A Life of Lies

~5~

~"When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough"~

Sophomore year was an uneventful one until March after the little tiff they had in the beginning and another very small one about how Lillie is always asking them for help on stuff when their busy on their own. Sure, they love Lillie to death, but when they have tests to study for, they don't exactly have the time to help Lillie with French homework or three week old math homework that's already late. Lillie always asked Brielle for help on the French homework. Any other class it wouldn't have been a problem, but considering Brielle was horrible at the subject and only took it because she had to, she got ticked off quite a bit whenever she asked for help.

The year was filled with homework and stress and a multitude of snow days as mother nature decided to dump three feet on them right as finals were peaking around the corner, but the biggest event didn't take place until Brielle and Lillie's shared second semester French class.

Brielle has speech issues, and if you don't know her well enough, its hard to grasp. Lucky for Celeste, she has learned to figure out what Brielle is trying to say, but other people, not so much. Her accent prevents her from saying certain words. Everyone thinks she has an accent, an Irish one is what many say, but its 100% untrue. Brielle just has trouble saying specific words.

She had an incident part way through the year with Hazel and Celeste when she was trying to say the word specifically. It's one word she's always had a hard time saying, and for some reason Hazel and Celeste could not figure out what she was saying.

* * * *

"specif- specific- never mind I'll text it to you guys or something." Hazel and Celeste both looked over at Brielle who was scrunched up into the corner

"no, no continue I'm trying to figure out what word you were saying" Celeste said, turning her attention to Brielle, who's face was red.

"Yes, please continue. What was the word?" Hazel asked, also turning her body towards Brielle.

"I said I'll text it to you. I won't be able to say it."

"Try? I'm sure if you try one more time we can get it. And if we do will you continue?" Celeste asked, trying to get Brielle to understand. She normally can figure out what she was trying to say ,but sometimes it was hard.

"Fine. I was trying to say specif-"

"Specifically?"

"Yes that, anyways..." And she continued on with her story, relieved that someone figured out what she was trying to say.

* * * *

Her French teacher is a dick to say the least. He think's he's funny and the shit, when in reality he is a downright bully. Most kids find his humour hilarious, but Brielle did not.

He made her attempt to say the word 'finger' in french a multitude of times. "doigt" was the word, and it was one that Brielle always found hard to say. He wouldn't give up until she said it correctly, but she was never able to. The entirety of the class laughed, to include Lillie, and although she laughed along, she was hurt.

Why would Lillie laugh at me?

Brielle shrugged it off and just pushed it to the back of her mind. It didn't matter, she was just joining along with the rest of the class, and maybe Brielle was over reacting, maybe it was funny and she was just being over-sensitive.

Until that six worded question came out of Lillie's mouth after class had ended,

"You were faking that, weren't you?" And then she left Brielle in the hallway alone with people rushing around her to meet up with their friends for lunch.