Title: Disciplinary Hearing
Status: Complete
Characters: Olivia, Mark
Rating: SFW
Classification: One Shot
Author: Anonymous
Middle of another dreary Thursday in Rock Bottom, a place that never seemed to have lively weather to speak of. Instead of working away on the line like he would every other weekday, Mark was driving back over to Rock Bottom High. All he had been told was that it was something involving his daughter, Olivia, though specifics of the event were mostly kept away from him.
He knew she had been dealing with bullies for the entirety of high school and had been doing what he could to help her every step of the way. Her disability made her a prime target for jocks and the like as she seemed like easy pickings to them. Of all the thoughts that raced through his mind, the main was a prayer to Raptor Jesus that something hadn't gone wrong this time.
He pulled his beat-up sedan into the packed parking lot of the school. As cookie cutter and bland as they come, like someone just smacked a bunch of gray rectangles together and added some windows haphazardly to the exterior. He made his way up to the front to confront whatever had happened to his precious daughter.
The inside of the school was just as bleak as out, lacking in color and expression, generic school spirit banners that were decaying with age, the only thing this place seemed to really care about was their athletic teams. The Rock Bottom Roughriders are well known for their dominance in the division across multiple sports, with the crown jewel being their nationally recognized football team.
The green baryonyx made his way towards the office of the principal, the authoritarian ruler of the school named Magnus Nito. If anyone were to blame for the school's failings it would be him, though running this school had long since been a family business. Before him were his own father and grandfather, and after him would be his own son.
Mark made his way into the office and upon seeing his daughter inside he sprinted over to her.
"Olivia!" he exclaimed as he tightly wrapped his arms around her, getting down on a knee to be closer to eye level with her, "Thank Raptor Jesus you're okay... what happened, what did they do?"
Olivia, smiled up at her dad and wrapped her arms around him in response. Her hair was all over the place, along with a few scuffs and scratches here and there, but she was in good spirits it seemed.
"Hey Dad! It was nothing really, just so-"
"Thank you for joining us today, Mr. Irving," a deep voice boomed from behind the leather executive chair as it turned to face Mark, his eyes turning towards him to match the gaze, "Unfortunately, your daughter got into a fight today here at Rock Bottom High. This is a disciplinary hearing."
There he was, Magnus Neto, clad in a long black trench coat, a white formal shirt with a black tie, pants to match the coat, and a striking pair of smoke black aviators. Mark scowled over at the figure upon receiving the accusation.
"That's a flat lie Magnus, Olivia would never start a fight with anyone. Even with all the bullying problems around this school she's never caused problems with anyone."
“Oh please Mark, call me Mag like everyone else does, no need for such formalities here. Back on topic, we have it recorded live on the school’s camera feeds, that’s all the evidence that we need right there.”
“He came after me first! It was self-defense!”
Mark turned to face his daughter, the idea of her acting out to defend herself made more sense in his mind than what he was told prior, but it still shocked him to hear she got into a fight to begin with.
“Play the tape then Nito, if you’re so sure of yourself on this being unprovoked then you’ll prove it to me right here and now.”
The sharp-dressed principal shook his head and swung his chair back to face the computer and the litany of monitors attached, given a few moments, one of the larger ones lit up with a video feed. Pictured on the grey and white playback was not only Olivia, but several of the more prominent members of the school’s football team. A human amongst the bunch began getting more and more physical with the poor baryonyx, starting with gentle shoves and shaking her wheelchair, quickly turning into shoving her back first into the lockers.
Eventually the altercation reached a boiling point where Olivia finally reacted. She lunged up out of her chair using the strength of her arms alone, propelling herself right into the chest of her primary assailant. He managed to stand holding her and even attempted to fight her off for a few moments, but it was clear that she was applying quite a strong crank to his right shoulder after managing to keep hold of his arm. With the strength of that arm reduced the fight went to ground and a few punches exchanged before a few faculty members came and wrestled Olivia off the human. The video feed was kept trained on him and him alone now, left clutching that shoulder she had tweaked in clear agony as it was quickly decided he would need medical attention.
“A torn labrum, Mr. Irving. Your daughter gave that boy a torn labrum then and there. That has an estimated healing time of around three months, with several more required to get that arm back to full capacity. Your daughter here has essentially sidelined our star quarterback for the rest of the season, maybe even ruined his football career and his chances of being a star prospect.”
