“God, I can’t wait until we finally start high school!” Lidiya grouched as she and her friends walked home from school one cloudy, chilly afternoon.
“Tell me about it!” Kishi added, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
“Aw, I’m gonna miss you guys when you get there next year,” Amanda told them in a somewhat whiny voice, throwing herself onto Lidiya and giving her a bear hug.
“Ya’ll realize ya’ll gonna have to take more standardized tests, right?” River told them both in a condescending tone of voice.
Both Lidiya and Kishi slowly turned their heads to glare menacingly at River. What kind of young child wanted to be reminded of standardized testing in high school?! High school was about getting driver’s licenses, looking at college applications, senior skip days, more dances and parties, and overall more freedom! More standardized testing was the exact opposite of what their expectations were!
“Shut up, River,” Lidiya grumbled, quickly turning her head away.
River shrugged and smirked with a sly twinkle in her brown eyes. “Alrightie then. I was just saying,” she said more to herself before shoving her hands into the pockets of her orange school skirt.
The gang continued to walk home in silence until they bumped into a young, voluptuous black woman wearing a black Batman T-shirt and blue jeans that hugged her body and rolling a bright red baby stroller which carried a young black toddler in it. Something about her looked familiar- her careless posing and the child in the stroller- and then something clicked. Was this… was this Leandra Miller?! They haven’t seen her in, like, six months, which might as well have been forever!
“Leandra?!” Kishi exclaimed, quickly stepping back in shock, “What have you been doing this entire time?! We haven’t seen you in forever!”
“I dropped out of school,” Leandra answered with a slight shrug, “Now I’m a stripper.”
Stripper?! That was the most and yet the least surprising statement Leandra had ever said.
“Do you make any money doing all of this?” Kishi asked.
That was when Leandra pulled out a whole wad of twenty-dollar bills out of her jean pockets.
Twenty dollars was a lot of money for an eighth grader, so imagine several wads of twenty-dollar bills being earned all at once. Yeah… that was a lot of money.
“Wait, how can you earn all that money without even going to high school?” Amanda asked in pure awe.
Leandra merely shrugged and answered, “That’s just part of being a stripper.” Then she grabbed her son’s stroller and walked away.
The girls just stood there in complete silence for several minutes before finally walking the rest of their ways back home.
“Damn, this really makes me think twice about high school,” River stated.
Lidiya nodded. “You ever think that if any one of us never goes to high school, we’ll make a whole lot of money like that?” she asked.
“I’ve never really thought about that,” Kishi said, “I’ve always been told that you had to graduate high school and go to college if you wanted to be successful.”
The girls started talking about high school again, which made Anima herself think about high school. Believe it or not, there was one good thing about going to high school- going to the same school as Penelope. Hell, maybe she would be in some of the same classes as Penelope! That would be a dream come true. Speaking of Penelope, where was she? Anima hadn’t seen her in a few days, and she really missed her. Maybe it would be a good idea to wait for Penelope out at the playground near the woods, like she had done for her.
So, after school, Anima walked out right towards the slide on the playground with Piro and Katja, where she waited for Penelope. And wait she did… for moments and moments and moments. The sun barely shined, but she waited on… and waited… and waited… but the only person who even noticed her was Piro.
“Menstrual Man! Menstrual Man!” Piro cried out as he ran up to Anima with a stick in his hands.
Oh, God! “What the fuck do you want?” Anima asked in a groan.
“It’s Jason! Jason… Jason…” Piro’s voice strained for a few more seconds, trying to find words to say, but the only thing he could come up with was, “We gotta stop Jason!”
Anima heaved a gusty sigh. “Look, asshole. I don’t have any time for this shit. I’m trying to meet up with someone. Can you please not bother me?”
Piro looked up at Anima’s face, straight into her eyes, with confusion and disappointment in his own eyes. “B-B-But, Jason-“
“Will you please fucking leave?!” Anima shouted at him.
Piro ran away from Anima with tears running down his face and a sad howl coming out of his mouth. Anima heaved a gusty sigh and slid back under the slide where she waited for Penelope once more. Where the hell was she? It wasn’t that late, and it wasn’t that late either. This was boring- oh, so boring! She kind of regretted telling Piro to fuck off, but if she had been playing with him, she would’ve missed Penelope. Nothing was worse than missing out on Penelope! So, she stayed under the slide and tried to entertain herself the best she could.
“Hey, little boy. Want some candy?” Anima mumbled in a small voice.
“Who are you talking to?” a young woman’s voice asked.
Anima jumped in fear, bumping her head in the process. She looked up to see who that was and blushed a deep maroon when she found out it was-
Steam was pouring out of Anima’s ears when Penelope asked that question again. “N-N-N-Nobody! I wasn’t talking to anyone!”
“Then why were you sounding like a creepy pedophile?” Penelope asked, clearly not impressed with the girl’s answer.
Oh… no! “I wasn’t acting like a creepy pedophile!” Anima exclaimed at the top of her lungs.
“Oh, come on! That’s exactly what a creepy pedophile would say!” Penelope argued.
Damn, that was a good point. Anima crawled out from under the slide to see what Penelope wanted from her in the first place.
“I just wanted to say hello,” Penelope merely said.
Anima’s heart sank. Damn, was that really it? Well, that sucked. “H-Hi.” Was that all Penelope wanted to say to her? “How have eh… how have things been doing for you?”
“Fine,” Penelope answered flatly. The two girls just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like hours.
“Jesus, this is getting fucking ridiculous!” Anima thought. She took a deep breath and was about to say something when Katja shouted from a distance, “Anima, it’s time to go home now!”
Damn, it was time to go home already?! They had barely even talked to each other! Anima sighed and looked at Penelope’s eyes. “I’ll… I’ll see you soon, okay?”
Penelope nodded. “Yeah, see you soon.” Then she did the strangest thing.
Anima’s entire face burned; she had never had somebody hug her like this before! She had especially never been hugged as a means of comfort or love before. What made Penelope do that? Why would anyone hug her? She was unhuggable, unlovable, un… untouchable. At least, Anima thought she was untouchable. Maybe not. After all, it didn’t stop him from getting his way, did it?
“Anima, I’ve already told you it’s time to go home now!” Katja called out from a distance.
Anima wanted to move her legs and get the hell out of there, but her legs were stuck and too wobbly to pick up. Anima’s breath sped up, and her heart was beating out of her chest. This was not good, this was not good, this was not…
And then, everything went black.
…
“Anima,” Katja’s voice called out from a long distance, “Anima sweetie, are you okay?”
Anima slowly and groggily opened her eyes to see Katja kneeling right beside her bed. “Wha… What happened?” she asked in a moan.
“You passed out after some girl hugged you at the playground,” Katja answered, “Was that girl someone you’re close with?”
Oh no, that dreaded question. Had Katja figured it out; she hoped not. That would be awful! Anima still remembered what Penelope had said on Valentine’s Day.
“Remember this afternoon when Christian Seger called us faggots, lezbos, and dykes?”
“He’s not the only thing that thinks like that. Lots of people think that, too.”
“I just wanna rest for a bit,” Anima groaned turning away from Katja and from the whole world.
“Are you sure?” Katja asked.
Anima nodded, though barely.
“Okay then.” Right before Katja opened the door, she said, “I just want to let you know that dinner will be ready in about ten minutes.”
As soon as the door shut, Anima heaved a shuddered shy. She couldn’t believe someone had come so close to discovering the truth between her and Penelope, and it was Katja of all people! Anima pulled her green blanket over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She had to be way more careful with her and Penelope; nobody should ever know about their relationship lest they get killed for it.
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