The Sanderson's

Chapter 4.

"You're alone! Your daddy doesn't love you cause he works instead of staying home with you!"

"Nobody likes you!"

"You're ugly!"

Sage dropped her head as the words from her classmates repeated in her head. She didn't want to color, she didn't want to go outside. She just wanted to cry.

Her eyes filled with tears as her body tensed up. Hearing feet hit the floor, Sage tensed again, wrapping her arms around her body in protection.

She couldn't begin to understand why everyone was so mean to her.

Her heart started to beat faster as someone rested a hand on her shoulder. Sage grunted and slowly looked up, letting her hair fall in her face. Her teary eyes hid behind the long brown hair.

"Sage, it's time for recess." The teaching aide, Miss Smith,, spoke softly as she sat down beside her. "Is everything okay?" She asked immediately as she noticed the tears in her eyes.

Sage just nodded slowly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand and then stood up, "Okay." She sighed and walked towards the door. As the teacher stepped in front of her, she followed silently.

Sage watched as Mrs. Smith opened the door and lead her outside and into the fenced in area for play time. She sighed and walked in, crossing her arms over her chest as she slowly walked towards the farthest area of the playground where she would usually sit and draw in the sand. Sage ignored the glances from her classmates and slid down the side of the building, grabbing a stick. She started to draw random shapes in the sand, sighing as she did so.

Within twenty minutes, Ms. Devens and Mrs. Smith called the children to clean up and start to line up so they could all go inside for lunchtime and then be dismissed.

Sage quickly smudged her drawing and sighed, walking towards the line that was forming. Since Ant wasn't here, she stood at the end of the line alone. Following her classmates, she combed sand out of her hair and held onto the railing as she walked into the school.

One by one, they all headed towards the bathroom to wash their hands. Once they were finished, the teachers brought out some lunches for the students who couldn't bring their own. Sage went over to her cubby slowly, staring down at the colorful mat as she did so. She opened her backpack and pulled it out, heading over to the farthest table away from others and sat down.

She opened the lunchbox slowly and took out the note that was on top. She stared at it, before reading it out loud to herself. "Have a.. great day... p-r-in-cess.. princess, I love you. F-f-rom, dada." Sage sounded out the letters and smiled widely, setting the note aside as she grabbed her water bottle and took a few sips.

Sage opened the container and smiled, taking a ham and cheese roll up out and taking a few bites, before taking a slice of cucumber and dipping it into hummus. She smiled happily and ate the cucumber, looking around hopefully to see if Anthony would show up. Remembering that it was now the end of the day, Sage sighed and looked back down at her lunch. She finished it up and excused herself from the table, going into the bathroom to wash her hands.

. . .

"Dada?" Sage asked softly and stared at the back of the seat. She tugged on her seatbelt and then adverted her eyes to out the window, watching the trees go by in a blue.

"Sage?" Neil responded, turning the radio down. "What's wrong?" He asked, raising his eyebrows as he glanced in the rear view mirror at her. He looked over at Bryana in the passenger seat who mouthed, 'she's been like this for days'. Neil sighed and looked both ways before continuing down the street.

"I don't like school anymore." Sage responded and scratched her wrist, looking towards the rear view mirror, where Neil's eyes locked on hers.

"What happened at school?" Neil asked and looked back at the road, using his turn signal to indicate he was turning left. As soon as everyone passed, be turned left and continued down the road. He saw the sign for Elle and Dakota's school and smiled.

"Mean kids." Sage said softly and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"What are these mean kids saying to you?" Bryana asked as she turned her head. She looked at Sage in the eyes and sighed. "You need to tell us so we can fix it."

"Nothing." Sage responded and tugged on the seatbelt, then stared back at her mother.

Bryana sighed in response and shook her head, keeping eye contact with her oldest daughter. "Don't lie to me." She warned. "Lying is bad. We don't lie."

Neil looked in the rear view mirror and then over at his wife, then back at the road. "Sage, you need to tell us what's going on." He responded and turned on his turn signal, then turned into the school.

Sage stayed quiet for a few minutes, but still staring into her mother's dark eyes. Then, she glared down at the seat and grumbled.

"Forget about it."