Karen Rooney stood in the hallway outside of her office as the students at Ridgewood High rushed toward their next classes. Many of the students looked very bored while they pushed through each other. 

Today had been a slow day in the counseling department. Not many students had come to see Karen, which was a good thing. She didn't want any of these kids to be depressed or anxious or anything else. They needed to be happy now because life wouldn't get any easier. 

Karen kept a watchful eye out for her two daughters, Liv and Maddie. They had just started their sophomore year of high school, and she was worried about them, especially Liv. Maddie had gone through her freshman year of high school without her twin sister, and she had made friends on the basketball team. However, all Liv had was Maddie. She didn't want her to get lonely, but she knew that Liv was a social butterfly.

The bell rang, announcing that it was time for the next class period. Karen had about an hour until lunchtime. She wouldn't have lunch with her husband, Pete, because him and the basketball girls were taking a tour of a university to get a look at college basketball and how it worked. 

She headed into her office and sat down in her chair. Her desk wasn't as cluttered as it used to be. Lately she had decided to clean up her office a little bit because the principal said that the students that came in shouldn't see her notes on the other students. He chastised her for that, so she had been trying to be more neater.

Karen frowned when she heard the knock on her door. She stood up and pulled the door open. A smaller girl stood in front of the door, a scowl on her pale face. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and her dark hair was knotted up in a tight bun. For some reason, her hair shone brightly under the light.

"Hello," Karen said sweetly. She stepped to the side and allowed the girl to walk in. "Do you have a pass to see me?"

"No," the girl said, plopping down in the chair across from Karen's. "A teacher saw me crying in the bathroom, and she immediately sent me here because I wouldn't tell her why I was crying."

Karen walked around the side of the desk and sat down in her own chair. She grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen so she could write anything down if she needed to. If this girl said anything that could harm herself or others, Karen would have to write it down. 

"Do you want to tell me why you were crying?" Karen asked.

The girl shook her head. "Not yet. I don't have to, do I?"

Karen sighed. "Not if you don't want to. I can't make you tell me."

"Good." The girl tugged on her fingers as she glanced around Karen's office. "You have kids?" The girl leaned forward in the chair and peered at the picture frame on Karen's desk. 

"Yes, I have four," Karen said with a nod. "You might know of my daughter, Liv Rooney. She was on the show Sing It Loud! for a few years." 

The girl shrugged. Her eyes flashed when she said, "I don't watch television."

"Oh. Then you might know my other daughter, Maddie. She is on the basketball team."

"I don't pay attention to sports," she said, leaning back into the chair. She suddenly kicked her feet up on the desk. A few pieces of paper flew at Karen, and she caught them before they could fly off. "I only come to school because it keeps me away from home."

Karen frowned. "Why do you want to get away from your home?"

"Different reasons," the girl said, picking at her shorts. "It's always something different."

"Well, umm . . ." Karen trailed off because she realized she didn't know this girl's name.

"Claire," the girl said after a second of awkward silence. Her eyes locked onto Karen's, and she stopped picking at her shorts. She seemed to be less nervous now. "My name is Claire."

"Well, Claire, I don't know what's going on in your life at home," Karen said, "but I know that many students find school as their safe place. Do you?"

"I mean, I'm not getting beat at home, so not really," Claire said with a quick shake of her head. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I just would rather stay here than go home. That's all."

Karen had no idea how she was going to get this girl to open up to her. It would take a lot of trust for her to open up, it seemed like. "That's good that you're not being abused," Karen said with a nod. "If you were, I'd have to get CPS out to your house and check on your family. That would be a hassle."

"Are you saying that you hate doing the paperwork for that sort of stuff?" Claire asked. "If you knew a student was being abused, would you just ignore it because you hate doing the paperwork?"

"No," Karen said quickly. "I would do the paperwork in a heartbeat. I just hate how long some paperwork takes for simpler things, like for students who smoke or something like that."

"Okay." Claire nodded. She sighed and dug a knuckle through her eyes. They had returned to the pale color like the rest of her skin. "Can I go back to class now?"

"Why don't you stay?" Karen said to her. "Lunch is coming up, and I want to talk to you more."

"Won't I get into trouble?"

"Not if you tell your teachers who you're with."

Claire sighed again. "Fine. I'm only staying because I'm starving."

"Did you have breakfast?" Karen asked her. Claire shook her head. "Why?"

"We didn't have any food." Claire said that with such a straight face that Karen almost missed the meaning of it. 

"Not any at all?"

"Unfortunately not. Unless you count the cat food, then that's the only food we have right now."

Karen frowned. "Is your family on food stamps?" she asked, wondering if they didn't have enough money to afford food.

"My dad makes too much."

"Why do you not have enough food if your father makes that much money?"

Claire shrugged. Her eyes darted around the room like she didn't want to look at Karen. "My mom and dad gamble it away at the casino all night, every night."

"Are they ever home?"

Claire nodded. "They come home at like two in the morning, drunk. I can always smell the alcohol on them."

Karen held in a groan. If people were going to act like that, they shouldn't have children. She didn't understand why people had kids when they weren't even going to treat them right. "Okay," Karen said, nodding. She turned around, grabbing her lunchbox. "Thank goodness I packed extra food for today. We can share my lunch."

"Are you sure?" Claire asked, shaking her head. "I don't want to impose or anything."

"It's fine," Karen said. "I don't care. Just don't tell anyone that you ate some of my food. We're not allowed to give students homemade food."

"Deal."

Karen sectioned off her leftover baked chicken, giving Claire more food than for herself. She only had one piece for herself and some of the potato salad. 

"Oh, this is too much," Claire said when Karen handed her a plate of food. "Seriously. I don't eat that much anyway."

"No, you eat that," Karen said firmly. "And if you don't eat all of it, you can bring it home with you to have for dinner."

Claire nodded. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"I'd do anything for my kids," Karen said gently. "You're considered my kid, if you did not know."

A small smile cracked through Claire's steely gaze. She dug into the food with as much gusto as her husband, Pete. Karen wanted Claire to have a better home-life, but she knew it wasn't possible unless her parents straightened out. She doubted they would, so she decided to be there for her when no one else would.