Growing Up

Chapter 6

Sophia slouched in one of the chairs in the principal's office, while her mother sat beside her. Mariska was sitting with her legs crossed, but her hands were clasped so tightly together that they were lacking all color.

"Can't we just go?" Sophia groaned, and Mariska shook her head.

"No. We can't. Your principal is going and getting the girls you named and we are going to deal with this."

"Maybe they will beat me to death and then you'll have a brand new episode of SVU waiting to be written." Sophia sighed. Mariska rolled her eyes but didn't looked at her daughter.

She hated that Sophia grew up with her as her only parent because that meant all this sass was directly from her and not Chris.

"Alright, Ms. Hargitay, the girls are waiting in the ISS rooms. We need to know exactly what happened, Sophia."

"Do you want to know because my mother is here and she's powerful?" Sophia snapped a bit, and Mariska grabbed her daughter's hand and squeezed it.

"Stop using sass to postpone this. Just tell him, baby." Mariska breathed. Sophia frowned before intertwinning her fingers with her mother's as she tried to pull strength and bravery from the bravest woman she knows.

"The girls have been beating me up for awhile. Since freshman year." Sophia whispered.

"So almost two full years they have been beating you up?" Mr. Kayson asked.

"Yeah. Mostly in the locker room since there aren't any cameras in there. They make fun of me because I'm 15 and I look like a boy who hasn't hit puberty yet." She sighed.

"What do they do to you?" He asked.

"They have broken my ribs a few times. My nose is not my nose anymore because it's been broken so many times. My arm is broken and I don't know how many times I've gotten black eyes from them." Sophia spoke, and Mariska felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't believe that her child had been hiding this from her for two years.

That she hadn't noticed that her daughter was getting beat up.

"Okay, now, do you have the medical records from all these days?" He asked, and Sophia sighed as she got into her backpack. Shortly after the beatings started, she started to write down when it happened. She passed it to the principal and sighed.

"I'll ask the clinic for the records. Can we go now?"

"Yeah. You can go now. We will be calling you soon, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

===

Sophia and Mariska barely made it to her appointment on time. They went in and Sophia got her eyes checked, well, her eye checked.

"What happened here?" Dr. Wolfe asked, and Sophia frowned.

"Some girls at school. But my eyes are equally as bad."

"Okay, well I'll trust you on that. Now what frames have you decided on?" He asked.

"Uh, these ones." Sophia spoke, as she pointed at frames that were exactly like one of her mom's old pair, just black.

"Good choice. We will start making these. You want two pairs?" He asked, and Sophia nodded.

"Yes please." She spoke, before standing and leaving the room. Mariska was walking around looking at all the different frames, and she bit her lip when her daughter stood beside her.

"My eyes are still bad. I picked my frames and we can leave soon."

"I tried to get in contact with your father and tell him what is happening, but he won't respond to me. Did he say if he was going anywhere when you were having breakfast with him?" Mariska asked, and Sophia swallowed hard.

"We didn't go out for breakfast."

"What? Why not?"

"Because Donna told me that you had went into the set before 5 in the morning, and I didn't want to make you upset."

"You didn't have to ditch your father because of me. I'll give you his number and you can plan another breakfast or-"

"I sent him back to LA, Mom. I could see how upset you were having him around. I sent him away to protect you."

"Kid-"

"No. Don't kid me... Mom, he left us and I know it still hurts you. So just let me make some choices for once."

"Are you sure?" Mariska whispered, and Sophia nodded.

"Yeah. I am. He'll be back, probably when I'm hospitalized for getting my ass kicked for reporting the girls."

===

Mariska couldn't help but smile when she saw her daughter wearing her new glasses. She had always loved those glasses, and now her daughter was wearing them.

After leaving the appointment, Mariska drove Sophia around before stopping in front of a clinic that was near her school.

"Mom?"

"Is this the one? The one that helps you without telling me?" Mariska asked, and Sophia sighed.

"Mom, they help me because they know I don't want to tell you."

"You are my 15 year old daughter. I believe that they should have contacted me or even Donna."

"They know who I am, but I never gave them my information. No phone numbers or addresses."

"We need to make a deal, Soph."

"Okay?"

"We need to make a deal that if you get hurt again, either at home because you stumbled and fell, or at school by these girls, you need to tell me. Whether I'm shooting a scene or sleeping in my trailer after a long night. You must tell me when you get hurt so we can try to have a relationship that isn't artifical and fake."

"Mom-"

"No, Soph. I'm scared to death that you might feel like hurting yourself and I can't lose you. Baby, we might not be close, but I love you with all my heart and I just need to learn how to show it better."

"Mommy." Sophia broke, and Mariska couldn't believe what her daughter had called her. Sophia was sobbing beside her mother, and all Mariska could think about was holding her daughter. And it was an awkward embrace because they were in a vehicle, but it was so heart warming for the Hargitay girls.

"What is happening, honey?"

"I've thought about it before. I thought that you'd be better off without me reminding you daily about my father."

"Never think that, Sophia. I need you. And having you gone would be worse than anything else in this world. So please, don't go to LA to stay with your father. And please don't think that I'd be better off without you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand. I'm sorry, Mom."

"I'm sorry too, kid. God, I love you so fucking much."