Lila's Lament (Part 2)

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Sorry for the late post.... Happy Reading!

Lila's Lament - Part 2

“A group of girls at school have been teasing me and making fun of me for whatever reason, I just don’t know why.  I guess, they just picked me one day to start picking on and it hasn’t stopped. I’ve seen them do this to other people a lot. Even the teachers notice and they do nothing.  They’ve vandalized my locker, tripped me in the hallways, harassed me in gym and I can’t understand why they would pick me to be their next victim. This has to stop mom… I need your help.  See look at my phone” 

Lila hands her mother her cell phone.

Monica scrolls through the countless number of heartless messages.

You suck.

You’re so ugly and fat. Why don’t you just shot yourself?

I heard you’re a bastard child… do you even know who your dad is?

You’re so ugly no guy would ever want you.

The messages started off as just name calling, then they escalated into threats and sexual and derogatory statements.

Monica released a long sigh.

“Lila, I’m so sorry that you have to go through stuff like this.  What kind of kids are these girls? What kind of homes do they come from?”

“I don’t know mom… I don’t know, but what I do know is that I’m getting tired of this.  I’m supposed to have lots of friends and have a good time in high school.  It’s like everyone I was friends with are distancing themselves from me because of these bully girls.”

“Well, if you lost friends for no reason, they weren’t your friends to begin with. Make new ones.”

“Where?”

“Well, how about the girls at dance school?”

“Yeah, they’re nice, I guess.’ Lila shrugs

*****

“Five, six seven, eight!”  Yelled Lila’s dance teacher as the whole class fell in sync to the music and performed the combination they were just taught.  They repeated it over and over until it was seemingly perfect.  Lila didn’t mind working so hard and dancing so much, it took her mind off her current social situation.

“Okay, girls… excellent job. We’re done here, you can go home and rest.”

Lila liked her dance class and she liked the girls in her class.  There was no one from school that attended her dance school, so it was like another world for her. These girls in dance class were nice and mature; it was like a sisterhood.  They bonded over their common interest…dancing. Lila went to the dressing room and immediately heard her text alert going off.  Ten text messages? Oh man, they’re at it again. 

Lila would give anything to stop receiving harassing texts.  She even had to de-activate her Facebook page because she was getting ridiculed on there too.  She thought about changing her cell phone number as well, but didn’t want to inconvenience herself with a new number because of them.

Lila sat on the bench not knowing what her next move should be. Shaking her head, looking at her phone…this situation is getting out of control.

“Hey Lila, what are you doing after class? You wanna go get some pizza with us?” Sharon, her dance mate, asked.

“Ummm, sure I guess” Lila shrugged. She was a little apprehensive but welcomed the promise of new friendships.

*****

Lila came home from hanging out with her dance mates feeling really good.  Her phone was going off the whole time while she was out, so much so that she had to put it on vibrate. She was having such a great time that she didn’t want to cloud her good time with the negative and harassing texts she was receiving.

She walks into the living room and her mom and Louise are sitting on the couch watching Degrassi.

“Hey Lila, how was dance?” Monica asked

“It was great mom, I had a really great time.  You were right making new friends makes me feels so much better.  Even though, I still keep getting these texts…”  Lila took her phone out of her jacket pocket and passed it to her mom.  “I think its time for me to change my number, and I know I asked you not to talk to my principal, but I can’t take this anymore. Please do what you can. I'll give you these girls names so you can call their parents. I'm so over this, I just want them to leave me alone.  I’m tired of being scared of what they may do.  Having such a great time this afternoon with the girls from dance made me really realize that its up to me to take control of this situation and free myself from this bullying.  If we don't, it will never stop.”

Short Fiction: Lila's Lament (Part1)

Lila’s Lament

All she could do is think about how they hurt her. All but thirteen years old, Lila feels like she’s lived a lifetime. She sobs as she lays on her bed; sniffling and wiping away the salty tears that are pooling on her forearm.

