Fan to Family.

Prison For Non-Criminals

 Beep, beep, beep! My phone demands for me to get up. I slowly sit up, grabbing a random shirt and a pair of jeans. I change into them, then gather my stuff for school.  

I walk out of my room, finding my way to the kitchen and grab and banana. I then quickly walk out the front door. Mark and Luke open their front door. I keep my head down and my hood up. They get on the sidewalk right next to me. Luke purposely knocks shoulders with me and laughs.

"Hey Eli, did you figure out that you don't have friends yet?" Luke laughs. I just ignore them and walk on.

Mark walks in silence.  As Tyler says, sometimes quiet is violent. I pull out my phone and check the time, even though I have no reason to.

"Who are the gay guys?" Luke asks with a smirk. I immediately become angry but I don't show it.

Mark smiles, "Did you see her face for a second, she looked ready to murder someone."

I pick up my pace. "Where you going?" Luke asks, faking hurt. I just walk. "Look she's ignoring us!" Luke exclaims. I can hear the smile in his voice.

I see the bus roll up to our stop. I get there just as it stops. I walk up and trudge on sitting in the very back seat on the left. I slouch into it and lean my head against the window. Luke and Mark sit in the seat across from me. "What happened to your face?" Mark asks sounding concerned. Nice acting.

I just watch the few houses pass by. "Do you know how to talk?" Luke jokes. The bus pulls to a stop. Three more people get on. They all laugh and joke around. One keeps smiling at the others. They seem so happy. More kids trickle onto the bus. Our small town in Michigan is low in the kid count.

Then finally the bus stops in a neighborhood with about 7 kids, the most out of all of them. They file into the bus and find seats. One walks down the aisle and sits next to me. She smiles widely. Her smile drops when she sees a huge black bruise on my cheek and the corner of my eye.

"Eli....." She trails off.

"Kira....." I trail. I hear a gasp.

"It has a voice!" Luke exclaims. Kira turns to him. She flips him off and turns back to me.

Her face does not look very happy. "Kira what's going on?" I ask quietly. She looks down at her hands. She picks at her nails.

"I'm moving," She looks into my eyes. My heart sinks.

"But...Kira, what about hell?? What will I do?" I rant. I've know her since I came here, 2 years ago. I'm 14 now and she's leaving me for hell.

"I'm sorry. I have to go. My dad got a job in Europe and we have to go," She says. I hear laughs from next to us.

"She really is the unwanted mistake!" Mark and Luke burst out laughing. I look down, feeling tears prickling my eyes.

Right then the bus stops and were at the prison for non-criminals. Also know by its formal name, school. The kids in the front file off laughing, and messing around. I just look at the floor. Luke and Mark whisper behind Kira and I. It's raining so we all get wet walking into the building.

I open my locker and put everything away. I grab my binder ,which I bring to every class, and my English notebook. I then walk down the hall way to first hour. I open the door and Luke shoves me into it. I look down and walk in. I find my seat and sit in it. People all mess around and talk. I sit silently. The bell rings and everyone sits down. Our teacher, Mr. Damon, stands in front of the class. "Who knows what the word vaguely means." About 3 people put their hands up. Our teacher pulls out a bin of Popsicle sticks with our names on them. He pulls one out.

A smile plays on his lips. I look down messing with my note book. "Ah..." he trails. "Elizabeth," I look up.

He stares waiting for me to answer. I'm not gonna answer, I know the answer but I do not talk in front of these people.

"Answer," He tells me. He watches my every move. I just stare back. He sighs. He's been trying so hard to get me to talk, he has never heard my voice in class. I talk to him some one on one but not with a bunch of people around.

He looks to someone else, but his gaze quickly comes back. He trains his eyes on my cheek.

I tilt my head so my hair covers it. I see him swallow then asks another student to answer. Class goes on with him teaching us about random big words we can use in our writing tomorrow. Thursdays are always writing days for the whole hour.

The bell rings. I gather my stuff while the other file out. I stand up and start to walk out. "Eli, please wait," He asks kindly, from behind me. I turn and look at him.

The door slams as it closes. "What happened to your face?" he asks. He's one of three faculty members who actually knows that I have problems with the Forster Jerks, all three of them also know that I get bullied. They just don't know any details. The silence drones on for a moment before he breaks it. "Did he hit you again?" Mr. Damon asks. He's easy to talk to being he's only 25. He's the only one who knows the gruesome truth.

I just nod. I hear him sigh. My hand subconsciously finds my rib. I wince a little. Tears prickle my eyes.

"What happened there?" I asks, his hand lightly touches mine.

"He kicked me," I whisper. A tear rolls down my cheek.

"You can stay in here for a while, I don't have much of a class for the next few hours." He tells me. I nod. I sit down at his desk like he always lets me. He walks over next to me and picks up the phone. He dials a number, probably my next hour teacher. He's momorized my schedule for this purpose. "Hello," He says, placing the phone to his ear. He pauses.

"She's here with me," He says to the other person.

"I'll probably have her for a while, she's helping me with something then I'm going to help her with some homework problems she needs help with," He says. The other person says something. "Okay, bye."

He sits down on his desk. "My class starts in 5 minutes, do you wanna talk about it real quick?" He asks. I shake my head. "Okay, kiddo. Well you can stay there and do whatever on my computer while I teach," He says standing up as kids come in.

"Why is she in here??" Luke asks in a mean tone. I look down.