Pokemon: A Marvelous Journey, Johto Arc

by SaoirseParisa

A young autistic girl is elated to be able to have her own Pokemon, and content with her life. But when her world is thrown in upheaval, she realizes it's time to step out into the world and face it head on. Can she survive with her friends by her side? Or will the world be too much for her to handle? COMPLETE!

71. Bonus 4: A Sister's Grave Mistake

A/N: Whoa. This was a long one. I think this is the first long bonus chapter I've ever done for this, which to me means I wrote a LOT of material, some of which I'm actually pretty proud of! This one's kind of a departure from the other bonus chapters, as it focuses on a totally new character, who will appear officially in the very next chapter. Also, she's an unlikable little brat. Yes, this was done intentionally. The conflict in this chapter will be resolved in the next one.

---

Bonus Chapter 5: A Sister's Grave Mistake

When Lakeisha Knowles was three years old, she thought her new little sister was the best thing in the whole world.

It had been a golden morning when her parents came home from the hospital with a bundle of blanket in her mother's arms. She had wanted to see the baby first, but Tammy, her older sister by five years, got the first look. But she finally got to see her new sister, and was in awe—a tiny baby with a smushed up face and beautiful brown skin, a little lighter than her own, but she was told it would get darker as she got older. She had ten perfect, curled up fingers and toes, and a head of soft, curly black hair. The baby's nose twitched as she floated through the peaceful haze of some invisible dream, swaddled in the little flannelette blanket, like it would protect her from all the evils of the world. To everyone in the Knowles household, she was the perfect addition to their family.

"What's her name, Mama?" Lakeisha had asked, her brown eyes shining with delight. "What'cha gonna call'er?"

Her mother smiled at her before answering, "Her name's Merlin. Merlin Ayala Knowles."

Lakeisha couldn't have come up with a better name herself if she tried. She had a little sister, Merlin, and she loved her already.

At first, things were great. Lakeisha helped her mother feed her, clothe her, keep her occupied while her mother was busy with other things, like making dinner or helping Tammy with homework. Lakeisha did everything she could to spend time with her baby sister, except change diapers, because nobody likes doing that. Lakeisha especially liked watching her mother dress her up in cute outfits, even more so when Lakeisha herself picked them out. Merlin was often decked out in frills, ribbons, and bows, because mothers love being able to put their baby daughters in cute clothes. But when Merlin turned one year old, Lakeisha noticed something odd. Merlin would cry and howl if someone tried to put accessories in her hair. Ribbons, hair clips, head bands, beads; Merlin would throw her arms out and resist any attempt to put them on her head. Even when they successfully got one on, she would yank it out and throw it away.

Her mother took it in stride at first. "I think Merlin says hair accessories are so not her thing," She said, winking at Lakeisha as Merlin threw away yet another cute bow. This one was pink with white lace trimming. Lakeisha sighed. She did think Merlin looked cute with ribbons in her hair.

In the months after that, Lakeisha and her family noticed other things about Merlin that seemed…strange, for lack of a better word. She never seemed to look at anyone's faces, even when they would put their faces right in front of her's. She wasn't crawling when she was supposed to; she wasn't sitting up when she was supposed to, only ever wanted to eat carrot slices, drank excessive amounts of milk, and cried if someone tried to touch her ears in any way. Lakeisha didn't quite mind very much. She still played with Merlin, and she knew Merlin loved her. As far as Lakeisha was concerned, Merlin was so much better than any doll she could ever have.

One day, when Lakeisha was seven, her mother sat her down and told her something very important. "Lakeisha, dear? We took Merlin to the doctor last year, and they told us she's...autistic."

Autistic? Lakeisha's ears perked up. This was a new word she hadn't heard before. "What's autistic mean?" She asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Well, it's a way of saying that Merlin isn't going to be like other kids. She sees the world in a different way than we do," Her mother explained. "You know how Merlin hates having accessories in her hair? And how she likes to flap her hands and twirl around in a circle when she's excited? And how she didn't start talking until last year?" She pointed to her brain. "She has autism. Her brain grows differently than ours, so the way she processes the world around her is different as well."

Lakeisha didn't quite know what to make of that. "Is it a disease or somethin'?"

Her mother shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that. Not at all," She reassured, keeping both hands on her daughter's shoulders. "It just means the way her brain is wired isn't like everyone else's, so she learns things at her own pace, on her own terms. But I want you to know it's not a bad thing."

So that was it? Merlin was just different? Lakeisha shrugged. She wasn't sure what the big deal was. Merlin was still Merlin, even if she was kind of strange. It wasn't like she had turned into some alien monster out to eat everyone. For a second, she thought Merlin was sick with some disease. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, thankful that wasn't the case. She glanced past her mother's shoulders and saw Merlin sitting on the floor, holding a toy car backwards and spinning one of its wheels over and over with a big smile on her face. Lakeisha couldn't help but grin at the sight of her happy little sister.

"Okay!" Lakeisha chirruped.

Shortly after, she went over to play with Merlin, teaching her how to talk and say Pokemon names. Who cares if Merlin's autistic? She thought. Merlin was still her little sister, and she loved her. That was all that mattered.

Unfortunately, after Lakeisha turned ten, she would no longer love Merlin the way she used to.

---

"Tammy!" Lakeisha, now eleven, pounded her fist on the wooden bathroom door, her eyebrows furrowed in irritation. "Are you done yet?! You've been in there for, like, twenty minutes straight!"

"Will you relax, Keish?" Her older sister exclaimed from the other side. The bathroom door wasn't very thick, so either girl could hear one another speak on each side of it. "I'm almost done. You really need to be more patient."

Patience was the last thing on Lakeisha's mind. Today was the first day of fifth grade, and she needed to get in the bathroom and fix her makeup right now. She wanted to make her first day of school as good as possible, and for that to happen, she wanted to look good, dress nice, and feel good. A good first impression was everything. She wanted to take control and make sure the day went smoothly, and she'd have started by now if Tammy hadn't been hogging the bathroom.

Thankfully, what little patience she had was rewarded when her older sister finally came out of the bathroom. As Tammy passed by, Lakeisha ran in there, intent to freshen herself up without interruption. Tammy, with her short, cropped bob cut freshly dried, cast an annoyed glance in Lakeisha's direction as she slammed the door behind her. Lakeisha pulled her hair into a fluffy ball, tying it in place with a black band before slipping on a red headband that went all around her head. She splashed her face with water to make her eyes less swollen and to wash out the phlegm that accumulated around them as she slept, dried it with a towel, and spread some cream on her cheeks to fill up pores and keep her skin soft as dew. After that, she brushed her eyelashes and put some chapstick on her lips to give them some much needed moisture.

When she looked into the mirror, a new girl looked back at her. One who was ready for fifth grade. She smiled. Perfect! The effort she put in would be worth it.

But as she made her way to the kitchen, a familiar voice made Lakeisha's smile change into a frown.

"—Aunt Florence's name comes from either the Latin name Florentius or the more feminine Florentia, both of which are derived from the word florens, which means to flourish or be prosperous."

Lakeisha facepalmed. 'Ugh! It's seven in the morning and Merlin's already gabbin' about names! Can't she take a hint?!' She screamed in her brain as she walked inside.

She found her mother standing in front of the dishwasher, taking some clean plates out and putting them in the cupboard just above it. The scent of warm butter and invigorating cinnamon wafted through the air. Tammy was sitting down at the table, taking a sip of some coffee, watching as the youngest sister looked through a book and talked about its contents. Lakeisha cast a glare in the girl's direction, hoping it'd tell her to shut up. It didn't, obviously. Merlin didn't notice; for she was too busy talking to Tammy with a big, pleased smile on her face.

As Lakeisha fixed herself some Kalosian toast and a banana, she sat down at the table, sizing Merlin up. It was almost surreal to think that the tiny baby she once fawned over grew up to be a rather pretty little girl of eight, with long, sleek black hair that went down to her back and big, brown eyes that seemed eager to learn everything about the world around her. But Lakeisha could only scowl at her with furrowed eyebrows, her eyes in narrow slits, and a displeased frown, eyeing the red dress she was wearing. The red, long sleeved dress that went past her knees seemed too big for her, like it was weighing her down, and she could see wrinkles along the skirt. She could also see subtle rips and dirt spots along the cuffs of the sleeves. As far as Lakeisha was concerned, Merlin should have gotten rid of that dress long ago.

However, what irritated her the most was Merlin's interest in names and their origins.

"Her middle name, Shakira, comes from the male name Shakir, which means thankful in Arabic. Shakir itself comes from the word shakara, which means to thank."

"Merlin, knock it off!" Lakeisha exclaimed. Tammy and Merlin turned their heads in alarm. "Tammy don't need you blabbin' about names all the time. Land sakes, it's seven in the mornin'!"

Merlin frowned, shooting an equally irritated glare right back at her. "Tammy was the one that asked me about Aunt Florence and where her names come from," Merlin protested, her tone firm and resolute.

Tammy brushed some hair behind her ear. "Simmer down, Keish. No need to get all wound up."

Before the conversation could get heated, their mother came into the room. "Morning, girls!" She greeted them with a luminous smile, and the atmosphere around her radiated with energy. "You excited for your first day of school?"

"Yep!" All three girls exclaimed in perfect unison. Lakeisha hoped she could just get to school already, if only to get away from Merlin.

Not long after, a man came running down some stairs, dressed in a sharp, well ironed suit, suitcase in hand. His tie was neatly done, and his badge hung from the front pocket of his blazer. "Mmm! Is that cinnamon I smell in that coffee?" He wasted no time treating himself to some coffee, taking a good, long sip, allowing himself to savor the spicy cinnamon taste. "You sure do know how to make coffee taste good, Dora," The man beamed before kissing his wife on the cheek.

Dora laughed sheepishly and playfully whacked her husband on the chest with one hand. "Not in front of the kids, Greg!"

