Silent Pantomime

Chapter 14 | Happy never after

Chapter 14🌌:

What is the problem with lying?

I never understood it when parents said "honesty is the best policy" when all they did was lie. They pretended that the Tooth Fairy and Santa existed, they pretended they were happy to work a few extra shifts just so they didn't get fired, they pretended that their best friend's mid life crisis was totally okay to not hurt their friend's feelings. They were built on little white lies.

Then there are lies that are years old that have no proof behind them, yet nobody questions them. How do we know dinosaurs used to "roar" exactly? Well, quite simply, we don't. Somebody made it up and everyone just went along with it, to the point where everybody believed it.

Then there are people who make up their own lies constantly, to the point where they can't remember what is real and what is fake.

I wasn't much of a liar, I just didn't tell full truths. Like I'd never told my friends that I didn't really like them, but I also hadn't said that I loved them unconditionally and how I would die for them.

There is a silver lining to every truth.

It wasn't my fault the world was so gullible. And if you actually believe what everyone tells you, you clearly are too pure and good for this world.

After my letter in the morning, I had to rely on muscle memory to get to school, as if my brain had gone into lockdown. Every amazing feeling of doing something great for other people quickly got soaked in poison. I wasn't sad about the letter - I just wasn't particularly happy about it. But what could I have done? If I told everybody about the letters, then it would have been game over as everybody would have found out about my secret. If I didn't tell anyone, I would still get threatened, but at least I had the attention. Keeping silent about it seemed like the lesser of two evils.

"Hazel!" A loud shrill suddenly rang through my ears, as if it climbed into my body, clambered up to my head and shook my brain awake. I looked groggily up to see Miss. Madsen glaring at me from the other end of the classroom. She was one of those old, gritty teachers that shouldn't have been a teacher as she hated kids and lived with twenty three cats.

"Mm, yeah, what?" I asked, which earned a few snickers throughout the class.

"It's your turn to do your presentation," she snapped.

The presentation. The presentation I was supposed to do. The presentation that was meant to be a speech on anything going on in the world, and it was a key part for me to pass my English A-Level. The presentation I didn't prepare for in any way, shape or form.

I smiled at her, "Oh of course," I grinned. She was in for a treat. One of my biggest talents was being able to make anything up on any topic right there on the spot - which came in very handy for moments like these. I stood up and walked confidently to the end of the classroom.

"My presentation is about all forms of anti-discrimination. Being anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, anti anything that is discriminatory against other human beings. You meet people who thinks being a straight, white man gives them all of the superpowers in the world - the people that think it is cool to talk down on people just because they believe it should be Adam and Eve instead of Adam and Steve. The people who think that it is fun to catcall a girl as she walks down the road just because she is wearing a mini skirt. The people who shame people for their skin colour. The people who make fun of abortions and assaults. The people who aren't really people at all. There is nothing wrong with marching down a street waving a rainbow coloured flag around because you are proud to be yourself. There is nothing wrong with wearing something a little tighter and shorter if you are proud to be yourself. As everybody should be proud of themselves and who they are, as everybody is beautiful. The only people who aren't beautiful are the ones who are against who people are and what they want to be. You cannot change what people's thoughts are, some people are definitely more nature than nurture - but we can change how they go about their opinions. Conceal whatever compelled them to whistle at that teenage girl passing them, whatever compelled them to steal that homeless man's change, whatever compelled them to laugh at that person in the wheel chair. Winnie the Pooh didn't spend all of our childhood rocking cropped tops for us to be ashamed and cover up. Mickey Mouse didn't build an entire clubhouse for multiple types of animals for us to shut out people different to us. Ariel didn't come up to a whole new world just for us to be against different cultures. You deserve your happily ever after, it's the people who don't think that who deserve a happy never after."

I stopped talking as everybody in my class began to clap at me. I really liked this feeling, everybody applauding me, everybody appreciating me and everybody noticing me. I looked up to see my teacher gawking at me - both of us knowing that I didn't prepare in the slightest.

"What?" I smiled, "Cat got your tongue?"

I got home a few hours later to my dad immediately shouting at me from the kitchen. I trudged towards it, dreading what he was going to say with every single step. He had his work strewn all across the counter and I rolled my eyes as he scurried from file to file.

"Yes?" I asked him with no reply. "Yes?" I asked again, and he still ignored me. "Dad!" I screeched, finally causing him to turn around.

"What did you want?" I asked and he looked hesitant for a second.

"We need to talk," he said after a while.

"No shit Sherlock," I muttered, that was most likely why I was getting called through.

"About?" I asked louder and tapped my foot on the floor impatiently after he ignored me.

"I am very disappointed in your behaviour yesterday..." he began, but I groaned.

"What is this really about?"

He didn't care enough to be disappointed in me, and he knew it.

"Me and Katherine are getting married in just over a month," he said slowly, "They are moving in next weekend." He looked at me impatiently but I purposely gave back a blank expression.

"Oh."