EIGHT
Letty walks into Eric's kitchen from the backyard and the teenager looks at his mom as she shuts the door behind her. "Have you heard anything yet?" The brunette asks Mrs. Matthews.
"I'm sorry, honey. They still haven't found the guys who hurt you and your friend." The older woman tells her as she gets snacks together.
The brunette sighs. "Of course not."
"Where's Sam?"
"His dad took him and his brother out of town." She tells her. "They were only here visiting for a few days when we got jumped."
"You want some ice cream?" Mrs. Matthews asks, hoping that a change of subject might brighten the younger girl's mood.
"Sure, why not? I'll use the cold bowl to ease the throbbing in my eyebrow." She says, more to herself than to her best friend's mom. Mrs. Matthews hands her an ice pack, and Letty sits down at the kitchen table. "Thanks."
"How's your lip?" She asks.
There's a huge knot in her eyebrow and her lip is split from the guys who attacked her and Sam the other night. The swelling seems to be taking its sweet time going down. And it's driving her absolutely crazy.
"Healing. Slowly, but surely." The brunette tells her. "I'm just glad I was finally able to ditch Miller after school this afternoon."
She chuckles as she looks at the teenager. "Your friend seemed pretty upset about you getting hurt. He's been sticking pretty close lately, huh?" She asks, and Letty nods.
"Like we're tethered."
"I think it's sweet." Mrs. Matthews says before going to get the others.
Morgan runs into the room soon after, dragging a pretty Asian girl from Letty's school right behind her. "Scarlett!" The little blonde yells, a smile spreading across her face when she sees her.
"Hey, kiddo." Letty smiles at her, and then looks at the girl that she ran in with. "Um, it's Linda, right?" She asks, and the raven-haired girl nods.
"Hi, Scarlett."
Eric walks in a few seconds later, after making a comment to his mom because Morgan was embarrassing him. "Oh, hey, Letty. I didn't know you'd be here." He says when he sees his best friend sitting at the table.
"Yeah, I guess I should probably stop showing up unannounced." The brunette says, and he shakes his head.
"No, it's fine." He tells her. "Did they catch those guys yet?"
"No, and they probably won't."
"Why do you say that?" He asks, confused by the way she said it, like she doesn't believe that they're even looking.
"Because they don't really care about helping people from the trailer park. It's kinda the reason that people call us trash." She tells him.
"That's ridiculous, I'm sure they'll find them soon." He argues, and she opts for dropping the subject altogether.
The three teenagers and the little blonde all hang out for the rest of the afternoon, and Morgan seems to really be enjoying herself. She keeps going back and forth between talking to Letty and Linda, asking them both questions. Linda even tries to get to know Letty a bit more, but it's pretty obvious that she's distracted by something else that's on her mind.
The next day, Eric and Letty walk into his kitchen and see his dad and little sister sitting at the dining table. Mr. Matthews is trying to show his daughter something, but she doesn't seem the slightest bit interested as she throws it down onto the tabletop.
"Hey, Dad. Hey, Weez." Eric greets, gaining their attention as he and Letty walk over to the two of them. "Hey, Weasel, check it out. Look what Linda sent for you." He says as he shows the little blonde what Linda told him to give to her.
"It's beautiful. What is it?" Morgan asks as she looks at the yellow and pink object that he's holding, and Letty chuckles.
"This is a genuine Japanese lantern." He tells her.
"Well, that was very nice of Linda." Mr. Matthews says.
"Yeah. She brought it all the way back from Tokyo, and she wants you to have it. Look, you put it over the lamp you have in your room, all the pretty colors will shine through." He explains.
"I'm gonna go try it right now!" Morgan says as she quickly climbs off of her chair and takes it from his hand. "Come on, Scarlett, let's go!" She yells, and Letty follows after her as she runs up the stairs.
Mr. Matthews looks up as the girls leave the room, and he sees the way that Eric's smiling as he watches after them. "Hey, son?" He gets his attention. "Have a seat." He says, pushing out the chair beside him.
Eric's eyebrows furrow as he looks down at him. "Is something wrong?" He asks as he sits in the chair that Morgan left.
"No, no. I'm just curious about something." He tells him. "Now, I have no problem with you dating other girls, if that's what you wanna do, but... Well, why haven't you asked that girl out?"
"Who? Letty?" He smiles as he shakes his head, like the idea's ridiculous. "Letty and I are just friends, Dad."
"Uh-huh." His dad nods. "So... You don't have feelings for Scarlett then?"
"Letty's my best friend. It's not like that." The teenage boy says as he gets to his feet, then he makes his way up the stairs as well.
"That wasn't a no." Mr. Matthews chuckles as he returns his attention to what he was trying to show his daughter before the older two showed up.
Letty's now finished helping Morgan put the paper lantern over the lamp that she has beside her bed, so the older girl walks over to the switch by the door. The tiny blonde smiles, excited to see how her room is going to look now. The lamp is on, so Letty flips the switch, shutting off the room's main light source.
"Cool!" Morgan yells, looking around at all of the colors on her ceiling and walls. "It's so pretty."
The brunette chuckles as Eric walks up beside her in the doorway. "She likes it, huh?" He asks, and Letty nods.
"Yeah, it was really cool of Linda to give it to her. I mean, who knows when she'll be in Tokyo again to get herself a new one?" The brunette says. "Congratulations, Matthews, you're finally dating a girl that I don't hate." She says as she glances at him.
"Huh. And here I was starting to think that that was impossible." He says, watching her face for any emotion, but her expression remains unreadable.
