Kayla

Chapter 2

"Why did you say that? Is this some joke? You know this is not appropriate for a sixth grade class." Mrs. Henry scolded me outside of the classroom.

"No. You told me to talk about my greatest memory, and I did." I replied, crossing my arms.

"Do not give me an attitude, Miss Parker. Do you want me to call your parents? You know what, I will. And you will go to the principal's." The teacher grabbed the large telephone from inside the class to dial.

"Fine! Go ahead. I don't want to stay here with you anyway." I furrowed my eyebrows in anger. Sometimes I just wanted to kill her for how mean she is to me.

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"I'm really sorry for the misunderstanding Mrs. Ian, again." Mrs. Henry apologized to the woman who is supposed to be my foster mother. She suddenly acted all nice and understanding. I knew she was lying. We were all sitting in the principal's office.

"It's alright. It's a very sensitive topic, she seems to always bring it up." Mrs. Ian told her. "She hasn't in a while though."

"And Kayla, I'm really sorry too. I wasn't sure what to think, it's just—" Mrs. Henry tried to explain herself. I just crossed my arms and looked at her, disgusted. She could fool anyone, but not me.

"Okay, well now that everything is out into the air, nothing about this topic will be brought up again in school, by any students or teachers, as this is a very sensitive topic to Kayla." The principal stated. "We want all of our students to be comfortable and we will be sure nothing like this happens again,"

"Thank you, and I will bring Kayla home early." Mrs. Ian signed some paperwork and we left the school three hours early.

"Why'd you have to do that, Kayla? I thought we agreed not to talk about your past any longer?" Mrs. Ian said as I got buckled in the backseat, she was in the driver's seat.

"I don't know," I admitted. I knew why, it's because I can't stand that stupid teacher. But my foster mother will never understand that.

"It's stupid. The best way to forget the past is to live in the present. Now I don't wanna hear you bring anything like that up again, okay?" She said, but I stayed quiet.

"She was pushing me to tell the whole class about my best memory. I didn't have one, okay? But that's the only good that happened to me. The cops took me from her." I said. "I'm so happy they did. Otherwise she would keep giving me drugs and I would have to live with her, she's such a disgusting whore and it's all her fault—"

Mrs. Ian reached back and hit my face.

"You stop saying those nasty things, Kayla!" She yelled. "That's your best memory? Oh, well what about the memory of me taking you into my home? Me giving you everything that you need?"

My cheek felt hot and I knew it was deep red by now, I swallowed and fought back the tears.

From then on, I was forced to keep my mouth shut about anything involving my past, my mother and the bad stuff she's done to me. Mrs. Ian hates when I talk about all the bad stuff that happened. Even though I wasn't allowed to talk about it, I still thought about it all the time. I was afraid to fall asleep because all I would dream about was the stuff that happened to me and the terrible things my mother did. I couldn't concentrate in class; all I would do was think about how messed up my life was.

Mrs. Henry stayed away from me in class most of the time. All she did was just pay attention and call on other students, she didn't want the same thing as last time to happen.

"Look, it's Kayla." I heard some girl snicker to a few other girls as I walked across the field for gym class. "Look at what she's wearing."

I just looked over at them, because I knew they were talking about me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you! What are you wearing?" The blonde scrunched her nose and her friend cringed too, those facial expressions were enough to make me feel ugly in a heartbeat.

I looked down at what I was wearing—a large shirt and my foster brother's gym shorts, I couldn't find my own gym clothes. My foster brother is very thin, his clothes aren't too big on me. They were baggy but I looked like a boy, especially with my short brown hair that was chin-length, I guess I did resemble a little boy.

"My brother's gym clothes, why?" I defended myself.

"You're so ugly, Kayla. You look just like a boy, you're even wearing boy's clothes!" The blonde laughed and a group of other kids my grade gathered around, pointing and laughing at me.

I felt my cheeks get red, I felt so embarrassed. But why? All I'm wearing is my brother's clothes, there's nothing wrong with that. I guess I did look a little boyish but they made me feel ugly for that.

I felt everyone laughing and talking about me. I just didn't understand why everyone has it out to get me. Everyone has something against me. If one person talks about me, then everyone else does. I'm always the laughingstock. The joke.

"Alright class, class is over on the soccer field! Not over there!" The tall gym teacher has called out and the class started walking in his direction.

The two girls continued to laugh and sneer as they walked, and I stood there by myself taking in all of their words.

"You're a bitch!" I yelled at the blonde, and the whole class stopped. Ramona stopped in her tracks and turned around, her face red with embarrassment.

"What did you say?" She said.

"What are you gonna do, are you gonna let her call you that?" I heard a boy ask her.

"I said you're a bitch." I repeated myself, not caring if the gym teacher heard my foul mouth. "A stupid bitch that thinks you're better than everyone."

Ramona walked slowly over to me.

"She called you out!" Another girl gasped and laughed.

Ramona lunged at me and started to kick and punch me, I didn't know she was this strong. I was on the grass now, she was on top of me swinging and everyone gathered around. I heard people yelling and cheering and gathering around. I got a few kicks in, and tried to pull her hair.

"What the hell is going on over here?" The teacher walked over and Ramona rolled over off of me and acted weak.

"The dumb girl went crazy and beat me up." She lied. "She's dangerous."

"What? No! She–" I gasped. "She went after me. I was defending myself. Tell him." I looked around at the other kids, but of course they didn't help me.

"Class, what happened?" The teacher asked the rest of the kids who were grouped around us.

"The boy...I mean, Kayla was fighting Ramona for no reason." One boy told the teacher and the rest of the class went along with it.

"Kayla, go to the principal's office now!" The teacher shouted at me as he helped Ramona up. She then flashed a smile to me as I walked to the main office with my head down.

Mrs. Ian slapped me across the face three times, I winced in pain.

"Stupid girl! You already caused a scene yesterday in class, now you have the nerve to hurt an innocent girl?" I was crying on my bed and Mrs. Ian got up.

"You're such a trouble maker! I expect not to hear from you the rest of the night!" Mrs. Ian walked out of my room and shut the light off, it was my bedtime now.

I didn't even get to eat dinner, I hardly ate at all today. I cried and cried. Why does it have to be this way? I didn't do anything wrong. But no one likes me, so of course they'll believe her and not me. Anyone but me! I walked into my closet and grabbed a hanger. I twisted it until it was sharp and stabbed my pillow a million times. I was so angry. Feathers popped out of the pillow and covered my lap, my bed, and some of the floor. I was so angry and mad that this happened. No one would believe me, not even my foster mother. I forced myself to sleep, I was angry and sad.