My Romance Life System-Chapter 76: Helping Thea

I was in a good mood, because my plan hadn’t completely blown up and I wasn’t expelled, so things were looking up.

"So your grand strategy wasn’t a total catastrophe," Nina said as we were walking. "You only created a medium amount of social anxiety. That’s progress for you." freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"It was a tactical recalibration. All part of the master plan."

"Right. A master plan that makes you look like you’re trying to solve a math problem every time you talk to a person. It’s a good thing you’re cute, otherwise it would just be creepy."

’She called me cute again.’

"It’s all part of my mysterious charm."

We got our drinks from the vending machine and were heading for the stairs to the roof when I heard voices coming from the teacher’s lounge, the door was cracked just enough to hear them clearly.

"...can’t believe he went straight to the principal."

That was Ms. Lail. I stopped, and Nina stopped right next to me.

"What is it?"

"Shh." I pointed at the door.

"He’s just a kid trying to be a hero," some guy said. "He probably saw the videos online and thought he could swoop in."

"And the girl, Thea," another teacher, a woman, added. "Honestly, that child has been nothing but trouble since she got here. She has this dark cloud that follows her around."

I just stood there, my good mood completely gone.

"Now, that’s not fair," Ms. Lail’s voice cut in. "You don’t know her situation. And Kofi was just trying to do the right thing."

"The right thing is to mind his own business," the other woman shot back. "We all know about her family. It’s a tragedy, but some people are just... unlucky. That girl is cursed."

’Cursed? What the hell are they talking about?’

just stood there in the hallway, listening.

"Cursed is a strong word, Sharon."

"Is it? Her father drove his car off the bridge two years ago, and her mother just... checked out. Drank herself into the hospital a few months after that and never came home. The girl’s been bouncing between relatives ever since."

The man’s voice, the one I didn’t recognize, chimed in again, his tone full of a kind of morbid gossip. "The family was always a bit off, wasn’t it? Even before the bridge incident. I remember Thea was a quiet kid, but her old friends, that Jessica and her group, they used to be inseparable."

’Jessica? The main girl who was beating her up? They were friends?’

Sharon, the teacher with the venomous voice, picked up right where he left off. "Exactly. And now Jessica’s the one leading the charge against her, because it’s a classic case of social survival. Thea became this... this pariah after her parents died, and Jessica just cut her loose to save her own reputation. It’s cruel, but that’s how these girls are."

My hand tightened around the soda can. The pieces all clicked into place, forming a picture so much uglier than I could have imagined. Her father’s suicide, her mother drinking herself to death, and her best friend turning on her.

"So she’s living with that aunt now, right? The one on the other side of town?" Ms. Lail’s voice was quieter, full of a sad resignation that made my stomach churn.

"If you can call it ’living’," Sharon scoffed, her voice dripping with disdain. "From what I hear, the woman’s never home and just sends the girl a check once a month for groceries, so Thea is practically raising herself in that rundown house. It’s no wonder she looks the way she does, she probably eats bread for every meal."

The single loaf of bread she was carrying like it was treasure. That was probably all she could afford.

The man spoke again. "It’s a shame, but what are we supposed to do? The school can’t be her parent, and she just brings this energy with her that the other kids pick up on. The bullying isn’t right, but it’s not surprising when she’s such an easy target."

"She’s not an easy target," Ms. Lail said, her voice sharp. "She’s a child who has been through more than any of us can imagine, and this conversation is completely inappropriate. We should be finding ways to help her, not gossiping about her like she’s a character in some tragedy."

After a tense silence, I knew we had to go, so I pulled Nina gently by the arm and we walked away. We got to the top of the stairs before either of us said anything, the sounds of the lounge finally fading behind us.

My good mood was gone, replaced with anger because she wasn’t cursed and she wasn’t unlucky. Her life was a mess because a bunch of adults had just decided it was easier to let her fall through the cracks.

And now I knew why.

I pushed the roof door open so hard it slammed against the brick wall, but I didn’t even care. I walked straight to the railing and gripped it, my knuckles turning white while I just stared down at the street below.

