AN: Sorry if my knowledge of psychology shines through too much in this chapter; it was almost innate for me to write it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi.
Unfortunately for me, it's another murder that goes noticed - it's citywide. They classify her as a sweet little girl who loved pageants. Hah, more like a poodle haired bitch who wanted attention. Everyone expected me to feel bad, but I don't. Instead, I stage the whole thing - the minute I hear Tori is dead, I cried and cried and cried. It's almost as good to receive a Gemini Award, if you ask me. Mom weeps with me. Dad leaves the room. Katie holds me tightly. I receive calls from Tori's foreign boyfriend, and surprisingly Cam, sending their 'condolences'.
Please, I don't need any condolences for a girl I purely hated.
Mom tries to prevent me to go to school, but I insist.
"Maya - are you sure you want to go to school?" She asks me, with a concerned look. Katie sports the same look. "It's okay if you don't want to."
"Look mom, I want to go to school. I have to face them eventually." Actually, I don't really care about going to school, but I really don't want to stay home. I think not going to school would be dramatic.
Both women wave it off. I walk my way to school, suddenly getting rushed by different people to send their condolences. I want to roll my eyes so hard, that I hold back and smile at everyone. I frown when the bipolar playwright tells me that I'm casted as Juliet, simply because he feels sorry for me since I lost both of my 'best friends'.
I finally got the part, but really Eli? Sympathy is your drive to cast me as Juliet?
I smirk and accept defeat - "Thanks a lot. I know Tori and Tristan would be happy for me that I got the lead in the school musical."
Hah, bullshit. They totally hate me, where ever they are; watching me, snarling at me because I stole their lives and their prized desires.
Cam comes up to me and says sorry, and I forgive him. I think he can be my pretend boyfriend, and keep my plaything by my side - the mind-blowing sex I had with foreign boy Zig, I just want that again. Now that he's totally available and coping with his girlfriend's death. Yup, he's gonna want some eventually, and Tori Santamaria is gone from his memory, in a flash.
It's not my master plan, but it puts bread on the table. Speaking of table, I randomly bump onto a table on my way to freshman English.
"Woah," I back up, feeling a sharp pain in the nether area. It's normal, considering the rough sex I had yesterday.
"Are you okay?" The pothead boyfriend of my sister - Jake I think - asks me like he cares for my well being.
"I'm fine, just didn't know where I was going," I shrug it off.
"I understand - being in a complete stupor since your best friend died," Jake tries to sympathize. I go along with it and let a staged tear fall down my cheek.
"I just wish she didn't die," I sigh. "I just lost my other best friend, and Owen lost a younger brother; I can't believe I lost another one of my best friends in less than a month."
Jake gingerly places a hand on my shoulder. "I know you were close to them, and I completely understand how it is to lose someone. But don't give up - life is unfortunate."
Yes, life is unfortunate, and you are speaking to the main killer. "I guess."
"Trust me, if your sister can get over her drug addiction, you can get over your friends."
I'm already over them, deadbeat. "Now, you go to class, okay?"
I nod, and hurry off to my freshman English class. Today we're learning about the play book - the Bad Seed - which talks about a child sociopath that kills her competitor over a penmanship medal. Claude Daigle, hah! What kind of name is Claude Daigle? I almost chuckle at the name, causing foreign boy Zig to stare at me coldly (Considering he has a stupid name too.)
This story is basically the psychological storyline of a child gone wrong. "Nature versus nurture," the teacher Ms. Dawes starts her tedious class. "What does it mean?"
Nature deals with the way one is born. Nurture is the way one is raised. But what does this have to do with the Bad Seed? Rhoda is born bad, just like me of course. I never had a shitty childhood - and Rhoda is still a young girl who gets everything so of course she isn't a prime example of a disturbed child with a neglectful childhood.
"Nature is more of an innate issue. Nurture is more of a behavioral issue," one student bluntly puts it.
"Yes," the old female teacher smiles. "So, the protagonist - Rhoda Penmark - is a child sociopath, who kills three victims, Claude Daigle, an old neighbor, and at the end, in which I hope you all read, Leroy. It is shown that Rhoda's grandmother is also a serial killer. So do you think this is nature or nurture?"
Oh, now I understand how this is dealt with her. "Nature - she's born bad." I answer quickly, after she picks on me.
"But what if someone says.. nurture?" Ms. Dawes queries - the question raises eyebrows in the classroom. "Was it the way she was raised?"
"But how is it nurture if she receives everything she wants?" Foreign boy Zig counteracts. "She gets gifts by a self-proclaimed psychotherapist who couldn't see that Rhoda reveals sociopathic abilities, and claiming that she was psycho-analyzed by Sigmund Freud." Whom, by the way, has a very explicit way of explaining children. Ugh - have you even heard of the names he comes up with for his psychosexual stages of development?
"That's very true," another student agrees.
"Yes, but what can be a candidate for nurture?" Ms. Dawes questions.
"Too much crime dramas on the radio?" A student stupidly answers, which causes the students - except me - to laugh. What, just what? Shut up, please. That has nothing to do with her sociopathy.
"No, perhaps it's... her lack of understanding how to deal with others due to her antisocial personality," Another student queries. "Think about it - sociopathy is no longer called sociopathy. It's antisocial personality disorder. Anyone can have it. They show antisocial behavior, parasitic relationships - today's sociopaths are just simply, antisocial. The term sociopath has no meaning anymore."
"True, but let's not go there with the antisocial personality disorder," the teacher says. "I do agree with the idea that she is possibly antisocial and bound to be a menace to society, if the story is ever continued."
"But I think being born with it makes more sense," I start to reason. "She has everything - her landlord gives her gifts, her parents adore her. The only people who can see through her is Leroy, Miss Fern, Claude Daigle, and surprisingly, his inebriated mother. Leroy suspects that Rhoda is a natural-born killer, while Ms. Fern reveals that Rhoda last saw Claude at the wharf, and says she's a 'sore loser'. His mother knows that Rhoda wanted that medal by seeing right through the pigtails. Sociopaths are usually born with it, unlike psychopaths, who have a really destroyed psyche rather than an antisocial personality. Rhoda's grandmother is a serial killer and she's a sociopath."
The issue, while being a debated topic for days, went on for only ten minutes of the class and we conclude that she is a natural-born killer. But what sticks to me really, is the scene of the murder. It reminds me of a scene that happens in my life. Right when Rhoda admits to killing Claude Daigle in the play.
Maybe it's just a parallel.