A/N: PLEASE READ.
STRAIGHTER THAN PARALLEL PARKING IS NOMINATED FOR STORY OF THE YEAR AWARD!
YOU HAVE TO VOTE THROUGH TWITTER. THE LINK IS: w.tt/StoryOfTheYear AND IT IS ON MY PROFILE WALL. PLEASE, PLEASE, IF YOU CAN VOTE/TWEET, I MIGHT POST ANOTHER CHAPTER? MOST TWEETS WIN! [just even getting above rank 50 will be amazing out of 100!]
ALSO, STRAIGHTER THAN PARALLEL PARKING HIT #4 IN HUMOUR TODAY. I'M CRYING. THANK YOU!
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{ Chapter Twenty-One: For Not Everyone Can Be the Victim }
PROGRESSING THROUGH THE DAY WAS INTERESTING, to say the least. Taxing, irritating and, as much as it feels wrong to admit, insightful. Janice doesn't know how these three things work together (they really shouldn't, not in any lifetime for anyone), but she can't ignore the plague in her mind that has already begun spreading.
Janice can be on the verge of being called cloistered. Oh, yes, she won't shove her opinion down your throat so you choke on it and she does her fair share of listening, mind you. But if you really, truly let her out into the world, take off the blindfold and the plugs in her ears, you'd realize how sheltered she is, and that is a very upsetting matter to begin with.
She has never taken the minute to realize why people act the way they do. Why people are so hateful and rude despite never being provoked; why people judge and criticize and critic the simplest of actions like a hawk; why people are too scared to put their own idea's onto the table when it isn't even wanted.
Janice has seen many traits. Even she, herself, acts out on many of them, but she's never spent the time to realize why, and a flaw of her's would be that she's just too curious for her own goddamn good.
Sadly, she doesn't have sources for her questions. (Googling 'why people kill others' isn't really the smartest thing to insert into a search engine).
So she tackles them the only way she knows how—impulsively, rationally and effectively (though her tackles usually did leave her with a mouthful of grass).
In other words, she tackles Kori with her questions at the school park.
And when I aforementioned tackling, I'm pretty sure I do mean it so quite literally.
"I'm going to murder you," spat Kori, digging out a branch from her hair. "I was this close—" Kori pinches her forefinger and thumb to indicate just how much, "to getting out of the field. This close. Why'd you have to have cheetah blood in you?"
Janice just smugly grins, not even hindered in the slightest about the soil in her uniform already taking up half of her shirt. "Former Captain of the Football team, darling. Don't mess with me. When I ask you to stop, drop, and roll, I mean it like you're on fire."
"Noted," Kori says sarcastically. "And why couldn't you just discuss whatever you needed to talk to me about tomorrow like a sensible person would?"
"Janice Diablo doesn't do sense." Janice says, before scrunching up her face. "Wait, self insult. Crap."
Kori shrugs, but her body language has softened from its previous hostile position. "You have a habit of doing so."
When Janice and her had departed at lunch, they hadn't resolved any of the bad energy between them afterwards. Janice's cryptic message hadn't really eased any of Kori's worries and Kori was too stubborn to leave her insecurity behind.
Thankfully, it seemed that they had settled on an uneasy truce at the moment, slackening their antagonism.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean the awkwardness dissipated, either.
Janice shuffles her feet, trying to find what to say.
"Kori, why are you scared of bullying so much?" she blurts, and even in her head she realizes she should have articulated the question in a way that it wouldn't seem so stupid, but is already out of her without a second thought.
"Are you seriously asking me that question?" Kori gapes in disbelief.
"Yeah, I guess I kind of did."
"Why would you even ask that question?" Kori splutters, trying to wrap around the fact that someone could be so dense that they'd ask this. "Why wouldn't I be scared of the taunts and the teases? Why wouldn't I be scared that tomorrow someone might prank me purposely because they think it's fun? Why shouldn't I be scared that people will depict me and hate on me and ruin every good thing a day can offer?"
"That's the question I'm asking you."
"Do you even know what the hell is wrong with your comprehension since I basically told you what bullying is? Are you sure you're not the younger one?"
Janice sighs, realizing that Kori doesn't understand the point Janice is trying to make. "I didn't ask what bullying meant, I asked why it bothers you."
