The Girl Next Door

Chapter 6

Leigh-Anne stopped to take a breath right in front of her house. She had run so fast and so far.

"At least I'm not at that horrid place again." She stood straight and stretched herself.

"I left my stuff over there though." She pulled the script out of where she stuffed it in her skirt. "Oh. I can give this to Jesy now." She ran eagerly to her friend's house.

Leigh-Anne met the door unlocked when she turned the knob so she just walked in. She assumed that Jesy was in her room so decided to go there. Something caught her eye.

The house was small and the living room was very close to the kitchen. She looked around the kitchen and noted how old it looked. There was a scent of rust in the air. "The fridge is small too." She opened it and found that there were only a few things in it. "Poor Jesy." She whispered now moving to the living room.

Leigh-Anne saw that the TV was an old one. The couch was small and looked like it should be at a grandmother's house. As she walked, the wooden floors creaked and she almost felt she would fall through.

Leigh-Anne saw a picture of four people on the TV stand and stopped. Everyone in the picture was smiling. "Aww, look at baby Jesy." Jesy looked about four in the picture. Leigh thought she resembled a little cabbage patch doll. Jesy's brother looked like one too and their parents looked happy. I wonder where they are now. I've only ever seen Jesy around here. Did they abandon her? She felt even sadder for her friend. I wish I could help. I should start bringing her food every day.

After she did her looking around she made her way up the old staircase and looked for Jesy's room. There were only three rooms. The one that was down the hall was the bathroom and the others at the left and right walls were bedrooms. One was empty and looked deserted while the other had Jesy lying on her back with a book to her face in it. "There she is." She ran inside and then jumped in front of Jesy's bed. "Boo!"

Jesy sat up and put her reading material down. "What's going on?" She frowned. "Why do you look more like a snack than usual and why are you here so early?" She now realized where Leigh was. "Why are you here?" She had never let any friends over before. This felt awkward. She could not even offer a drink if Leigh-Anne got thirsty. Well I could but I'd have limited things to drink for myself later.

Leigh-Anne sighed. "Let's just say that the plan to ignore them didn't go so well." She saw a plastic chair by the window and decided to sit in it after turning it to face Jesy.

"So they covered you with food to get you to listen to them?" Jesy eyed her with concern. She didn't know that bullying could actually be as severe as it was portrayed on the TV she used to watch when she was much younger. "Damn."

"Well more like one of them 'accidentally' dropped their food on me. I know it wasn't an accident. She was being mean on purpose." She put her hands on her lap and sighed. "Everyone laughed. It got even worse when they pretended that there were flies around me and I freaked out. I ran into a wall. At least everyone at school has been entertained for today right?" She sounded sad.

Jesy did a pout. "That sucks. I think you should tell next time. I bet that that girl is some kind of smart ass goody two shoes. If you tell on her she'll get in trouble and it'll ruin her reputation."

Leigh-Anne shook her head. "That's a bad idea. Like you side before, I'm just going to end up looking weak and lame." Tears began to leak from her eyes. "My head hurts. I hope I don't have a concussion. That'd suck."

"I doubt it. How hard did you hit the wall?"

"Hard enough for me to fall to my back from the force." She touched her forehead and felt the pain at a bump which was forming. "Noooo. I can't let my mum see this." She sighed. "Let's not talk about that now alright?" She tried a smile and then showed Jesy the script. "The drama teacher says that it's A-okay for you to audition on Monday. What do you say?"