The Mender

Mediation

Over the next days, there were many conversations between the three friends, their parents, and the school. Esri worked extra hard to keep up with her assignments. She was to report to Mrs. Wong after her six-day suspension and would find out then if she was being transferred or continuing on a probationary basis or what. Not only would Esri hate starting in a new school in the middle of the year where she didn't know anybody. It could create big problems for looking after Jilly, especially in the mornings if Esri were facing a long commute. She worried about Ada and Luka, and how Brad and his friends would continue their reign of terror.

And the dreams stopped again. She had a bad feeling about the Shell Bead People Riga had gone to, and now there was nothing she could do about it. But Esri had to do something. If Brad and Troy were open and willing to take part in a mediation process, maybe, just maybe, things could get fixed.

Esri found out where Troy lived. Fortunately it was in an apartment building not too far from hers. On the fourth day of her suspension when Brad was back in school but Troy was still out, Esri found a coffee shop where she could watch the entrance to Troy's apartment building. She worried that he might stay inside all day. Around one, she saw him leave the building. She quickly gathered her things together while keeping an eye on him. Good grief, he was heading for the coffee shop. She sat back down. It might be easier to get him to sit and talk with her there than confront him on the street. She waited.

After Troy placed his order at the counter, Esri went up to him. "Troy, uh, hi. Please, can you give me a minute? I'm really sorry about your arm. I just want to talk to you."

"What the . . . ?"

Esri reached down deep and turned on every ounce of charm she could sqeeze out. She focused on channeling Clea's calm warmth and told herself she would persist no matter what. Troy was reluctant and unpleasant to begin with, but he did sit with her. It was better than hanging around home watching TV all day, and he was frankly curious.

Esri felt she never worked as hard at anything in her life. Troy was the kind of kid she normally avoided. Too loud, too aggressive. She wanted to get him to agree to the mediation but knew she couldn't just spring it on him. She also knew that it would never work unless he entered into it willingly and understood it would mean laying aside some of his bravado. And even harder, he'd have to convince Brad to do the same.

Looking back on it later, Esri was amazed. Who knew she had it in her to be such a talker and persuader, especially with someone like Troy? Every time she felt unsure of how to proceed or Troy started disengaging, she thought about Clea and how Clea got people to open up about themselves. Clea did it with Esri, and Esri watched Clea do it with Esri's dad, Ada, and Luka – through gentle probing and lots of smiles.

Esri and Troy talked for most of the afternoon. At first, Esri struggled to stay neutral and coax the conversation toward topics where they could find common ground. Little by little, Troy softened, dropped some of his swagger. They started sharing family stories. He lived with his mom and older brother in an apartment building much like Esri's. At one point, after they spoke for a couple of hours Troy paused, looked out the window, and said quietly, "I am sorry I grabbed your friend, Ada." He turned back to Esri.

Esri took that as her opening. "I came to talk to you because Mr. Romero gave me an idea about something, how maybe we can get out of this mess."

Troy laughed, "That would sure make my mom happy. She's about ready to kick me out of the house. I almost don't know what happened, how Brad got us going about Ada and her family. He was pretty whipped up about it, but now it almost doesn't make sense. Anyway, what's Mr. Romero's big idea?"

Esri explained to him what she knew about mediation, but warned him that the principal was not that keen. Principal Wong worried that they wouldn't be sincere about it, and there would be on-going retaliation. She was leaning to dividing them up and sending them to other schools to get rid of the problem. "Even if we agree to do mediation, I'm not sure how we can convince her."

Troy sighed, "Yeah, she's got a low bullshit threshold. I've, ah, had a few dealings with her."

"Maybe we can get Mr. Romero to help us."

"Sure, but we need something more. I have an idea. I don't know how you'd feel about it. What if next Tuesday, when we have to check in with Principal Wong, you and I meet up and walk to school together, comfortable-like. Let the kids and teachers see us and go walking into her office looking like we're old friends. What do you think?" Troy grinned.

"Um, sure, if you're ok with that, I'm ok. I'll have to let Ada and Luka know. They might be a little shocked, but not when I explain everything. What about Brad?"

"I dunno. He hates to back down on anything. But you know what would help? You're tight with Jerome, aren't you? Brad would love to be in one of Jerome's videos. Is that something you could set up?"

"Oh, I don't know. I'm not that tight with Jerome. I could certainly make the introductions but only if we get through this and Brad stops being a jerk. I don't want to make any big promises."

"That's cool. I'll talk to Brad. Should we meet up here say on Monday, lunchtime again, plan our Tuesday morning entrance?"

"Sure. Sounds good. And thanks for hearing me out, Troy."

"You're one funny kid, Esri. I imagine it took some nerve for you to find me. The UN should hire you to do peace negotiations."

On Tuesday morning, as planned, Esri and Troy met up several blocks away from school. They sauntered along, talking and laughing past gaping students and staring teachers to Principal Wong's office. They kept up their easy chatter as they sat in the waiting room outside her office. And it was that image of two friendly students that Principal Wong confronted when she went to call them in. Esri and Troy decided that Troy should talk first about the mediation as, of the two, Principal Wong would assume he would be the least likely to be accommodating about the process.

Principal Wong did agree to go ahead with the mediation, which included Esri, Luka, Ada, Brad, and Troy. The process was not without its hiccups but eventually there was an agreement and everyone was allowed to stay at the school with the understanding that even a tiny misstep would bring expulsion to another school.

Esri was relieved when the dreams started again once the mediation process was underway. After the mediation concluded there was a mutually understood truce, and Brad and Troy had little to do with Esri, Ada, and Luka - with one exception, Esri and Troy. They didn't hang out together, but the two would talk every now and again.

Throughout all of the bullying stairwell incident, suspension, and mediation, Esri continued her close contact with Clea. During Esri's suspension, she spent many hours at Clea's house. Thomas usually joined their conversations. He was particularly helpful preparing for the talk with Troy, even roll-playing how Troy would likely react. Esri was amazed how closely Thomas nailed what Troy said when she confronted him at the coffee shop.

At home, things were not so good. Joe didn't ground her for long, but he was constantly asking Esri for a detailed accounting of everything she did or was planning to do. It felt like he had lost trust in her. And Jilly seemed intent on being annoying in any way she could manage. She was picky about what she ate, what she wanted to do, what she wanted to wear, what she wanted Esri to wear, how she wanted Esri to act toward her. Unless they were at Clea's. Somehow Clea, usually with Willa's help, could bring back the sunny little girl.

One positive by-product of the school suspension was that several times Esri witnessed her Dad getting annoyed with Randi. He shushed Randi when she got off on rants about how great it was that Esri showed moxie fighting those boys with that arrowhead thing. Esri could only hope this might be opening up a crack in Joe and Randi's relationship.