Tammy stifled a laugh. "Too late, Mom. We see you guys all lovey-dovey all the time, so we're already desensitized," She retorted. Merlin roared with laughter. Lakeisha simply rolled her eyes as she finished her breakfast, wondering where the nearest bucket was.

Once she ate all her food, Lakeisha didn't waste any time changing her clothes, grabbing her bag, and sprinting outside to get her bike. She had already packed her books, pencils, and other school essentials last night to make sure she was extra prepared. She hopped on her bike and sped away before her parents could even tell her to have a good day. As far as Lakeisha was concerned, the sooner she was away from Merlin, the happier she'd be. School wasn't very far by bike, and it took her all of ten minutes to get there. She wanted to get there as early as possible, if only to have lots of time to talk to her friends before school started. She found her friends right away, and chatted with them almost non-stop until the bell rang and the kids had to go inside.

When she got inside, Lakeisha was already smiling, and she sat right down in an open seat in the middle of the classroom. But before she could open her backpack, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a girl behind her she didn't recognize. She looked to be the same age as her, with long, ash brown hair tied into pigtails, with her bangs parted down the middle. Her deep, dark brown eyes really stood out against her peachy skin.

"Hey. You're friends with Mikayla Haigney, right?" The girl asked curiously. Lakeisha looked down and noticed a pretty pearl bead bracelet on her right wrist. "Lakeisha, is it?"

"That's me!"

"I'm Kirsten Seeley. Mikayla told me about you," Kirsten introduced herself right away, flashing a friendly grin in Lakeisha's direction.

Lakeisha's smile grew bigger, and her eyes lit up as she turned herself all the way around. One of her friends actually told someone about her? She was the kind of girl who really wanted people to like her, and this new girl seemed pretty cool. Maybe she could be a potential friend? Lakeisha seized the opportunity. "Oh yeah! Are you the one who moved here from Goldenrod City last year?" She asked. "I didn't see you in school last year. Which teacher did you have? Mrs. Rosewood?"

"I had Mr. Graves," Kirsten told her. "He's really cool."

Lakeisha remembered a Mr. Graves from last year, but not for homeroom. That must have been why she didn't see Kirsten before now. Lakeisha shrugged. It wasn't too big a surprise to go a whole school year and not notice someone if you spend every day with the same people all day.

"Oh! I forgot! I'm Lakeisha."

"Great to meet you," Kirsten rested her chin on her hands, her dark eyes sparkling with delight. "I like your boots. Where'd you get them?"

She looked down at her tan boots. "Mom got them for me last year when I passed a math test. I don't remember where she got them from, though," Lakeisha kept herself cool and composed, but inside, her organs were doing happy dances. First this new girl noticed her, then she complimented her shoes? As far as Lakeisha was concerned, this was going to be a great first day.

"By the way, I should probably warn you," Kirsten said, creeping closer to Lakeisha and pointing to someone a few desks up. "See that girl over there? Short brown hair, pink shirt?"

Lakeisha turned to face the front of the classroom. A crowd of students had already come in, but Lakeisha was able to pick out the girl Kirsten was referring to right away. A girl with short, chin-length, dark brown hair sat two desks up from Lakeisha, and she wore a short sleeved pink shirt. Lakeisha could just barely see the girl drawing something in a notebook, but she couldn't make out the drawing itself. She did find herself liking her bright yellow, Pikachu themed backpack.

"What about her?"

"That's Julia Parisa," Kristen explained. "She was in my class last year, and she's a major weirdo. You should stay away from her."

Raising an eyebrow, Lakeisha's curiosity was piqued. "Weird how?"

Another girl chimed in before Kirsten could answer. "She's, like, a total freak. She talks endlessly about Pokemon, and it gets super annoying," The girl elaborated. "She also flaps her hands up and down and cries a lot during class."

Flaps her hands? Cries a lot? Talking about something non-stop, to the point of being annoying? Deja vu began to creep up on Lakeisha. That sounded a lot like Merlin.

"She also says she can talk to Pokemon and understand what they're saying," Kirsten added.

"Whaaat?" Lakeisha looked at her with disbelief. "No way. Nobody can do that."

"Exactly," The other girl drew the word out to empathize her point. "Like I said, total freak. She probably says that to get attention."

Kirsten gave a scornful laugh. "You're probably right, Paisley. She didn't have any friends when I last saw her, so that's probably why!"

"Man. She sounds like a real baby," Lakeisha mused out loud. She had never shared any classes with this Julia girl before, so she rarely ever saw her. But if she was really like that...Lakeisha crossed her off the list of potential friends. There was no way she was going to be friends with someone like her. She wanted to be with cool kids.

"Girls?" The laughter stopped when the teacher approached their desks. Lakeisha, Kirsten, and Paisley turned right back around, facing the front of the classroom. "You'll have more time to chat during lunch. Homeroom's about to start in a few minutes."

"Yes, Mrs. Quimby!"

Over the next month or so, Lakeisha did notice that Julia wasn't like the other kids. She focused a lot more on her schoolwork than Lakeisha cared to do herself, always taking notes and scribbling everything down like her life depended on it. She never looked anyone in the eye when they talked to her, and she always made weird noises. One day, the girls had their first science test, and Lakeisha was writing her answers down. But she noticed a shadow looming over the paper a few times. It would appear, and then disappear as soon as she turned to face Julia. Was she...looking at her test and copying the answers? Lakeisha fumed. The nerve of this girl! At one point, she turned around and saw Julia looking right at her paper. She slammed her hand on Julia's desk, frightening her into backing off before raising her hand.

"Mrs. Harlacher! Julia's cheating off me!" She shouted loud enough for the whole class to hear.

The teacher walked over to Julia's desk with a disappointed expression. "Is this true?"

"Yeah it is!" Lakeisha didn't give the girl a chance to defend herself. "I saw it!"

Julia said nothing. Lakeisha gave her a vicious glare that seemed to strip her of any attempt at communication. She couldn't believe this girl had the nerve to straight up cheat, and off her own paper, no less. She thanked her lucky stars Kirsten warned her about her. She didn't like her before, but after seeing this, she decided she straight up hated her. Julia made high pitched whining noises as the teacher took her test paper, admonished her, and made her stand out in the hall until class was over. But even as Lakeisha finished her test and had some time to herself, her anger still didn't subside. Not even when the teacher made them both stay after class.

"Julia. It's wrong to look at someone's test and copy their answers," Mrs. Harlacher kneeled down to her level and told her of what she did wrong in a calm, soft voice. Lakeisha wished she'd just yell at her. That would have been more satisfying in her eyes. She didn't care that Julia looked sad. As far as she was concerned, she deserved whatever punishment she got.

"It is?" She asked.

"Yes."

"But...how do I...know the answers? I don't...know how...to study...what do I do?"

Lakeisha's jaw dropped. This girl was saying she didn't know how to study? She facepalmed harder than she ever did in her life. How could a girl in fifth grade just stand there and say she didn't know how to properly study for a test? Lakeisha was sure she was just making excuses and trying to worm her way out of punishment. No wonder Kirsten didn't like her. The teacher told Julia that she could retake the test at a later time, and that she would call her parents and discuss how to help her understand the concept of studying, since she figured the transition from fourth to fifth grade was stressing her out.

"Now, I want you to tell Lakeisha you're sorry and that you won't look at her work again," Mrs. Harlacher told her gently.

The girl averted Lakeisha's eyes and shifted around uncomfortably, but she took no time at all to choke out a pitiful apology. "I'm sorry. I won't do it ever again."

Lakeisha's glare didn't soften. 'I don't believe you. You're not sorry at all! You're a cheater and I'll make sure everyone knows it!' She thought bitterly. Without a word, Lakeisha stomped out of the classroom and headed to her next class. Her emotions were at war with each other. One part of her was saying she should have forgiven her and to let this go. What little kid didn't cheat at one point in their life? Maybe she'd get better. But Lakeisha didn't listen, and chose to let her anger simmer. It wasn't just the fact that this freak had the nerve to cheat off her that made her mad.

She had the same fearful, wide-eyed, innocent expression that Merlin had whenever she got into trouble.

Was she just like Merlin?

That made her blood boil even hotter.

---

At lunch, Lakeisha told her friends all about it. "And she was all, 'I'm sowwy! I won't do it ever again!' What a load of crap! She can say sorry all she wants! I'm not buying it!" She chowed down on some cheese crackers once she finished the tale. "I don't know why Mrs. Harlacher didn't scream in her face!"

Kirsten brushed some polish onto her nails, blowing on them as she listened to Lakeisha. "I know, right? Told you she's a freak. You'd think at her age she'd know better than to cheat," Kirsten chimed in.

"What she did was wrong, there's no denying that, but don't you think you're being a little harsh?" One of Lakeisha's friends reminded her. Her skin was much darker than Lakeisha's, and every strand of her thick, black hair was tied into thin, immaculate braids that draped down to her upper back. She took a minute to eat some gummy worms before adding, "I mean, it's not like we never did stupid stuff. Remember that time I forgot to study for a math test and I copied off Amy's and I got in trouble for it? I did it, too, and I got over it."

"You guys were in third grade then, Cindy," Lakeisha sneered. "We learn to know better than that before we start middle school!" She slammed her plastic water bottle onto the table, making it rattle slightly. "I mean, how stupid can you be?!"

Paisley leaned closer to Lakeisha. "I heard one of the teachers say she's autistic. That means she's totally mental!" She whispered, finishing with a scornful giggle.

"That's not nice, Paisley," Another girl gently admonished her. "You really need to grow up."

Kirsten shot a glare in her direction. "You need to quit being such a goody two-shoes, Amy."

