Short stories

Beauty

She pressed her books against her thin chest, head bowed. Slowly, she went to her classroom. Students were circumventing her, laughing in her back. The girl couldn’t see their faces because of her hair which fell before her eyes. She stuck against the wall to let them pass. She knew other students made fun of her after she had passed. She entered the room and walked to the front desk, near the wall where she tried to disappear. She would have loved to melt into it.

“Hello everyone,” Sister Helena said, entering the room. “It’s today that we will begin our presentations.”

Her announcement was greeted with sighs of exasperation. The nun took a list containing all the names of her students. She watched the list for a short time before setting her eyes on the girl sitting in front of the class.

“Parker, Anny, can you come in front of the class to do your presentation?”

The girl looked up at Sister Helena, begging her with her eyes. She didn’t want to go first. But the nun contented to shrug her shoulders, motioning her to move to the front of the class for her presentation. The other students laughed. Anny closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to hold back her tears not to cry in front of everyone. It was already quite humiliated like that. She made her presentation even if nobody was listening. She hurried back to her seat when she had finished.

New laugher welcomed the end of her presentation. The class continued as if nothing was wrong. Anny wasn’t listening. As usual, she wanted to be forgotten. Her next class was hardly inspiring: it was gymnastics. She sought a way to skip it. She could pretend that she wasn’t feeling too well, she was sick. Perhaps the school nurse could help her.

She was disappointed when she went to the nurse’s office. There was already someone with her. She had to go to the gym for her class. She changed very slowly, hoping everything would be canceled because the teacher wasn’t there. Again, her wish wasn’t granted. She still managed to survive anyway. Nobody paid any attention to her, even ignore her. It made her very happy. She was ignored throughout the whole period, but she didn’t care. She barely looked at the others playing basketball. She didn’t like sports. Team sports made her uncomfortable because she had to play with others and nobody wanted to play with her.

Students returned to the locker room. She quickly pulled her wool jacket on her regular uniform before closing her locker. Caroline approached her, looking furious.

“Can you stop looking at me?”

Anny frowned, shaking her head.

“I wasn’t looking at you…”

“Liar! You looked at me while I dress up.”

“No…”

“Anny’s a lesbian!” Julie cried out mockingly. “She likes girls!”

Caroline turned to her friend before she burst out laughing too. Hands on her hips, she walked over Anny, showing her breasts. She was wearing only her bra and her skirt.

“I know I’m pretty to look at.”

The other girls began to giggle while Caroline continued. Julie stood behind Anny and pushed her violently against the row of lockers, shouting lesbians shouldn’t have the right to attend gym classes with normal girls. Elian, one of Caroline’s friends, stepped forward and grabbed the girl by the shoulders.

“Since when are you looking at girls? Is that why you never had a boyfriend? Because you’re a lesbian?”

Anny looked around, bewildered. Tears of shame slid down her cheeks. She began to sob. She couldn’t control anything. All the girls from gym class laughed at her, mocking, accusing her of being a lesbian. She slid along the lockers, her hands on her ears. She closed her eyes and screamed like crazy before rushing out of the locker room. In the corridors, students and teachers watched her flee without understanding what was happening. But most of them suspected the cruel fate reserved for her.