As an autistic child, moving into a new environment was a very big deal for Mia. She wasn’t just autistic, she was a teenager and many normal teenagers couldn’t handle moving into a new environment, so it was a very big setback for Mia. To crown it all, not even a single person liked Mia in her new environment. She always had to deal with bullying in junior high and now she had to face the same thing in her new school in senior high.
After her classmate had tied her hair into a crazy nut she was trying to lose it in the bathroom but had serious trouble doing it.
“Don’t try to get it loose. You look cute this way, next time I think I should just cut your hair ” Lakshmi told her as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Lakshmi was an Indian girl who moved to America to study, her parents had lots of money, they were filthy rich but the only problem that she had was that her family wasn’t settled at a place. They always moved from one country to another and she found it really frustrating. She would always get fame and use it to bully other kids in school, her parents didn’t have time for her and she barely got any kind of affection.
She noticed that Mia was trying to leave the bathroom after her failed attempts to loose the knot in her hair.
Lakshmi immediately held Mia’s wrist stopping her from walking away. It had barely been a month since Lakshmi started schooling in the same school as Mia and she was already a pain in the neck. She enjoyed mocking Mia a lot and making her life a living hell. Little did she know that Mia had very big problems of her own.
“You don’t walk away while I am talking to you weirdo. Now get down on your knees and wipe my shoes” Lakshmi commanded Mia.
” I can’t do that” Mia declared and freed herself from Lakshmi’s grip.
“And why can’t you?” Lakshmi was very sarcastic. Mia didn’t answer her, she couldn’t even look Lakshmi in the eyes, she was looking at the door knob and she didn’t notice when Lakshmi placed her hand on her head and pressed her head downwards, forcing her to bend to the floor.
“I said, Clean my shoes, freak. Get on it fast” Lakshmi raised her voice this time.
Mia was used to alot of mockery so she bent down to wipe her shoes.
“That’s a good girl now scram before I punch your nose” Lakshmi folded her fists as if wanting to punch her in the face before she dragged Mia’s hair and pushed her to the door, making Mia fall outside the bathroom.
Mia came out of the bathroom to meet a group of boys who were laughing at her, one of which was Kyle, the captain of the school’s football team. Kyle was one of the most popular kids in school, he always enjoyed to tease Mia who didn’t say anything. She just endured all the insults and all the shame he brought on her.
“There she is. Here comes the queen please give a round of applause” Kyle started to clap his hands and the entire football team joined him. Even other students who stood by their lockers joined him as well. He considered himself the king and a lot of students in school he bullied as well normally did what he wanted out of fear or what he would do to them if they didn’t.
He soon pulled Mia who was walking shamefully down the hallway close to himself.
“Common baby, why are you acting like this? I am talking to you and you aren’t even paying any attention to me. That’s unfair” Kyle leaned on his locker while he placed one of his feet on the locker and used his other leg to support himself on the floor.
He held Mia’s waist and wrapped his hand around her.
“Common say something to me” Kyle licked his upper lip and bit his lower lip.
“Let me go Kyle” Mia was struggling to free herself from his painful grip. She was still struggling when a teacher came to stop the whole show just when Kyle was enjoying it.
“What are you looking at? Recess is over, don’t you have classes to get to?” The teacher scolded the kids who left their lockers and went back to their classes.
“And you? You just love to taunt junior students huh?” The teacher pulled his ear and dragged him out of the hallway.
Mia was in her very first year of senior high school and Kyle was just in his second.
Lonely Mia left the hallway to attend her biology class, she was very vigilant as she kept on holding her hair. She didn’t want Lakshmi to cut off her hair as she had threatened earlier. She held on to her necklace very tightly and just then a tear dropped on the emerald, making it glow for a second time, Mia didn’t even notice it.
“What do you think Mia?” Mia’s biology teacher said, that made Mia realize that she was still in the middle of a class.
She wiped her tears, praying that no one would notice it but it was too late and her teacher walked up to her. Her teacher’s height was quite intimidating to Mia even though the teacher meant no harm.
“Awwn the freak is sad” Lakshmi crossed her legs and mocked Mia.
Mia couldn’t take any of it, she grabbed her school bag and left the classroom. Thankfully, the period was over and the bell rang so the class ended.
“Crying to yourself won’t help solve any of your problems” Mia’s biology teacher, Mrs Kate sat next to her.
“Being autistic isn’t a crime either” the teacher continued.
Mrs Kate didn’t know that being autistic might not be a crime in the eyes of the law but it felt like a curse to Mia, she had been disgraced, shamed, rejected and tossed away many times just because she had autism.
“I know you can’t communicate like others because of your condition but at least you should answer me even if it’s a few words” the teacher was persuading Mia who didn’t want to have the conversation in the first place. She stood up from the beach and was about to leave. She had walked a distance away from her teacher when her teacher followed suit and yelled.
“You shouldn’t let them treat you this way. It is completely wrong” Mia didn’t even listen to what the teacher was going to say next.
Just when Mia thought her day couldn’t get any worse, Lakshmi had to dump an entire smoothie on her just before the bell rang for school over.
“Now I’m done for the day” she declared and turned around to leave when Mia lost control and grabbed a smoothie from one of Lakshmi’s friends and dumped it on her head as well.
“What?” Lakshmi’s mouth was wide open as her palm faced the ceiling . She was in utter shock.
“What the hell did you just do? Do you know how much it is for my hair treatment and styling?”Lakshmi wouldn’t stop ranting.
“I guess you should have thought about that before dumping your smoothie on me. It’s called payback now move” Mia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
Lakshmi’s POV
What the hell just happened? Did she just retaliate? I felt like grabbing her hair and throwing her to the floor. That would be the worst decision because I’m sure then a fight would break out and teachers would gather us, I didn’t want detention or suspension or even worse expulsion.
I stood there and watched how that stûpíd girl humiliated me. I could see that everyone was trying their best to hold back their laughter and I just couldn’t take it. I went to the bathroom to wash my hair just before I stayed outside to wait for my driver.
“She got you too didn’t she?” Kyle approached me from behind. I turned around to face him.
“What do you mean by that?” I folded my arms and looked at him from head to toe. He didn’t look very happy.
“I am talking about that freak Mia, she is the reason we were both humiliated. I got detention because of her and trust me I am not willing to let this go” Kyle was so upset, he folded his fist and rubbed his fingers vigorously.
“So what does any of what she did to you have to do with me?” I was giving him so much attitude. I really didn’t care if she made the school give him detention or even expulsion, I didn’t want him pestering me about his own problems.
“We can both bring her down. We can work together to get her expelled” he suggested firmly.
“Just look at yourself, you are a senior and you are willing to stoop so low for a junior student. You are captain of the school football team and yet you are going to waste your strength on nobody, a girl who got admitted in this school through scholarship. You know I expected more from you, bullying her is one thing but getting her expelled from the school is just something I am not going to be a part of and I won’t advise you to do it either” I looked at him with disgust before walking away from him.
“I wouldn’t miss this opportunity if I were you. Take my offer now so you can be happy later” he ran towards me.
“And what useless offer is that Kyle?. Are you dumb? Please stop all this nonsense. Nothing good will come out of this, now if you would excuse me my driver is here” I shoved him aside with my hand and got into the car.