Lakeisha nodded in agreement. She had to admit, she liked that Kirsten was honest and straight up with people. She was the boss and made sure other kids knew it. But her expression softened when she saw Amy shrinking into her seat, quietly finishing her apple. More so when she saw Cindy staring down at her lunch, looking like she was about to cry. Did Kirsten go too far? Lakeisha shook her head. Amy had always been a bit of a stick in the mud. Maybe she just needed to loosen up a bit. Besides, Lakeisha couldn't care less about Julia Parisa. She cheated off her test, and as far as Lakeisha was concerned, she was on her hate list forever. She wasn't quite sure why Cindy looked so pained, though.

At recess, Lakeisha and Kirsten hung out while Amy, Cindy, and Paisley went somewhere else. The girls talked about all sorts of things, such as fashion, their families, and their favorite Pokemon. "I really like that one called Smeargle," Lakeisha told her with a smile. "I think they're just so cute!"

"Ugh!" Kirsten scrunched her face into a snarl. "Smeargle? Seriously? You have bad taste in Pokemon. They're so stupid looking, and they don't even know any real attacks!"

"So? That don't mean trainers can't teach'em, and they can paint with their tails! Ain't that cool?"

"Not cool. Smeargle is a useless Pokemon. I don't know why you'd ever like something so dopey," Kirsten sneered. "Cool Pokemon like Rapidash and Clefable and Lapras are where it's at!"

Lakeisha's enthusiasm dwindled. She really did like Smeargle, having done so since she was little, and the other Pokemon Kirsten mentioned were cool, too. But it did hurt to be told she had bad taste in Pokemon. At the same time, she didn't want to get on Kirsten's bad side. She wanted to be friends with her, and if agreeing with her would cement their friendship, then maybe it was time to make some changes.

"Yeah, I guess Smeargle does look kinda dumb," Kirsten agreed sheepishly, then changed the subject quickly. "By the way, did you finish your homework for Galarian class?"

Kirsten proudly shook her head. "No. Homework is stupid. I don't need to read dumb books and learn how to write sentences in order to be a designer."

She didn't do her homework? Lakeisha's jaw dropped. "But if you don't do your homework, the teacher'll get mad and your grades'll suffer."

"Do I look like I care? Cool kids don't care about school. Come on, Keish. Do you really wanna be a teacher's pet?"

So being smart was a bad thing? Lakeisha couldn't see why Kirsten would think that. Studying and being smart was what helped her (Lakeisha's) mother get her office job. But she wanted Kirsten to like her. Was school really as important as people were making it out to be? Lakeisha shook her head. Maybe it'd do her some good to not think so much about school. Besides, what's a few missed assignments?

"Naw. I ain't gonna be one of those," Lakeisha told her.

Kirsten flashed a smile in her direction. "Wanna come over to my house some time?" She asked. "I have some cute dresses that I'd love to show you."

Over the next year, Lakeisha and Kirsten grew closer and closer as friends. Gradually, she broke away from her usual friend group of Mikayla, Amy, and Cindy and spent more time with Kirsten, and occasionally Paisley. In fact, there were days when the two were never seen without each other. They went to each other's houses, rode their bikes around Cherrygrove, and went to the mall together when allowed. Lakeisha found herself happier than she'd ever been. This was so much better than having to stay home and put up with Merlin. One day in January, when Cherrygrove had been blanketed with a thick layer of snow, the kids were outside during recess, making snowmen and having snowball fights. Kirsten and Lakeisha went to another corner of the blacktop, and at one point, Lakeisha had been complaining about Merlin and her odd habits.

"I tell ya, she's weirder than weird. She don't look at nobody when they talk to her, and when I try to make her, Mom and Dad tell me not to force it," Lakeisha told her. "And this one time, when we were at my cousin's house, she kept talkin' about their names and their origins non-stop. I had to practically clamp my hand over her mouth to make her shut up!" Lakeisha leaned against the cold metal fence and groaned. "Ugh! It was beyond embarrassin'! Nobody paid it any mind, but Merlin should know better than to gab about that stuff at a party!"

"I bet. Sounds like you have it rough," Kirsten agreed, adjusting one of the scrunchies that held up her pigtails.

Lakeisha let out a grunt, but inside, she was happy she had someone who agreed with her. "All my friends love her and say I've been bein' mean to her, but they don't gotta live with her. It's like Merlin thinks she's the boss or somethin'! It drives me nuts!"

Kirsten rolled some snow into a ball, kneeling down to polish it some more, even though the cold stung her exposed palms. "You're her big sister, so you should put your foot down. Let her know you're the boss. Make her stop her weird habits, even if you have to beat it into her," Kirsten suggested. "You can't let your little sister rule the house like she's a queen and walk all over you. Don't let her get away with her shenanigans."

The more she thought about it, the more it all made sense. Kirsten was right. Lakeisha is Merlin's big sister, so she'd have to listen to her when she put her foot down and set her straight. If her mother and father weren't willing to do so, Lakeisha decided she would be the one to do it. She wasn't going to let Merlin walk all over her. It was high time Merlin learned to act like a normal kid. She resolved to get started the second she got home today.

"Hey. Look," Kirsten nodded toward the side of the school. Lakeisha turned and saw Julia sitting in front of a cage where a Cyndaquil and Sentret were being kept. They couldn't make out what she was saying, but they could tell Julia was having a conversation with them. Lakeisha could only grimace, but Kirsten smiled and shouted, "Look, Lakeisha! It's the Pokemon Whisperer!" She broke into laughter soon after. Lakeisha soon broke into giggling herself. That was kind of a funny nickname. "If she likes Pokemon so much, why doesn't she just move into the forest and be one?"

Julia stopped talking, but didn't look in their direction. She put her hand through a hole in the cage and stroke Sentret's fur. Lakeisha frowned, offended by her lack of reaction. Then another thought hatched into her head: She was rarely ever allowed to get mad at Merlin at home, so why not hurl it all out at this girl? It'd be her just deserts for cheating off her science test.

"Hey, Freak Girl! You cheat off other kids' tests today?" Lakeisha sneered. "Nobody likes no fakers and cheaters! You probably too stupid for school!"

"Ooh! Good one!" Kirsten gave her friend a proud slap on the shoulder.

Although the gesture stung, for the first time in a while, Lakeisha felt on top of the world. But a piece of her consciousness was scolding her for picking on the girl like that.

---

Another month later, Lakeisha was in her room listening to her IPod, laying on the couch leisurely without a care in the world. It was a Saturday, and Lakeisha couldn't wait to spend a relaxing day at home. As the song she was listening to slowly transitioned to a new hip-hop number, Merlin's voice cut through her earbuds. But it was faint enough that it didn't outright startle her.

"Hey, Lakeisha! Mom and I are going to New Bark Town for a bit!" Merlin exclaimed. "Do you want to come with us?"

"No. I don't," Lakeisha snapped, gesturing for Merlin to go away. "Leave me alone. I wanna relax!"

Merlin's footsteps were drowned out by the rapper's booming voice pounding into Lakeisha's ears. All throughout the time her mother and sister were gone, Lakeisha remained on the couch, letting hip-hop music weave its way into her soul, pushing all of her stress away. Sure, New Bark Town wasn't too far, and she was sure they'd be back within the next hour, but Lakeisha made sure to savor every bit of free time she had. Then, something jumped on her, startling her out of her reverie and knocking her IPod out of her hands.

"Wha?!"

"Chiko!" Lakeisha looked up to find a Chikorita staring her in the face, standing right on her abdomen. What in the world was this random Pokemon doing here? Chikorita smiled at her, its cherry red eyes beaming with delight. "Chikori!"

"Hey! Get offa me!"

"Chikorita!" Merlin quickly scooped the rogue Pokemon into her arms. "Don't jump on her like that. You scared her," She gently scolded Chikorita, stroking the leaf on its head with her free hand. But she just as quickly looked up at Lakeisha, her face aglow with joy. "Lakeisha, look! I got my very own Pokemon! Isn't he cute?!"

Merlin's proclamation hit Lakeisha harder than a wrecking ball. "You got a Pokemon?!" Lakeisha shouted. Merlin grimaced and backed away a few steps.

"Keish, keep your voice down," Her mother said. "Use your inside voice."

"She ain't old enough to get her own Pokemon yet!" Lakeisha continued to shout, pointing right at Merlin as she did so. "Y'all never told me she was gonna get her own Pokemon!"

"Lakeisha, your father and I discussed this a week ago. Don't you remember?" Her mother reminded her.

Had they? Lakeisha stopped to think. Come to think of it, she did vaguely remember hearing her parents talk about getting Merlin a Pokemon. They had said something about promising Merlin her own Pokemon if she brought her math grades up. But she remembered being too busy blasting her music at a high volume while working on her homework that day. Plus, Lakeisha was sure Merlin wouldn't be able to get her own Pokemon until she turned ten, and her ninth birthday wasn't until September. But here was Merlin with a Chikorita. Lakeisha was already twelve and she didn't have her own Pokemon. This was too great an injustice for her to bear.

"Why does she get a Pokemon and I don't?! I'm old enough to get a trainer's license!" Lakeisha protested.

Her mother scowled and crossed her arms. "But you haven't been helping out around the house for the past few months, and your grades have been slipping," Dora said sternly. "You need to learn to be more responsible. If you can't be more considerate of others and do your part around here, how can we trust you to take care of a Pokemon? You've already failed to turn in six different homework assignments, and your recent behavior towards Merlin hasn't been good, either."

As much as Lakeisha hated to admit it, her mother was right. Lakeisha cared less about school every day, and willingly left several homework assignments undone. She refused to do chores around the house when asked, such as emptying the dishwasher, cleaning her room, and dusting the furniture every now and again. Furthermore, she began cracking down on Merlin's stimming, scolding her harshly whenever she did anything, or didn't do anything, such as flap her hands, talk about names, and forced her to make eye contact against her wishes. She even attempted to do Merlin's hair once by putting hair clips in it, knowing that Merlin had hated hair clips since infancy. Merlin wanted no part of it, but Lakeisha had pinned her down to the floor. Merlin's screaming got her father's attention, and he pulled Lakeisha off of her. But she didn't see anything wrong with that. She was just showing Merlin who was the boss.

