Skeletons

Chapter Four

           

*Note from the author: Sorry this chapter is a little short but it's all done for a reason. The next chapter will hopefully make up for the shortness of this chapter*

Lila sat in the last period of the day, English, trying her best to make it through the end of the day so that she could just go home and relax. Although she had tried her best to look unbothered by her bump in with Austin at lunch, her mind was racing with so many different emotions and thoughts. Sure, she was proud of herself for sticking up for her friends, but she had this nagging feeling that somehow, this would turn around to bite her in the butt. Nobody just gets away with retaliating against Austin Jameson, there are always consequences, Lila thought to herself, rolling her eyes and shaking her head and looking back up at the chalkboard.

Her teacher, Mr. Salvatore, was informing the class about some new project they had. He sat perched on the edge of his desk. The sleeves of his blue button down shirt were rolled up exposing his forearms and he had his hands crossed on his lap.

"This essay is a lot freer than a lot of the other ones you have received in this class. You don't have to follow a strict formatting or do anything specific. This project relies heavily on you and your creativity," Mr. Salvatore announced, looking around the class at his students. He was new and quite popular with the students because of his more laid-back teaching style. "Your project is to create a plan for a business, something that you can relate to and something you think can help someone. Write an essay about what the business is, why you can relate to it, and how you think it can help people. Don't limit yourself and think outside the box. It will be due in six weeks so get to thinking and creating."

Lila looked down at her notebook and at the top of a blank page, she wrote in crisp cursive, Business Plan Essay Ideas. Lila's mind was racing with many thoughts, but she couldn't think of a single idea for her business plan essay. There was nothing she could come up with that she thought could benefit people. What did she know about helping people?

As she was searching her brain for any idea that could benefit her in this project, she heard the chimes of phone notifications throughout the room. A few moments later, she could hear people whispering and laughing. She could feel eyes all throughout the room focused on her. Distracted from her notebook, she looked up and gazed around the room and the people around her. People were pointing and laughing at her, not bothering to hide the fact that all the commotion had been caused somehow by Lila. Suddenly, the phone that was resting next to her notebook lit up and a notification popped up on the screen. Cautiously, Lila picked up the phone and swiped the screen to unlock it and see what the notification was about.

A gasp escaped her lips as the notification opened on her screen.

It opened to an Instagram account with the username "SluttyLilaTisdale." As if that wasn't bad enough, the account had pictures of Lila's face photoshopped onto the bodies of mostly naked women. Some photos looked so realistic that if it were anyone other than Lila photoshopped into them, she might have mistaken them to be authentic.

Lila clicked through a few of the pictures, her stomach churning as she heard the people around her whispering and laughing at her. She felt violated just looking at the depictions on the screen. They were crude, body parts barely if at all blurred out.

"What's that smell?" a boy in the corner of the room said. "The smell of a hoe." Lila felt almost frozen in place as the people around her filled the room with laughter.

"That's enough," Mr. Salvatore said, obviously completely oblivious to what the students were doing, unaware of Lila being seemingly moments away from a mental breakdown.