The Snake Pit: Jr. High Can Be Torture (2 page)

And, of course,
Cinda
still had to deal with the snake pit.  Kids made fun of the way she ate, the way she
walked ,
the way she talked.  It was endless, and I don't know how she dealt with it.  But, she did, and her ability to cope seemed to upset one person in particular.  Lisa
Kellen
.

Lisa
Kellen
. 
Golden girl, cheerleader, honor student.
  Everything everyone wants to be...at least if you ask her.  If you ask me, I will tell you, beware of poison in pretty packages.  If you ask me, and you ARE asking me, that's the girl you need to be talking to.  She's the reason for this whole mess...I'm just saying.

All right, all right. 
Back to
the story.
  Lisa
Kellen
had a
big
problem with
Cinda
and it was no
secret to anyone.  
Lisa has a way of insulting you with such fake sweetness that you weren't sure you were insulted until you thought about it later on.
Then you just ended up feeling
like an idiot.

Cinda
tried to steer clear of Lisa, but, frankly, Hargrove Jr
.
High isn't that big, and Lisa made it a point to be wherever
Cinda
was.

Why did Lisa have it in for
Cinda
?  Who knows
? 
I suppose it's a question you'll have to ask her.  Lisa seemed to have it all....except for Bobby Thompson.  But,
Cinda
certainly was i
n no position to go after Bobby
in any kind of romantic way
;
but who knows what Lisa thought.  Everyone is a threat in Lisa's eyes.  Everyone she couldn't control. 
Me,
Cinda
, and Bobby.
  Bobby once told Lisa to lay off
Cinda
, and I think that is when this whole thing started spinning out of control
.

Chapter Four

The Golden Girl

I don't even know what I'm doing here...I hardly know the girl.  Just that she is some kind of freak
…
she doesn't belong here.   That's all I'm saying.

Well, you know...people like her should be home-schooled.  Our school got along just fine until she showed up. 
Walking around with her head down and her hair in her face.
  And that face
…
God, who wants to look at that every day?? Not me
…
it's creepy I tell you.

When I first saw her
I figured she must be some mental defect, you
know
…
but I guess she is some kind
of  genius
or something. 
Whatever.
  I could be a super genius too if I had nothing better to do than stay home and study.  Well, what else is she
gonna
do? It's not like she can get a date or anything.

Bobby Thompson???  What about him?  He sure wasn't interested in
Cinda
, I will tell you that much. 
Big deal, so he felt sorry for her and stuck up for her.
  It doesn't mean anything. Everyone has a moment of charity once in awhile.

Assault?
  What assault?   We did not assault
Cinda
in the cafeteria.  She tripped and fell on her food tray and we were just having a little fun.  Please. If we had assaulted
Cinda
, don't you think Principal Martin would've stepped in and stopped us? 
As far as I know, no one even got a detention that day.  It was just a harmless joke.
I
f she took it differently, that's her problem.

Charlie
Carsten
...that's who you need to talk to.
 
Another loser.
  Thinks she's all that because her dad owns the factory.  She and
Cinda
were supposedly good friends
…
kind of
strange
if you ask me.  Charlie used to be a normal person
until
she started hanging with that freak and got all weird.  She used to tease people worse than anyone,
and
then she got all high and mighty because she thought I was picking on her little friend.  Why don't you ask her about the time she almost broke my leg.  She's no innocent bystander...just ask her.

Chapter Five

Principal Martin

             
Of course, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Yes,
Cinda
had an unfortunate first day.  I was not here that day, I had a meeting at the   district office, but according to the lunch room aides,
Cinda
tripped in the cafeteria and before they knew it, a food fight broke out.  Poor
Cinda
was so dist
ressed that she went home early.

No, it made no sense to give the entire 7
th
grade detention...I did, however, insist that they clean the cafeteria. 
Which they did.
There have been no further instances that I know of.

Well, I realize that
Cinda's
...appearance...makes her a target.  Unfortunately children can be very cruel, but usually that burns itself out after a few months. Kids will generally move on to something new if you leave them alone.

Snake pit?  I believe you are mistaken, Detective.  We have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying...if bullying were happening at my school
I
would've put a stop to it right away.   We do not tolerate that kind of behavior here.

Lisa
Kellen
....lovely girl
…I’ve
known her since she was little.  I've never had a discipline problem with her before and I can't believe she would pick on
Cinda
.  Perhaps some good natured teasing was taken out
of context.  I assure you if any complaints were made regarding this matter, I would've taken care of it straight away.

