Leena and Kelly Davidson have always lived a comfortable life. Neither girl has ever held a job nor did they intend to get one. All they wanted was to live off their parents’ money for their rest of their lives. What could be better than that?
By the time they were eight years old, they were receiving monthly allowances that were more than enough to pay a mortgage on a home. After reaching their ninth birthday, both girls received diamond encrusted cell phones courtesy of their mother (without their father’s knowledge), and that was only the beginning. Exotic vacations around the world, private planes, and endless shopping sprees filled Leena and Kelly’s lives. After returning from their trips that many people could not afford to see, they would return to school to brag about their latest adventures.
Most students especially girls did not like them but the ones who did tried hard to impress them. Those girls who so desperately wanted to be like them would buy what they thought were legitimate fashions from sellers on street corners, and some had even stooped to the low of stealing their parents’ credit cards and money just to have the latest designer hand bag or shoes. Leena and Kelly found delight in knowing that these “wannabes” would go through so much trouble just to be like them. The parents’ of the “wannabes” didn’t find their children’s behavior so amusing. Those two little Davidson devils had somehow caused their straight “A” honor roll daughters to become thieves and unruly, disobedient children, and this was only middle school!
As the girls got older, they became known around the school for wearing the latest designer fashions. Juicy Couture, Dolce & Gabbana, and Roberto Cavalli were just a few of their favorites, and having lawyers for parents definitely helped. Even their home was as massive as their wardrobe. The place that they call home is a Mediterranean style 6,200 six bedroom and six and a half bathroom estate. Their parents’ room as well as their own each has a balcony surrounded by arching iron gates that overlooks the swimming pool, lake, and fountain in the backyard.
The girls’ mother, Kathy, always made sure that their closets were stocked with the latest designer fashions. When the girls were younger, she would take them to the mall and tell them which stores to shop in and which to avoid. Besides shopping she also introduced them to the hair salon and spa. Their father, Ridge, on the other hand was simpler. He enjoyed fishing and watching football in his spare time.
After returning home from work to one too many half cooked chickens and burnt carrots, Ridge decided that he was going to hire a chef. He knew that his daughters would appreciate eating something other than hotdogs and chips.
Although Leena and Kelly enjoyed eating the meals the chef prepared, they did not like him. Brody was a short, chubby, jolly fellow who prided himself on his work. Although Ridge insisted that he live in the guest house, Brody politely declined. Instead, he arrived at the house at 5:30 a.m. each morning to prepare breakfast for the family. His days were long so he wouldn’t leave until around 7 p.m. each night with the exception of weekends. He was never late nor did he miss a day. Cooking was his life. It was how he made his living, and he loved to prepare food for others. It was his love for his craft and determination that led him to work for some of the most prominent families in the Hattiesburg area. Some of his past clients included plastic surgeons, musicians, doctors, and politicians.
Late one afternoon during a casual conversation at Denny’s, he mentioned to some of his past colleagues and friends that he was now working for Ridge and Kathy Davidson. Everyone at the table rolled their eyes upon hearing the name “Davidson” and warned him that the children were little monsters just like their mother. He had been working for the family for two weeks, and the children hadn’t given him any trouble so he figured that they were over exaggerating. Besides, he had dealt with snobby and rude children before so this wouldn’t be anything that he couldn’t handle. He didn’t know how wrong he was.
The teasing began several weeks after Brody started working. Leena had made up a song she’d sing to ridicule him. “Fatty McPatty’s too ugly and fat to be my daddy,” she would sing. Hearing her say this about him made the chef want to call her every name in the book aloud, but he was on the job so he opted to only think such thoughts instead.
Although he didn’t show it, it greatly affected Brody because he had battled weight issues as a child. The summer before he began high school, he cut out all soda and fast food from his diet and lost forty pounds. After entering high school, he was teased about his weight occasionally but had gained more self-esteem and confidence and silenced anyone who would dare mock his past pain.
Next, Kelly started to bother him about how much money he made. She told him that he was poor and that she didn’t like poor people. Of course Leena would always add her Fatty McPatty rhyme into the mix. Brody did not want to alert Ridge of these happenings because from past experiences he knew that this would only make things worse. The parents would always take their children’s side because they were always right even when they were wrong. Sometimes Kathy would be within earshot but she wouldn’t intervene. Brody figured that she must be the one who taught Leena and Kelly how to be rude and disrespectful. Whenever their father was around, they were perfect little angels. Brody would not hear a peep out of them. Despite that he knew that the girls were sneaky and devilish just like their mother.
