brothers.

33.2~ Review

Mild trigger warning: Contains mentions of self-harm. Reader discretion is advised.

Ms. Bredlong's eyes narrowed. "My job is to evaluate you objectively as a whole. I haven't finished my review yet, young man."

"I understand that, ma'am. I don't mean to undermine you or anything. I just found it... weird that you were asking us questions about Diana's feelings. What she felt at school, what she feels with us here... we don't know any of that for sure. She can give you an accurate answer to those questions."

Ms. Bredlong's teeth ground together and she huffed softly, curving her thin lips into a fake smile. "You make a point. But... she has a history of lying." She glared at Diana. "So I usually ask the family first to be sure that the stories line up."

Diana shifted, her jaw clenching. "That was one time."

Ms. Bredlong scoffed. "No, it wasn't."

"Well, I'm happy here, FYI, so I wouldn't lie." She fiddled further with her sleeves, biting down tightly on her lip.

"Don't talk back to me."

Dad suddenly scrunched his brows in question, looking at Diana. It was a fleeting moment, but Ms. Bredlong saw it. "What was that?"

Dad went rigid again, as if responding to a drill sergeant. "What was what?"

"That look on your face." She imitated his expression. "What was it?"

"Uh- nothing. I was just... thinking... about something."

A long, tense silence. Diana was squirming in her seat, now hiding her arms under the table and wincing a bit. Ms. Bredlong's cold amber eyes narrowed at her. My heart picked up speed and my mouth dried.

"Are you sure she hasn't picked up any habits while here?" she asked our parents.

"What habits do you mean, exactly?" Mom asked.

"You've read her file. I'm sure you know about her self-harm. She attempted suicide at age twelve." The blunt nature of her words sent me into shock. Twelve? "And she has a history of harming herself."

"W-well, we know she's taking normal doses," Mom said carefully. "A-and we took her to the doctor's recently. He said she was fine. She was a bit underweight when she came, but now she's putting on some healthy weight."

"Hmm. Be sure to take her again." Ms. Bredlong wrote some more. "We can't have any negligent behavior."

Diana scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You guys never cared about 'negligence'," she said, making quotes with her fingers. "Why do you think I did it in the first place?"

"Don't undermine me. Besides, we know you were trying to grab everyone's attention."

A deafening beat of silence passed over. All of us were in shock.

"I was what?"

"Mrs. Field, Mr. Field," she nodded at our parents, "I'd advise you to be careful with Diana when it comes to issues like these. She has a history of chronic lying and has inflicted wounds on herself to either move out of a home or get attention. Her previous therapists have reported this behavior-"

"Yeah, because they're idiots!" Diana shouted.

"If I hear another word out of you, I'm pulling you out whether you like it or not."

I stood at her words. "Whoa, okay, I don't think-"

"Your defiant and erratic behavior need correction. Do you want that again, or do you really want to stay here? From what I'm seeing here..." She crossed her arms, scanning us. "There's something you're hiding."