Majority [removed] [#Ooorahs] #1

Prologue: The Lion Within

Cherise raised the bloody scissors in an unspoken threat. The kid must be lying. No one sane would put this little pipsqueak in charge of a suicide watch. His limbs looked as fragile as twigs, and his squeaky voice could never raise an alarm.

Only extraordinarily messed up kids ended up in foster care, Cherise felt sure. Had Thomas's father or mother beaten him until he couldn't walk? He must contain a volcano of rage. No doubt he was here to torment the new kid. Would he make fun of her baggy clothes?

"You're Cherise." Thomas fumbled for the notebook tucked by his side, and painstakingly tore out a sheet. "I don't mind that you're silent. I can hear your thoughts."

What crap was this?

Cherise narrowed her eyes at the disabled kid. Thomas was white, his hair the color of wet sand, like many people in Appalachia. No doubt he would zero in on how different she looked and bludgeon her with it. Maybe he would quiz her on what ethnicity she was. Latina? Native American? Why did she have a French name?

"I know you're not physically mute," Thomas said. "You have a legit phobia of speech." He folded the sheet of paper, this way and that. "Everyone misjudges me, also. I know what that's like."

He actually sounded sympathetic.

Okay, so he planned to reel her in with false pity. Ha. Cherise knew that game. Everyone wanted to trick the mute girl into saying something. This kid would slam her with a harsh joke the instant she let her guard down.

"You're afraid that if you start speaking," Thomas said, "you'll scream. And you won't be able to stop."

That was accurate.

Cherise ignored the throbbing of her cut arm. It was as if Thomas saw who she truly was, beneath her glasses and thick hair. But that was impossible.

"Your mother punished you every time you spoke." Thomas fluffed the paper, sculpting it. "For your entire life, up until recently, you were unable to speak without suffering a punishment. That's why your throat closes up whenever you try."

Cherise smelled the dirty gag stuffed in her mouth, as if she'd just begged for something to eat. Ma hated complaints.

Could her silence really be due to Ma? Cherise assumed that she'd been born defective and pathetic, just like Ma said.

But hadn't Ma said the same things about the baby?

The baby who wouldn't shut up.

Glitzy kept wailing, drowning out the flies that buzzed around their trailer. She must have been very hungry. Ma kept punishing her, until that final time, when Glitzy went silent forever.

I hate Ma. I hate her. The pain in Cherise's torn skin was nothing next to her searing fury. She wanted to stab Ma in the gut. Stab her until she screamed, and then keep stabbing until she went silent. Stab her eyes out. Stab her throat.

Surely no one else seethed with such feral, animalistic rage? If other people felt this way, they would never be able to laugh or smile.

They would not have kind eyes, like this boy.

Cherise's inner hatred and rage was how she knew that her Ma was right, after all. She was a defective freak.

"Your Ma never knew you." Thomas made more creases in the paper. "She never tried to get to know you. And your feelings are rightfully earned. Rage and hatred are not a sign of being defective. It's all completely normal, given your situation."

The way he answered her exact thoughts ... Cherise wanted to ask how he guessed what was inside her mind.

She opened her mouth, but her throat thickened until she could no longer smell the rain. She couldn't make a sound.