Chapter One
God, summer couldn't come soon enough. As Wanda trudged through the hallway, dodging people left and right, she tried to think optimistically. After all, she reasoned, it was time for her favorite class of the day: World Literature. It had been a tough day, with a presentation in AP European History and a pop quiz in advanced Geometry. But now she could (hopefully) relax with a group discussion on Wide Sargasso Sea. It was the tail end of May, so all everyone's AP tests were over with, meaning that those classes were just about preparing their final projects/essays. As she sat down at her book group's table and shuffled her bag around for her book, Wanda smiled, glad that after her favorite class, she'd be free.
Her group consisted of four other students: Kelly, Amy, Liam and Neil. Out of all of them, she was the only one to have read Jane Eyre, which Wide Sargasso Sea was a prequel to.
"So what'd you guys think of the last night's chapter?" Liam asked.
Wanda kept silent, not wanting to be the one to open the conversation.
"Well…I thought it was kind of interesting how Rochester's opinion of Antoinette keeps deteriorating, even though he's the one making her so miserable and desperate," Kelly brought up.
There's a good place to start, thought Wanda. "Yeah, especially when it comes to their relationship with sex. At first they both enjoy it, but as Rochester grows more paranoid and hateful, his attitude about how Antoinette enjoys sex too becomes much more negative," she replied.
"Could you explain that a bit more?" Kelly asked.
"This takes place during the Victoria Era, right? That was a time during which Queen Victoria of England was seen as strictly virginal, and the women of Britain were forced to follow suit by acting as if they hated sex. So when Antoinette openly enjoys it, Rochester thinks she's a freak."
"Plus," added Liam, "that enjoyment of sex reminds Rochester of how Antoinette isn't British, strictly speaking, she's Creole. His disgust about this is another part of his ethnocentrism."
"Well, I don't know why he hates that so much," Neil said, "Reading about Antoinette makes me feel pretty damn gypped."
"You really shouldn't say that," Wanda muttered.
"Why not?" Neil asked with a sharp edge to his tone.
"Well, for one thing, gypped means cheated, which implies that you feel that you're entitled to sex, which no one is, and that's a pretty sexist idea too. Society teaches men that women are there for their consumption, which we're not," Wanda explained, her voice getting stronger as she went on, "Plus, gypped is a very offensive word. It's derived from gypsy, which enforces the stereotype that all Romani people are thieves and cheats."
"Jesus, people need to calm down with all this PC shit."
Before Wanda could reply, Amy cut in. "It's just a word, it's not like it hurts anyone."
"Actually, it hurts all of the Romani, including me. It plays into the heavy persecution and discrimination that all of us face, even here in the U.S." Wanda pointed out angrily.
"Wait, you're a Gypsy?" Liam asked.
It was no big secret that Wanda and her twin Pietro were adopted, yet not many people other than their friends knew that they were Romani. She and her brother both had brown skin, but most people assumed they were Middle Eastern.
"I'm Romani. Gypsy is actually an outdated term. People started to use it because they thought the Romani were from Egypt, but we're actually from northern India. Besides, the word gypsy has some bad connotations to it, so we prefer Romani or Roma," Wanda tried to explain patiently.
Neil rolled his eyes. "Well I guess that explains why your skin looks like someone rubbed shit all over it."
"He said WHAT?!" Pietro yelled.
"I know, and then Ms. Johnson started outlining our essays but I swear I came so close to decapitating him," Wanda said jokingly, trying to calm her brother down, "I just tried to ignore him the rest of class."
The twins were walking through the woods, which made a nice short cut right to their backyard. It had plenty of trails and some truly beautiful sights, making it a nice way to end the school day (at least in the spring).
"Seriously though, if I ever see that fuckwad outside of school, I'm kicking his ass" Pietro fumed.
"Pietro," Wanda said, grabbing his arm, "I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. You can't keep fighting all of my battles for me."
"Oh yeah? Name one time I've fought your battle for you," Pietro scoffed.
"How about that time Mark Kingston kept stealing my math homework and you ripped up his vintage baseball cards? Or that time when Shelby Woods spread a rumor that I worshipped the devil and you threatened to tell her minister and parents that she smokes pot if she didn't admit that she made it up?" Wanda teased.
"Oh, er-yeah. But I'm just looking out for my little sis" Pietro insisted with a smile.
Wanda sighed exaggeratedly. "For the last time, we're twins. Beings born seven minutes before me doesn't make you older than me. At least, not in any way that matters."
Pietro just laughed, saying, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much. But other than that, how was the rest of your afternoon?"
"It was okay, I felt pretty good on my geometry quiz and chorus was really fun. Oh and guess who got the solo for "No One is Alone"? She said.
All it took for Pietro was one look at his sister's face and he started to jumped up and down excitedly with his hands on her shoulders.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! It's about fucking time! I was sick of you always finding excuses to not audition!"
"Yeah, well, those days might be over. So how was your day?"
"Eh, it was average. Soccer practice was tough, our coach is getting really worried about our final win to loss ratio. He wants us to have won a majority of games this season, but there are only two games left and we'll need to win both to do that."
"Well, I'm sure you'll do great, and besides, there's always next-"
But at that moment, something hit the back of Wanda's head. She turned confusedly, only to see Neil bike past her. She looked down, trying to find what hit her when her eyes landed on a crushed can of soda. When she looked back up, Pietro was running towards Neil, but was having trouble catching up. As Neil turned down the right fork of the path, he looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Slutty Gypsy bitch!"
Each of those words hit her. She could feel the impact of each of them, sure that they would end up leaving bruises. The hurt left her dazed more than anything else for a few slow seconds, but the anger came soon enough. It rose up slowly at first, building its momentum until it came down with a crash. And when it did, Wanda felt as though the anger, along with the rest of her tumbling emotions were being ripped from her. She thought she saw a red wave of-well, of something-radiate from her, causing all the plant life within three yards to explode and then disintegrate. But she was having trouble believing anything she saw at the moment, for when she collapsed exhaustedly onto the dirt path, she could of sworn she saw her brother speed over impossibly fast, pick her up, the trees blurred as he carried her home.