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"How was school, honey?"
She tries to make the kids' favorite meals on their first day of school, but when she asked Iomedae's favorite meal the girl first stared at her blankly and then after some extended clarifications proposed that they could roast a pig, and she can't actually roast a pig, so dinner is pork chops, and potatoes, and salad from the farmer's market. Iomedae is not a picky eater.
(The girl is in fact clinically obese. The doctor suggested they talk with her about cutting back on junk food, but the social worker said that was a bad idea, with a kid new to care - don't restrict her food access at all, just get her more exercise. So Jenny signed her up for swim lessons at the YMCA and for track and field at school. Iomedae balked at the swimming lessons on the grounds that swimsuits were immodest, and they do actually make hijabi wetsuit things but apparently not in her size. Hopefully track and field she'll actually enjoy.)
"We can say, that is not okay, they need to do better, and tell them to teach the bullies not to be bullies."
"I have no seen any thing, except Martin, that I think is not okay."
"Kids being mean to you isn't okay, Iomedae. Kids telling you not to talk about your life or your - religion - I mean you shouldn't talk during class unless you're called on but outside class, you should feel free to be yourself."
"Iomedae, you know that you're not in foster care because you did anything wrong, right? You did nothing wrong. The police said you handled the whole situation really well. You're in foster care because you're only fifteen, and that's not old enough to - skip school and work all day with grown men, it's a dangerous situation, things like what happened with Martin will happen again. It's not a punishment. It doesn't mean you're not free to be yourself."
Every night Jenny helps Iomedae fill out all of her homework, which is a frustrating process because Iomedae never knows any of the answers and also does not retain them once Jenny tells them to her, but only takes about two hours if Iomedae politely hurries her through it, and then that leaves a few hours before sundown for sparring at the park. Robert is not actually good enough at swordfighting for it to be useful to fight him, really, but at least she can move around in armor, and try moves that she saw the real knights do, and move instead of spending every moment of her life sitting.
And soon, in not too long, it'll be practice again.
Roger looks like he's been dragged through several hedges backwards and perhaps also a ditch. He has one black eye and a bag under the other. He stomps into practice in a foul mood and puts on a great affected air of drinking his water so that nobody tries to talk to him.
Everyone pretends he has not obviously been in a fight.
It's as lovely a September day as Virginia gets - all the Atlantian summer light with very little of the Atlantian summer humidity.
Fewer of the artisans have turned out today; it's Saturday and some have gone to a neighbouring town to attend a sewing class, and anyway there's been no potluck advertised today, so there's no food to attract the bards. Today it's mostly the fighters.
Nicole, already in armour, is patiently explaining a footwork drill involving a ladder on the ground to Lucy.
Lucy is smiling and nodding and patiently putting up with the footwork drill because she knows that Talking At Her is a thing the senior fighters feel good about doing sometimes. It makes them feel like they're really teaching and helping rather than just chucking her to the wolves. She wishes they would do this over Facebook in a way that didn't cut into her precious being-thrown-to-wolves hours. She has already done half an hour on the pell today and she wants to get her ass kicked.
Iomedae is also here to fight people. She put on her armor while waiting for Robert to drive her and then he made her take some of it off so her seatbelt would be safe so she puts it back on very hurriedly and then jogs over to Lucy.
"Iomedae! You're back!" Lucy is delighted with this outcome and is also delighted to be rescued from footwork drills. "It's good to see you! How was your week?"
"As I thinked it be," says Iomedae, because she loathes school and does not think it constructive to complain about this. "How was your week?"
"Excellent! I read a book I loved and I've been getting to study some of my favourite philosophers, I'm thinking I'm going to minor in philosophy."
Nicole looks from Lucy to Iomedae, back to Lucy again. "You know, I can tell when you're making the minimum amount of polite conversation before you excuse yourselves to go fight each other. Go on."
She will find somewhere else to busy herself.
Oh good now they can fight? Iomedae is not as rusty as she was on Tuesday! She has been practicing as often as Robert and Jenny will let her!
Lucy has also been putting in pell work every day! (Though she wasn't rusty last week.)
She takes a position right in the centre of the field (it isn't like anyone else is done armouring up yet, she can claim all the space) and gives Iomedae as graceful a salute as she can. (She's also practised her salutes, in a mirror.)
"I have a thrusting tip!" she declares, pointing her sword at Iomedae.
Iomedae will bound joyously after her. "I have a thrusting tip!"