Lions Pride: Mean Girls Next Generation

6

Light flooded Clara's vision. She blinked as the luminescent lights hung overhead, burned her pupils like an egg on a sidewalk on the hottest summer day of the year.

Her managed to twitch her hand just slightly, finally able to wake the rest of herself up.

"Clara? Clarabelle? Sweetheart?" She heard in the distance. She recognized the soft calming voice of her mother, Cady. "Honey? Can you hear me?" Her voice sounded more frantic now.

She forced her eyelids open with a flutter. Clara could feel a hand gripping her own. Turning her head, despite the pain, she found her immediate family there all holding similar facial expressions.

"Hey..." Clara forced a lump from her throat. Considering how uncomfortably dry the inside of her mouth was, she could only assume during the time she had been out, it had been open just enough to let a stream of air in. Enough to cause her tongue to be so dry it almost felt as if she had the entire Sahara desert inside her mouth.

"Oh you're okay, thank goodness!" Cady sighed gripping her daughter's hand a little tighter. "What happened? Do you have any idea how worried we all were?"

Clara could see the uncontrollable fear presented in her mother's eyes. As the questions came in, Regina eventually set a comforting hand on her wife's shoulder as a way to silently tell her to ease off until Clara recovered a little more.

As grateful as she was in that moment, it didn't save her for the interrogation that would take place later. She can't exactly lie to them, especially when it had to do with Ethan. If she let it slip that he had come back, that he had found her, they'd surly make them move. Not just across town. No, far away.

There's so many reasons Clara doesn't want to move. The biggest being how late she is in her high school life. The last thing she wants to do is be the new girl at any school, let alone in her Jr year. Even though she knew her mother Cady had been there and done that all those years ago.

If it came to it, Regina and Cady would try to justify everything. They'd use their high school experience as an example of what great things can happen if you just take a step outside of your comfort zone. If Cady never moved back to the US, she'd never have met Regina...and in extension, none of their three children would exist.

She's heard it all a million times. And no matter how many times it's said, no matter how many times they bring it up to either win an argument or make a point, it still didn't simmer long enough in Clara, Ithlilen or Raph's minds to have an impact.

Everything worked out the way it did because...it was destiny? Clara didn't necessarily believe in such things. That being said, she doesn't sit there and overthink every last decision she's ever made for fear that one wrong choice could send her life flying off the rails.

It's more or less...however your life plays out..is the way it went. End of story. If you made other decisions could your life be different? Most definitely. If one day, someone decides to hijack a military plane...they will undoubtedly spend their life in jail. But, if they decided at the last second to just chill out and not do it, then they won't go to prison. See. Certain decisions have certain outcomes.

Does that mean we all have to sit around and worry about the next time we have an urge to steal a plane? No. We don't.

Life happens. That's Clara's philosophy. And stepping outside of her comfort zone has never done her any good. Ethan is a great example of that.

Raph promised to stay with Clara while the family went out to grab food. Her brother's twin, Raph was a pretty quiet guy. In fact, he's only spoken a few times in his life. People often assume he's mute, he's not. He can very much talk, he just chooses not to.

"Raph? Can I...talk to you?" Clara asked suddenly digging her nails into the flesh of her palms.

The boy nodded coolly, shifting ever so slightly in his seat to get comfortable.

"So...you can't tell anyone."

Raph looked up, giving an almost sarcastic facial expression to that comment.

"Right. Sorry." Clara instantly apologized. "But, I have to tell someone...I can't carry this around anymore."

Raph nodded his head slightly as a silent way to say she may continue her thought.

"Ethan's back."

Raph's eyes widened.

"I know! I know! But...I can't tell them! They'll...make us move. I know they will."

Her boy sighed, he wanted Clara to know how important her safety is, but knows how moving would effect them all way to much.

"He hasn't done anything yet. But..I'm basically his tutor in history. He's new in that class and...he's the reason I...fainted in the first place. Seeing him again brought back the events of that night...I just...I can't deal with seeing him!"

Clara remembers it as a very peaceful night. The campground was quiet as it was passed curfew and far beyond "lights out". She hated having to be there at all, but her moms decided she needed to be "socialized"....it was supposed to help with her current crippling case of social anxiety and depression.

Yeah, like forcing me away to a camp with a bunch of strangers will help my depression, she thought. She knew she'd be constantly terrified. Her moms promised her she'd make friends. She highly doubted that.

Due to this mindset, Clara didn't engage in any socializing. Even the ones forced on them by the counselors. Sitting around a campfire singing a song telling their names and one thing they like...that also had to start with the same letter of their first name.

What was Clara supposed to say?

"Hi my name is Clara, and I like cheese?"
"Hi my name is Clara, and I like Chutes and ladders?"
"Hi my name is Clara, and I like counting change from a pet monkey's piggybank?"

Yeah. Nothing seemed to really sound right. So she sat there, she listened to everyone go around "singing", or as she considered it, talking in a rhythm, as the counselor, who barely knew an ounce of guitar strummed away trying to come up with some sort of melody.

"Hi my name is Darren, and I like Dogs!"
Very original.
"Hi my name is Xavier, and I like xylophones!"
Straight up lie.
"Hi my name is Jessica, and I like Jeeps!"
Someone who couldn't think of anything else...

It was all a waste of time. When it got to her, Clara found her brow furrowing as she clamped her mouth shut. The counselor continued to strum along terribly to whatever melody he was attempting to play. The other campers looked to Clara as it became clear she wasn't taking her turn right away.

"It's your turn, go on, don't be shy! We're all friends here!" The counselor urged on with a beaming smile on his face. He looked like one of those wax figures that haunted Clara's dreams. Big, creepy smile. It never seemed to stop. Even for a second.

Clara still didn't open her mouth, she just crossed her arms like a defiant toddler and glared straight ahead not daring to crack under this stress. That's when a girl, dawned with a pair of thick rimmed glasses leaned over to her. She had a similar smile on her face.

Clara knew her "type". From a perfect little family probably living in some gated in community somewhere where everyone knows everyone and safety, nutrition, and being a "super parent" is a bigger deal than actually letting their kids be kids. No, she was probably forced to take ballet, or piano lessons, just because her parents couldn't dare have an "average" kid.

"Don't worry, it's not hard! You just say your name and something you like! Just as long as it starts with the same—"

"Thanks, as if I didn't hear the instructions the first time, four eyes."

The girl instantly stopped herself, bringing a shaky hand to her glasses in self consciousness. A few snickers could be heard being passed around the fire which only seemed to make the girl feel worse.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to upset you..I was just trying to help—"

"And I was just trying to enjoy some peace until some plaid skirt wearing priss came over thinking I give two shits about what she has to say. Why don't you find a library to grow old and alone in?"