The Masks We Wear

Chapter 9| For Her Sake

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me."
~ Carol Burnett

{ S C A R L E T T ' S     P O V }

I took a deep breath, and entered the modest sized house. Today was my first day coming home to my dad and stepmother's home.

I was immediately welcomed with the aroma of fresh baked cookies. The smell wafted through my nose, making my stomach growl.

"Scarlett!" My stepmother exclaimed. She rushed out of the kitchen, with her baking gloves still on.

"Hi, Mrs. Royale." I said awkwardly. When my mother and father divorced, I received my mother's maiden name; Quentin, and as you can obviously tell, Royale is my dad's last name.

"Please! Call me Carol." She giggled. "Mrs. Royale makes me feel old!"

"Sure, Carol." I grinned. She was  really nice lady. Perhaps a tad bit too friendly, but who am I to judge?

"Well, you can go down to your room! It's second to the left." She told me. "Drats, the cookies are burning." She mumbled, and hurried away.

Okay then.

That was interesting...

Following her instructions, I opened the door to my room. It was a pretty nice room, I guess, slightly smaller than my room, but it'll do.

I flopped on the bed, and just thought about life.

I find it funny how I ended here.

You see, the bullying, I knew it would never end. Everyone knew my name, and not for a good reason.

In one of the early states of my bullying, I made a huge mistake.

I told one of the teachers. It wasn't even that bad of an injury. I just told that teacher that they willingly threw a ball, at my face.

She suspended that guy for two days.

However, his friends, just bullied me even more. And when he came back, well.

I don't even want to recall that.

I learned a valuable lesson that day.

The principal can't expel the majority of this school. And even if he somehow does, there will always be their friends, who would get revenge for their friends.

And here comes my main point.

I could've told my mom about this. She would understand that she can't go up to the principal and ask him to expel all those students.

She would simply want us to move. Say goodbye.

Maybe that would have been a better solution.

But I wasn't that selfish.

I can't ruin everything for her.

She was happy. For the first time in a while, she wasn't lost in a state of sadness. I could see the sparkle in her eyes that wasn't there before. The occasional giggle.

If she moved away, she had to leave her boyfriend as well.

I couldn't do that. As I slowly closed my eyes,  I felt myself emerge into a deep slumber...

***

Do you ever have those dreams where you know you're dreaming, but you just physically can't snap out of it?

Today was one of them.

It was one of those memory dreams. A memory that I didn't want to relive. But as much as I willed myself to wake up, snap out of it, it wouldn't work.