"Aww, come on! You guys treat me like I'm nothin' and act like Merlin's the queen!" Lakeisha protested, throwing a small pillow at her little sister. Merlin managed to dodge it, but her heart palpitated in fright all the same. "You don't deserve no Pokemon, you freak!" Lakeisha stomped upstairs, leaving a confused Merlin and her angry mother downstairs.

"Lakeisha Ann Knowles! You know we don't call names or throw things at people in this house!"

Lakeisha paid her mother no heed.

---

Months passed, and not much happened except for one thing. Shortly after sixth grade started in April, Julia Parisa stopped coming to school. The teacher said she had went on a Pokemon journey, but Lakeisha didn't believe it. She didn't think someone like Julia could ever handle going out into the world on a journey. She was under the impression that she transferred to another school. 'Good riddance,' She thought scornfully, not long after the announcement was made. 'We'd be way better off with less freaks stinkin' up our air!' But while one person she didn't like left, another was still a thorn in her side, at least in her mind.

One night, Lakeisha was at her computer, chatting with Kirsten on an online message board. Loud, booming rap music echoed from her large speakers, nearly making the entire house rattle. Lakeisha was lost in the music, sending messages back and forth to Kirsten, paying no attention to anything else. But her door swung open, and Merlin came running into her room, hands on her ears, eyes moist with tears and a red face pulled into an irritated scowl.

"Lakeisha!" Merlin exclaimed. "Turn your music off! I'm trying to sleep!"

"Go away, Merlin!" Lakeisha snapped, keeping her eyes on her screen.

"Turn it off now! It's nine forty at night!" Merlin stamped her foot to get her sister's attention. She could feel the floor vibrating beneath her, and the music pounded deep in her ears. "I can't sleep! It's too loud!"

"Shut up and get outta my room already!" Lakeisha snapped back, finally taking her eyes off the monitor. "Arceus, why do you gotta be so annoying?! Get over it!"

But Merlin didn't leave. Instead, she made a bold move. She pushed Lakeisha's chair to the side and turned the music off of Lakeisha's computer herself. Lakeisha's chair had wheels, so she wound up sliding to the side easily, even with her weight on the chair. At this point, Lakeisha exploded. "HEY! Don't touch my computer you brat!" Lakeisha pulled a silver thermos she had on her dresser and threw it right at Merlin. She attempted to dodge, but the thermos hit her on the arm before tumbling to the ground. She let out a pained cry as it made contact. Not long after, Lakeisha lunged at Merlin, pinning her down on the floor. Merlin howled and cried out for her parents as loud as she could muster, simultaneously struggling to break free from her sister's grasp.

Thankfully, the brouhaha didn't last long. Greg came running up the stairs and pulled Lakeisha off of his youngest. "Whoa whoa whoa! What's goin' on here?!" As he pushed Lakeisha to the side, he helped Merlin back to her feet, gasping when he saw tears cascading down her cheeks.

"That stupid brat was messing with my computer!" Lakeisha screamed.

"You wouldn't turn your loud music off and I'm trying to sleep!" Merlin screamed back with just as much vigor. "She threw her thermos at me, too!"

"Alright girls, calm down! Both of you!" Greg got right in between them, intent on preventing another fight. "Merlin, I get how you're feeling, but the next time Lakeisha plays her music too loud, let me or your mother know. We'll handle this. You'd best get back to bed, sweetie."

"Okay, Dad," With a tearful sniff, Merlin walked back to her room.

Greg pivoted back towards his older daughter, keeping her in place with a vicious scowl. "Lakeisha, this is the fourth time I've told you to turn your music off!" He scolded, towering over her like a big Snorlax. "We're all tryin' to sleep, and you should've gone to bed forty five minutes ago! It's a school night! You can't stay up all night blasting that music like that, and you shouldn't have tried to hurt Merlin like that!"

"I wasn't hurtin' her!" Lakeisha protested as she turned her computer off. "She turned off my music after I told her to go away!"

"That ain't no excuse, and we've told you a million times not to throw stuff at your sister! We don't throw things in this house! Now you get to bed now!" Greg hollered before leaving the room. "We're gonna talk more about this after school tomorrow!"

Reluctantly, Lakeisha did as she was told. She was grounded for three days as a result of her behavior. Near the end of October, things came to a head. At recess, one of her friends approached her, looking worried, with Cindy and Amy following close behind.

"Hey, Keish?" A fair skinned girl with deep red, braided pigtails tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. "Can we talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Mikayla. What's up, you guys?"

The trio of girls exchanged glances before Mikayla talked again. "Listen. The three of us have been talking," By the three of them, she meant herself, Amy, and Cindy. "And I know this is gonna sound weird, but...we don't think you should hang out with Kirsten anymore."

Lakeisha raised an eyebrow. "Where's this comin' from all of a sudden? Y'all can't be serious."

"We are!" Cindy exclaimed. "She's a bad person, and we don't want her turning you into one either."

"It's true," Amy added. "Ever since you started hanging out with her, you've been changing a lot, and not in a good way. You don't hang out with us anymore, you've been caring less about school, and you've gotten into trouble with the teachers. That's very unlike you."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her own friends, trying to tell her who she can and can't hang out with? "So what? I don't like school no more. Only nerds care about school, and I ain't no frumpy, uncool nerd!" Lakeisha protested.

"And Kirsten's been being really mean to us ever since she came here!" Mikayla cried out. "She's always asking people if she can copy their homework, and she never does anything herself!"

Amy and Cindy nodded in agreement. "She's copied off my homework and Amy's too," Cindy continued. "Last month she saw the burn scars on my arm and I asked her not to tell anyone about it, and she promised to keep it a secret. But the next day, I found out she told the whole school about it! Kids have been calling me Teddy Rueger because of it!"

"Come on, Cindy," Lakeisha waved her hand dismissively. "That burn on your arm is pretty ugly. You can't deny that!"

She had meant to lighten the situation, but Cindy's eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes moistened right away, like she was going to cry. Amy put a hand on Cindy's shoulder and shot a glare in Lakeisha's direction. "Wow. Kirsten really is rubbing off on you if you have the nerve to be that cruel!" Lakeisha could see the angry disappointment in Amy's face plain as day. "Did you know that last week, Kirsten stole my gym shorts from the lockers and played keep away with them with Paisley and one other girl? I got them back, but she said I had a big butt and everyone laughed at me!"

Mikayla raised her hand. "She's not the only one she tried to humiliate! A week before that, she pushed me to the floor in the halls and flipped my skirt! Right in front of the boys!" She interjected. "She had her phone out and tried to take a video of me, probably to post on the internet or spread it around! I ran off before she could do so, but every single one of them laughed at me!" At this point, her voice trembled. "I told the principal about it, and he gave Kirsten three detentions!"

Lakeisha fumed. She couldn't believe her friends were talking trash about Kirsten! She didn't believe them for one second. There was no way any of this was true. "That's a load of crap coming from you! You're the one who introduced me to Kirsten in the first place, Mikayla!"

"That was before I found out what she's really like! She's bad news, Keish! We just want you to see reason and drop her!"

"Me? Drop her? No way!"

Cindy stepped forward. "It's not just her, either. Over the past few months, you've been really mean to Merlin. You didn't used to pick on her before, and now you freak out if she so much as does anything at all. This isn't like you."

As far as Lakeisha was concerned, Cindy didn't know what she was talking about. Sometimes, when Lakeisha would want to hang out with Mikayla, Amy, and Cindy, her mother would ask her to take Merlin with them. Her friends loved her and were okay with it, but Lakeisha wished she'd find her own friends to hang out with. Merlin got along very well with Lakeisha's friends, and unlike her, they didn't make a huge deal out of Merlin's habits and stims, and they were delighted when she told them where their names came from. One time in August, Merlin had wanted to give a present to Cindy but left it at home by mistake and was very upset. Lakeisha yelled at her for crying over something so stupid, and told her that big girls don't cry in front of others, and that it was embarrassing. Instead of agreeing with her, all of Lakeisha's friends leaped to Merlin's defense, Cindy in particular.

"Why are you being so mean to her?! She's not doing anything wrong! Quit making such a big deal out of it!" Cindy had yelled back at her that day. Lakeisha couldn't answer, as Cindy's glare had cut right through her.

"Tch! You ain't the ones who gotta live with her!" Lakeisha sneered, putting a hand on her hip. "How do I know y'all ain't just makin' this up?"

"Why would we make this all up? You know us better than that!" Amy asserted.

"You know what? I bet y'all are jealous 'cuz Kirsten thinks I'm cool and you're not!"

Cindy narrowed her eyes into slits. "We couldn't care less about being cool, least of all your definition of it!"

The bell rang before the discussion could continue further, but after that, Cindy and the others didn't speak to Lakeisha for the rest of the day. School came and went, and Lakeisha rode her bike back home. But when she went into the house, her ears were assaulted by the sound of hollering and screaming coming from upstairs. And she knew who was doing the screaming. When she closed the door behind her, she saw her mother on the couch reading a magazine and her father in the kitchen making coffee. Lakeisha's jaw dropped. They were acting like there wasn't a child annoying everyone with her screaming.

"Mom! Dad! Why ain't you goin' up there makin' Merlin stop screaming?!" Lakeisha interrogated them on the spot, pointing upstairs.

"You know forcing her to stop makes it worse, Keish," Dora reminded her. "It's better to wait and let her let it all out."

"Why's she even doin' that anyway?!"

"She had a hard day at school. She needs her space, so let's leave her alone for now, okay?" Dora closed her magazine and stood up. "I'll make pork loin steak for dinner tonight."

