After yesterday Cami was not ready to return to school. She’d gotten up early to catch her mother before she went off to work and told her that she felt ill. Diane checked her temperature to be certain that she didn’t have a fever, and she didn’t but since she was pregnant, she allowed her to stay home and get some rest.
It would’ve been the best time to tell her mother about Leena and all of the stress that she had been causing her at school. But she decided against telling her. She just didn’t feel as if it would do any good. Besides, she was getting closer and closer to graduating. Graduation was the day that she looked forward to because after that she’d probably never see Leena or Kelly Davidson ever again—except around town which really didn’t bother her too much.
After her mother and sister had left, Cami sat alone in her room and surfed the web. She browsed clothing websites before she began taking quizzes.
She was trying as hard as she could not to think about Leena but her mind would always come back to her. She was the main reason that Cami didn’t want to go to school today. She wanted to go a whole school day without being called a name or receiving some sort of disapproving look from her.
It was times like these that made her wish that she could be more like Kaci. She wanted to be brave just like her and take on Leena and anyone else whenever they bothered her because one day Kaci wouldn’t be around to fix everything for her; she’d have to fix it herself. And if she couldn’t take her problems on, they’d defeat her before she’d even have a chance to start and she couldn’t go down without a fight.
She could feel her eyes begin to water. She shut her computer down, rested her head on her pillow, and began to cry. All she wanted was for Leena to leave her alone. In addition to being pregnant, she had to listen to insults about herself daily from her. It just wasn’t fair. She didn’t do anything to her to deserve this. The only person at school she really would even talk to was Marissa and Kaci. She didn’t bother anyone else or create any problems, and yet some of those very things made her a target to Leena Davidson.
After she poured her eyes out for almost an hour, she went into the bathroom to wash her face. The cold water felt relieving, and as she looked into the mirror at the reflection staring back at her, she noticed how red and swollen her eyes were from crying. She’d have to take a nap and rest so that once her mother and Kaci returned home, they wouldn’t notice.
Then, she glanced down at her hands which were slightly shaking. She took several deep breaths and tried to calm herself down in order to make her hands stop shaking.
It worked.
But as soon as she took one last look at herself in the mirror, she was beginning to realize that she couldn’t go on for the rest of her Crossroads High stay like this. Things would have to change.
Later that afternoon when she had awakened, she found Kaci sitting on the other side of her bed. She didn’t turn all the way around because she didn’t want her to see her red and swollen eyes. It should’ve subsided some but she didn’t want to take a chance with Kaci this close to her.
“So what did you do all day?” Kaci asked with her hands behind her head and her feet kicked up as if she was in ultimate relaxation mode.
“I mostly just slept all day,” she answered with her back still facing Kaci, who was now looking over at her.
“You just can’t sleep all day.”
“But I’m pregnant and pregnant women sleep a lot.” She grabbed her mirror off the nightstand and examined her eyes to see if the red and swollenness had gone down any, and she was pleased when she discovered that it had.
“I’m not sure I want to have kids someday,” she heard Kaci say.
By this time, she’d turned all the way around and was facing her sister. “Why not?”
“I’m not trying to scare you or anything but childbirth is supposed to be very painful.”
“Yeah,” Cami agreed. “But they give you something for that to help ease the pain.” She tried not to think about it for fear of freaking herself out.
She remembered as a child hearing her mother tell the story about how she felt as if she was going to die when she was giving birth to her and how she forgot the pain as soon as she’d laid eyes on her. It made her wonder how on earth a woman could forget something that nearly killed her just because she had seen her newborn. She wasn’t certain, but as she gazed down at her growing belly, she knew that she’d find out soon enough.
And to think that this was the reason why she was pregnant: He edged his face closer to hers until their lips were touching. Their tongues danced wildly as the desire began to build in her. She pulled back but only to feel his wet tongue on her neck and shoulders. There were times that she’d wished that she would have waited to have sex. Had she waited, she wouldn’t have to worry about labor pains and all of the other things that pregnant women worried about.
“I didn’t scare you, did I?” Kaci said, jokingly once she’d noticed how long Cami had remained silent.
“No, I try not to think about that stuff ‘cause it scares me a little,” Cami admitted.
“Really?”
“Yeah, but you still shouldn’t give up on having a family of your own someday.”
Kaci sighed a little. “If I could wake up when it’s over, that would be nice,” she said before giggling. Cami laughed right along with her. She had no idea why they were laughing because nothing that she’d just said was funny (at least not to Cami). But there they were giggling. Cami enjoyed little moments like these with her sister because it always made her feel better no matter what she was going through.
“Are you better now?” Kaci said still giggling somewhat.
“Of course,” she answered. “It felt good to laugh.”
“I read in a book that it’s actually supposed to be healthy for your body.”
Cami gave her an ‘I don’t get it’ look as she brought herself to a seated position on her bed.
“I read it in one of Mom’s health magazines. I think it’s on the coffee table in the living room.” Cami was about to go downstairs to get the magazine but Kaci grabbed her arm and quickly added, “I’ll get it for you.” In less than one minute Kaci had went downstairs to collect the magazine for Cami and then returned to her older sister’s room.
“Thanks,” Cami said, as she handed it to her. “So how was school today? Did you learn anything new or interesting?”
“No,” Kaci answered sighing.
“You sure?”
“As if I wouldn’t know if I’d learned something new,” Kaci said with a laugh.
“So did you run into Hattiesburg’s most stuck-up today?” Cami asked her.
Kaci rolled her eyes. “I see Kelly every day. She’s in my child development class. I honestly can’t wait to get out of there because all she does is talk trash about people.”
“They both do,” Cami added knowing all too well how it felt to have one of the Davidson sisters talk trash about her. She’d had one too many run-ins with them—all of which she wished had never happened.
One day just last week, Leena asked her how many guys she’d slept with. Then, she intentionally tried to trip her so that she’d fall. Instead of saying something, she just let it happen as if she somehow deserved it. And that was the way that it was nearly every single day. But deep down she knew that she didn’t deserve it—no one did.
“Well,” Kaci began, as she flipped Cami’s television off, “some girl made Leena angry. I don’t know what she did to her but it must’ve been pretty awful or either the girl’s just scared because she’s transferring.”
“So she’s just going to let Leena run her off?”
Kaci nodded. “I guess so.”
Cami looked forward to the day when she and everyone else at school for that matter wouldn’t have to worry about Kelly or Leena Davidson. How they treated people and the things that they did were just awful. There simply was no cause for such behavior.
She wondered if Leena and Kelly were as horrible
at home as they were in school and if their parents were as awful as they were. Quite frankly, she and the rest of the school would be better off without them.
She didn’t understand how they could be so cruel to people and not think anything of it.
They had to know that the way they treated people was wrong. Then, she remembered something that her mother had always told her as a child, “When you do bad things to other people, some day it will all come back to you.” Whenever that day for Leena and Kelly came, she wanted to have a front row seat to watch it play out in action.