both of them nodded, and then Ms. Lyst started talking.
“After having talked to more people, it seems you were unaware of Louisa's actions and I apologize for jumping to conclusions earlier. But it is exactly that kind of unawareness we need to fight in order to prevent these kinds of dreadful events from ever happening again. As Socrates said, unawareness is the source of all evil. And for an all-girl school, this school is seriously lacking in yuri-awareness up to the point we had a casualty as a result.”
I nodded carefully, this was getting absurder by the second.
“I discussed it with Ms. Lourdes and she agreed that in view of recent events we must take drastic progressive measures to show the parent committee and the outward world that we are serious. Therefore we would like you to volunteer to spearhead our newfound organization: the First Bureau of Yurification, (FBY in short). Its goal naturally will be to spread yuri-awareness, and to help young girls such as miss Louisa and yourself find their true yuri selves in each other.”
“And if I refuse?” I asked. How could a girl like me that was not interested in romance at all have anything to do with something ridiculous like a bureau of yurification. I could feel this was gonna cut into my time for cooking...
“Let us just say volunteering for this function could be seen as a sign of goodwill and strengthen the case of your innocence in the current investigation. So it is a win-win situation to volunteer” Ms. Lyst said to me with a little smirk on her lips.
Volunteering or the gallows. What is this, the Foreign Legion?
“But why me, I could not care less about this stuff!?” I blurted, out losing my calm.
“I think that question alone explains it. You are not aware, and your Yuri-unawareness has caused damage, you can view this as community service to make repairs for the damage that you have done. Of course, you don't have to do this alone, I will supervise the project and I will allow you to recruit other volunteers to fill out your team. I heard you are quite connected.”
“It would seem I have no choice,” I replied reluctantly. It was clear that even though presented as a choice in reality I would have no choice on the matter. With Ms. Lourdes involved, I also knew I would not have to expect any support at the home front for getting out of this.
“I am glad we could all come to a positive agreement, '' Ms. Lourdes said relieved, “There will be a school assembly later where we will present you as the director of the FBY.”
“We are expecting documented results in order to keep the public prosecutor's office happy.” detective Menfroid added.
This is how I became the director of a troublesome organization named the FBY.
What a horrible way to address the problem. I feel a tad irritated for Claire's sake. Yeah, her words were probably insensitive but they were in no way "wrong" as she legitimately didn't understand it and was expressing her views. For Louisa to take that as an absolute showed she had more problems then just falling in love for the wrong girl. It's upsetting that it happened but clearly any investigation that shows her almost stalkerish behavior would come to the conclusion that there wasn't bullying but an obsession here.
She's being spearheaded into something that would only feed resentment. I don't believe she has anything to atone for when she wasn’t even given a platform to feed her case.
Mini rant, great work you got me going.
Hehe... Yes tried I to create a "the last sane person in an insane world"-feeling. I am glad that I managed to make you feel Claire's frustration.
@Yati Or is it everone else is sane and we are the insane folk?! lol nice work.
@Yairy well, that is the question isnt it? What defines sanity?. If the standard in society is being insane then insanity is in fact sanity.
Love the story and also the Belgium trivia!
Thanks for reading! Now I want a cookie too
@Yati I can share a few cookies with you!
@topoko *runs away happily with cookie
@Yati can anyone explain me this cookie thingy
@totallesbo first of all, welcome to my story. I hope you will enjoy the ride.
we are just fooling around to have an excuse to use "". there is no other meaning then wanting an actual cookie
@Lena