Pork loin. Her favorite. But as much as Lakeisha enjoyed the idea of having her favorite dinner tonight, there was no way she'd be able to put up with Merlin's screaming until dinner. How long would it be until she stopped? Twenty minutes? Thirty? An hour? Screaming back at her never worked. Lakeisha had tried it and failed. She grunted as she stomped up the stairs. Why did they have to put up with this all the time? To think all of her friends liked Merlin. They didn't have to put up with her screaming for what seemed to be hours, so what would they know? Then, as Lakeisha passed the bathroom, she suddenly stopped, remembering what Mikayla had told her earlier.

"She had her phone out and tried to take a video of me, probably to post on the internet or spread it around!"

It was like someone had switched on a light bulb in her head. That's it! She could record a video of Merlin's tantrum on her phone and send it to her friends, that way they'd see that Merlin wasn't the sweet little angel they thought she was. Not only that, Merlin would finally get a good reality check and see that once they found out what she was really like, nobody would like her or fawn over her ever again! Lakeisha smirked. This would be absolutely perfect. She wasted no time getting her phone out and tip-toeing to Merlin's room.

Once she was close enough to the door, Lakeisha got her phone to the video setting and pressed the record button, holding it at the entrance, high enough so she'd get a good view of Merlin. Merlin was lying on the floor screaming, her face red and splotchy with tears, and she wasn't wearing anything but a small white nightshirt. She kept thrashing and flailing her arms and legs all around, like an Octillery swinging its tentacles about. Lakeisha made sure Merlin didn't see her, but kept the phone on her for about thirty seconds. Once she felt her eardrums throb, she pressed the stop button and retreated to her room.

She leaped on her bed, saved the video she took, and looked up Cindy, Amy, Mikayla, and Kirsten's phone numbers. Then, once she got them all onto one message, Lakeisha attached the video. A part of her mind was telling her to stop, that this was wrong, that Merlin's private moment shouldn't be exposed like this. But Lakeisha didn't listen. She pressed send, and the video went out to her circle of friends. She decided to refrain from posting it on the internet. That'd be too much. A light rap at her door made her turn off her phone.

"Keish? You in there?" It was Tammy. "Can I come in?"

"Sure!"

Tammy came into the room and sat down at the foot of her sister's bed. "Hey there. We haven't hung out much in a while, huh?"

Lakeisha rested her chin on her hands and positioned herself on a lopsided pillow. "I guess so. School take up a lot of your time?"

"Yeah. It sure does," Tammy said, grinning sweetly. "But the good news is, school's off for the week because of a special holiday, so I have a lot of time on my hands!" She lowered herself to her sisters level. "Hey. How about after school tomorrow, you and I go out and get ice cream after dinner? I hear Al's added pistachio flavor to their menu recently!"

Ice cream with Tammy. It had been a while since the sisters had spent time together, just the two of them. Lakeisha had always looked up to her, and wanted to be cool, pretty, and popular just like her. Lakeisha always felt she could go to her for advice, or someone to cry on when she had a bad day. The idea was very appealing.

"Sure. I'd like that a lot."

---

Lakeisha had been happy all morning, and continued to be so as she skipped onto the blacktop, feeling light as a feather. Things had been going so well since last night, and she was sure that today was going to be a great day. She couldn't wait to gossip with her friends about the video she sent to them, finally having proof that Merlin wasn't the perfect little sister they all thought she was. That'd show her! She was sure everybody would laugh at how stupid Merlin acted in that video. Maybe they'd even share it to the whole school and have everyone laugh at her for being such a brat. As far as Lakeisha was concerned, Merlin deserved to be knocked down a peg. Maybe having people laugh at her would teach her to not think she was so much better than everyone else.

But reality isn't very forgiving at times, as Lakeisha would learn the hard way.

It didn't take long for Lakeisha to find Mikayla, Amy, and Cindy nearby. "Hey, girls!" She greeted them cheerfully, practically jumping right next to them. "How y'all doin' today?"

Her enthusiasm evaporated when all three of them turned to face her, and not with expressions as joyful as her own. They all had vicious scowls on their faces, save for Amy, whose eyes were wide with worry and concern. Lakeisha didn't have it in her to wave at them anymore. Why did they all look so freaked out?

"What's with this video you sent us last night?" Amy was the first to ask, holding her cell phone out, with the video of Merlin on the bathroom floor on display, but on pause. "What's this about?"

Lakeisha shrugged. "That's what I gotta deal with everyday. Merlin bein' a brat and throwin' tantrums over nothin' all the time like a little baby," She explained in a smug manner. "I know y'all think she's so sweet and nice and smart and perfect, but the truth is, she ain't. That's what she's really like," She pointed right to the video. She was half tempted to press play, if only so she could have her friends hear Merlin's screeching to turn them off to her even more, but since she knew it was Amy's phone and not her own, she refrained from doing so. "She looks so stupid in that, right? I don't blame ya if you think it's real embarrassing. No kid her age would ever act like that!"

She could see it now. Her friends watching the video, laughing at Merlin, calling her names, and feeling sorry for Lakeisha for having to deal with such a terrible little sister. Now that they knew the truth, Lakeisha was sure they'd like her way better than they'd ever like Merlin. Who would want to be anywhere near a nine -year-old who cries for hours in the bathroom like a lunatic? She could barely hold back giggles herself by holding a hand to her mouth.

The fantasy in her head never came to be. It was blown to smithereens by Cindy's screaming.

"What is wrong with you?! How can you be so horrible to her?!"

"Huh?" Lakeisha recoiled. She had never heard Cindy scream that loud before. But she had no time to process anything, as before long, Cindy was right in her face, red with rage.

"You think this is funny?! Humiliating your sister like this and parading this around like she's some kind of freak show?! How dare you!" Cindy roared like an angry Pyroar. At one point, Lakeisha was sure she felt spit on her cheeks.

"Wait, you don't think it's funny?" Lakeisha asked, completely bewildered. This was not how this was supposed to go.

Amy put a gentle hand on Cindy's shoulder and pulled her back, but her expression was much more stony and austere. "Keish, this is not cool. At all. This kind of stuff is supposed to be private. How can you possibly think doing this to Merlin is okay?"

What? Everything was fizzling into oblivion before Lakeisha's eyes. They were taking Merlin's side? Why? This made no sense! They were supposed to be laughing at Merlin, not defending her!

Mikayla crossed her arms. "Let me guess. I bet Kirsten put you up to this, didn't she?"

"No! No she didn't!" Lakeisha snapped. "Why are you all so mad?! You's supposed to be on my side!"

Cindy facepalmed. "God, you're awful! You can't take a video of someone's vulnerable moments and show them to the world like they're joke bait! How would you like it if somebody did that to you?! Huh?!" Again, she wasted no time going back to her tirade. "She's your sister! I'm sure if somebody else did this to her, you'd kick their teeth out!"

"You're not the one who has to put up with her and her crap every single day!" Lakeisha snapped back. This whole thing was going all wrong. "She embarrasses me all the time and she goes on and on about names and acts like she's better than everyone else 'cause she's autistic and stuff and I can't stand it! I can't stand her!"

"You're the one embarrassing her from what I can see!" Cindy yelled. "You've gone too far this time! I never did understand why you were always so mean to Merlin recently, but now I get it!"

Before Lakeisha could say any more, Cindy turned on her heel and marched right into the building, stomping the whole way there. All three girls' jaws hung open, in awe of their friend's explosive outburst. But more than that, Lakeisha trembled. Was Cindy going to show the video to the teachers and tell on her? She better not! She clenched her fist. If Cindy snitched on her, she was going to make her pay.

"You really did it this time," Mikayla sneered. "I never should have introduced you to Kirsten, and I definitely wouldn't have gone anywhere near you if I had known you'd pull this stunt!"

"You better delete that video, Keish," Amy told her, and her firm tone left no room for nonsense. "For both your sake and Merlin's."

Delete it? After all the trouble Lakeisha went through to even record it, she was not going to let someone make her get rid of it. Not even her friends. "No way! I ain't gettin' rid of it no matter what!"

With a displeased huff, Amy walked away, leaving Lakeisha in the dust. She couldn't believe what was unfolding before her. Her friends were leaving her one by one. Not long after, Mikayla gave her another angry glare before going after Amy, more than happy to get away from Lakeisha at this point. Lakeisha looked all around the blacktop. Where was Kirsten? She didn't see her around. She had to be nearby. She needed someone, anyone to console her right now. The bell rang before she could go find her. With a heavy heart, more for herself than for Merlin, she walked into the school building, wishing today would just be over already.

The first three periods moved at a Slugma's pace, and Lakeisha couldn't focus on her schoolwork at all, not that she really wanted to. She was sick of papers, homework, reading, worksheets, and teachers expecting her to be a perfect little angel. What was even the point of school? Why should she care about it and getting work done? She wished she could go to Kirsten's house and play dress up with her. That was way more fun than school. But when she got to social studies class in fourth period, things got odd. When she came into the classroom, she saw the teacher, Mrs. Cabanos, give her a strange look. Lakeisha couldn't make out what it was. Was she angry? Sad? Worried? She tried not to think too much about it as she sat down and pulled her notebook out. At least social studies was somewhat interesting.

Instead of writing something on the board like she always did when class started, Mrs. Cabanos simply stared at the class. "Children? Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to discuss something important with you," She began. Lakeisha froze. This didn't sound good. Mrs. Cabanos never said or did anything like this at the beginning of class. "We all have things we prefer to keep private for one reason or another, like little harmless secrets, special places you like to go by yourself, treasures you find, or your own personal thoughts, and that's okay."

Lakeisha shrank in her seat. She knew what Mrs. Cabanos was talking about. She knew about it, too? Anger simmered in her heart. Cindy must have snitched on her!

