Lions Pride: Mean Girls Next Generation

14

Clara swallowed the lump in her throat. The memories made her feel cold. Like she didn't deserve the luxury of returning to her current life with her friends and family.

"Well...sometimes people just want to feel powerful...they want to be able to make others shiver at the sight of them....they want others to fall at their feet and grant their every wish. People like that...well, they might as well lay down on a bed while the world fans them, feeds them grapes and showers them in undeserved complements that are most definitely lies."

Gretchen blinked taking in the teenagers words. The way Clara tried to fight off the tears pooling in her blue eyes, it made her realize how ridiculous she must look in this moment.

"I know it may not seem like it now but...I can put my foot down...I can actually stand up for myself." Gretchen mumbled playing with her wine glass mindlessly. "Naomi was around 2 years old. Luckily for Karen and I...she was pretty carefree toddler...I guess she still is that way now. Anyway, it had been late at night...long after we had put her to bed. I remember it being completely silent besides Karen watching 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' on TV. But then we heard loud crying and we ran up to Naomi's room to see her crying in a heap on the floor. She had attempted to climb a bookshelf to get a book on the top and had fallen."

Clara listened intently noticing a different look in the woman's eyes.

"She was in so much pain. Karen was panicking and it was ultimately up to me to get everything under control. We rushed her to the hospital to find out she broke her arm. While my little girl was laying in that bed in tears from pain, the nurses started bickering over who GOT to be the one to move her arm for the cast. They were so excited to see someone—even if it was a baby—scream in pain! I was so furious. Karen had to calm me down after it all."

Clara's eyes widened. She somehow just couldn't imagine Gretchen ever being able to do that. But..she did..because it was Naomi.

"What did you say?" Clara asked finding herself being overly curious.

Gretchen chuckled nervously. "Well..maybe I shouldn't recite everything I said... it got a little...less PG then I should've. Luckily...Naomi was in to much pain to soak in what I told those two women."

"Well...you stood up for what was important to you...that's good. You know Mrs Gretchen, you don't need to prove anything to anyone. You are allowed to be who you are and like what you like without worrying what others have to say. I know...you and my Mom had a similar relationship in school...If you can't stand up to your sister in law in defense of...your drapes...maybe do it for high school Gretchen. The one who held all those emotions inside of her. I think she'd really like to see you be...fearless."

Giving advice had never been Clara's strong suit, however...everything she was saying now might stem from what she would've told Lena to do...if it hadn't been Clara herself being the bully.

Gretchen's eyes closed tightly as if she was remembering a repressed memory from the far reaches of her mind. With a sigh, she jerked her body up from the table. "You're right, Clara. It's time I stepped up! It's time I started respecting myself a little more! I'm gonna tell Jennifer exactly how I feel about her!"

"Oh no! Maybe don't do that—" Clara begged stumbling to her feet at once. "Maybe right now isn't the best time too—Mrs Gretchen?" The girl sighed fearfully. She couldn't help but wonder what she had done as Gretchen stomped into the living room like a group of anime nerds if Hot Topic ever had a sale.

Naomi, who was paying a visit to the latrine, walked out into the kitchen completely oblivious to the vocal bloodbath about to go down in the other room.

"Naomi...I'm so sorry..." Clara whimpered covering her eyes with her hand. "I didn't realize what I was doing before it was too late!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I—your Mom! She's gonna tell your aunt off."

"She's what?! Why would she do that?!" Naomi asked hurrying to get a better view of the living room. "I could've swore when I went into the restroom...my Mother wasn't even capable of telling someone they got her order wrong at a restaurant, now she's magically brave enough to stand up to the scariest person I've ever met....well, besides your Mother."

"What? Neither one of my Moms are scary!" Clara defended

"Clarabelle, need I remind you of my last visit to your house, during your recovery?"

"Okay...so what? My Momma likes to sing loudly in Swahili sometimes! It brings her back to her childhood, it helps her relax. She is a teacher after all"

"She's terrified me almost to my grave! I was using your restroom when I heard loud drums start to play and then someone basically screaming in a foreign language! What was I supposed to think?!"

Clara couldn't help but chuckle. Cady comments from time to time about the parts of living in Africa that she misses. Mostly were about the animals she used to see everyday and now can only see them at a zoo or online. However, Clara does have the memory of Cady trying to teach her children a little Swahili. Ithlilen specifically hated it because back then he had a roaring lisp and speaking English was hard enough.

"Okay so...it might have been a little frightening at first but once you knew who it was...that had to calm you down a little bit, right?"

"No! Because after I managed to gathered my racing heart, I headed back up to your bedroom. When I was passing by in the hallway, your Mother jumped out from behind a corner to scare me!"

"My Mother wasn't trying to scare you! She was trying to scare Raph! They are currently in a year long battle seeing how many times they can scare each other. So far...Raph's winning 124 to...0."

"Zero? You mean your Mother Regina hasn't managed to scare Raph even once?"

"Nope. Don't remind her." Clara shakes her head, "Raph doesn't get scared for anything!"

"Jennifer! I would like a word with you!" Gretchen announced quickly ending Clara and Naomi's conversation.

"Oh no...here it comes!" Clara covered her eyes again. Even Naomi looked to be hunkering down for a list of insults that's about to come from Jennifer's mouth. She expecting it would be longer than "War and Peace."

"Oh? You wanna speak with me?" Jennifer asked standing to level at Gretchen's height. Karen sat on the couch looking to be trying to figure out why her wife looked so angry. Coming as no surprise to anyone, Karen always misses Jennifer's jabs at Gretchen.

"Oh! Is this a standing party?!" Karen exclaimed standing with her sister and wife. "Wow...this is so cool!" She gasped amazed. "But...there's no balloons...we need balloons!"

"Karen." Gretchen spoke throwing invisible daggers at Jennifer.

"Don't worry, Gretch! Of course they'll be sparkly!" The woman then skipped off slightly into the back closet where they apparently had balloons.

"Sparkly balloons? Are those even a thing?" Clara asked Naomi in a whisper. The brown haired girl nodded.

"Oh you better believe there real, Clarabelle. And yes, the glitter gets everywhere."

"How do you even come across those? Who just has glitter balloons in their house?"

"Clearly you've never met my Mama, Karen. Let her loose in a party store and you'd be shocked on what glittery things she comes back with...."

That left a little more to the imagination than Clara would've liked but there was no time to get hung up on that...this is due to the conversation shifting into one with more aggression and brutal comparisons to ones....parts...then a genuine heart to heart discussion.

With jaws dropped, Clara and Naomi watched with eyes basically googling out of their heads.

"My...innocence is gone. I mean, it was pretty much already on a plane flying away anyway...but now, it just switched flights from Canada to Norway....and it's never coming back..." Clara gulped