A Big Piece

Tears

Warning: this is a chapter is about bullying.

Lorraine's POV

"Judy?" I'd heard the school bus' horn honk, followed by the door opening and being slammed shut. No "Hello mommy" or a "Mommy, I'm home", just that door. Instinctively I knew there was something wrong, this wasn't like Judy. I tried to tune in on her thoughts, but I couldn't hear anything. I felt anger, though...

I walked into the hallway, Judy's backpack was lying there, thrown away in a hurry to get upstairs. I looked up the stairs, worried. I didn't know what had happened to her, but it must've upset her. I picked up the backpack, wanting to open it. I reconsidered, Judy would hate me for it.

The last few weeks she had changed a lot. Ever since her birthday she was more quietly than usual. She didn't want me to make her backpack any more, or empty it at night. When she got home, she didn't come to hug Ed or me any more... something was up and she wouldn't tell us what it was.

I put down the backpack against the wall, so that when Ed came home, he wouldn't trip over it, and went upstairs. I knocked on Judy's bedroom door. No answer, I expected that would be the case. I opened the door anyway. Judy was crying in her pillow, she didn't even hear me coming in. She jumped up as I put my hand on her back, "What happened, honey?"
She quickly turned away from me, "Nothing!" She said.

"You wouldn't be crying if there was nothing, now, would you? You can tell me!" She turned to look at me, wiping her tears away. Her chin was bleeding, her right eye was swollen. I gasped, "Judy, what happened?" She bit her lip, and stared in front of her. "Honey, please! Just tell me!" Tears started rolling down her cheeks again.

"Some kids picked on me..." she nearly chocked on the words. A shiver went down my spine, "Why? What did do?" "They pushed me down, saying I'm possessed." She looked down, pulling her knees close to her chest. Her stocking were red with blood as well. I wanted to ask why, but I knew why... we had been in the papers the last few weeks. Kids are so cruel sometimes.

I had gone through this myself, I knew what it was like. Before I could tell her, she said "why can't you have normal jobs?" I sighed and wanted to hug her, but she pulled away. "Judy, I've explained this before..." but before I could finish my sentence she yelled at me, "You always put others first. You and daddy don't care about me, if you did, you would stop!" There it was... "Honey, you know that's not true." My voice cracked. "Leave me alone!" She shouted, rolling herself into a ball.

Every fibre of my body, wanted to hug my daughter. But I knew it wouldn't help right now, it would only make her more angry. I got up and walked to the door, turned around and said, "I'll be downstairs if you need me. And hon, I do love you!" She didn't even look at me. I closed the door and went downstairs.

I made myself a cup of tea and sat at the kitchen table. This mornings paper was laying there, all I could think about was Judy yelling that we would stop if we cared about her... I opened the newspaper and flipped to the page where the article about us was on. "Are they real ghost hunters?" It read. Tears started to fill my eyes, anger filled my head. I tore out the page, crumpled it into a ball and threw it to the other side of the kitchen.

Ed's POV

It was awfully quiet when I got home. I had been away for three days and was looking forward to Lorraine's cooking again, but event though it was dinner time, the house wasn't filled with that delicious smell of food. "Hello? Lorraine? Judy?" No answer. A light was burning in the kitchen, I walked towards it.

Lorraine was sitting at the table, her hands wrapped around a cold cup of tea. She stared out of the window, not even noticing I had come in. "Hon?" I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. She turned her head towards me, I could see that she had been crying. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "Judy is being bullied at school." I sighed, we knew this could happen one day. I'd just hoped it wouldn't be this soon.  "It's because of us Ed, because of what we do," she turned her head back facing the window.

"Did she say that?" She nodded "And she said that we would stop doing our job if we cared about her. I called the principal, it has been going on for weeks. Older kids have been calling her names, throwing her belongings in dumpsters, and this week they've started to hurt her physically. Punishing the bullies doesn't help, apparently it only makes it worse for Judy." I sat down next to Lorraine. "The principal said we should keep her home for a while. Until the media storm blows over." I looked at her, "Do you think it will help?" I asked. She didn't respond. "Maybe we should home school her?" I proposed but Lorraine fiercely shook her head.

"That would only isolate her more. She needs to grow up as normally as she can, Ed. She deserves to be normal and above all to be happy." I nodded, that's why we wanted her to go to public school in the first place. "How about we give the older kids a mini lecture about our job?" I didn't even know how old these kids were, but if we explained maybe they wouldn't pick in Judy any more. "Hmmm maybe" Lorraine said quietly. "I'll drive Judy to school tomorrow and discuss it with the principal. How about I order the three of us some pizza?" I asked. Lorraine looked at me and smiled, her eyes still filled with tears. I took her into my arms, pressed a kiss against her temple. "It will be okay, hon!"

As I ordered pizza Lorraine went back up to Judy. After fifteen minutes she came back down the stairs, carrying Judy, who buried her face into Lorraine's shoulder. Lorraine put her on the ground in the kitchen, crouched down and dried Judy's tears. "Daddy and I will always be there for you. We will make sure everything's gonna be alright, don't you worry!" Judy looked at her with big eyes, then she looked over to me. It broke my heart seeing her like this, but Lorraine was right. Judy knew her mom would never make a promise she couldn't keep. It reassured her and smiled for the very first time that day.

I read about a kid who took his own life recently, because he was bullied, so I felt like I needed to write this. Bullying is awful, and kids can be very cruel. I will not write follow up on this story,but everything turned out alright for Judy. However, Judy will be picked on again (SPOILER we saw that in Annabelle Comes Home). People are scared of that what they don't know or can't see... having supportive parents, family and friends makes all the difference, I can speak from experience. I believe Ed and Lorraine  were just that, and they will have helped Judy through these hard times.