"Now, I'd like to ask you all something. Can you tell me some examples of what it means to invade someone's privacy?" Mrs. Cabanos asked. One student raised his hand. "Yes, Michael?"

"Reading someone's diary?"

"That's one. How about you, Tyson?"

"Asking someone lots of really personal questions about stuff they don't want to talk about and being annoying about it? Like about their body or their private life?"

Mrs. Cabanos nodded. "Yes, that can be problematic. People are required to respect someone's personal boundaries," She turned to another student. "Do you have anything, Angelica?"

"My sister said she saw a guy watching her change her clothes once. She screamed at him and made him go away. Does that count?"

"It sure does. That's called peeping, and it's not okay," Mrs. Cabanos explained. Another student raised their hand. "Lyra?"

"Does telling people about a secret someone said to you that you're not supposed to count?" Lyra asked.

"Yes, it does," Mrs. Cabanos agreed. "If you tell someone a secret that you don't want them to disclose, but they go and tell people against your wishes, that's an invasion of privacy."

Another boy raised his hand. "Does flipping a girl's skirt or dress and showing her undies count? My mom said somebody did that to her once at work."

"Yes it does, Wilberto, and that's not a nice thing to do."

After that, the classroom was silent for a moment. Mrs. Cabanos nodded before breaking the silence. "Those are all very good examples. But sometimes invading someone's privacy isn't entirely all that obvious. Other ways to invade someone's privacy are taking photos or videos of them without permission. I want you all to think of a moment in your life when you felt sad, angry, scared, confused, or distraught. When you felt vulnerable and wanted to be left alone with your thoughts and feelings. A moment when you had a really bad day and just wanted some time to scream it all out in a safe place."

Again, the class fell silent, other than the rhythmic tapping of someone's pencil. Lakeisha could only grimace at what was going on around her. She wished she was an Abra so she could teleport back home and get away from this. So much for having fun in social studies class.

"Now, imagine you found out someone took a photo or video of you during that moment and spread it all around your neighborhood, or on the internet," Mrs. Cabanos continued, walking around the classroom as she did so. "Probably to hurt you, bully you, blackmail you, or as a means of getting revenge in some way. How would you feel if that happened to you?"

It was like Mrs. Cabanos was flashing a neon sign that said 'We Know What You Did!' in front of the entire classroom in an attempt to turn everyone against Lakeisha. Could Mrs. Cabanos have made it any more obvious? Lakeisha kept her head down, focusing on her notebook and reading her notes despite her earlier aversion to doing so.

"Personally, I'd be very angry and hurt, especially if it was done by someone who was supposed to love and protect me," Mrs. Cabanos said. "Exposing someone's private, vulnerable moments to the world is an invasion of someone's privacy and personal boundaries. It would be like someone yanking your clothes off and showing you naked to the whole world. It's especially bad to do it to someone who may not be able to talk or express themselves verbally or who may not understand what's going on."

'Ugh! Can't this class just end already?!' Lakeisha yelled in her head. Normally, she liked Mrs. Cabanos because she was always nice to the students, and she always helped them with their work when they needed it. She never made anyone feel bad about themselves. Now though, Lakeisha wished she'd shut up.

"The reason I bring this up is because I was informed that someone did this to somebody else. Not here in school, but regardless of whether it's at school, home, or in any other public place, exposing someone's private moments and disregarding their personal boundaries, in any fashion, is not okay," Mrs. Cabanos' voice hardened on the word okay. Lakeisha could see her balling her fists, like she was doing all she could to keep herself composed. "Nothing good comes of showing off people's vulnerability like a funny sideshow attraction. All people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and everyone has the right to maintain their privacy, even people who aren't able to express themselves. If someone tries to do any of these things to you, to make you uncomfortable or deliberately hurt you, you have the right to say no or seek help from someone you know you can trust, like a teacher or a parent."

The air in the room was thick and heavy. Lakeisha eyed the clock. It was still moving slower than a frozen Slugma. She wished she could just get out of here. She knew Mrs. Cabanos wasn't outing her directly, but she could tell everything she was saying to the class was secretly directed at her. Then, the door opened, and a student came in to hand a note to Mrs. Cabanos before leaving just as quickly. Mrs. Cabanos glanced at it, then looked towards the middle of the classroom.

"Lakeisha? You're wanted in the principal's office," Mrs. Cabanos told her.

"Oooooh!" Several students exclaimed, locking Lakeisha in place with their knowing stares.

"Now now. There's no need to ooh," Mrs. Cabanos gently admonished them for being quick to assume she did something wrong.

Only Lakeisha knew they were actually right. With an air of dread hanging over her, Lakeisha stood up, flung her bag on her back, and made her way to the principal's office, pursing her lips as she walked out of the classroom.

"Alright, kids. We'll be moving on from the sixties to the seventies today, so turn your books to page 178."

---

'Why does this have to happen to me?!' Lakeisha thought grimly as she stomped down the hall, making no attempt to soften the stamping her shoes were making against the tile flooring. The halls were empty, so Lakeisha didn't see anything wrong with stamping her feet. There weren't any teachers around to tell her to pick up her feet when she walked. That would have just annoyed her even more. She approached the door to the principal's office, walked inside, and stopped in her tracks.

Her parents were standing in the middle of the office. The principal sat behind his mahogany desk, hands folded, with a grim look on his face. Her parents' eyes were narrowed to slits, and Lakeisha could see her mother clenching her teeth, like she was trying really hard not to lose it in front of the principal. All eyes were on her.

The principal—Lakeisha read the nameplate on his desk, Mr. Lindbeck—pointed toward an empty chair. "Have a seat, Miss Knowles. Your parents and I have a lot to discuss today."

Knowing he was dead serious, Lakeisha sat right down, feeling smaller than a baby Caterpie about to be eaten by a Pidgeotto horde. Her parents were here. That in and of itself told her she was in big trouble. But was her taking that video of Merlin and showing it to her friends really that bad? It wasn't like she posted it on the internet.

"I'll cut to the chase," Mr. Lindbeck began, unfolding his hands. "It has come to my attention that you recorded a video of your younger sister and showed it to your friends."

"Who told you that?" Lakeisha asked. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"That's not relevant. Can you show us your cell phone?"

Her cell phone? Lakeisha clutched her backpack tightly.

"Lakeisha," Greg hissed through his teeth. "Hand him your phone. We ain't playin' around."

Trembling, Lakeisha rummaged through her bag and pulled out her phone.

"If you please, show your parents the video, if you still have it."

Show them? Lakeisha's stomach dropped. If they saw it, they'd kill her. But at this point, she was already in deep trouble. Not showing them would just make things even worse for her. Reluctantly, she pulled up the video and pressed play. Merlin's screaming rang from the cell phone, a little staticky because of the video quality. Greg looked away with a pained grimace. Dora yanked the phone out of Lakeisha's hand and watched, horrified.

"This is from yesterday!" Dora exclaimed, like she had seen a bloody crime scene playing out before her. "Lakeisha Ann Knowles, you recorded this?!" She yelled right in her daughter's direction.

Lakeisha said nothing. But as far as the adults were concerned, her silence spoke volumes.

"Mr. Lindbeck, we assure you, we had absolutely no knowledge of this until just now," Greg told him in a pleading, worried tone. "We certainly didn't raise her to think doing this to her sister was okay, I can tell you that much."

"Hold up! What's the big deal?!" Lakeisha exclaimed, unable to keep silent anymore. "Why is everyone gettin' all mad about this?! I didn't do nothin'!"

Dora leaped on her as soon as she finished. "Didn't do nothin'?! Do you have ANY idea how serious this is, Lakeisha?!" She roared loud enough to make someone's eardrums explode, if such a thing was possible. "What in Sam Hill were you thinking, girl?! I cannot believe a daughter of mine would hurt her sister and violate her like this! You even had the nerve to send it to all your friends, all so you could have them laugh at her and bully her?! How could you?!"

Lakeisha shrunk into herself, holding her head down and wincing as her mother's yelling rang in her ears. She had heard her mother yell before, but never this loud.

"Mom, please. It was a mistake—"

"You're damn right it was a mistake! What you did was stupid and wrong! Merlin don't deserve this, especially not from her big sister!"

"Mrs. Knowles," Mr. Lindbeck stood up from his desk, holding a hand up to remind her to calm down. "Please. Let's discuss this calmly."

"You really expect me to be calm at a time like this?!" Dora snapped back, eyes wild and glowing with fury.

Mr. Lindbeck put his hand back down. "Lakeisha. You may think what you did was harmless and trivial, but recording a video of your sister having a meltdown and sharing it with your friends, without her permission, is a gross violation of her privacy, dignity, autonomy, and rights as a human being," He explained in a firm, composed voice. "I was informed that you did this deliberately in an attempt to humiliate Merlin and hurt her. It's another kind of bullying, and we don't tolerate that here, whether it's in school or not. You cannot intrude upon a person's desire for solitude and broadcast it as entertainment for others."

"Aww, come on!" Lakeisha protested. "It ain't like she gonna think so! Her brain don't work like normal kids! She'll probably think she got famous or somethin'! She ain't never gonna understand! She don't even go here!"

"Lakeisha, enough!" Greg was quick to shut her down.

"But—"

"We don't wanna hear it! Now shut your mouth and let Mr. Lindbeck speak! You are done talkin' back to him!"

"Why in the world would you do this to her?!" Dora interrogated her on the spot. "She's your sister, by God!"

Lakeisha couldn't answer. Any answer she had would just make them angrier, not that she cared at this point. But more than that, Lakeisha wanted to erupt like a volcano. Even now, her parents were more focused on Merlin than her. Her attempt at finally convincing people that Merlin was really a stupid idiot who didn't deserve to have everything handed to her had fallen apart all around her.

"Answer me! This is serious!"

