Hidden Burdens (working title)

Progress

No one said anything the next morning about Kimmy going to bed before anyone else. However, Kayla mentioned Stella calling when she made her rounds, waking the kids up. She didn't seem mad. She just relayed the message and offered to call Stella back that evening if Kimmy wanted to.

None of her classmates said anything about the scratches either. Kimmy's sweatshirt hid the scratches on her arm, but she couldn't hide the ones on her cheek. Kayla had encouraged Kimmy to wear a sweatshirt before they left for the park, but she shrugged it off, thinking the weather was warmer than it was. Arizona weather could be unpredictable like that. At least in the fall through spring months. Though, now looking back, maybe Kimmy should have taken Kayla's suggestion after all.

School returned to normal after the long holiday weekend. The only difference was Mr. O'Reilly put up a small Christmas tree on top of the horizontal filing cabinet by his desk. The class continued to read through their current class book, Frindle, a book about a kid who convinced his class to rename the word for pen.

For a journal prompt, Mr. O'Reilly told the class to choose something and come up with their own word for it, encouraging them to be as goofy as they want to be with it. Kimmy had to save it for homework because nothing was coming to mind. Kayla helped with her math homework, so that didn't take long. But since Kimmy had to make up a word, she didn't ask for help and took her notebook to her room.

Kimmy stared at the ceiling for a long time.

While trying to come up with a word, her mind lingered back to the day before again. If she had to come up with a word for what happened, it would be something along the lines of "stinkipoopenstein." It may be too long of a word a person could lose their breath from. That's the only way Kimmy could describe it. Not that her brother was a "stinkipoopenstien." The whole situation was just a "stinkipoopenstein."

Flipping over on her stomach, Kimmy picked up her pencil and wrote: Stinkipoopenstein- and paused to think some more before writing what the word meant. When something really bad happens and makes you really sad.

She contemplated writing Don't Read as she had been doing. But there was a pull in her hand that made her not write it. A curiosity of what Mr. O'Reilly would think about the word, especially since he had pushed for them to be the goofiest they could be. Then again, this prompt wasn't a personal essay and it may not even matter if she didn't want him to read it or not.

Kimmy re-read what she wrote a dozen times, going back and forth on the thought. Eventually, she closed the notebook and packed it inside her backpack. Unfortunately, it won't be for another week. So the long wait was going to be torture. The reminder every time Kimmy opened her journal to work on the next journal prompt would not help, either.

Claudia came into the room and plopped down on Kimmy's bed in front of her. "Hey, kid."

Kimmy zipped her backpack closed and dropped it on the floor.

"So I heard you finally spoke yesterday."

How'd she hear that? Kayla was the only one around. Except Miguel but Kimmy didn't think he was close enough to hear. As far as she knew, Kayla only told Ben. Did she tell everyone, too? Kimmy did not want to think Kayla couldn't keep a secret.

"They said you don't talk because you get too anxious to speak." Claudia shifted onto her side and propped her head in her hand. "Is that why you don't talk?"

Kimmy shrugged, glancing between Claudia and the bed between them.

"Are you afraid of what others will think of you?"