“Who cares about his prospects in sports if he’s clearly intimidating other students like this Mag? Where’s the justice in any of that?”
The principal turned right back around and slammed a fist down on the hardwood desk, Olivia jumped back a bit startled, but Mark held firm staring the human in the eyes as best he could with those aviators between them.
“Of course I care about the prospective future of my own damn son you stupid fish hunter! With his shoulder wrecked your worthless daughter has dashed all hopes of him being picked up by a professional team before he even had a shot!”
“Maybe you should have taught your son better than to pick on someone three years younger than him, thought you humans evolved to be smarter than the cavemen you came from.”
The air around the pair was electric, tensions reaching a point where it could come to blows at any moment. Mark may have been outmatched on both size and strength, but there wasn’t a chance in hell that he wouldn’t be standing up to defend his daughter here. Finally cooler heads prevailed, in one way or another, as the principal crashed back into his high back chair with a wide grin on his face and a light cackle.
“No matter! I’ve already gone through all the paperwork I needed to, an eye for an eye Mark.”
“What the fuck do you mean by that Nito? What paperwork?”
“Expulsion of course, your daughter horribly injured another student in an altercation that occurred on school grounds. Of course, I somewhat expedited the process, usually getting a student expelled requires a meeting of peers from the community and Rock Bottom schoolboard, but I pulled a few strings to get this cleared today.”
Mark’s aggressive scowl slowly turned more and more to concern and shock, and every bit of fear that was drawn out of him only made Principal Nito smile that much more.
“I know you work really hard just to make ends meet, Mr. Irving, but it seems like you’re going to need to move if you want your precious marauder there to continue her education.”
Being a single parent had indeed put a strain on Mark’s financials, every bit of what they had he had to claw for, hours of overtime just to make ends meet at times, and here he was faced with the fact his daughter could no longer attend school anywhere in the city. As the thoughts of what came next raced through his head, the principal slid a clipboard forward to him
“Please sign here confirming your acknowledgement of what we discussed here, Mark. Date is 2-7- 201M2017, by the way,”
Begrudgingly, the baryonyx picked up the pen included and jotted down his John Hadrosaurus along with the date, then slid it back over to the human on the opposite side of the desk. He remained silent as he backed away from the desk, knowing the formalities were already over and he’d be on his way out of this hostile environment.
“I wish you only the best, Mr. Irving, and with your finances in the dire state they’re in, you’re going to need it.”
As the human began laughing full on the baryonyx took it as his cue to take his daughter and leave this hell. He got behind his daughter’s wheelchair and walked her back out of that office and towards the front of the school.
Once the pair had made it to the car and had begun leaving, Olivia turned to her dad with a bit of a sad look in her eyes.
“I’m sorry about what happened dad, I didn’t think it’d get me expelled or anything...”
Mark glanced over to her with a soft smile, extending his right hand over to mess with his daughter’s hair as he kept his focus on the road.
“Don’t worry about it, Olivia. I’m proud you stood up for yourself instead of letting them push you around. He had no right to do that, and the only reason this is happening because he’s the son of the principal.”
“Still, I screwed up his arm pretty bad, do you think he’ll be okay?”
“He'll be fine sweety, I’d say you taught him a good lesson on why not to mess with other kids like that though.”
Mark chuckled a bit, of course injuring another kid wasn’t exactly a “good” outcome, but to him it was way better than the alternatives. The ride back towards their home went silent for a few minutes before Olivia continued.
“So... this means we have to move?”
“Yeah, gotta find you a new school, that’s the priority. So we'll need to move a town or two over.”
“Can we afford to move? You said money was kind of tight this year...”
“I have a bit of a nest egg saved up, plus proceeds from selling our current home will go right into paying for the new one.”
The younger baryonyx perked up a bit, inspired by the fact her father was taking the situation in stride.
“So... where are we going to move to then?”
“I heard there’s some new developments going up in Volcaldera Bluffs, could look into that.”
“That’d be cool, always loved the beach so a coastal town like that would be nice.”
“Don’t worry yourself then, your old man will look into it tonight and we’ll move out as soon as we can.”
Mark reached over and ruffled Olivia’s hair once again, eliciting a slight giggle from the girl which in turn gave him a smile. Maybe a change of scenery from this depressing, rundown town was just what the two of them needed.