Well, yes.  Charlie did come to see me about
Cinda
a few months ago, but you have to understand some things about Charlie
Carston
.  She's the only child of working parents, prone to drama and exaggeration.  I believe she only befriended
Cinda
to get the attention she so desperately seeks.  I had no reason to believe her story about Lisa and
Cinda
.

If you have any more questions, Detective, I will be glad to answer them.  Perhaps you should talk to Bobby Thompson.  I hear he and
Cinda
became quite good friends for a period of time.

Chapter Six

Bobby Thompson

So, you want to talk to me about
Cinda
?  I'm not surprised, pretty hot topic these days.

Yes,
Cinda
and I were friends...I can say that now.  I just wish I would've had the guts to stand up and say that a few months ago.  Maybe then none of this would've happened.

Well, you know, kids at school can be really mean.  As soon as they found out I was spending time with
Cinda
, they came down on me pretty hard.  I guess I just cracked.

Cinda
was tutoring me in math.  She
was really smart in math and without her
help
,
I probably would've failed the
seventh
grade.  Plus, she was fun to be with.  I couldn't admit it to anyone then, but I really liked hanging out with her.

Well, that's the weird part.  She just showed up at my door one day with her math
book
. 
Seemed a little surprised that I didn't know she was coming.  But I'm glad she did.  I can't play baseball this summer if I don't get at least a C in math.  My folks were glad she showed up too...they are worse at math than I am.

Cinda
didn't talk about school much, but I know it had to be hard for her.  Kids are mean, like I said, called her awful names. 
Harelip, freak...that kind of stuff.
  She didn't let it get to her, not as far as I could see.  I don't
know if I could take that kind of abuse day after day.  But, what was she goi
ng to do?  Wear a mask to school
?  Then the kids would just make fun of the mask.  It's endless, and it sucks.

Lisa
Kellen
.  I am not sure what to say about her.  I know she didn't like
Cinda
very much at all, and made no secret about it.  Every chance she got she made a point of saying something nasty, or even giving
Cinda
a little shove into her locker when she got the chance.  Lisa's a pretty girl, no denying that, but she's got an ugly streak about her.  She always thought we should be a couple, like we belonged together.  But, to tell the truth, I don't like the girl, and I told her so.  But that just seemed to make her even madder at
Cinda
.  Girls can be really hard to
figure out sometimes.  I tried to tell Lisa to lay off
Cinda
, but Lisa wouldn't listen. 
To anyone.

Charlie is okay.  She and
Cinda
are best friends.  She would be the one to tell you anything you need to know about
Cinda
...she knows her best.

Charlie

Cinda
cried a lot.  Not so much in front of me, and certainly not in front of her mom.  She said her mom felt guilty about how she was born, even though there was nothing she could've done about it.  But I would come over and her eyes would be all red, and I knew she had been crying.

The worst thing,
Cinda
always said, was not the teasing, or the staring, or even the painful surgeries.  The very worst thing
is not knowing
what she was supposed to look like.  Her sisters were all beautiful, with the same dark hair and big blue eyes, but that's where the resemblance ended.  She didn't look like anyone in her family and that hurt.

Cinda
felt guilty for being jealous of her beautiful sisters.  She would not have wished this affliction on either of them, but she just wanted to look normal.  Not beautiful, just ordinary would've suited her fine.  If no
one ever turned to look twice at her again, she would've been all right with that.  And who knows how close to normal the future surgeries would take her.

Anyway, right after the winter break started,
Cinda
got an e-mail from Bobby Thompson asking her to tutor him
in math.  He said
that he needed to get a C or better or he wouldn't be able to play baseball.  So, she started tutoring Bobby three times a week at his house.  After all, it was the least she could do after he stuck up for her at school.  Personally, I found the
whole thing suspicious, but I didn't say anything because she seemed so happy.

Why was I suspicious?  Well, first of all, the first time she showed up at his house she said it seemed like he didn't even know she was coming.  Didn't he send an e-mail asking her to come?  She ever asked him because I don't think she really wanted to know.  Bobby and
Cinda
spent a lot of time together and seemed to have fun but things changed when we went back to school after break.

The kids at school, especially Lisa, treated Bobby horribly when they found out he and
Cinda
had been hanging out together during break.  Bobby couldn't handle the pressure and told everyone that he was just using
Cinda
to get a good grade in math. 
Cinda
, of course, was
hurt...and as far as I know, Bobby and
Cinda
were never friends again.

Then
came
the winter ball.