In The Rain

Chapter 12

I will not fight in school ever again

I will not fight in school ever again

I will not . . . Leigh was writing those words on a page over and over again on each line.

She was in her room sitting at her work desk with a notebook open. Part of her punishment was to fill an entire hundred page exercise book with that sentence, covering the front and backs of each page. Her mother wanted to see the book filled when she came back. If she did not then Leigh-Anne would face more punishment. She was afraid of what else her mother could do.

The point of her pencil snapped for the third time and she dropped it. She flashed her right hand to get rid of the cramps in it then hurried with her sharpener to sharpen the point. She did not want to waste any time. It had been a while since her mother left and she was not even half way there. She had quite a few pages left to fill.

The girl wrote for another hour but had to stop. Her hand was throbbing.

"This is torture." She whispered to herself. Her hand was red.

Leigh-Anne looked at her watch and noted that she had about four hours until her mother came by. Her sister would be here before her. Maybe Sairah would help her once she got here.

"I don't like that I may never see her again though." Leigh said softly looking through the window facing her. The street outside looked grey as usual. Nothing seemed to change around where she lived.

She tried to hold back tears. Her last statement had been about Jesy. The second part of her punishment was that instead of taking the bus home she would go to where her mother worked to do school work until they got home around six. Her mother said that she had made a mistake when she allowed her to take the bus on her own. The woman claimed that it made Leigh believe that she could do as she pleased since she had been given so much freedom.

Leigh had tried to tell her that taking the bus had nothing to do with what happened (even though it did) but her mother had insisted. Leigh-Anne had begged her and cried saying that she had a friend that she met there but her mother seemed to think that that would make her learn her lesson more so she had not withdrawn the punishment.

"It's all Jesy's fault you know. She didn't have to go and make me . . ." Leigh-Anne's tears were falling on the page written in scraggly hand writing. Her hand was still throbbing madly so she had to rest it. "Why did I even listen to her? Now I'll never even get to say goodbye."

Why was she losing so many friends? She did not mind how she lost Dr Weasel since he would be helping an unfortunate child but her others had died. Now she would never see Jesy again because of something stupid. This one hurt the most, especially since it was all her fault. Jesy was the only person she could really be herself with. The girl had such strong opinions on everything that made Leigh feel like she could be a bolder person too.

She got me in trouble. She thought wiping her eyes. The words on the page were blurry. It was like the past few weeks just did not want to agree with her. She felt miserable almost every day.

The girl looked at her watch and decided to continue writing. Her hand was numb but she had to complete this. She just did not want her mother more upset with her.

The house had been quiet all along until now. There were the sounds of movement coming from downstairs.

Leigh-Anne gasped, turning herself to look at the door. Did someone break in?

She immediately became afraid and rushed to the corner to get a cricket bat. She never played the sport but her father used to. He gave her his bat to remember him by. This was the bat he won a game with.