#rivervale_lodge

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And to Rivervale, Sylvi goes. So weird, she almost turned towards Goldfinch

The Dogs bark at her, looks like Edewleiss is here too

She heads inside.

Gerd greets her as she comes in with a snack, one of her favorites "Hey, heard from school you got benched for some reason. Lucia told me you might be having a down day, so I made this."

Ah, the boggan gossip network does sometimes reach out to non boggans

A blink at the sudden appearance of snack. "Um...thanks. I really could use it." She accepts the snack and takes a bite. "Mmm." Then a sigh. "Yeah, today's been trash."

"Whelp, Lucia wants to know all about it, but I bet you want to talk to the rents" A glance over her shoulder "so back to the kitchen for me, tell me later?"

"You got it." A wry grin.

Off she goes back ot the kitchen

And her dad looks up from the big table "Hey, c'mere"

She brings her snack over to the table and takes a seat near her dad. She puts down her plate, then folds her arms on the table and drops her head onto them. "Today...sucked."

A BIG arm lays over her, giving her a side hug "I saw your texts. You got some details?"

She takes a moment to just feel the comfort of her dad's arm. Then she takes a deep breath, sits up, and opens her backpack to draw out the paper. "Let's start there. I know you're not a teacher, but...would you read it, and what he wrote, and tell me your honest opinion?"

"Always" he says "Always"

After he reads, she can't help it, she lets the entire story spill out in a long, rambling sentence.

He looks up from the paper "Okay I'm not 'in' on social media myself but even I know a lot of folks who get their news from it. SOme of it's good. I like Beau of the 5th Column, he's folksy yet sensible" then his jaw clinches as she rambles "He did that to you, in class? Swaggering tinplated tyrant"

"I...I mean..." Deep breath. "Okay, I...I could have maybe talked to him after class. Not tried to push it right then. But Dad...I was right."

"You were" A nod and hand on her shoulder "Rugmonster, if this were 3 years ago, maybe even 2, I'd have worried you were having a brat attack, but you aren't a child. You're a young woman and you've learned how to take your passions and make them your strength. You say you were right, you told me your story. I believe you. Okay? I am on your side. And your mom and I will talk to this guy"

A moment of relief. Then a slight frown. "What are you going to say to him?"

"Well, first we'll call some other parents... see if anyone else is getting shit. Call the parents of RIley and others, get a look at your papers. Sounds like it's just you getting shit, but if it's all comprable that's proof. Trust me. I WANT to punch the guy out, but that won't help you . Of course your mom may have other suggestions. Anyway, we can either step over his head or get in his face. Not sure yet"

She swallows, thinking about it for a moment.

"Part of it...part of it I really like. I like that you're on my side. I like that...that you want to fix it for me. I really want to let you. But...but maybe I'm supposed to fix it myself."

"Oh boy, that one might be from myside" He says "Sweetie, your strength is mroe pack wolf than lone wolf... just my take. You sure that's not pride talking?"

"Oh, it's totally pride. I like being Daddy's girl, but I don't want to, like, use that. I don't want him to be right, about me being a 'Princess.' I want to do this fight myself, at least as far as I can."

"Who told you pride was THAT Important?" He throws his hands up

The answer is actually easy: HE did

She gives him a look. "Really, Dad?"

A wince "Not gonna let that slide huh?"

"Can't. I'm in training to win an argument. Probably several arguments. But...if he tries to get me kicked off the cheer team, I might ask you to step in."

"Yeah, that worries me. Sure, you could probably slap him dwon eventually.... but he might do a lot of damage to you in the here and now" A scowl

"I'll try to be more strategic. Trouble is...he doesn't really give students a lot of chance to talk. It's mostly him telling us what to think." She frowns, then shakes her head. "I'll give him another chance to be less of an absolute jerk. After that, though....well, we'll see what happens."

"I'm still gonna have to talk to your mom about this, you know that right? She's caught in a thing probably wanting to chew her arm off to get here"

"I figured she must be. Yeah, that fine, I'm good with that. And I promised I'd tell Gerd...I should probably let her tell Lucia. Get the boggan network to spread the word of what's going on."

"They're good at what they do" He nods

"Okay. You talk to Gerd." He rises "I'll go meet your mom"

"Okay." She reaches out to give him a big hug. "Thanks for being the best dad in the whole wide world, and beyond."

"I am damn amazing" He hugs back, then lets her go

And she gets up to go tell Gerd, carrying the now-empty plate (she was stress eating as she told him about it).

(Fade to Gossip chain)

Kerri gets home, finally, to find Olgar waiting outside for her. "Did the DMV plan to take you hostage?"

"I swear, that place gets more absurd every time I go there. If it weren't so gray, I'd say it were run by Shadow Court pooka." A harrumph, then, "Did you have a chance to talk to Sylvi?"

"I did... you're not gonna like it. I know I didn't" and he relates everything that was told to him. It's clear he paid attention

And yet..something clicks in Kerri's head.. or .. tries to

She frowns. "Wait, there's something about that...."

The last name Grant...

"Grant...Grant..." she mutters.

when she first came to Rivervale, there was this guy... hit on her, hoped for a date. Got a bit insistant, so while she had tried to be gentle... she finally put him down HARD

This is before she met Olgar