Scene Six

The next two weeks were the worst of Thea's life. Sara and her circle of friends tormented her mercilessly. The first few days, Thea had no choice but to walk through the halls with Sara and her friends.
[re-write: show don't tell]
They made Thea walk next to Sara, and they would all whisper insults at Thea that only she could hear. After walking to the first couple of classes with 'the herd,' as Thea had already dubbed them, she had tried to find her own way to class, but she'd gotten there after Sara, and Sara had told Mrs. Baumgarten that Thea had insisted that she had to go to the bathroom, and as the girls were waiting for her, they heard what sounded like a lighter, and then smelled cigarette smoke. Sara couldn't say for sure that it was Thea, but the girls had gotten scared and come on to class. Sara and her friends didn't want to get Thea into trouble, but they knew that smoking was a horrible habit, and they wanted to help their new friend.

"That's a load of crap! I--"

"Miss Watson! I WILL NOT listen to filthy language in my classroom! You will leave this room at once and go stand in the hall until the end of class. You will receive a zero on the pop quiz we are having today, and you will also receive a zero on the homework that is due today in ALL my classes, not just this one. Your behavior is inexcusable, Miss Watson, and I will be reporting this to Mr. Wiggins as well as your parents. Do you understand me, Miss Watson?" Thea said nothing. "Well, DO YOU?"

She still didn't answer out loud, but nodded her head and turned to leave. She was afraid that if she spoke, she would either cry or say something to make things worse. She felt a bony hand grab her shoulder, and the barely controlled hurt and rage she was feeling broke free for a split second. Her mind screamed, "No!" and in her mind's eye she saw Mrs. Baumgarten's hand shrivel up and fall away. She heard Mrs. Baumgarten gasp, and then she let go of Thea's shoulder.

Thea didn't turn to look, she just walked out of the classroom, and instead of stopping, turned and headed down the hallway and out of the school. The moment she got out of sight of the school, her eyes blurred from the tears she hadn't realized she'd been crying, and she stopped in an alley and sobbed for the first time since they'd moved to this nightmare of a place.

She didn't know how long she cried, but when she could stand and see again, she began walking. The road to her house went right by the school, and she needed to find a different way home. The town wasn't very big, so she wasn't worried about getting lost. She let herself explore a little, and eventually ended up on a street that felt familiar.

Her sense of direction was pretty good, and she knew the street was going in the wrong direction to take her home, but she still felt like this was the street she needed to take. She followed it until it ended in what looked like a gravel driveway. Thea looked both ways, paying attention to what she was feeling now, and got the impression that she should continue the way she was going.

The road slanted upward in a steep hill, and disappeared into a thick bunch of trees. Thea knew this was the part where, if she had been in a movie theater, she would have been screaming at the character to stop and not go up the creepy hill. But this wasn't a movie, and she didn't feel afraid. In fact, she was beginning to feel almost peaceful, which was something she was beginning to think she'd ever find again.

She walked up the lane, which turned several times before it ended at the front gate of a big old two-story house. The gate was open, and she followed the sidewalk up to the wrap around porch of the house. She looked around, and saw a remote controlled car careening toward her from around the corner of the porch. It stopped before it hit her, and she saw what looked like a miniature camera tilt up toward her and stop when it was aiming at her face.

The car turned around and as if to head back the way it had come, but as it turned, the camera stayed trained on Thea's face. The car started going toward the corner of the house, but when Thea didn't follow, it did a little fidgety dance and waited until she took the hint and started.

When she rounded the corner, she looked up and saw the boy her mom had hit sitting in a chair with a laptop computer on his lap, grinning at her.

"I wondered when you'd finally get here," he said.