’How can they be like that? They’re teachers. They’re supposed to be the adults in the room, the ones who help, but they were sitting in there gossiping like a bunch of vultures.’

They called her cursed. A fourteen-year-old kid whose parents died in the worst ways imaginable isn’t cursed, she’s a victim of a crappy, unfair world, and those people just wrote her off.

The woman’s words echoed in my head, "the girl’s been bouncing between relatives," "practically raising herself," "probably eats bread for every meal." It made sense, the frayed uniform, the single loaf of bread, the empty look in her eyes. It wasn’t bad luck, it was neglect.

It was a system-wide failure, and I was just so unbelievably pissed off about it.

A hand slapped me on the back, hard, snapping me out of the angry fog. I turned and Nina was standing there, her arms crossed, her gyaru vibe not matching the serious look on her face.

"Hey. Staring a hole in the pavement isn’t going to fix anything."

"Did you hear them?" I asked, my voice tight. "Did you hear what they said about her?"

"Yeah, I heard them," she said. "Most adults are useless. They care more about their coffee break and their stupid gossip than a kid who’s actually in trouble. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, Kofi."

’She’s so blunt about it. Like it’s just a fact of life.’

"So that’s it? We just accept that?" I let go of the railing and turned to face her fully. "She’s all alone, and they’re just letting it happen because it’s easier than doing their jobs."

"So what are you gonna do?" she continued, one perfectly manicured finger tapping on her arm. "Are you just going to stand up here and look all broody and angry? That’s what they’re doing, just with more words. Are you going to be like them, or are we actually going to do something about it?"

"What can we do?" The frustration was boiling over into helplessness. "We’re just a couple of kids. We can’t fix her life. We can’t get her a new family or a better house."

"I know that, dumbass," she said, rolling her eyes. "We’re not going to magically solve all her problems. But we don’t have to just sit back and watch her drown, either. That’s what they’re doing. They see a kid struggling, and instead of throwing her a life preserver, they’re taking notes on how fast she’s sinking."

She took a step closer, her voice dropping a little. "If the adults are going to be useless, then it’s on us. We’ll find a way to do something, anything, that isn’t just standing around feeling sorry for her."

"And what way is that? We don’t even know what she needs."

"No, we don’t," she admitted, finally looking away from me and out over the city. "But we can start by not treating her like a ghost. We can start by being her friend. A real one, not one who’s going to stab her in the back the second things get tough."

She looked back at me, her eyes sharp. "I don’t know what the plan is yet. But the plan is not ’do nothing’. That’s their plan. Ours has to be better."

Her words were intense, and it made sense.

"Better how? We can’t just walk up to her in the hallway and be like, ’Hey, your life sucks, wanna be our friend?’ She’ll run away so fast."

"No, of course not, you’re not a complete idiot," she got a look on her face that told me she thought I was mostly not an idiot. "We can’t make it about her problems, because that’s just pity, and that’s what they’re all giving her already. We need an excuse, a normal reason to talk to her that has nothing to do with any of this."

’A normal reason. What’s normal?’ My life hadn’t been normal in weeks, so I was drawing a complete blank.

"Like what? Offer to help her with her history homework? She hates history."

She was thinking, tapping her lip with a glittery pink nail. "It has to be something she actually likes. Something that’s just for her."

Then the one small, normal thing I actually knew about Thea came back to me.

"She likes to draw. Birds, mostly."

Her eyes lit up, and she looked like she was figuring out a strategy. "Okay, that’s a start. That’s something real. How do you know that?"

"She told me, when I walked her home."

"See? You’re already one step ahead of the rest of these idiots," her grin returned for a second. "So, what’s the plan, Commander? How do we use birds to save the day?"

I just ignored the nickname because I actually had an idea this time. "I already told her I could show her the library sometime, so she could find books with good pictures to draw from."

"Perfect," she snapped her fingers, completely certain. "See? That’s it. That’s the plan. We find her after school, and you make the offer again. It’s not about being her hero or saving her, it’s about helping her with her hobby. It’s normal. It’s something a regular person would do."

The plan was so simple, and that’s why it seemed like it might actually work, but I was still doubtful.

her an option."

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