Table for 6

Part 5

"Ummm... Did anyone, uhh... By any chance leave their water bottle by the gym doors?" Aisha asked shakily. I pretended I couldn't hear her.

"What does it look like?" Macy asked.

"Well... It's baby blue and has white circles on it. Sound familiar?"

"Catarina, don't you have one like that?" Asked Kathy.

I looked up, pretending to be startled. "Yea, I guess I do. I will have to get it from you after class, Aisha."

"Table of 6, be quiet. You are supposed to be working on your French worksheets." Mme. pointed out.

"Sorry Mme." We all chorused.

After working on the work sheets for 45 minutes, we started to get really bored. Ryan suggested we play this Alphabet game. Basically, you need to insult the whoever's turn it is next. But, your insult of choice has to start with the next letter in the alphabet. Of course, we had Ryan start because it was his idea. (Some words I will not repeat.)

"Let's see... A will have to be (insert swear word beginning with 'a'.)" Ryan said grinning happily.

"B is going to be... bad." Said Kathy.

"Oh, come on! You have got to be kidding." Ryan whined.

"Sorry Ryan, but none of us swear, and we aren't going to swear for the sake of your little game." Macy said.

After making it through the alphabet twice, with the hardcore insults coming only from Ryan, the bell finally rung for recess.

I found Aisha, and asked for my water bottle back. She told me to follow her. She stopped in front of her locker, then looked at me intently and said, "How much did you see?"

"Well... Not that much really. Only the part where... Your dad... Ummm... Slapped and kicked you." I burst out, feeling liked I had betrayed her.

"Please," She looked at me with upset eyes. Then continued to say something I never would've expected, "Help me."

"I would but, what could I do though?"

"Anything, really. Maybe you can come to the school in the morning with me for my basketball training. And after school we could do stuff together... I just don't want to hurt anymore." She suggested with tears filling up in her eyes.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I didn't know how. It isn't really that easy. I couldn't exactly walk up to someone and say, "Hi, I'm Aisha and my dad abuses me on a regular basis.""

"You're right. We'll need to get a little help somehow though. Maybe we can talk to an adult."

"I'm not two years old! I know that telling someone won't always make it better. I need to be proactive in a different way. Like, if someone witnessing the brutal beatings that I take every day." Aisha looked at me pointedly, you could see the pain and hurt in her eyes.

"Well then, this could take a lot of planning. I'm not sure how we'll do it, but somehow I'll make it all work out." I said with hope filling my voice. " I don't want you to have to hurt anymore."

"Thank you." Just then, the bell rang and I began heading towards my own locker. Suddenly, right before I was out of earshot, Aisha said "I know about Kathy."

I stood there frozen until my senses caught up with me.