Beatrice

(1.) It always starts young.

"No, Mama, no!" You say in creole. Your mom would always send you off to classes on manners and etiquette for girls held at church every Saturday.

"Beatrice, don't get smacked up side your head. The Lord is the only thing stopping from doing it, I'm dead serious. Get your ass in that church." Your mom said. She never actually hit you, the last time a belt connected with your body was when you and your cousin was cosplaying as cowboys with your dad's leather belts.

You stomp a foot on the ground, pouting and stomping to the doors of the church. "And fix your face." Your mom yells from behind, as you walk further and further away from her.

You step foot into the church and see other little girls your age with books on their head, walking all around the church. Eventually they stopped and stared at you and that's when you realized that you were the darkest person in the church. Your hair black, kinky, frizzy, and in locs. The white girls look at you like you were an alien.

You thought nothing of it and walk further and further into the church. You walk up to an old white nun with a ruler in her wrinkly hands and say, "'Scuse me, ma'am. I'm here fuh the Etiquette Elementary Program-" you get interrupted by the nun.

"Young lady, I'm going to need you to bring your voice down. The first key to being a desirable woman is being a woman that is soft spoken." The nun said, not even having the decency to look you in the eye or just at your face in general, walks away after speaking.

You tilt your head in confusion. "I ain't no woman, I just got outta kindergarten." You reply. All the little girls gasp and mutter when you reply back.

The nun stops in her tracks and turns around walking up to you. "Another key component to being a decent woman is being able to shut your mouth and take criticism. That's a key factor a lot of women of your race lack." The nun bends down and looks you in the eye.

Your face drops in disbelief as she says those words. You hear "Ooh"s from all the little white girls and start to feel embarrassed, but that embarrassment turned into anger.

The nun gives you books and tells you to balance them on your head to improve posture. You did it. You did all the tasks she required of you, but any slight mistakes would get you punished, usually you would get hit with the ruler

This torture went on for the rest of the Saturdays through the summer until first grade started for you. At that point you officially resented the standards females were held to, and molded yourself into a way that you liked, not a way that others required of you.

"Let's go Kitties, let's go!" *clap, clap*. The only thing heard at recess. The kitties versus the duckies. Baseball was the sport that was played the most between the boys at recess.

You always wanted to play, but girls could either watch, or play with dolls, they could never play the actual game. You would sit there pouting on the bleachers with your arms crossed as you watched the boys play. 'I bet I can play really good.' You always thought to yourself.

"Why you always so pouty fuh?" A boy asked you. He was sweating and took off his mitt and stood next to you on the bleachers. You ignored him and he said, "Ignoring me? That's not very lady-like."

"I don't owe you an answer to nuthin'!" You yell and glare at him, then look back at the game with madness still spread across your face.

"That's not what they teach you." He replied, grinning.

"I don't think you're a first grader and my mom told me not to talk to random older people. They might not have good intentions." You dismiss his claim.

"I'm only in third grade and I'm not gonna do shit to you." He says. You look at him with wide eyes, surprised he said a curse word.

He chuckles and holds his hand out for you to shake it. "I'm Louis. And you are?" He asks.

You shake his hand, "I'm Beatrice." You mutter, look away in shame realizing how mean you were.

"Now tell me why you're always so pouty every time I see you out here." He says.

"I want to play baseball." You mutter.

"Well then, why won't you?" He asks.

"I can't, they won't allow girls to play. If they catch you playing, you get 10 lashes and time out facing the wall." You answer his question.

"Oh. Well then just do it anyway. If you get caught, I'll take the blame for it." He says.

Your eyes lighten up and widen. "Really?" You ask.

"Really." Louis reassures you.

"Okay!" You exclaimed and make your way to the field.

Once you guys get to the field a new game starts. "Hey guys, this girl Beatrice wants to try." Louis says. All the boys look confused, but shrug it off and give you a bat anyway.

"Just leave our names out of it if y'all get in trouble, we don't want lashings." A random kid in the field yelled.

Louis grabs a ball and goes to the base to pitch it to you. "Okay, Beatrice. Keep your eye on the ball and try to hit it. If you hit it in the air, run from base to the next base." Louis says.

Louis throws it and the bat connects as you swing it. Other children start to scream and cheer for you and you laugh and chuckle as you run. Sand and mud getting onto your cute little red dress as your locs fall out of the red bows left behind in the sand. Children cheer you on as you pass base after base.

In the corner of your eye you see a little boy chasing after you with the baseball. You start to run faster. The cheering gets louder as you get closer to home base, but you couldn't run anymore. Your feet were now off the ground. It wasn't because you were flying, it was because the priest picked you up and stopped you from participating in baseball any longer.

"Hey!" You scream, kicking around and struggling.

Louis seeing this, smirks and runs up to the priest, kicking him in his shin. The priest groans, but grabs Louis in a harsh manner and takes you both to his office for your guys' punishment.

A few minutes passed and you were sniffling and crying from the pain the ruler inflicted on your wrists. Louis got lashes too, but he wasn't crying. You guys were both facing the wall.

Louis turned to you and frowned when he saw that you were sad. "Hey, you wanna be friends?" He asked. You stopped crying and looked at him. You nodded and slightly smiled.

You guys both started to giggle and the priest shushed you guys.

Fin.