"This conversation is pointless and totally crazy." Kori replies curtly, already finished with the nonsense. "I'm done here, and clearly so are you. Tell Madame Parker that I don't need you anymo—"
"Goddamit, Kori!" Janice shouts, effectively making Kori jump almost a foot into the air. "You know what's stupid? Caring what these taunts and teases are. Crying into your pillow everyday because you wonder if it's true. Hating everything you do—hating yourself—because someone can't get over themselves, they can't stop hating you, and in turn, you wonder why. What have you done to provoke this, what is your emotions and feelings and being a human being with self-worth mean to them?"
Janice stares at the girl who can't meet her eyes. Taking her silence as means to continue, she does.
"Then you go asking yourself. Why do they hate me; why do they want me to hurt so badly; why do they hurl knives in the shape of letters; why, why, why?" Janice breaks off. "Why?"
"Because you're different." Kori shuts her eyes, "Because they don't think you're enough, that you're not worth the invites to the parties, that you can't be any better than the freak that left last week—"
"No." Kori blinks, startled to see Janice with a dark scowl, afraid at how vicious the girl looks. "Others—they're just not used to us. They don't understand us. They don't want to get us. They don't care or give two flying shits about us and you need to understand that just because they won't, doesn't mean we need them to."
"Of course you want them to understand," Kori hisses. "You want someone to stop being screwed up enough to stop looking at you like you are."
"Kori, you want this. You do not need it."
"Oh, how rich, like you don't want this yourself?"
Janice pinches the bridge of her nose. "Sit down."
"I already have grass stains on my butt."
"Nothing Tide won't wash out. Now sit down."
Kori obliges, sensing that it was more of a demand than a request.
Janice pushes her red bangs out her eyes, breathing in gasps. "I've been going to this school since freshman year."
"Are you going to go all sappy backstory on me because I'm pretty sure there's a TV show I can refer back to..."
"The only show I'll be re-enacting will be 'How To Get Away With Murder' if another smartass comment comes shooting out your mouth, bro." Janice snaps, self-conscious already. "Look, I don't do sharing deep, dark secrets, but bear with me, okay?"
Kori nods, and Janice wets her lips as she goes on. "Our school is mostly Caucasian, if you haven't noticed, and it's not because we're big on ethnicity in general, but most of the families that send their girls here make a huge deal about it. Usually the older kids, that's when parents start instilling that skin tone is greater than bleached bones."
Janice pauses, ignoring the scratchiness of her throat. "Because of this, there's a lot of racial tension towards the African American and Hispanic community, which is quite unfortunate as there's already a short percentage of them. But what sucks are the slurs. Discrimination. Attacks."
"What does this have to do with you?" Kori asks, hazed. "You're just as White looking as I am. How does this even affect you?"
"I haven't told you yet, but I'm adopted. My father's from Argentina and we come from a long lineage of Hispanics, and I might not always understand it to its full extent because of my inherited White Privilege, but my families wars are still my battles. There's not much a choice there."
"Did you get hated on because of who your family is?" Kori asks, wide eyes still not scarred with society's prejudice.
Janice grimaces. "It was small in the beginning. People found out around last year, and it was terrible. I wasn't ever really popular in the beginning, but it was like I have a deviant disease for some—once the bigger leaders started looking down upon me, it kind of spread with most people."
Janice looks at her hands. "I'm not alone most of the time because my social skills are terrible—even if they can't be vouched for much—but because most of the people don't want to interact with someone with a darker skinned father and I don't want to spend my time vice versa with bigots."
Kori rocks back on the balls of her feet, crossing her arms around her legs, which are crouched in front of her. "Is that why you quit those teams? And the hostility that the seniors give you?"
"Partially." Janice says sheepishly. "I'm not exactly the type to sit back and let someone talk crap about me or my family, so I can't say that most of the fear is unfounded. You break a person's collarbone in Football practice because they remark on how I was 'always brought up to be on the wrong side of situations' kind of leaves you a reputation."
"Just her collarbone? Why didn't you go for the nose? Broken noses are so satisfying."
Janice bursts out laughing. "Okay, calm your inner violent nature, Kori. Surprised you're not phased by that."
"Why should I? You don't even know why I hate bullying so much."
"Look, Kori, I might've shared my experience, but that doesn't mean you need to tell me how being bullied is li—"
"I've never been bullied." Kori laughs bitterly, stunning Janice, the latter of who stares hard at the girl beside her, someone Janice thought was too frail and innocent to look as remorseful as she did.
"Then why do you hate bullying so much if you've never been a part of bullying?"
"Oh, I've been a part of it. I just wasn't the victim. I was the bully."
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JANICE DOESN'T REMEMBER WHEN SHE LOST FEELING IN HER FINGERS as she clutches the iced tea, tea that had hardly been sipped and melting inside the cup.