“Lila!, Dinners ready!”

She looks at her fingers out stretched and then turns her hand over. Examining all the lines on her palm.  Trying not to think about them, ignoring her mother’s yells about dinner.  Who could eat now? Doesn’t she know I’m in turmoil?

Her bedroom door opens and it’s her little sister, Louise.

“Come on,  Mom wants us down for dinner” she said.

Lila just rolled over facing the opposite side of the room, wiping away the rest of her tears that hadn’t yet dried.

“Are you crying?” asked Louise.  She ran over to Lila’s bed. “Why are you crying? What happened?”

“Nothing, I’m not crying, just tired. Tell mom I’ll eat dinner later, I’m not hungry”

“Okay”

Louise knew that Lila had been crying, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it because Lila seems to be always crying.  Louise is seven years old and in the second grade and she couldn’t understand why Lila was always so unhappy. Why she cried so much and why did she care so much about boys and her friends.  It all just seemed like a waste of time and energy to Louise.

Louise went downstairs.  “Mom?”

She ran into the kitchen…”Mom, Lila said she’s not hungry now and that she’ll eat later”.

“What? Why?”

Louise shrugs…” I don know, that is what she said”  She sat down at the kitchen table and waited for the word that it was okay to start eating.

“Well, I’m gonna go talk to her, you go ahead and eat, I’ll be right back with your sister”.

Monica Stanger is a single mother who works as an elementary school teacher during the week and as a yoga instructor on the weekends.   She had a very bitter divorce from her husband (Louise’s father) and has worked hard ever since to provide her girls with a good life, nice home to live in, food on the table and an all around stable environment.  Lila loved her step father and was devastated when her mom and he broke up, because her biological father was never in her life.

Monica was a teenage mom and when she told him that she was pregnant, he denied her and the baby.  She took care of Lila on her own, with the help of her family and hasn’t heard from him since then.

Monica softly knocks on Lila’s door and opens it. When she walks in Lila is on her bed balled up in a fetal position. Shaking her head Monica immediately wonders which kind of adolescent turmoil is plaguing her this time. Fight with her friends? A boy? A teacher? A bad grade?

“Mom, please I don’t feel like eating right now. I’m not hungry”.

“Yes, Lila. I heard, but I came up here to make sure that you’re alright. What’s wrong”?

Monica sits at the edge of the bed near Lila and runs her hand across her cheek, getting the hair out of her face.

“Mom, I just can’t take it anymore.  I’m so tired of the kids at school. Every time I turn around there’s someone new talking about me or lying about me.  People who I thought were my friends are not and it’s really pissing me off”. 

The moment Monica heard that, she prayed that Lila wasn't being bullied.

To be continued...

Back At It.....Changes To My Blog

I’m baaaaccckkkkk! 

I’ve been gone for about five months and just came back from a wonderful vacation with my very significant other; we went to Los Cabos Mexico for four days and Las Vegas for two. We had the best time. I’m mentally rejuvenated and ready to create.

For some time there’s been a struggle between me and my pen & paper that I couldn’t really understand.  The distance made me realize that my fear of failure AND my fear of SUCCESS, yes I said SUCCESS… held me back.

Recently I read two fantastic books that really changed my perspective on how I should be going about my writers journey as well as my life journey; Write It Down and Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, both must reads for ALL.

Without going into further detail, these books made me determined to get off my ass and not just think about my dreams of a successful writing career but to actually make them happen and to ask myself “Why not me?”  I can be successful too just like any other successful author out there, that CAN and WILL be me. I deserve it.

So here I am, out of hiding.  This blog will change directions and be completely dedicated to promoting my writing by posting weekly (every Friday) works of fiction (short), poetry and/or commentary.

I don’t know why I hadn’t done this sooner, (actually I do know… pure laziness and fear!), but hey, better late than never!

Happy Reading.

See you Friday.

Smooches

Martine