To her surprise, not even Bette Porter answered any of her questions. It had been like this for the last week or so. She rarely smiled, but now she looked like she could burst out in tears every second. Emily was worried about her, but Bette looked like she couldn’t care less. As if nothing really affected her in any way, as if nothing mattered but that one problem that seemed to keep her occupied. She didn’t answer any question, she didn’t even pay attention.
She had clearly lost a lot of weight, which was even more worrying since it had happened in about a week. Her grades were getting remarkably lower, but she didn’t seem to care. She looked so… unhappy. Tina wanted to know why.

She continued her lesson and when the bell rang, she raised her voice so it would come above those of the students, who were all excited because this was the last lesson of the day.

“Bette – can you stay behind, please?”

Bette walked towards her. “I’m sorry miss, but I really have to leave now.”

“Not even five minutes?” Tina pleaded. Their eyes locked and a moment passed that made Tina gasp for breath – she saw a glint of something in Bette’s eyes she hadn’t quite seen before. She couldn’t put her finger to it, though.

“Fine.”

Tina waited until everyone had left the room, went to close the door and came back.

“You can sit down if you want.”

“You said it was only going to take five minutes.”

Tina sighed and put a hand through her hair. How would she say this in a sensitive way?

“Bette… are you… okay?”

The brunette looked away. “Perfectly fine. Why.”

“You don’t seem to be. Your grades have never been this low, you lost a lot of weight, I never see you smile, you don’t pay attention, don’t answer any questions…”

“I guess everyone can have a bad week.” Bette’s voice trembled.

“I don’t think this is a bad week, Bette. Whatever happens, your grades are always the highest. I know that you have to deal with a lot of pressure -”

“Well, not anymore.” The words sounded bitter.

Tina frowned her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Does it really matter?”

“To me, it does.”

“Why?”

Tina had never known Bette to be this hostile. “Because I am concerned about you.”

“Why would you be? I’m just one of your students, I bet you have a lot you should be really worried about. Why would you care about me? I’m not special. I’m ordinary and I don’t even want to be important. I’m fine. I’m perfecly fine. I should be happy, without that pressure.”

“Slow down, Bette, you know you’re special. You are extremely intelligent and you are different – different from your peers. And most importantly, you dare to be.”

“What does it matter when I don’t even have a place to call home?”

“I understand the situation with your father is difficult -”

“There is no situation with my father anymore.” The tears were now streaming down her face and her voice was strained.

Tina’s heart broke to see Bette this distressed. She placed her hand on her chin, turned her face and made Bette look in her eyes.

“Tell me what’s going on, Bette.”

Bette swallowed and averted her eyes. “I… my father… Emily… he… mydadfoundoutaboutEmilyandmeandnowhehasthrownusout,” Bette said in one breath, as if she hoped Tina wouldn’t understand entirely; as if she was ashamed.

“He has thrown you out because you are a lesbian?”

“He has thrown me out and told me I disappointed him severely and am not his daughter anymore.” Now Bette couldn’t hold it any longer and sobbed heavily.

Tina couldn’t care less about her boundaries as a teach and threw her arms around Bette, pulling her close. “It’s going to be fine,” she whispered in her ear, softly stroking the wild curls. Bette was in her arms, crying like a baby, holding onto her tightly, as if it were a matter of life and death.

“You’re going to be just fine.”