Words [Riley Matthews]

01 ~ expulsion

Twelve year old Gabriel Miller tapped his finger on the principles desk as he waited for his father to come to school. When Grant Miller finally showed up, he sat right next to his son.

"What's going on?" Grant asked.

"I called you in to talk to you about your son's recent behavior," the principle said. "He's been acting out in class and getting into constant fights. The amount of times we had to suspend him... I have no choice to expel him."

"What?" Gabriel said in shook.

"You're kidding, right?" Grant asked.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Miller," the principle said. "We don't have a choice. We've been calling you in for months, I'm sorry."

"I understand," Grant said. "We'll - we'll finish the rest of the year homeschooling Gabriel."

"I can't believe this," Gabriel said in disbelief. 

"Come on, Gabriel," Grant said. "Let's go."

Gabriel sighed and stood up. He picked up his backpack.

"I really am sorry for doing this," the principle said.

"It's fine," Grant assured him. "It was bound to happen."

The principle nodded. The two shook hands before Grant and Gabriel left the classroom.

They got into the car. Before Grant started the engine, he turned to his son.

"I can't believe you went out and got yourself expelled," Grant said. "You're in big trouble young man."

"At this point, I don't care," Gabriel said to his father. "I don't care if I got expelled or not anymore."

"You should care," Grant said. "This - this something I don't want to hang over my head. Once we get home, you're going to hand over all your video games. You're not allowed to use them until the end of the school year."

"Like I care," he said.

"You're going to stay in your room until dinner," Grant added. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

Grant took Gabriel home and had him hand over all of his video games before sending him off to his room for the remaining part of the day. Gabriel looked down at a baseball he had gotten when his mom took him to a baseball game before her death. He bit his lip before he threw it against the wall in anger. He picked up the ball after it fell and put it back where it was. He sat at the edge of the bed and looked around his room before getting up again. 

He sat down at his desk and pulled out a sketchbook and pencil. He just felt his hand wonder around the blank piece of paper for a while. Once the picture was done, it showed a sketch of a lonely deer. The deer was standing away from the group of deers in the sketch. The lonely deer was looking at the rest of the deer, longingly.

That's how Dylan felt. He felt like he was alone in his family. His dad and siblings managed to get over the death of Olivia Miller, Dylan's mother. But Dylan, he's stuck not being able to get over losing her. Out of the entire family, Dylan was the closest to his mother, making it harder for him to get over her death. 

Thinking about her brought Dylan close to tears, but he stopped himself from letting the tears fall. He bit his lip again, trying to stay calm, trying not to cry. He managed to do so. He closed his sketchbook and stood up. 

He turned around on his spot and just threw himself at his bed. All he wanted was for this day to end. It was all too much for him. First, he gets into a fight with his dad before going to school, next, he got into an argument then a fight with his best friend, then he gets expelled, he then gets into another argument with his dad, and finally, he's stuck in his room, trying to stop himself from crying over his mothers death.

Grant doesn't seem to understand why Gabriel is lashing out. He doesn't understand how much pain Gabriel is holding in. He doesn't understand how his son is lashing out due to all the pain he's old in. If only Grant took the time to see what's bothering his son, to see if his youngest son is doing alright, but he's not. He takes the time out of his day to see if his other two kids are doing okay, but doesn't bother checking on Gabriel.

Thinking about this caused Gabriel to feel neglected and abandoned even more. First he lost his mother, now, it seems like he's about to lose his father and siblings as well. It seems like it's a never end spiral of pain.