Under Her Skin

Chapter 14

Police Officer: Tell me about the knife.

Jacob: She asked for it.

***

Sunny shot up in bed. She rolled over and reached for her phone which was buzzing on the nightstand table.

"Hello?" She said, still amid her dreams. "Who is it?"

"Hey..." Sunny rubbed her eyes and sat up straighter.

"Selena?" She questioned, pulling her phone away to see the time. "It's 3 am. What's wrong?"

"I need your help." She sounded desperate.

"What is it?"

"The math assignment... the," she said.

"You didn't do it?"

"No shit. I took a pic and sent it to you," she said, "It's just the odd questions in the textbook. The stupid teacher said if I don't make it up, I'm going to be expelled... for real." Sunny's eyes adjusted to the darkness. Her body tensed. Somehow, this didn't feel right. Lyssa wouldn't approve.

"We're in different classes though. Is this the same assignment?" Sunny said, trying to reduce the possibility of having to carry out such a dishonest act.

"Shut the fuck up and do it," she snorted. "If it isn't handed in tomorrow you're out of the group. Do you hear me?" It was as if she had been cast to the principal's office for doing something wrong.

"But this is cheating—"

"Just remember who you were before I made you somebody Sunny. You were an impudent Asian, and now look at you." A large part of her hated the idea, but a larger part of her couldn't go back to the way things were before.

"Hello? You there?"

"I... I really can't, Selena."

"Excuse me?"

"It's wrong."

"No it's not," said Selena, pissed off at such blunt terminology falling from the lips of a worthless Chinese. "What the fuck. You got water in your dumb-ass head? Half the shit we learn is useless you know. It doesn't matter if I do it or not."

"I disagree, Selena. I can't do something I know is wrong."

"Shut up about that stupid shit. School force-feeds information down our throats, hoping we'll be able to contribute with something when we "grow up". And then we grow up. We finish high school. And guess what? That shit we memorized by heart is useless!"

"If you hate it that much, then don't do it," Sunny whispered under her breath.

"Excuse me?" Selena, reluctant to argue with such strongly held views said, "Alright, Sunny. The choice was yours. Things are going to get a lot worse for you now." She hung up the phone and Sunny was left feeling robbed. She was at war with herself, with one side drifting right and the other pulling left. Still, she knew she had done the right thing. Cheaters never prosper.

***

"Mom, have you ever cheated?" Sunny said chewing on hard rice the next day.

"What?"

"I mean like on assignments."

"No! Are you crazy?" Lyssa was horrendously angry that such a ridiculous idea could be roaming around in her daughter's head. "You aren't getting any ideas, are you?"