6. Don't be a hero yet

6. Don't be a hero...yet

Raven sighed as she walked home with her eight-year-old daughter.  Melvin was doing well in school, more or less.  She had good grades, she was doing well in P.E., and she had mae quite a few friends.  Unfortunately, one major thing had been causing some rather serious problems.

Melvin had been getting into fights.  Several.  This was the third time this week Raven had been called up because Melvin was in the principal's office because of ehr fighting.  She had received several detentions and other punishment work, and today she had received her first suspension over this.  Raven had been told, in no uncertain terms, that if Melvin didn't curb her aggression, she would face expulsion.

Passing by an empty park, Raven turned into it and sat down on one of the swings.  Following, Melvin sat on teh other one, idly swinging.

"You want to tell me what this is all about?" Raven asked Melvin.  "Why you're always picking fights?"

"Why?" Melvin asked sourly.  "YOu never wanted to know before.  I just got punished."

Raven winced.  "I guess I deserved that.  I should have listened to your side sooner."

"Why didn't you?"

She sighed.  "I...was afraid it was because you were imitating what you'd seen your father and I do in younger years...that I'd been a bad influence on you."

"But I am."

Raven looked at her.  "What?"

"I'm being a hero just like you and Daddy were."

"By picking fights at school?"

"By stopping the bullies."

"...Bullies?"

Melvin nodded.  "The boys I've been fighting with...they think they're tough, and that means they can do whatever they want.  They pick on the younger and weaker kids, beat 'em up, steal lunch money, haze, all that bad stuff.  Someone had to stand up to them, and my Mommy and Daddy raised me to be a hero!  SO I gotta do it."  Melvin smiled proudly.

Raven stared at her, then put her head in her hands.  "Sweet merciful Azar..."  She didn't know how to handle this.

"Mommy?  Did...did I do the wrong thing?"

"Didn't you ever think to tell an adult?  Get a teacher or someone in authority to deal with things?"

"YOu and Daddy never did.  Not until after you beat up the bad guy."

Raven sighed.  "Melvin...when dealing with supervillains, we had to fight first and deal with the rest later.  But with school kids...Melvin, from now on, get an adult, okay?  I'll talk things over with the principal and get this cleared up."

"But...but I thought I was supposed to be a hero!"

"Not yet, dear.  Not yet."

"Then when?"

Raven glanced at her daughter and ruffled her hair.  "DO me and your father a favor, and wait until puberty, okay?  If you still want to be a hero by then, we'll sign you up with the Titans, okay?"

"Okay, Mommy!"  Melvin hopped over and hugged her Mommy.

Sighing, Raven hugged her back.  *DO other parents go through this kind of thing?* she thought to herself.