Becoming Riley

Chapter 3-School Secrets

Going to school and keeping a smile on her face came easy for Riley, well at first. Hiding was one of her specialties during hide and seek games but also during real life. Liam, however, not so much. He slowly grew a hard exterior letting only Riley see his softer, nicer side. Both children had merely a few friends at their elementary school but even those friendships didn't last very long.
Alas they never asked for their friends to come over to their house to play. Multiple times the siblings were invited to birthday parties, sleep overs, and field trips however. To which James would always reply with, "No, why do you need to go over to their house?" or "What's the purpose of a field trip?" It was almost as if he was paranoid they would spill his secrets to their school buddies and be taken away forever. This lasted for years; seeing them more as his pitiful prisoners than his own kin James grew more impatient with each time they asked. Shortly after their first few years in elementary school they began to lose friends left and right for being misunderstood about their circumstances. It was then they realized that in the real world Riley and Liam would only need each other; not their father, their friends, nor their love for anything else.
On Riley's final year of elementary school she accepted the fact that her life was not like the others. She became somber at school, rarely ever speaking, not even to the teacher. She was bullied and teased for speaking to no one and when Riley did speak her words formed incorrectly and awkwardly. At home Riley and Liam were never allowed in the living room or kitchen. They spent their growing days in isolation, locked in a room meant for one but roomed with two. The siblings would be sentenced to their bedroom every day by James's new wife immediately after coming home from school. There they would not speak for hours, to no one and anyone, until they woke up the next day to head to school. They often talked to themselves or their own stuffed animals and toys.
It was moments like these that sheltered them during school hours; they knew no one would understand what and who they were. So Riley and Liam played alone, often. During recess, during school, during the bus rides to and from school, and especially at home.
One October afternoon Riley was playing with her stuffed animals alone on her side of the room. Liam, bored out of his mind, strolled over to her and began to play with his old stuffed animals with her.

Liam's stuffed animal was a white bear that had blue pj's on. He named the bear Pajamas. Riley had a pink bear in which she named Sally. Together they would play kings and queens and have their stuffed animals battle for imaginary castles and lands. One time Riley found a broken cardboard box in the closet and the pretended that was wrestling ring and made their stuffed animals go WWE on each other. They played for hours every afternoon and shortly realized that this was a great escape. Until escaping seemed hopeless.

One evening Riley came home from fifth grade upset at one of the girls in her class who seemed to take pleasure in her misery. The girl had forced Riley to eat dirt in order to become her friend. Riley complied, desperate for a friend she consumed a pile of dirt. In turn the girl then shoved another pile into Riley's face and proceeded to laugh and point. This drew attention to the other students. They joined in the mockery. So Riley went straight to her bed and began to cry under the covers when she arrived home. As if the universe was on repeat Liam entered the bedroom and could see her trembling under the covers. He crawled onto the bottom bunk where his distressed little sister lay and told her words she would never forget. "Don't worry sis, one day we'll understand the world and the world will understand us." It didn't stop her from crying but for a sixth grader Liam knew what he was talking about. Liam unpacked his backpack and did homework next to Riley the whole night while consoling her.
"Why are we like this?" She quietly mumbled when Liam was about to get off the bed. Somehow completely knowing what his younger sister meant he replied with "because we have been put in a place like this, that is why." Feeling as if she couldn't comprehend what Liam said Riley spoke with such anger, "How is this fair for us? How could they allow us to be in this household and have to go to school without wanting to tell anyone? I'm scared Liam, I'm scared. What if someone finds out? I don't want to go to school or even come home after it. What's wrong with us? Are we even a real family?"
Liam couldn't look at his sister as she completely let go of her anger. He watched as Riley let angry and hatred for her family cloud her judgment. Liam glanced away from his sister before standing up and said only six short words: "No we're not a real family". The following years Riley and Liam didn't accept their step mother and so called father as their parents but as their Keeper of Happiness.