The final straw for him was when Leena and Kelly put butter on the floor in the dining room and kitchen. He was carrying one pack of bacon and was about to get breakfast started when he suddenly felt his feet slip from beneath him. He slid from the dining room to the kitchen. While in the kitchen, he tried to grasp onto the counter so that he could lift himself up, but this time he fell onto his back, and then a bucket of pancake batter fell on top of him. He let out a loud shriek of pain while the girls laughed so hard that they held their sides. He was so full of anger that he cursed at the girls and Kathy. He was very respectful of women and children, but Kathy, Leena, and Kelly did not deserve respect. They made him miserable and he was the one who was providing a tasty service to them! A part of him wished that Ridge was there so that he could have seen what his so called precious little angels had done, but he figured that it would be of no use to try to prove to the man that his children were the cause of his injuries. There was one thing that Brody was certain of: he didn’t want to step foot into the Davidson household ever again. He didn’t return to work the next day. He sued and settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
Unbeknownst to Kathy, Leena, and Kelly, Ridge had video surveillance cameras installed inside and outside the home. One of the cameras inside the home showed Leena and Kelly’s treatment of the chef. It also showed every little detail that had occurred the morning the girls played their horrible prank on him. Their father was disgusted with what he saw. His wife was worse than he had previously thought, and she was ruining their daughters. As punishment for their treatment of Brody, Ridge made Leena and Kelly apologize to him; wash the dishes for six months; and he took away their allowances and cell phone privileges. He had a long conversation with Kathy and told her that she should apologize for allowing everything to continue but she refused.
Several years later the Davidson sisters’ remain unchanged.
The bell had rung. It was time for lunch. Tammy Moore watched her classmates race each other to the door to be first in line for that oh so delicious cafeteria food. She slowly put her math book, calculator, and mechanical pencil in her orange and black polka dotted back pack.
She hated lunch time. Ever since it had been revealed that she had sex with Kelly’s ex-boyfriend, Lucas and was carrying his child, her fellow classmates had turned against her. She was called a slut repeatedly throughout any given day. No one would sit with her during lunch time; and with a cafeteria that could hold more than 300 students, this definitely made her stand out in a bad way.
She was constantly being attacked online. Someone had gone so far as to make a website titled MoreTammyMoore.com. The website featured photos of her in risqué p
oses and sexual positions with Lucas. A caption such as “Fat Slutty Moore’s Awake” was above a photo in which she was nude and yawning in his bed. Another caption titled “Good Girls Like Moore Too” was above another photo in which she and Lucas were having sex. But some of the worst photos that she hated were the ones with captions about her weight. Tammy had always been on the chubby side. In the past, she had tried to diet and exercise. The truth was that she hated dieting because she loved to eat food, and she hated exercising because she was lazy.
Although she was pregnant, it wasn’t going to stop people from making fun of her weight. Knowing all of this made her not want to enter the cafeteria. But she was low on funds so she couldn’t leave campus to eat elsewhere. She looked down at her growing belly and felt intense hunger pains. When she looked up, she saw her hand reaching for the door knob.
The school cafeteria was plagued with long lines. Although the food may not have tasted the best, the hungry students were ready to dig in. Many of the rumbling tummies had not even filled up on breakfast that morning.
Amongst all of the hungry faces, there were two who had never bothered to eat the cafeteria food. They were sitting at the third table, which was not their usual spot, so they could be near the front of the cafeteria. Both girls could tell that some of the students were angry that they had taken their seats but they didn’t care. The angry students’ names weren’t on the seats or the table so it didn’t belong to them. Besides, it was now property of Leena and Kelly Davidson and according to them, they could have what they wanted when they wanted and the table was now theirs.
Kelly Davidson glanced at her phone for the millionth time. Then, her eyes scoured the cafeteria for one person in particular and this person still had not yet arrived. She crossed her arms in frustration.
Sitting across from her at the table in the middle of the cafeteria was her older sister, Leena. She didn’t even bother to look at Kelly. She could feel her frustration growing, and she herself was slowly becoming irritable. This time it was her turn to look at the time. It was 12:14 P.M. Leena sighed and tucked a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
Tammy was stalling. Most students were usually in the cafeteria by 12:05 P.M. She knew that Tammy couldn’t be in her mother’s classroom because she was teaching freshman English. She could have left school to eat lunch elsewhere, but Leena hadn’t received a text that this had occurred from any of the student workers in the school’s office. The last possible place that she could’ve been was the bathroom. Leena chuckled to herself at the thought of Tammy laying her eyes upon the beautiful, hand crafted artwork that was waiting for her there.
