The Shadow of Class 203 (Freedom Writers Fanfic)

Chapter 4

A 6-year-old Kianna smiled as she was playing in the living room of her first house. A bronze woman sat there and watched her with dull eyes. Her father stomped into the room and yelled at the woman. Kianna clutched her toy to her chest and watched. Her father slapped the woman across the face with such force that she fell to the floor. Her father continued to hit the woman, but she made no sound while her expression remained blank. When her father huffed and stormed off, the woman sat up from the ground and looked at Kianna once again with her dull eyes. She beckoned Kianna to come over to her. Kianna hesitated but she walked over to her. The woman gave her a ghost of a smile.

"Do you want to leave this place, Kianna?" The woman asked sweetly as her eyes became pitch black as if something dark had possessed them. Kianna nodded as she continued to clutch the toy to her chest. The woman smirked.

"Go get daddy"

  Kianna went to her father's office before walking back to the living room. Seeing that the woman wasn't there, she went into the kitchen and saw her pouring a blue liquid into 3 cups. Two of them had wine and one had grape juice. She turned and saw Kianna, she smiled and gave her the grape juice.

"Don't drink it until I say so", the woman said with a smile. Kianna nodded as she looked at the cup. She looked up to see the woman put a blue bottle that said "Rat Poison" under the sink. The woman smiled back at Kianna as she grabbed the two other cups.

"Let's go celebrate your father's birthday", the woman said towering over Kianna as she looked down at her with a wide smile. Kianna shook as the woman's pitch-black eyes stared directly into hers.

  Kianna jolted forward breathing quickly. She looked around and relaxed when she realized she was at school, sitting at the base of a tree. The feeling of anger started to bubble in her chest. She growled as she ripped up a handful of grass. She leaned her back against the tree and took deep breaths until the anger subsided.

  As more kids showed up and hung around their packs, Kianna decided to head to class early. As she walked, Eva watched her. Eva knew Kianna was the only other person who saw Paco shoot the Asian kid and she couldn't let her tell the judge the truth. Last night, Paco was scared and told Eva, not to tell the truth and to get Kianna to not testify or lie, or else she will be betraying her people. Eva was stressed out, but she knew she had to silence Kianna and lie. She continued to watch Kianna until she disappeared into the building.

  When Kianna entered class 203 early, Mrs. Gruwell was surprised but stayed quiet as she wrote on the board. The faculty meeting earlier that day had informed her that both Eva and Kianna were involved in the shooting last night. Mrs. Gruwell looked at Kianna for a bit, wondering if she should say anything but decided not to since Kianna was looking out the window and zoning out. Before they knew it, the bell rang and the class filled up again, rowdy as usual. Seeing this Mrs. Gruwell moved seats around but it was all in vain as the class kept the same rowdiness and it was, once again, causing anger to bubble up within Kianna.

  Mrs. Gruwell sighed and went back to writing some stuff on the blackboard. While this was happening, Eva and Sindy were looking at each other but both would glance at the quiet figure against the window every once in a while. In the back, one of the kids drew a crappy, racist picture of Jamal and had it passed around the class. The class smiled and laughed as they got it. The kid that drew the picture stretched his arm out in a fake yawn to distract the teacher. Mrs. Gruwell looked at him.

"Yes?", Mrs. Gruwell said looking at him. He shook his head and gestured that he was just yawning. Some people giggled. Kianna watched from her seat and shook her head at their dumb shenanigans.