Finally Free!

New Family and School

I wake up from my nightmare, the sky outside still dark. I'm still getting used to the amount of words that are used for one thing. I got my identification card. My name is now Lavender Delilah Jackson. I've barely come to understand what Delilah meant about this world and it's badness. I'm going to school today. I go to my mum's room and knock on the door. Mr. Peterson opens the door and shouts, "Why are you up? Go sleep now!" Mum wakes up because of his shouts. My heart quickens, and I run to my room for safety. I quickly go under my covers.

"Lavender! It's mum,"Lucy says kindly, her voice low and calm, "are you ok?" "I just had a nightmare mum,"I say, my heart still loud and pumping fast, my body trembling. "Don't be scared, he has to be scary since he's a father. A father is someone who has to discipline and care for the household,"Lucy says, as she takes a seat on my blue bed. "Oh, I've never been disciplined. What exactly is that?"I ask curiously, hoping my questions don't become annoying. "Its when, if you do something wrong, someone corrects you even harshly,"Lucy says sweetly, "tell me about your family." "Well I had mostly girls in my family! I had a father, I guess, but he just made us follow orders and that's all. He loved his son the most. His daughters weren't that important to him. He got them at different ages, but some came voluntarily,"I say. I see her sincere expression as I try and fail to make my family seem normal. She can sense I'm not speaking the whole truth. Lucy soon decides to sleep by me until it's time to wake up for school. I've only been here one day, but I'm starting school tomorrow.

"Mummy!"the girl, I came to realize is Emily, screams to wake mum up, "you need to get up! We're going to be late for school!" Does this girl have any tone other than loud? I get up and so does mum, we make our way downstairs. After, what they call, breakfast, mum tells Kris, "Take Emily and Lavender to school. I don't have time to do it today, and please be nice to her. Take care of her at school, you know it's a scary place." Kris nods, his face showing what his heart means. I can see he doesn't want to take me to school. I sigh. They don't even know me, and they're judging me off of something they know nothing about. It could've been something else and not prostitution, like rape or I'm someone who saw a murder. They're so horrible!

"Get in the car Lavender! Emily! Hurry up," Kris says and motions to this big shiny thing. I've only ever seen a van before. I try to open the door the way I open the van door, but I fail. Kris comes and opens the back door, he motions for me to get inside. I nod and follow. He says, "Put on the seatbelt." Kris then leaves and comes back with Emily, he's dragging her to the car. He puts her into a seat that's higher then mine. He looks at me when he is finished with her, "Why isn't your seatbelt on?" "What's a..."I attempt to say, but he slams the door and makes his way to my side. "This is a seatbelt and you put it on so you don't die,"Kris says, putting fear into me. I nod, my eyes big. He realizes he scared me and says, "It's for your safety." I nod, calm now. I wish Delilah were here, she would answer all my dumb questions without any anger. We get to a big building, I'm assuming is school. "This is school,"Kris says and comes to unbuckle me and Emily. "Thank you," I say with sincere appreciation. He nods with a small smile, "I'll escort you to every class for the first day, since you don't know what these classes even are. We chose the easiest levels, teachers will assess whether you can move up levels or not." I nod, confused as to what a class or a teacher is. Kris seems to notice, but leaves the matter anyways.

I make my way into the school after leaving Emily at her school. Kris guides me to the main office. "Hello! Sorry my mum couldn't come today, but we have to register her,"Kris says politely to the lady. "Name?"the lady says without even looking at him, he seems unfazed but I believe its just rude. Kris looks at me and so I say, "Lavender Delilah Jackson." "Identification?"the lady says and Kris hands it to her. "Ok, your mum just has to come pay Kris,"she says, finally looking at him. He nods and takes a few pieces of paper from her, similar to what's in books but it is separated from it. "Her books won't arrive for a while and the extra classes your mum wanted isn't available,"the lady says seriously. "So what're we supposed to do? She's never gone to school before, do you expect her to just start at level 9?"Kris says, his anger boiling. "Yes, that's what everyone expects. If she's special needs she can go to another school,"the lady says rudely. "We don't know if she is special needs, but we do know she knows nothing about school,"Kris says annoyed. The lady looks at him and says, "When your mother comes she can discuss the matter with the principle." Kris nods and leaves with me trailing behind. "So no extra classes?"I ask knowing that much. "Yeah, they're so stupid,"Kris says with frustration. I just decide to follow him silently through the school that has lots of students. "This is math class,"Kris says, "you might not understand anything, but there's nothing I can do right now. I'll come fetch you after." I nod knowing he's trying his best.

