Duality

VI

Vanessa sighed leaning on her counter. She kinda misses when Onika was a little kid and they spent almost everyday together.
.
.
.

11 Years Ago..

Onika was quiet as she slumped in the back. Her aunt and mom always told her to sit in the back because of how small she was.

Onika looked down at her ruined pink converse. She went to school and she really liked them but—some of the kids at her school didn't.

An Hour Ago..

Onika sat on a tree stump criss cross and one leg over the other. She sat and watched other kids run around and play with each other. Onika didn't understand other kids sometimes.

She liked talking a lot but all the other kids just thought she was weird—even her own mother seemed annoyed with her constant presence. Even at a young age Onika thought she was the problem and not the adults in her life.

So she decided to stop talking as much.

She looked down at the flowers surrounded by the tree stump before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up immediately just to see her teacher.

"Hey Onika..how about you try playing with some of those kids over there?" She suggested with a kind smile. Onika was hesitant and shook her head.

"I-I don't want to.." Onika said quietly and her teacher frowned. "Please?" Her teacher asked. She noticed Onikas socializing has gone down dramatically, going from raising her hand and being excited to barely speaking and keeping her head down.

"For me?" The teacher tried. Onika nodded slowly and got up off her stump. She took a deep breath and walked over to a group of kids playing. They turned around slowly and looked Onika up and down.

"Oh—it's you. You wanna play?" The boy asked holding out a ball and Onika looked at him and the ball. She tried speaking but she felt like her little heart was about to burst from being forced to socialize.

"I-I.." Onika tried and one of the girls spoke up. "See? I told y'all—she's a weirdo." Onika gripped her own shirt in her tiny hand. It was her defense mechanism.

Onika shook her head fast. "I'm not weird!" She shouted and then covered her mouth. Onika couldn't help when she said things—sometimes they just came out—sometimes she said things too loud. She never really meant to.

She couldn't control it.

"See? She is!" Onika tried walking backwards and fell on her butt. The next thing she knew dirt was all over her converse as the kids scuffed at her feet. She cried and sobbed until the teacher came over and began yelling at the kids.

"I wanna go home! I wanna go ho-home!" Onika cried and the teacher took her hand and went back into the building. She cleaned Onikas shoes off the best she could as she cleaned her cheeks that also managed to get some dirt on them.

"Onika I'm so sorry..I didn't think they'd do that I swear." She tried. She really did feel bad, she just wanted the poor girl to socialize. She didn't know how feral kids could be sometimes.

Onika sat in the teachers office as she tried contacting her mom. Nothing came up but voicemails.

"What? Onika does your mom work during the day?" The teacher asked and Onika shrugged. She sighed and dialed Onikas emergency contact.

"Vanessa Maraj?" She asked. The women picked up after only 1 ring. She had Onikas school number in her phone. "This is she." She said flipping through the documents on her desk.

"Onikas had—an emergency and refuses to go back to class. I think it's best if she goes home and—Id like to have a talk with you when you get here." She said still eyeing the little girl who was distracting herself with the decorative buffer flies on her wall.