Kelly was growing more irritable by the minute and began popping her gum. Leena gave her an agitated look. She didn’t chew gum anymore because it made her hungry. Pop! She hated the sound of gum popping. Whenever Kelly did it, it sounded like fireworks.
“Stop popping that damn gum!” she demanded.
“What else do you want me to do? I’m sitting here wasting my time by waiting for a pregnant slut who’s late for lunch,” Kelly replied.
Leena rolled her eyes.
“This is the one thing that she’s supposed to be early for,” Kelly added. Her sister didn’t bother disputing her on that one.
It wasn’t long before she heard Kelly pop her gum again. Pop! P-P-P-P-Pop! She could no longer take listening to her sister’s bubblegum fireworks. “Look there’s Tammy right over there!” Leena said, while pointing at a crowd of students that were still waiting in line.
“Where?” Kelly inquired. She stood up and looked around the cafeteria from side to side, but she didn’t see Tammy anywhere. This provided Leena with just enough time to reach into her sister’s purse, grab her pack of gum, and toss it into the trash without leaving her seat. Kelly saw her throw her pack of gum into the trash can out the corner of her eye.
“Hey!” she exclaimed. She frowned at Leena. “What did you do that for?”
Leena studied her younger sister for a moment before responding. “You need to learn how to be patient,” she finally said.
“What does that have to do with my gum?”
“You pop your gum every time you get impatient.”
“So what?”
“Learn to be patient. Besides, good things come to those who wait.”
“Well, if you would’ve taught me patience when I was younger, I’d have it by now.”
Leena rolled her eyes. “Must I do everything?”
“No, just most things,” Kelly answered.
Leena closed her eyes and shook her head.
“What are you doing that for? I can do all the other stuff, you know.”
The cafeteria door opened and Tammy stepped inside. She could feel eyes watching her, but after a second or two, those same eyes returned to their plates. She was aware that there were two pairs of eyes that were watching her every move, but she couldn’t be worried about that. She needed to eat something not only for herself but for the baby. The tacos, corn, and double fudge chocolate cake would definitely do the trick.
To avoid making eye contact with Leena and Kelly, Tammy chose to sit with her back towards them at the first table nearest the exit. Leena wasn’t surprised at all but this angered Kelly. Sensing that her younger sister was about to take a trip to see Tammy, Leena extended her right arm in front of her. “Remember patience,” she stated.
Kelly rolled her eyes. Whoever came up with that word is stupid, she thought to herself. She couldn’t understand why Leena was making such a big deal about being patient. She had never bothered her with this before so why start now? Her eyes were literally staring a hole in the back of Tammy’s head. Leena could be patient if she wanted to but Kelly felt as if she had wasted enough time waiting. She felt herself rise to her feet and begin walking in Tammy’s direction.
Leena didn’t bother to stop her. She had already decided that she was going to stay seated and watch her from afar. She would only intervene if necessary. She watched as Kelly made her way to Tammy’s table and carefully sat down beside her.
Tammy’s heart skipped a beat when she felt someone take a seat beside her. She didn’t have to turn around to see who it was because she already knew who had finally come to pay her a visit. She didn’t want to say anything because she knew that would only make things worse. There really was nothing that she could say except “I’m sorry” and she didn’t want to say that.
She wasn’t sorry for sleeping with Lucas. She had despised Leena and Kelly for a long time. Why were they the only popular girls at school? She wanted to be popular too and the only way to do that was to get some sort of attention. She decided to do something that she knew would hurt Kelly, so she slept with her boyfriend and bragged about it to people who she believed were her friends. But the tables turned. The people who were supposed to be her friends turned on her and now everyone at school hated her. She was known as “the other woman” and that was never a good thing to be.
Lucas wasn’t any better than Kelly was. When she found out that she was pregnant she called him and met up with him at a local coffee shop. She was nervous the entire time, but she wasn’t going to let her nerves get the best of her. She took a deep breath and a sip of her latte.