—
Letty's at the Matthews' house to help Cory study because he has a bet going with Mr. Feeny that he can teach his class History better than his teacher can. And now the younger boy's starting to think that he'll lose the bet, so he wants to try and better understand the book before he gives his sixth grade class the test on it.
Shawn told Letty the day before during dinner that Cory wants help because he's barely passing the subject himself. They're all supposed to be reading the Diary of Anne Frank, so she promised him that she'd help Cory out after school.
"Alright, so... What's up, kid?" The brunette asks as she sits on the coffee table across from where Cory's sitting on the couch with his copy of the book.
"We're learning about the Nazis and the Jews, and I don't get it." He tells her as his dad goes upstairs.
"Well, for me, it's easier to learn History by associating it with current events."
"But there's no prejudice today, that's why it's called History." The younger boy argues.
"What happened with the Nazis is history, yes — a really important part of it too. It's something that needs to be taught and learned because prejudice still exists in many places today, including right here in Philadelphia." She tells him.
"Really?" He asks, eyebrows furrowed as he leans forward, and she nods.
"Yeah, Cor. As much as people like to pretend that we're all more evolved than we are, there's still a lot of prejudice in the world today."
"Like what?" He asks, and as if on cue, the front door opens, and Eric walks in with Linda. She's crying as she hugs her cardigan tightly around her body.
"Come on, let's go sit on the couch, alright?" Eric says as he shuts the door before following her to sit down as well.
"Eric?" Cory looks at them as he straightens up.
"I got it, Cor." He tells him as she continues crying. "Everything's going to be okay, alright?" He tries to comfort Linda, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Eric?"
"Look, I'll talk to you later, Cor."
"Come on, Cory. Let's go work on this in the kitchen." Letty says, trying to get his attention, but he doesn't listen to her.
Mrs. Matthews walks in the back door with Morgan then. "Oh, it's getting chilly out there."
Morgan quickly runs over to them. "Scarlett! Linda!" She yells, and Letty grabs her before she can run over to Linda and Eric.
"Not now, kiddo, okay?" Letty tells her, talking quietly, and Morgan leans into her when she sees that her new friend is in tears.
"What's wrong with Linda?" The little blonde asks as she looks at her.
"Some jerk at the mall called her a bad name." Eric tells his sister.
"Where?" Cory asks. "Our mall?"
"What did he call you?" The youngest asks.
"Oh, it's not important, Morgan." Linda tells her, speaking through her tears. She's trying to compose herself so that she won't break down in front of the five-year-old.
"In our mall, right here?" Cory questions as Mrs. Matthews hands Linda a tissue.
"Thank you."
"A boy at daycare once called me poo-poo head." Morgan says, making her chuckle.
"Thanks, Morgan." Linda says.
"Mom." Eric says, and she takes Morgan from Letty.
"Come on, Morgan. Let's make some hot cocoa for everybody." She says as they then walk into the kitchen.
Linda turns to Eric once they're gone and starts crying into his shoulder. The older boy then looks at Letty and Cory as his brother gets to his feet. "Man, sometimes people can be total idiots."
"This happened today?" Cory asks, and he nods. He looks at Letty, and she takes a deep breath, knowing that he's having a hard time processing all of this.
"Come on, kid, let's give her some space." The brunette says and then reaches over and rests her hand on Linda's arm for a second. "I'm really sorry."
"Thanks." She offers her a sad smile, and Letty stands up.
She and Cory head into the kitchen, taking his school stuff with them, and Mrs. Matthews looks over at the two of them. Letty turns to Cory and sighs when his concerned and confused eyes meet hers. "That definitely wasn't the example that I wanted to give you, but prejudice does still exist...even today, Cor." She tells him, and he looks back the way that they came in.
"Scarlett, can I talk to you for a second please?" Mrs. Matthews asks, and the teenager walks over to her. "I heard what you were saying to Eric before, about being trailer trash... That's not really what you think of yourself, is it?" She asks quietly, and the brunette shrugs.
"I guess you hear it long enough, you start to believe it." Letty tells her.
"Who says that?"
"Everyone at school and..." She looks down, shaking her head.
"And?" She prompts when Letty hesitates.
"Do you know why Eric's grandma doesn't like me?" She asks her, and Mrs. Matthews shakes her head.
"No."
"She walked in and saw me and Eric kiss the last time she was here. It wasn't anything — I mean, it was both of our first. It was as awkward as can possibly be, and...she didn't like that her grandson kissed someone from the trailer park. She said that she didn't want a gold digger like me around him." Letty tells her. "When an adult says it..."
"She was wrong to say that to you, Scarlett. You're not a gold digger, and you are certainly not trailer trash." Mrs. Matthews says, and she forces a small smile. "I'm so sorry that she said that to you, and I'm sorry that you feel that way. It's not right."
She shrugs. "I'm used to it."
"Never get used to it. You deserve better than that." Mrs. Matthews tells her, and her dark eyes fill with tears as she looks at her. The only person who's ever said anything to her that's even remotely similar to that is Miller, but it's different coming from the woman that she's looked up to for most of her life.
"Thank you." Letty says, fighting back her tears, and the older woman hugs her.
Cory's eyebrows furrow as he looks away from their embrace, and his gaze lands on the book that he's been reading in class. He didn't know that prejudice still existed at all, and now, here right in front of him, are two real life examples in one day. And one of them is a girl he's known his whole life who was discriminated against by someone in his own family.