**This is an hour after school lets out the day after Celia was raped.  Lance and she were excused from school because of the incident.**

School had been over for an hour.  Devin sat next to his older siblings with a smile on his face, watching some of his favorite cartoons.  Celia, however, wore a blank expression as she leaned against Lance, who in turn had his arm around her shoulders.  Their mother looked on from the recliner, worried about her daughter and how she would recover.  Suddenly a knock came from the door, to which Travis was quick to answer.  There stood Mr. Andrews, Lance and Celia's teacher.

"Hi.  I'm Celia's teacher, Mr. Andrews," the meerkat introduced himself.  "May I come in and talk to her?"  Travis smiled weakly as he motioned the teacher toward where Celia sat.  "Oh, Hi Mr. Andrews.  It's so nice to meet you.  Though I wish it was under better circumstances," Vera stood to greet their guest.  "Would you like something to drink?"  The younger twins watched curiously as their teacher glanced over at them, "Thanks, but I don't think I'll be here for too long.  May I sit down?"

Travis and Vera offered Mr. Andrews a seat, and proceeded to take the remaining available spots, eager to find out why the teacher had paid them a visit.  The young twins, both looking nervous and fearful, looked at their teacher.  The usually stoic meerkat didn't look like he usually did, but rather he began to appear saddened as his eyes met Celia's.  "I suppose you are wondering why I'm here.  Well, I heard about what happened last night.  In fact, the police told the school principal, who in turn called a staff meeting a few hours before school began to let the teaching staff know the news."  Celia's eyes widened in shock, tears starting to well up in her eyes, "So everyone knows?"

The teacher nodded and added, "It's necessary.  We need to know when these things happen so we can try to prevent it from happening again.  We're all terribly sorry it had to happen in the first place, but hopefully we can recognize a trouble situation beforehand so another child doesn't have to deal with this in our school again."  Celia started to cry as Lance hugged her close.  "I'm really sorry," Mr. Andrews sighed and looked at the floor.  "I also wanted to hand deliver your assignments for today and the rest of this week and all of next week.  The school is giving both of you off for all these days, unless you feel you can come back sooner.  I just wanted to make sure you got the work now, just in case.  I know the last thing you want to deal with right now is school work, but I'm afraid I can't just give you a pass."

As he set the assignments on the table in front of the couch, Mr. Andrews stood up and walked over in front of Celia.  Bending down on his knee, he put his right hand on Celia's shoulder.  "I want you to know that if you or Lance ever have any problems at school, you can talk to me, okay?  I know I may seem mean or uncaring, but that's just because I take teaching seriously.  I truly do care about all my students, and it tears me apart knowing that you're going through this.  If you ever need my help in class, or if you want me to help tutor you over the weekend to help keep up with your work, just let me know."  Celia sniffled and wiped away the tears, looking at her teacher, who had tears in his own eyes.  She looked down at his left hand and saw he had a personal business card with his cell phone number.  Reaching out her own hand, Celia took the card, and gave a half smile to her teacher, "Thanks Mr. Andrews."

The meerkat smiled as he stood.  "You're certainly welcome, Celia.  Same for you, Lance.  If you need help, just call."  Mr. Andrews looked at the rest of the family before turning and walking toward the door.  Travis and Vera got up and walked up to the teacher to politely say their goodbyes.  "Thanks for stopping by," Travis smiled as he opened the door.  "Oh it was my pleasure.  You have a beautiful family.  It's just awful that such a thing had to happen.  Like I said, if they need any tutoring help during this troubling time, don't be afraid to call."