Journey to Psitharis

Chapter 16

Unfortunately my outburst at the guidance counselor's office had permanently branded me as the class sociopath, the one to avoid no matter what. After arriving back to school to less than a hero's welcome, the rumors of my suicidal tendencies had been replaced with the rumors of how I tackled a guidance counselor and punched out a shrink before running down the hallway like a girl possessed. The only reason I hadn't been expelled was my mom and her on-the-ball legal team she supposedly had working on the case had put a stop any action they could take against me, which meant I could do anything I wanted in that school and they couldn't lay a hand on me.

Of course none of it was true, but when the story got back to the parents who had read the article of the suicidal girl attending their child's school most of them were stupid enough to believe it. Now, instead of getting irate phone calls from the people who supported me and wanted the bullying to stop, they were now getting irate calls from hysterical parents who didn't want me to shoot their kids. As far as they were concerned I was a live wire, likely to go off at the smallest slight. After all, what did I really suffer anyway? A couple of silly pictures, a little twist of the wrist and already I was out of control and attacking the faculty and the student body. They called for me to be institutionalized, to be immediately removed from contact with their children. Most of those kids who carried that tale back to their parents were the exact same ones who had left mean, malicious responses on that fake Facebook page. Maybe they thought they were listed on some sort of mental "hit list" I kept hidden in the hidden recesses of my mind. It gave me a sense of perverse satisfaction to think they might be sitting in their house, worried sick they're moronic actions might get them killed by a psycho like me, but truthfully all I wanted was to be left alone. If that meant living out the rest of my high school career in uneasy exile, so be it.

Astonishingly the bullying stopped. The page was taken down again, the pictures disappeared from Instagram and the other sites and nobody dared mention my name in their own posts, lest I add them to that hit list. I was still an outcast, but as long as I behaved they left me alone. Talk of my behavior in Ms. Martin's office died away, and after a couple of weeks and a resource officer eyeing me suspiciously every time I walked through the metal detectors without a suspicious "beep" things settled into a set pattern of avoidance and my life of solitude continued. Nobody talked to me, but nobody pestered me either.

And there were some good points to the rumors that surrounded me. Every morning I got a seat on the bus all to myself; I actually took to sprawling out on the seat, extending my legs across the empty space and allowing my feet to dangle off the edge. I watched as people nervously maneuvered their band instruments and their heavy book bags around my sneakers so they wouldn't accidentally bump into me. Sasha, Jennifer and Peyton took exceptional care in avoiding my gaze or coming anywhere near me when we passed in the halls or had classes together. So did Peri, but it had been so long since we spoke we were just strangers who cast sideways glances at each other, as if somewhere long ago we remembered being friends.

At home Mom was trying desperately to get that guy to speak with her again, to no avail. She took her foul mood swings out on me, which was quite often. She wouldn't let reporters interview me anymore, for fear she would forever be known as the mom who threw her kid to the wolves. Besides, if anybody dug much deeper they'd find a little report where DSS was eventually informed that my broken arm at the age of eight wasn't exactly an accident. But she blocked those reporters "because she cared about me so much." I had known her for far too long to buy that.

Aurora managed to bounce back from the fiasco quite well. She and Jessica were thick as thieves, as long as the topic of unfortunate relations never came up. Jessica most times had a total bitch for a sister and Aurora had in me a complete nutcase. In a way the girls that surrounded her admired her for facing such "adversity" with a perfect head of hair and just the right flair for fashion. But one of the things that sincerely impressed me about my sister was her uncanny ability to adapt to any situation, and having a crazy sister was no exception.