Being “the pregnant girl” around school wasn’t easy for Cami. As if her situation wasn’t bad enough, she had to go to school and hear people call her horrible names and these people were usually Leena Davidson and her posse.
Cami could feel her stomach tie itself into knots every time she entered calculus class because she knew that Leena would be there. She tried to be in class on time every morning so that she wouldn’t have to walk by her just to get to her desk.
Most of the students wouldn’t bother her but Leena and her posse always did. And she’d let them. She usually didn’t say anything to defend herself and whenever she did, Leena would always come back with something better. It was as if Leena was using a blade to cut away at her piece by piece. But Kaci and Marissa wouldn’t allow Leena to talk to them any kind of way that she pleased. They’d stand up for themselves and Cami (whenever they were with her).
This morning would be no different. Cami had to have an early vomit session before she entered calculus. After cleaning herself up, she knew that she wouldn’t make it in time before Leena arrived. She really didn’t care if Leena’s friends were there or not because they didn’t seem to bother her if Leena wasn’t around.
As soon as she walked into class, she could feel her stomach tie up into knots which made her feel ill. Leena was sitting in her usual spot—the third row from the front—and as she gazed across the room, it looked as if she’d be walking for an eternity before she even made it to her seat in the seventh row.
“Loser approaching. Loser approaching,” she heard Leena whisper loudly as she passed her to make her way to her desk. She and her friends burst into fits of laughter until Ms. Morrison shushed them. None of the other students said a word because most of them were all too afraid of what would happen if they dared to get on Leena’s bad side.
Cami was so anxious to leave class that once she made it to her desk, she’d constantly check the time every five minutes or so. She wondered to herself if it would always be this way. Why did Leena care whether or not she was pregnant? She wasn’t the one who was carrying a baby so it shouldn’t have mattered to her.
Then it hit her. Leena was just trying to make her life as miserable as she possibly could because that was the type of person that she was. She created misery for others and left it in her wake. Like many of the other students, Cami couldn’t wait until the semester was over. She prayed that they wouldn’t have any more classes together.
Thirty minutes of class had passed before Cami felt herself becoming sick once more. Her stomach was still tied in knots (as it was any time she was too close for comfort to Leena). She wasn’t sure but she felt as if she might have to vomit.
This couldn’t be healthy for the baby, but she didn’t know what to do. The principal, Ms. Lovett, wouldn’t help and she feared that telling her mother would only make things worse.
She wished that she could be more like Kaci or Marissa. Nothing scared them—not even Leena and Kelly.
Although class wasn’t over just yet, she packed up all of her belongings and made her way to Ms. Morrison’s desk and was surprised when Leena didn’t send an insult her way. But boy, could she feel the hatred in Leena’s eyes staring at the back of her head.
She asked Ms. Morrison if she could be excused to go to the restroom and the polite, old woman told her that she could. She reached for the hall pass and didn’t turn back—knowing who she’d see staring back at her.
Once she made it to the restroom, her stomach unknotted, and she realized that she didn’t have to vomit after all. But she knew that the moment she stepped foot back into Ms. Morrison’s class, her stomach would go into knots once more. All of this because of Leena Davidson who happened to be not only the most popular girl in school but the school bully. Thinking about her was enough to make Cami want to puke.
The bell would be ringing soon so she washed her hands and walked back to Ms. Morrison’s class to deliver the hall pass. The bell had rung before she could make it inside the classroom so she waited one by one as the students exited.
She felt someone bump into her as they walked past her. She slightly turned her head to the side and saw an evil grin on Leena’s face. “Oops, sorry,” she said in a very non-apologetic way.
Just then Kaci walked down the hallway and bumped into Leena nearly knocking her over into another fellow student. “Oops, sorry,” Kaci said to her with a frown. Her sister was pregnant for crying out loud. What was wrong with Leena Davidson? Did she have nothing better to do but bother people all day long?
“Why you little…”
“You do realize,” Kaci began, cutting her off, “that my sister is pregnant.”
Students were out and about trying to get to class and there were a few teachers around but none that were close enough to hear what was going on. Although Leena could’ve easily put Kaci in her place, she declined since they were out in the open around so many people.
“I don’t care if she’s pregnant,” she whispered to Kaci meaning every word of it.
“Well, then, I suggest you find someone else to mess with because if I ever see you doing that to her again I’ll put you ten feet under.”
A look of surprise came across Leena’s face. “Ten feet, huh?”
“Yeah that way even the dogs won’t find you,” Kaci whispered back to her and then grabbed Cami’s arm. Cami glanced back at Leena and saw a startled look on her face before that all too familiar grin appeared once again.
After returning home from school, Cami made a dash for the kitchen and began to eat some of her mother’s homemade baked cookies.
She didn’t always tell Kaci or Marissa about what Leena would say to her at school. She didn’t want them to think that she couldn’t stand up for herself but after today she wasn’t so sure if they’d be wrong in thinking that.
When Leena purposefully brushed up against her earlier, she didn’t say or do anything. Even after Kaci came along, she still didn’t say anything. She was starting to think that she didn’t have it in her to stand up to Leena Davidson. But she knew that if she didn’t start speaking up, she would be like many of the other students, doormats that Leena could walk on whenever she pleased.