Nicki&thePips

Chapter 9

Nicki was in a word; afraid. She didn't even know what to think of all this. Jade had scratched Roc's face. Perrie refused to talk. She shook her head as she entered the dining room. She didn't want to alarm the other kids.

She took in all of their little faces waiting for her so they could start eating. Everyone seemed normal besides Prod and Roc who looked miserable. And Jesy was eying Roc's bandages in a weird way. As she sat she noticed that Jade was missing.

"Have any of you happened to see Jade?" Nicki asked after they prayed.

"I think she went to the basement." Ray Ray said taking a bite of chicken.

Why didn't Nicki think of that before? Her poor Jadey was probably freaking out at the thought of drawing blood from anyone.

Nicki excused herself from the table and went down to the basement. She knocked on Jade's sturdy cardboard door and was surprised when Jade opened it up looking completely fine. There were no signs of tears or fear. Jade looked if anything more relaxed, calm . . . satisfied.

"Jade are you okay?" Nicki asked sitting near her open door.

"I'm fine." Jade crawled out of her panic room, closed its door and sat right next to Nicki.

"Did you really scratch your brother's face?" Nicki asked a bit hesitantly.

Jade nodded, "I didn't mean to. He was just saying some really mean things and I di-n't mean to do it but I did." Her voice sounded like she was faking the sincerity.

"But Jade you can't just scratch people's faces when they hurt your feelings. You need to practice some self control." Nicki said a bit bewildered.

"I'm so sorry. You're right I must have gotten a bit out of hand. That was uncalled for and it won't happen again." Jade got up and started making her way up to the dining room.

"Jade I'm gonna have to punish you though." Nicki thought for a moment of the punishment. She knew just what would make sure Jade never did anything like this again.

_______________

This was probably one of the worse things Jade ever had to experience. She was at school on the next Monday and it was recess time. A lot of kids were playing different games on the courtyard and in the play ground but Jade was just sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall eating slowly. She usually would get lost in the world of the latest book she borrowed from the neighboring high school's library or whatever she got Nicki to buy. Today she was without a book for punishment. She wasn't allowed to read for the rest of the week. She didn't even know how she'd managed last week.

She cringed at the sounds of the children screaming and laughing. She never understood how running about like that could be considered fun, how screaming could in any way display pleasure. Did they like feeling sweaty and hot? She didn't like the way most of the kids dressed either. They all just seemed so juvenile and . . . stupid. She always wore something that was similar to the uniforms she had seen in the anime manga and anime shows that she read and watched. She was even complete with a tie sometimes.

Of course her choice of school attire always caused her to be taunted but she didn't care. She wanted her new life to have everything she'd ever wanted in it. She'd wear school uniforms and be a straight 'A' student, she'd sign up for things like Ballet and Tap which she already knew a good bit about thanks to books and simply seeing them being done in different places she'd been. She'd be a joy to have around, she'd be polite and smile and she'd be everything anyone could ever want in a child.

But most importantly she'd be safe. Safe from everything she'd ever witnessed, everything she'd ever been through in her seven years of life. You'd think that as a seven year old it couldn't be that much but sadly it really was a lot. Too much. And the photographic memory she had from since birth made it very hard to forget. She needed her books back to block all of that out. She had to read, keep learning new things to hopefully one day forget the bad things.  She hoped that their was a limit of some sort to her memory -that if she kept filling her head up, eventually she'd forget some things to make more room.  Yeah she just wanted to forget . . . kind of like the way Perrie does . . .