Work Text:
3:37 PM - Chicago, IL - US - Exterior / Primary school playground
Adeline breezed quickly through the school’s open back doors and set her sights on the opposite side of the playground. She only had to make it past that fence and she would be free. After that, just a few short blocks to home and away from this place until the morning. As she is walking, she makes the mistake of looking up, locking eyes with her current worst nightmare.
Towering above her is Tamara; tall for her age with bright copper hair and a covering of matching orange freckles. Adeline attempts to walk past her when she is shoved back, causing to stop in her tracks.
'So Addie, I hear you have the hots for Alex Bringham…that true?” Tamara sneers down at her, slurping spit through her clunky braces before she speaks. “Thought you should know he’s MY boyfriend!”
Adeline looks up at her, eyes narrowed. She is confused by this altercation, as she had only been working with Alex on a class project, and they had been placed together. She steadies her voice and answers shortly.
“I do not have ‘the hots’ for anyone.” She begins to walk past her when she is shoved again.
“Well, just stay away from him, or else.”
A small group of girls had begun to gather around them, and Addie looked around her cautiously. She pushes past Tamara, speaking low through gritted teeth.
“Just leave me alone.” Addie begins walking faster towards the fence, towards her bedroom and her bed. To her safe little spot under her covers, when Tamara begins to yell after her.
“Hey, you listen to me when I’m talking to you! C’mere!”
She turns and starts after Adeline, the other girls swarm and follow her like angry insects. Their fevered whispers buzzing like flies. As she walks she pauses to pick up a chunk of upturned asphalt, a rock about the size of her fist, and carries it in an outstretched hand menacingly. Hearing the crowd gaining on her, Adeline stops, her back to them.
She could never just walk away, they never let it be. She stood quietly until she heard the small mob come to a stop right behind her, waiting.
Tamara tossed the rock in the air and caught it, admiring its weight. She looked over the faces of her fan club and saw her own anger and frustration reflected in them, like her little minions.
“Did you hear what I said Addie?” Her voice taunting and shrill. “Stay away or else.”
Adeline’s skin was flushed and hot, her heart pounding and her temper rising. She needed to just keep walking; away from Tamara, away from the girls and away from this retched school, but she couldn’t. She spoke quietly but clearly.
“No.”
Tamara eyes widened, her own anger raging, her hand gripping the rock harder. “What did you say?” She raised her arm, holding the rock at shoulder’s height, tense and shaking.
“I said no!”
Adeline turned to face her and as she did Tamara lashed out instinctively, the rock in her hand connecting with a gut turning crunch to Addie’s mouth.
She stumbled back a few steps before falling backwards in disbelief. Her hand went to cover her mouth and she looked up to her attacker. At first she struggled to open her eyes against the blackness all around her until she realized her eyes were open, only she couldn’t see. Slowly, tiny sparkling lights began to dance over her vision, the light beginning to seep in around the edges. As her sight returned, the first thing she saw was red. All over her hand, the front of her shirt, and dripping sickeningly from the rock still clenched in Tamara’s hand. The girls around her were white as ghosts, just screaming and screaming. One girl just pointed at Addie’s mouth, her mouth hanging open silently, too horrified to make a sound.
Carefully, Adeline began to explore the front of her mouth with one finger but was confused when she counted one tooth too few. When she poked at one of her front teeth with her tongue she felt a strange little worm like a tiny tree root; and every time she touched it she would feel an electric shock of pain and nausea shoot right through her.
Adeline rocked herself forward into a kneeling position, and then very slowly rose to stand on wobbling legs. She sucked in a sharp breath as the blood seemed to rush to her head, and felt her knees buckling beneath her as the air passing over her teeth nearly made her wretch. When her vision had returned completely she finally saw Tamara in front of her, frozen in position. She had managed to drop the piece of asphalt from her hand but her arm still hung out in front of her, paralyzed.
As Addie attempted to speak, she first felt that her lips had swollen so much she could hardly open her mouth, the top one badly split. Instead she waited until she felt steady enough to walk, and without a word she began shuffling slowly past the shocked crowd. No one moved or made a sound as she passed them, but she didn’t bother to look up. She watched her blood covered shoes, blinking rapidly and trying to remain upright as she slowly made her way home.
She felt like she floated the whole way; trying to keep her head up, using her sleeve to try and slow the blood flow from her face. Overwhelming her were waves of exhaustion and the constant struggle to keep awake. When she finally reached her house, she stumbled up the front stairs barely making it inside the door before collapsing in the doorway.
Her mother heard the sound and walked quickly in from the other room, looking over the scene before sighing heavily and turning to walk back the way she came. As she walked her voice trailed from the other room to Adeline as she felt her consciousness leaving her.
“And I told you before Adeline. This is what happens to nasty dark little girls like you.”