"And you are?"A man asks me. "I'm Lavender Delilah Jackson,"I say hurriedly. "Take a seat,"He says kindly. I nod and sit in the front row seat. "Ok so today we're going to talk about how to find the Greatest Common Factor,"the man says. A young boy and girl with glasses raise their hands so fast. "I didn't ask a question,"the man says. "Sorry sir,"they both say in unison and the class snickers. The man writes a load of numbers and letters on the board, and my heart starts to pound. "We all know how to factor, so you must all find the common number in these equations. You have 10 minutes for these 2 questions. Go!"he says and everyone does so. I stare at the board, he hands me a paper and a pencil. "You can use this to write the equations,"the man says, "I'm Mr. Smith." I nod and try to ask him what I should do since I don't know how to write. I look at everyone else and see how they hold the pencil, Mr. Smith seems to be watching me but I pay him no attention. I grab the pencil the way they do and try to write what's written on the board. When the questions are finally on my page, I stare at them confused. The time we had disappears soon after I've written the equations. "Ms. Jackson! Can you bring your page here so I can check your work,"Mr. Smith says politely. I nod and bring it over, he soon realizes I've only written the questions and the way I wrote it, it took up the whole page. He sighs and says, "I'll talk to you after class Lavender." I nod.

The class ends, when a trill sound goes off everyone gets up and leaves hurriedly. I get up soon after and see Kris waiting for me, but Mr. Smith stops me. "Lavender! Come here,"he says patiently. I come forward and he says, "Do you know how to write?" "No,"I say while looking down, feeling ashamed because I'm the only one who can't. Kris walks in and asks, "What's going on Mr.Smith?" "Do you even know how to add?"he asks me patiently, but not in an angry way. "No,"I say, tears threatening to fall out of my grey-blue eyes, my black curly hair hiding it thoroughly. He sighs, "Kris, why'd your parents bring her to this school? This school will eat her up alive. She doesn't know the basics, they're pushing her too hard. She can be smart, but not like this." Kris sighs and motions for me to follow him. "Do you need to use the bathroom?"Kris asks me kindly. I nod and he ushers me into the bathroom while he waits outside. "You have English now,"Kris says, as he watches my expression sadden, "I told you not to be hard on yourself today. We both know you haven't had a normal life, and it's only your first day." I nod sadly.

I see a bunch of boys coming towards me and Kris, my heart stops momentarily. "Hey Kris! Who's this you've got tagging along with you? Your latest girl?"a young man asks me. "No, someone me and my family have taken in. She's Lavender,"Kris says with an annoyed expression. "Is something wrong Kris?"the young man asks. "No Josh! Nothings wrong,"Kris says impatiently. "I know what you need! A girl to have a one-nighter with. We can go to the prostitution place down the street after school,"the young man says. My eyes widen in shock and all the boys turn to me, even Kris. He sees the hurt in my eyes. "You know I haven't gone there since the last time,"Kris says, seeing my expression turn from admiration for him to hate. I start walking past them to avoid the conversation, and the memories. My eyes swell up with tears, one of them could've been at my prostitution place at some point in time. "Girls are so sensitive about subjects like that,"the young man Josh shouts after me. Kris speeds up and grabs me, "Hey! What's wrong?" When he looks into my eyes, realization hits him like a brick. "Lavender, I didn't,"Kris says with hurt in his eyes. "Don't talk to me Kris. I'm not someone you can use,"I say, my voice nothing but a whisper.

I walk out of that school and into the world I hate. All these people ever view prostitutes as, is someone who has a choice. Yes, some people do, but people like me never had choice. I never wanted to be a prostitute, it wasn't on my to-do list as a four-year-old.