Traveling Vivian

Chapter FortyTwo - Bullied

Traveling Vivian

Part 42

Author's Note : Some of the bullying were from my personal experiences. I will probably do a time jump in another chapter or two.

In Catherine’s foster house, the new lady treated us with poor handling. Her name was Susan and she was a thin frail blonde lady who seemed to hate the world.  She hated children, more to say. She hated the fact that she had to watch us. Every morning she would wake us up with a long gong and then she would use her microphone and shout for all of us to line up against the walls. She counted us and made sure none of us were missing. When she was done, she walked us into the kitchen and when Catherine always was busting in the kitchen cooking breakfast, Susan would just throw us boxes of frozen waffles and told us to make it for ourselves. She then would lay in the sofa, flipping through channels and calling her boyfriends on the phone. When it was seven thirty, she yelled at us to get out of the house and go to school. Susan was very careless and neglected us more.

School was another drag. The teachers were okay but none of them were as sweet as Catherine or Ana. I stayed with the same age group. I hated being in school too. No one wanted to talk to me or even sit next to me. I mean four of the other girls from the foster house were in my class too but they hung out together. They excluded me.  Flora was the girl with long brown hair, almost like mine but probably lighter. She was the most popular girl in class. Then we had Lola, she was of Mexican descent and she was small but she wasn’t nice. Then there was Maggie. Maggie was a blonde-haired blue eyed girl. She reminded me of Ana but she wasn’t very friendly either.

I guess I was distant from the other kids because I was fairly new and no one seemed to really like talking to me. I was social outcast. I liked to read when we had recess. No one really associated with me. From the rest of the other kids, the other kids were bigger than me and I was too times smaller than them. From the rest of them, I was bruised up from head to toe. I’m pretty sure most of them didn’t had a rough past like mine. They all had a good history and a warm bed to sleep in, as well as a happy mother to greet them when they come home. What I had was a mean old lady who hated children. I looked at them as stared at me.

Lunch time was the worst time of the day. It wasn’t because the food was bad, it was because I never know where I can sit. If I tried to sit next to the girls in my class, they would stare me down. I had to sit in the farthest corner sometimes alone. If there was seat there, I remembered I had to sit at the boy’s table. The boys were a little better than the girls but it was awkward. I hated sitting down next to me. I felt unwelcomed and most of the stuff they talked about didn’t make any sense. I looked at the girls as they laughed at me. The boys were playing ball and threw it across the table. Unfortunately, the guy who was sitting next to me failed to catch it and it landed on my head. The ball rolled off onto my plate of chicken salad sandwich, carrot sticks, and milk. The milk carton spilled all over the tray and rolled off onto the table. Some of the milk spilled onto my outfit as I sat there, unsure what to do.

Lola called out, “Oh my gosh! It’s Vivian, the milk lady! She stinks and she has milk all over herself!”

The other kids pointed at me and laughed.

I was extremely embarrassed. I picked up the milk carton and walked out of my seat, all wet and soaked. The embarrasment of all the children laughing at me. I felt the anger rising in my belly and into my head as i lifted my head up and saw all the girls laughing at me. I threw the milk carton at Lola’s face and slammed my fist into her chest. “Fuck you bitch.”

All the girls stopped laughing and gasped. The boys chanted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Lola rolled off her seat and landed on the floor. She got up and dragged me down to the floor. She pummeled her fists at my face as I kicked her off. In the corner of my eye, I saw Maggie running to the teacher.

“Bitch! Don’t hit me!” I said.

Lola laughed as she spat at me.

The teacher broke us apart as the lady shook her head. “Lola Vasquez and Vivian Houston! To the principal’s office now!”

She walked us to the principal’s office as I sat down in the chair soaked.  Lola fixed her hair as we waited.

Finally after ten minutes, the principal called us in. We walked behind the lady as the principal spin the chair around. I read the name tag as it was Mr. Vince Throdeaux.  He was probably around his forties, he had a ragged bear and he had black hair.  When he got up, we could noticed he was a body bulder. He made us sit down as he waved the other lady away.

When the door was closed, he spoke, “So you two girls. You do know why you are here?”

I nodded as Lola huffed out, “yeah.”

“What happened?” He sternly asked.

Lola got out of her seat and pointed to me, “Vivian punched me!”

I yelled, “she called me mean names like smelly milk lady!”

The principal shook his head. “Girls calm down. Lola, that wasn’t nice to call her names and Vivian, fighting is never the answer. Lola, you have two weeks of detention and I will inform your house mistress. Vivian, you and I will talk.” He called for the lady to get Lola out of the office.

When the door slammed shut, the principal turned to me and smiled. “Vivian, I heard about your rough past. I know you feel alone and scared. I know you feel unwelcomed but you are welcome here.”

I looked down at my fingers and shook my head.

“Vivian, you can tell me. Everything will be better. I promise. “

I looked up at him and nodded. “Can I go now?”

The principal nodded and opened the door for me to leave.

I raced outside the principal’s office and went back to my classes.

~

When the day finally ended, we went home to Susan. Susan glared at me and Lola. She pulled my ear and yelled at me through the ear. “You dirty little whore! You make this facility look bad!”

I couldn’t say much. I stomped on her feet and ran upstairs to the big girl’s room. I locked it tightly and said, “I hate this place!” I wish I could I leave this place but I know I couldn’t. The government stationed me here.  I wondered if Catherine was going to be back. I really hope so. I missed how she ran this place.

~

Things started to look great again during the spring time. Flowers were blooming as the trees started to grow. The air was crisp and clean as the rain fell down on the grass. Birds chirped as flowers sprung from the ground.  Bees pollinated as the days grew longer and warmer. Everything was fall into place because Catherine was coming back!

Two weeks later, Susan resigned from her position when Catherine got better. Catherine hired an assistant named Bella who was just as nice as Catherine. Catherine told us she was going to get well and that we didn’t have to fear anything. We told her about Susan and Catherine shook her head. She was also the reason why Susan lost her license to teach children. Catherine fixed up the house once more and the house was back to a bustling home. We were back to celebrating holidays and going back to story time and watching television. Also, Lola was adopted into a new family so I didn’t have to worry about her. Three more girls were also adopted into better homes. Life was going great again.