Her throat closed up. Nothing came out. Mr. Lindbeck sighed. "If you're not going to tell us your motive behind this, then we have no choice but to punish you," He told her. "You need to understand that your actions have consequences, especially for the people you choose to hurt in doing so."

Lakeisha could only glare at him. What did he know? He wasn't the one having to deal with Merlin every single day, listening to her babble about names 24/7, putting up with her tantrums over petty things, and having her parents treat Merlin like some queen when she doesn't deserve it. Would Merlin even think she'd be hurt by this? For all Lakeisha knew, she'd probably like the attention, or maybe she'd be too stupid to understand why people would laugh at her.

"First off, you are going to delete that video right this minute. It's not something the public has any right to see," Mr. Lindbeck handed the phone back to her. Lakeisha took it in her hands, but her fingers didn't move. "We're waiting," He added after a short minute. Reluctantly, Lakeisha pressed the trash can icon and deleted the video. Within seconds, Mr. Lindbeck took the phone back. "I'll be keeping this with me until the day is over. You can pick it back up, but I'm sure your parents won't be letting you use it for a while."

"Oh, trust me, she won't!" Dora exclaimed, slamming her hand on the armrest of her chair. Greg nodded in agreement.

"Why are you guys treating me like I'm some kinda criminal?!" Lakeisha shouted, spreading her arms out. "It ain't like I killed somebody!"

Mr. Lindbeck folded his hands together once more. "The simple act of invading someone's privacy isn't technically considered a crime, but there are certain methods that are, indeed, considered criminal. Many are considered a civil rights violation. Lakeisha, if you and Merlin were adults and you pulled this stunt on her, Merlin would be well within her rights to take you to court and file a lawsuit against you," Mr. Lindbeck said, his tone leaving no room for nonsense. "You're very lucky you had the decency not to post it on the internet. Otherwise, you'd be in far more trouble than you are now. Since your recklessness and blatant disregard for your sister's personal autonomy was just limited to some of your friends, and that one of them was smart enough to tell me and one of the teachers, there's no need to take this further than the school and your home."

Lakeisha clenched her lips shut. How could this get any worse? As far as she was concerned, this whole thing was being blown way out of proportion. Why couldn't her friends have just laughed at the video instead of freaking out and telling the teachers about it? What even was autonomy anyway? She didn't care about that. She didn't want to deal with any of this.

"But what you did was wrong, and you need to take responsibility for your actions today."

Lakeisha rolled her eyes. In her mind, Merlin needed to take responsibility for ruining her big sister's life by acting like a little brat, not the other way around. She was sure that was what Kirsten would say.

"Don't you roll your eyes at him, young lady!" Greg shouted, appalled by his daughter's blatant disrespect for the principal.

Thankfully, Mr. Lindbeck paid the eye rolling no mind. "In addition to confiscating your phone for the entire day, you will have three days of detention after school with Mrs. Cabanos starting tomorrow."

"Detention?!" Lakeisha stood up from her seat in alarm. They couldn't do this to her! She had never gotten detention before. Only truly bad kids got detention, not people like her. "That's not fair!"

Her parents had no sympathy. "And you think takin' a video of Merlin's meltdown and showin' it to all your friends for kicks and giggles is?" Dora asked, wagging her finger at Lakeisha. The latter was sure if her finger had gotten any closer, her mother's fingernail would have cut her nose. "You should have thought of that before doing something this stupid!"

"Rest assured, Mr. Lindbeck," Greg said. "We'll make sure she learns her lesson, especially when we pick her up later today."

"Pick me up?" Lakeisha swirled towards her father, bewildered. "But I rode my bike here! You don't need to pick me up from school."

Dora looked her daughter right in the eye, sending such a furious glare at her that she was sure the look could kill her had it been any stronger. "We ain't done yet, missy. We trusted you. We told you to leave her alone when she was upset, and I find out you pull this? Lakeisha Ann Knowles, it'll be a long time before I trust you again. Ugh!" Dora ran her hands through her hair with a grunt. "I can't even look at you right now! You're grounded for a month! No ridin' your bike, no phone, no new makeup or nail polish, no goin' off to hang with your girl friends until Arceus knows how late in the night, nothing! Your father and I will drop you off and pick you up after school every day until we say otherwise! Do you understand me?!"

Lakeisha slumped back down in her chair. Tears welled from within her eyes, but she steeled herself to hold them back. "Yes, ma'am."

"And when we get home, you will tell Merlin you're sorry and swear on your life that you will never, ever, EVER record videos of her again WITHOUT her explicit permission! Do you understand me?!"

Lakeisha nodded, having no energy left to speak.

Mr. Lindbeck waved his hand at her. "I have more to discuss with your parents, so you can return to your classroom now."

At this point, Lakeisha wished she could disappear. She took her bag and stomped out of the office, slamming the door behind her. She could hear her mother yelling again, but she didn't stop to let herself be scolded further. She wanted to explode, as all the anger that simmered inside her was dying to come out. She hated this! She hated all of this! All she wanted was for Merlin to be knocked down a peg, and here everybody was taking her side and treating Lakeisha like a criminal! She clutched the strap on her backpack as she made her way back to the classroom. Lakeisha didn't want to take responsibility. She didn't want to apologize to anyone, especially not the little brat who ruined her life in her mind. It wasn't like she stabbed Merlin and killed her. All she did was record a dumb video. Besides, she had still sent it to some of her friends. One of them could still spread it around, and her plan could still work. Still, this whole thing could have gone perfectly had they just did what Lakeisha wanted them to do!

And she knew who was to blame for the teachers knowing about it in the first place.

---

At recess, Lakeisha wasted no time confronting Cindy on the spot. "You snitched on me!" Lakeisha screamed in Cindy's face, interrupting a four square game she was playing with three other students. "You told Mrs. Cabanos and showed her the video, didn't you?!"

Cindy paid her no heed, passing the ball over to another boy. "Yeah, I did. What's it to you?"

Lakeisha's face heated in an instant. To think her friend had the nerve to act so smug. She was proud of having snitched on her! This was an offense that in her mind could never be forgiven. "My life is ruined because you told the teacher about the video and showed it to them! My parents grounded me for a month and I have to be stuck with my dumb sister all the time!"

"Oh, boo-hoo. You had it coming," Cindy retorted, refusing to take her eyes off the game.

"Cindy Stuart, you're supposed to be my friend!" Lakeisha shouted. "You're supposed to be on my side! How could you turn your back on me like this?!"

"You're a jerk face, that's why," Cindy sneered without hesitation; catching the ball before throwing it to the same boy she threw it to earlier. "Guess what? I don't want to be friends with you anymore. Now go away."

Lakeisha could only stand there, frozen in shock. Cindy didn't want to be her friend anymore? How was this possible? They had been friends since kindergarten. They had been thick as thieves, practically joined at the hip, and now she was willing to cut her off and throw her to the Lycanrocs? All because Lakeisha wanted to show her a video of Merlin being a brat? This couldn't happen. She couldn't let this happen. As much as she liked Cindy, she felt she needed to pay for throwing her to the Lycanrocs like that. Lakeisha yanked on Cindy's arm, pulling her out of the chalk square on the blacktop.

"You can't do that to me! What is wrong with you?!" Lakeisha screamed again.

Undeterred, Cindy fired back, "I should be the one asking you that! You didn't used to be like this! What happened to you?!"

In that moment, Lakeisha stopped. Cindy took the chance to pull herself out of her now ex-friend's grasp, still holding her in place with a vicious, pained scowl.

"You used to be nice! You used to be cool! You used to care about other people, your sister included! Two years ago you protected Merlin from bullies! You two were practically joined at the hip! Now you treat her like crap and expect us to do the same when she never even did anything to you! Why?! Is it because she's autistic?! Do you think that makes her some drooling idiot who sits around throwing tantrums all the time?! You know she's not like that! You're smarter than this! I know she's not like that! We all do! I'd kill to have a little sister like her!"

By this point, a group of kids had gathered around the two of them to watch the tirade. Even the kids playing four square with Cindy stopped to watch her tear Lakeisha a new one.

"I hate this new you! Now all you want to do is follow Kirsten around and be just as shallow and mean and superficial as she is! Life isn't about being popular and having sparkly clothes and acting like you're better than everyone else! Why don't you stop being a big fat jerk face and apologize?! Actually, wait. Don't. You're probably not sorry at all!"

"Why you even takin' this so personal?! Merlin ain't even your sister! You don't gotta put up with her being autistic and rulin' the house like a spoiled brat like I do!"

"My mom is autistic!" Cindy yelled.

Finally, Lakeisha stopped talking. In that moment, she remembered. Cindy had mentioned that her mother was autistic at some point a few years ago. When was that?

Cindy balled her hands into fists. "Something similar to what you did to Merlin happened to her once when she was a teenager. She's never told me much about it, but from what little she did say about it, it really hurt her. Everyone she met never let her live it down, even after she went to a fancy college, started her own company, helped many other autistic people get jobs, met my dad, and had me. People still mention it to her years after the fact, and seeing the expression on her face hurts. It hurts so, so, so bad to see my awesome mom be degraded by complete strangers because some idiot wanted to ruin her reputation for kicks and giggles."

Nobody knew what to say. The entire circle of children was silent, even Lakeisha. "I…I had no idea," She murmured after about a minute.

Cindy looked away, unable to face her former friend. "Yeah, I told Mrs. Cabanos the second you told me what you did. I even showed her the video and had her tell the principal. Families aren't supposed to hurt each other the way you probably hurt Merlin. Call me a snitch if you want. I don't care."

"Woo! Go Cindy!" One kid in the crowd cheered her on.

"Honestly, I'd rather hang out with Julia than with you now. She's actually nice!"

"You'd rather hang out with a stupid freak girl who cheated off my science test?!" Lakeisha screeched. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her own friend was admitting to what she did and straight up abandoning her. Telling her off right in front of what's probably the entire school. "You'll be committing social suicide by doing that!"

