Chick went to school on Tuesday as normal except in the afternoon I had a phone call from the head of the upper school. "Blah, blah, blah, your daughter is fine but witnessed something that will be upsetting for her and I feel you should be informed of the situation."
Basically, a girl friend of the Chick's who has had a particularly hard year(divorced parents, mother with drink and bi-polar issues and father not all there), came into school with alcohol and a razor. Yikes. Why is my daughter friends with this girl you ask?? Well, they have been in the same form since year 7 and been in the same friends group since then as well. The issues have only started in the last year. My Chick had been a good friend and our family liked her. Just before Christmas things changed between them. Chick tried to help with her issues but it broke the friendship up and we haven't heard from her or about her until this week. Notice the use of past tense here.
Girl, drunk, cut herself. An ambulance was called and daughter was there when she was taken away. She apparently has been cutting herself for quite some time and the drinking was not an uncommon occurrence. The girls at school were just 'laughing it off' so to speak, I think because they didn't really understand the cry for help she was asking for. But Chick has been just ignoring the girl until this week. The girl had been texting and Facebooking Chick saying she wanted to be friends again. Chick was glad about this. I think she thought maybe the girl was trying to reach out for some help and using Chick for this. That is until it all blew up at school. You bring alcohol into school and you are asking to get caught. You slice your legs or arms in school and you are asking for help.
Chick spent the whole night in tears and felt sick about it all. Before bed though, she decided she wasn't going to let this be about her or effect her. She wasn't going to let it effect her studying and exams coming up.
Girls are so impressionable in their teenage years. Friends are so fickle and demanding. As parents, we want to protect our children. We want to guide them and see them safely through life. Sometimes there are bumps in the road though and we can only hope that they make it over them and not fall right down into the pot hole in the road.
I think my Chick will make it over this one but it still makes me feel a bit sick.
On a lighter note, I am having a really nice time with all my bee classes. Soon I will have an apiary of my own to look after. I have painted my hive and am putting all the little bits and pieces together for it all. I have about four books that I keep reading through and have taken loads of notes. After class today, I was able to bring some old bee stuffed comb home for my chickens who thought Christmas had come early.
Oh wow. That's hard for anyone to process but especially a young Chick. I hope she manages to remain calm and stable. She sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. Also hope the friend gets the help she needs. (Just making a mental note to remind myself that other people have real problems and I need to stop complaining about messy bedrooms etc.)
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