Background of the story:
My family died two weeks ago in a car accident. I was at a friends house when it happened and they were going to get ice cream. I started living with my aunt and uncle but they are the nicest to me. They abuse me, physically emotionally and mentally. Last night my uncle hit me in the head and face multiple times with a belt. I have to go to school today because child protective services when you're suspicious if I did it show up so bye and uncle drop me off at the doors....
Riley's POV:
I decided that today would be the day I told someone about my aunt and uncle. I walked in the doors and saw 2 of my favorite teachers talking, Daniel and Josh. I know people probably think it's weird that I like male teachers better then female teachers and it's not that I don't like my female teachers it's just that I look at my male teachers as father figures. Plus they have been checking in on me the most out of all the teachers.
They glanced over at me as they continued talking. The marks on my face were pretty obvious. I tried covering them up with makeup but you could still see them.
"Josh"
Josh and Daniel turned their heads with a worried look on their faces.
"Hey, you okay" Josh asked.
At that point I was just so tired physically and emotionally. I looked up at him with tears in my eyes.
"What happened to your face" Daniel said as he touched the imprint of the belt that was on my face.
I out stretched my arms until I felt a body and I wrapped my arms around it. I didn't know if I was hugging Daniel or Josh but it didn't matter. When I pulled away Josh guided me to Daniels coaching office as Daniel walked in front of us.
Josh sat down next to me on the couch and Daniel pulled up a chair for him to sit across from me.
"Who did this to you?" Josh asked.
"My aunt and uncle"
"I think we need to call the cops" Daniel said to Josh.
"No no you can't do that they will hurt me again." I said as I got up off the couch and tried to unlock the door. Daniel picked me up from behind.
"Sh sh sh it's okay...they won't hurt you anymore." Daniel said as I cried into his shoulder. I wrapped my legs around his waist and cried harder into his shoulder.
"I want my mom and dad" I cried into his shoulder.
He rocked me back and forth like a baby as he hushed me and rubbed my back.
Daniel's POV
Riley's therapist contacted Me, Josh and her aunt and uncle that age regression is something that She will have for awhile since She went through such a traumatic experience. Especially when She feels a lot of one emotion, happy, sad, scared, excited, stressed etc. it's basically when your brain can't process emotion the right way and tricks you into acting what ever age it thinks you are because of that. The best way to get over it is to treat her as that age until She get out of it myself. Her aunt and uncle don't do that so her AG (age regression) isn't getting any better because of that. This is her first time with an AG moment around me or Josh. But her therapist told me some of the signs to look for so I knew it was going to happen way before it did. I knew the moment she walked into the school. Me and Josh both did.
"How old is she" Josh mouthed to me.
"I don't know" I whispered back. "Young" I said.
I continued rocking her back and forth to get her to calm down. This is something I do with my baby at home. She was starting to cry less and I had a class I had to get to in 10 minutes.
"I need you to watch her for a class period in 10 minutes" I said walking over to hand her to Josh.
"We need to know her age. The therapist said that if she's under 3 she needs to wear a diaper." Josh said.
I handed her to Josh and called her therapist.
"Hey this is Daniel, Riley is have AG attack. We don't know her age though."
"How well can she talk"
I told Josh to try and get her to talk.
"Ri what's my name?" Josh cooed at Riley
"Ja ja" Riley said clapping her hands.
"She called Josh..ja ja. If that means anything." I told her in the phone.
"Okay I would say she's around 2. Treat her like you would treat any 2 year old of your own. Her AG will probably become more frequent and if you sense her slipping into 'little space' try and come up with ways to get her into little space. Or if she is in a stressful situation try and force her into little space so she won't have to process more trauma then she can handle in one time."
"Okay. I'll call you with any questions"
We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone.
"Josh I think we are going to have to wait until after school to deal with Riley's aunt and uncle. We can rotate taking care of her and we should probably try and keep her in little space all day today."
"Okay well I can watch her for 1st period."
"Alright we should probably keep her in here so no one else sees her." I said as I grabbed my bag and started to walk out the door.
"Da da"
I stopped before opening the door and turned to Riley before walking out.
"Da da has to go but he will be back okay ri? You get to play with ja ja while I'm gone." I cooed at her as I shook and rattle and gave it to her before I walked out.
It's amazing to me how fast she regressed. She's normally a tough nosed kid but when she's regressed she super sensitive.
