"Do you want my pear?" Vee asked. It was the last day of the school year, and the cafeteria roared.
Carter pulled her head from the crooks of her elbows- exhaustion made her eyes burn red. Sweat beaded from her pores, causing her black t-shirt to stick to her back like tape.
Grace and Mark argued last night about something- Carter never knew what stemmed their fights, but she couldn't imagine it mattered. She had waited the dispute out initially, even when she could hear Mark yelp in sharp pain, and Grace slam into the wall a moment later, Carter stayed silent in bed.
Carter adapted to have loud thoughts. Thoughts to drown out whatever was going on down the hall. Her mind wandered as the night went on. The end of the school year was approaching, and she could throw away her notebooks soon. As summer vacation comes to an end, Grace will probably take Carter for new school supplies.
Carter had mixed feelings over summer vacation. She hated being at school. She felt overwhelmed around so many people so different from her. But it was a guarantee out of the house in the mornings- as Mark or Grace could refuse to let Carter go to Vee's if they wanted to. Usually they didn't. But Carter always worried.
Vee's was Carter's favorite place to be. She adored Nadia and Cole. Nadia always seemed more like a mom than a sister. And Cole could always keep up with Carter's shenanigans when Vee didn't want to. Though she and Cole had hardly seen eachother since they all played in the park. He was older and becoming more busy with his other friends, Carter reasoned. And some days he didn't leave his room anyway.
Some time after dark, when the shouting ceased, Carter dared to venture from her blankets to brush her teeth. In the small tiled room, there was only the sound of Carter scrubbing away plaque. Seconds ticked by and toothpaste foamed around her lips as she shared an empty gaze with her reflection.
The silence broke when Mark hurled open the bathroom door, which startled Carter so bad she rammed her toothbrush into the back of her jaw. She coughed and lurched forward onto the bathroom counter, dropping her toothbrush in the sink. She looked up to the mirror, where she could see Mark tower behind her.
"You too!" Mark barked, grabbing the back of Carter's blue t-shirt and ripping her from the bathroom and into the hall, "No one ever fucking helps around the house!"
He shoved her into the living room. "Look at this shit!" He hollered, waving his hand over the house, "I work all fucking day and this is what I come home to! Bullshit!"
Mark made a massive step towards Carter and left only an inch of space between the two as he looked down on her with his fiery blue eyes.
Carter opened her closed fist, and throwing out her hand, Vee plopped the bruised fruit in her clamy palm. Carter pressed on the brown splotch lightly with her thumb, eyeing the impurity. Following, she wrapped her lips around the bruise and bit. Chalky juice welled around her teeth and stung the cut in her mouth, but she chewed greedily nonetheless.
"You're always so hungry after gym." Vee teased. "You should write yourself notes so you don't forget your lunch anymore."
"That's smart." Dylan grinned lightly, exposing a gap between his two front teeth as he admired Vee's idea. His curly brown hair was speckled in glitter... from.. something. Carter had been distracted as he told his story. Something about Brian and art class.
Tiana chimed in suddenly and loudly. "I fricking hate gym!" She groaned. "Miss Packerson is the worst! She talks to us like she's herding cattle's!"
Carter rolled her eyes. It's 'cattle', idiot. She thought at Tiana. The sentence sat at the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself from spitting those words out.
"I know!" Vee agreed. Then she sighed heavily, "I wish I was brave enough to just skip class like Carter. Especially in this heat."
"If you skip too much you'll get in trouble." Carter murmured, "They call home and shit."
Justin spoke through his ham sandwich, "Then stop skipping."
"I wasn't complaining." Carter told him, somewhat sharp, after another bite of Vee's pear. "I'm just saying you'll get in trouble."
Justin barely glanced at Carter in response.
After finishing the fruit, Carter kicked Vee lightly under the packed lunch table. Carter attended class with most of the students she ate with, but barely cared to remember their names. They were friends of Vee- not her. And that's okay.
"I'm heading out." Carter informed her friend.
Vee's naturally pale face dropped just slightly. "Oh- okay. Already? Okay. I'll see you later, Carter. Are you coming over after school?"
"Uh-huh." I nodded, "I'll meet you by the kids playground."
"Oh come on!" Logan teased, "This is the last day of us eating lunch together as eighth graders!"
"Yeah! Stay!" Tiana agreed.
"I'm tired." Carter murmured, scooting her chair back and prying her shirt from the stick of her back.
"You can nap here, like Omar!" Jessica laughed, nudging her boyfriend with her elbow.
Irritation welled in Carter's shoulders as her peers watched her expectantly. She wasn't friends with any of these kids! She knew that, and and knew that. Why are they being so persistent? So obnoxious? Why are they trying to pry where they don't belong?
"Hey! Guys!" Vee beamed suddenly, rifling through the contents of her backpack, "Do any of you have sharpies? You should sign my yearbook now!"
"Oh! Right!" Tiana gasped, "I brought this really cool silver sharpie!"
Carter adjusted the collar of her hoodie before swinging her nearly empty red backpack over her sore shoulder. She pulled out of the cafeteria, the abbhorent sunlight engulfing her so brightly she had to squint her eyes.
"You're it! No tagbacks!"
Several third-graders chased each other around their designated playground, Carter noticed. A boy in a green shirt had just tagged a girl with long brown hair. She darted for the mass of her peers, who scattered when she started for their direction.
"Kelly's it! Run!" One of the other boys yelled.
Excitable squeals aggravated Carter's throbbing headache.
Massaging her temples, Carter spotted the children's teachers on a nearby bench. They talked amongst themselves and cast discreet glances at a third teacher walking back from her lunch break, her eyes glued to her phone.
When she was certain she wasn't being watched, Carter turned around the side of the building and made way for the woodland surrounding the school.
Spotting a fallen tree not too far off, Carter made way in its direction. She sat down, then leaned against the tree, her backpack providing a buffer between her spine and the rough bark.
She folded her hands over her flat stomach and slowly succumbed to the elements around her.
Sunlight spilled between the pines, forming small pools of bright color on the quiet forest floor. Birds chirped and small rodents darted through the undergrowth. In the distance, a lizard skittered across decaying leaves.
Carter absorbed the warmth like a reptile and her heartbeat became slow and rhythmic. Her breathing; deep and steady.
It was the school dismissal bell that woke Carter up. She bounced to the her feet, and on her brisk pace to meet Vee by the childrens playground, she pulled leaves from her black hair.