The polka dotted straw is untouched, and Janice doesn't even remember what she'd ordered, too busy staring at the girl in front of her.
Kori plays around with her biscuits, unnerved by the scrutiny Janice's paying her. "So that's my story. I'm not an angel. I'm worse than the devil, and I might have sinned differently than you probably thought I might have, but I regret it, you know. I regret all of it."
Janice remains quiet, her fingers digging into her Starbucks cup. The weather had gotten a little chilly, and prickles of pain start hitting her numb digits. "Let's get this straight. You wanted to become the popular girl so badly, you played along with their antics? TPed a girl's car, pushed a girl down the stairs, back bit them so bad that they went home crying for weeks?"
Kori purses her lips. "Unfortunately."
"Then your mom got sick of your attitude when you almost went to juvie because a girl snitched on your sorry asses and sent you to our private school so we could straighten your delinquent behind?"
"In a nutshell."
"Wow."
"What?"
"I've been asking this a lot, but why is popularity something you want to so badly?"
"Who doesn't want people to think they're the best?" Kori asks rhetorically. "It's selfish, sure, but I'm a teenage girl thrusted into the corrupted teenage system. Popularity is when you want something and someone gives it. When you do something and everyone notices. When you impress constantly and just your existence is enough for people to be jealous. Who doesn't want that power?"
"That's an interesting way to put it," Janice states honestly.
"I know what you're thinking," Kori says calmly, taking a bite of her biscuit. "You're wondering how much of a bitch I really am. Wondering why the hell I went along with things I didn't even like. And I don't know why; I guess I wanted to be someone that everyone knew about."
"You mean feared. Except for me punching people because they're mean, you punch them because you want to be mean."
"Look, not everyone can be you." Kori snaps, crossing her arms and tossing her hair back as the wind blew it in her mouth. "I can't be all high and mighty and kick ass every time I don't like something. Not everyone's cut out to be a leader, okay?"
"That's not what I mea--"
"Hell, yeah, it is. Hey, I get that you feel uncomfortable about it. But understand it from my perspective. I am a small girl, I have the strength of a three year old kid and I'm not exactly in the position to contradict people. It's not that simple. I had to do what I could so I did."
It's cold outside, her hands hurt, she has a headache and exhaustion is not a loose term at this point, so all Janice wants to do is put this discussion to rest. "Okay."
"Okay?" Kori repeats incredulously.
"Why do you think I'm trying to pick a fight?" Janice asks her, bewildered. "You've explained yourself a dozen times. I don't like that you used to give people wedgies in your own time. I don't. But I also know you're not supposed to judge someone on their mistakes previously if they're not acting on it now. You think I'm going to judge you for being put into situations and having to adapt? I don't approve. You do not have my consent. You just have my understanding."
Draining her cup, sick of the cold drink in her hands, she stands up to put it in the trash. "And just for the record, I don't mind if you're going to try and start a new slate, but I won't tolerate it if you're a bully now. Kori, I don't care how bad the situation will get here. There are people here. And even if you do not want to try and reach out and get it, I will handle it, with or without your need."
"I get it, I get it." Kori murmurs, packing her biscuit away, her appetite nonexistent.
"Good," Janice nods. "Now, as a person, I think you're kind of awesome when you're not trying to ask people for their lunch money to buy yourself a Happy Meal."
Kori smiles, glad that Janice's humor was back. "As a person, you're pretty chill when you're not tackling me to the floor and getting grass stains on my pants."
"As review, on a scale of one to ten, how great was I as an instructor?
"Uh. Let's just say if we were talking about the weather, you'd be freaking freezing."
"Did you just subtly say that I was at a zero?"
"Not really. You'd passed the negatives a long way back."
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A/N: Guys, Kori is so smooth. WTF. You'll be getting a lot of James in the next few chapters, along with Brielle and the brothers!
I READ ALL YOUR WISHES, SO THANK YOU SO MUCH! AND MY SURGERY WENT WELL. I won't be able to recover until a couple weeks and stick to a diet of ONLY liquids for the rest of this month and possibly next -- I'll be on bed rest and everything, so while that sucks, I get sleep and time to write!
I wasn't going to update but you guys literally made my days. Since I physically couldn't type anything out, I wrote it all in pen and paper! Hope it's not too rough!
#4 in Humour, everyone? How is this...?
I hate vote and comment goals, but if you guys can write all your thoughts and votes... maybe an earlier chapter update?
Possibly, let's say, in less than four days?
Let's see! Love you all xx