She began the conversation by asking him general questions such as how he was and how his family was doing, but he didn’t seem to be quite interested in having a conversation with her. They had a one night stand and neither really knew the other so she couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be there with her. His suggestion was that they cut out the small talk and go back to his place for more sex. When she declined, she could tell that she had really lost him. It was obvious that he viewed her as only a booty call, but that was not going to be happening anymore because she didn’t want to have sex with him. She just wanted to tell him that she was pregnant but now the fear of telling him was starting to set in. Lucas was an eighteen-year-old boy and most, if not all of them, are not ready to be fathe
rs. He was going to have to find out sooner or later, and in this case, sooner was the best choice.
“Did you use a condom that night we were together?” She looked away from him as soon as she’d asked the question and stared at the black and white tiled floor.
“No, you didn’t tell me to.” She put her hand on her face. She knew it. “But I pulled out,” he quickly added.
“That’s not one hundred percent effective.”
“So what? I mean, it’s not like you’re pregnant or anything, right?” When Tammy didn’t answer, he knew what the obvious answer had to be. He sighed and sat back in his chair. This couldn’t be happening to him. He was supposed to be graduating in the spring and going out-of-state on a full academic scholarship to a four year university in the fall.
“Yes, Lucas, I’m pregnant,” she finally admitted.
“It doesn’t matter ‘cause I’m not the father.”
Tammy stared at him square in the eye. “Yes, you are.”
“Don’t ever call me or text me again. Just lose my number.” With that, he got up and walked out the coffee shop with Tammy still trying to bring herself to understand what had just happened. The only reason she had slept with him was to hurt Kelly, but it wasn’t worth the trouble that it was causing her now.
Kelly could sense that Tammy was uneasy and it made her devilishly happy.
She was still eating those disgusting tacos and corn. Kelly couldn’t understand why someone would want to put that junk into their bodies. She had always believed that cafeteria food wasn’t really food so eating anything that came from a cafeteria was definitely something she wouldn’t be interested in doing. She thought it would probably lead to massive weight gain and that was something she wasn’t willing to find out.
She continued to watch Tammy without saying a word. She was waiting to see if her tongue would be quick to say something but it didn’t. So now it would be up to her to break the ice.
A brightly colored orange and black backpack caught her attention. She couldn’t imagine carrying such a hideous bag around campus. People probably would have mistaken her for a beautiful flower and she hated flowers because of her allergies. “Nice bag,” she said without looking up. Tammy didn’t get too happy; she knew that an insult must be around the corner. “It makes you look like a felon,” Kelly added, her eyes now meeting Tammy’s. And there it was.
Tammy remained silent.
“I just wanted to let you know that I dumped my boyfriend. So now you can have him,” Kelly said.
This pleased Tammy greatly. She had finally defeated a Davidson. “He was already mine,” she boldly stated.
Kelly’s face formed a deep frown. “He chose me to be his girlfriend not you. He chose you to be his one night stand because he knew how easy you were.”
Her words stung hard but Tammy was determined to not let it show. No matter how hard she tried she could never beat Kelly in a verbal assault. She was just too much. “You can have my sloppy seconds since you like taking men who don’t belong to you,” she added.
Tammy could feel everyone’s eyes on her and it made her uncomfortable. She already knew what they thought about her. The tears were definitely threatening to spill at this point.
She heard a loud bell. Lunch was over but that didn’t mean that Kelly was finished.
Tammy grabbed her back pack. She wanted to leave and get out of this cafeteria as soon as possible. As she stood up to leave, she heard Kelly’s voice, “You should really learn how to keep your legs closed to other girls boyfriends or else your unborn child may turn out like you—slutty and all.” Tammy could feel a lump form in her throat. It was time to make a break for the exit. Kelly watched her hurriedly make her way towards the door. She was in such a big hurry that she didn’t even put her lunch tray away.
Afterwards, Leena approached her younger sister. She was impressed with the way that Kelly had handled herself. She expected her to shout and cause a huge scene but she did the complete opposite. She kept her voice steady and didn’t let her emotions get the best of her. “Looks like you’ve learned patience,” Leena said with a smirk.
Kelly’s eyes were glued to the door as if she expected Tammy to re-enter them. A warm hand touched her shoulder. “Are you still not satisfied?” she heard her older sister’s voice ask.
Nothing.
Leena tilted her head to the side. The cafeteria was now nearly empty. The only students who remained were the few who were at the end of the line earlier, and she didn’t want any of them to overhear anything that would be said to her sister. Although they were sitting several tables away from the girls, she knew that they were straining their ears to hear their conversation. They were the school’s celebrities after all. In a low voice she said, “If you’re not satisfied, then what else is there to do?”
Kelly now turned to face her. “What isn’t there to do?”
Chapter 4