"Shut up. You don't tell me who I can and can't hang out with. I'm done with you, Lakeisha. Merlin deserves a way better sister than you. Come on, guys," She gestured towards the students she was playing four square with. "I'm not gonna waste my time hanging out with heartless idiots who get off on hurting people for kicks," With that, she and her friends walked away without another word.

Leaving Lakeisha alone in a circle of other kids. This couldn't be happening. One of her friends straight up left her in the dust. She swiveled around, looking at the other kids around her, hoping someone—anyone—would remain by her side. Somebody here had to take her side, right? Her chest palpitated wildly with anxiety.

"Come on. Cindy's full of it. You don't believe any of the stuff she says, right? I ain't like that!" Lakeisha exclaimed in a last ditch attempt to salvage whatever dignity she had left. She even saw Amy and Mikayla in the crowd.

The crowd dispersed, with the kids returning to where they were previously on the blacktop. Mikayla took Amy by the hand and led her away, with the two of them walking to the other side of the blacktop, far away from Lakeisha. The disappointed looks on their faces told Lakeisha everything she feared.

They didn't like her anymore. They didn't want to be friends with her anymore. Everything was falling apart around her. Her vision blurred. She ran to the chain link fence and sobbed. How could this have gone so horribly wrong? Now practically all of her friends wanted nothing to do with her. She wished Kirsten were here to console her. She would know what to do. But she had no energy to walk around the blacktop and find her. She sat down on the concrete and cried into her hands. She hated this. She hated all of it.

Only one thought lingered in her mind.

This was all Merlin's fault.

"Lakeisha?" A soft voice pulled her out of her reverie. She looked up to find Mrs. Cabanos kneeling down next to her with a sympathetic look on her face. "Are you okay?"

Okay? Lakeisha's sorrow morphed straight into anger. Mrs. Cabanos had the nerve to all but out Lakeisha to the entire social studies class about her video and ask if she was okay? Of course she wasn't! She could see it on Lakeisha's face. Not only that, starting tomorrow, Lakeisha was going to be stuck with her after school for detention. Never before had Lakeisha been so insulted by someone's weak attempt at kindness. Was Mrs. Cabanos pulling some kind of trick? Pitying her in an attempt to make herself feel better because she was an adult, therefore in a position of authority? She didn't know, and she didn't care.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Lakeisha seethed as she suddenly stood up and bellowed, "Shut up and go away, Four Eyes!" With that disrespectful rhetoric, she stomped off to the other side of the blacktop. She wished school would just end already.

---

School couldn't have ended fast enough for Lakeisha. As soon as she saw her mother's car pull up, she got right inside, hanging her bike on the back of the car in doing so. Normally, she would spend a lot of time lingering after school, talking to her friends and making plans for the weekend. Now that she was grounded, she couldn't do that lest she incur her mother's wrath yet again. All throughout the ride home, neither mother nor daughter spoke to one another, and the air was thick with the anger that emanated from the both of them. But there was one thing Lakeisha was looking forward to when she got home: Tammy. Surely she'd be able to help Lakeisha and be there for her. She'd take her side, right?

But when Lakeisha raced up to Tammy's room to tell her what happened, she saw her older sister with her arms crossed and a disappointed look on her face.

"Dad told me about what you did," Tammy said sternly.

"It ain't what you think, Tammy!" Lakeisha protested, waving her arms up and down in doing so. "I was just tryin' to—"

Tammy held a hand out, signaling for her sister to be quiet. "Stop with the excuses! I can't believe you'd do this to Merlin! You better apologize to her for this, or I'll make you!"

"Not you too! You're supposed to be on my side! You're my sister for Pete's sake!" Lakeisha screamed. Now Tammy was taking Merlin's side, too. It was like the whole world was against her. All of this over a dumb video that everybody was blowing out of proportion.

"Just because you're my sister don't mean I'm not gonna tell you when you do somethin' stupid," Tammy reminded her. "Why'd you even do it anyway? Merlin didn't even do anything to you."

Lakeisha clenched her fist before shouting, "I hate Merlin!" Tammy sat on her bed, taking it all in. "I hate her! She's stupid and is always embarrassing me in front of my friends and I can't do anything without Mom making me drag her with me all the time! I want a normal sister who don't babble about names all the time and scream about everything! She's a spoiled brat and you know it! Somebody oughta put her in her place and tell her the whole world don't revolve around her!"

Tammy facepalmed before letting out a groan. "You don't mean that."

"Yes I do! I'm sick of Mom and Dad treatin' her like a queen when she don't deserve it! She thinks she's so much better than everybody else in here 'cause she's autistic and can use it to get away with all sorts of crap!"

"No, she doesn't. Stop right there," Tammy asserted, pointing a finger in Lakeisha's direction. "I don't know where you're getting all these ideas from, but none of what you're sayin' about Merlin is true. You know it and I know it."

"Everybody's gettin' all mad over a dumb video and treatin' me like a criminal! I'm the only one gettin' punished and Merlin don't even get yelled at for nothin'!"

"Listen, Keish. If you're thinking Mom and Dad love Merlin more than you and me, don't," Tammy wasted no time trying to set her sister straight. "If you were havin' a meltdown and I took a video of you and showed it to my friends for kicks, or even put it on the internet, I'd be in just as much trouble as you are now! Mom and Dad would roast me alive if I had pulled that stunt! It's not about them liking Merlin more than us. She ain't the center of the family, and neither are you and I. They're trying to teach you right from wrong, and you can't deny what you did was pretty stupid."

As much as she hated to admit it, a part of Lakeisha knew what her sister was saying was true. Dora and Greg loved all of their kids and treated them equally. Nobody was ever shoved aside in favor of someone else. They always helped their kids with their homework, listened to them when they had problems, supported them when they needed it, and attended whatever school events they could when they had the chance. Even if they couldn't, they always found a way to make up for it. A part of her knew none of this was Merlin's fault, that Lakeisha did all of this to herself and was just using Merlin as a scapegoat and an excuse to be angry. But Lakeisha didn't want to believe that part of her consciousness was right. She didn't care that what she did was wrong.

"You brought this on yourself, so it's on you to make it right with Merlin," Tammy said. "Just apologize, do all your chores, bring your grades up, and listen to Mom and Dad for the next month, and this'll all blow over before you know it."

"You don't get it," Lakeisha whimpered. "My friends don't like me anymore because of Merlin. Mikayla, Amy, and Cindy want nothin' to do with me no more. My favorite teacher has it out for me. My reputation in school is ruined!"

Tammy crossed her arms again. "Reputation isn't everything. That's the problem with you, Keish. You put too much stake on trivial things and make stupid decisions because of it. Besides, why is Merlin being autistic suddenly a problem to you now? You never cared about it before. You know Merlin's always going to be autistic. It's a part of her, and there's no changing it."

'Well, there should be a way to change her brain and make it normal!' Lakeisha thought bitterly. Even better, she wished she could put Merlin on a rocket and send her off to Mars forever.

A knock on the door pulled her out of her dark thoughts. Lakeisha swirled around to find her mother standing outside Tammy's room. "Lakeisha," She used her thumb to point behind herself. "Downstairs. Now."

Pursing her lips, Lakeisha begrudgingly followed her mother downstairs into the living room. Merlin was sitting on the couch, her eyes red and puffy from crying, but calm and quiet. Greg sat next to her, rubbing her back in a comforting manner.

"Don't you have something to say to Merlin?" Her mother asked. "We're waiting."

Lakeisha found herself in front of Merlin, who didn't meet her eyes. She tried to force the words to come out of her mouth. I'm sorry. I did something bad to you and I shouldn't have. There's no excuse for it. But the words didn't come out. They lingered in her head, but Lakeisha couldn't bring herself to say it all. In fact, she didn't even see Merlin at this point. Merlin, the little sister she used to love and care for. She saw someone who ruined her life. Someone who was an inconvenience, a burden, a thorn in her side that should never have been born. Someone who embarrassed her and cramped her style on a daily basis, making her the subject of gossip in school. Someone who would likely never really grow up and would always be a little kid in her brain. She didn't care what anyone else said at this point. She didn't want to accept that her thoughts and actions towards Merlin were wrong. For once, just once, she wanted Merlin to just go away. Leave her alone and never come back.

Why should she be sorry? As far as Lakeisha was concerned, Merlin was the one who should apologize for ruining Lakeisha's life with her silly habits, her lack of knowledge of things that to everyone else were so obvious a baby could figure them out, her creepy obsession with names and their origins. Lakeisha conjured up every possible mean thought she could think of in regards to her sister.

Merlin turned everyone in school against her.

Merlin destroyed the friendships she had and drove them all away.

Merlin got everything handed to her on a silver platter.

Merlin got a Pokémon and Lakeisha didn't.

Merlin killed her chances of being popular.

Everything always had to be about Merlin, didn't it?

Why couldn't Merlin just not be autistic?

Why couldn't she be normal?

"No."

"Wrong answer, Keish," Greg hissed.

"Don't care. I ain't sayin' sorry!" Lakeisha screeched. "I didn't do nothin' wrong!"

In her anger, she attempted to stomp back to her room, but her mother grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "You're not going anywhere until you apologize to Merlin!"

"I hate her!" Lakeisha finally shouted for all to hear. Then she shot Merlin a hateful gaze and screamed, "You ruined my life! I wish I never had a sister like you!" With enough struggling, she broke from her mother's grasp and sprinted up the stairs, ignoring her parents' scoldings.

"Lakeisha! Lakeisha Ann Knowles, you come back down here right this instant!"

She slammed the door behind her and threw herself onto her bed, burying her face into her pillows and cried. Not for Merlin, but for herself. She hated everyone. She hated her former friends for abandoning her, snitching on her, and not laughing at the video like she wanted them to. She hated Mrs. Cabanos for daring to tell the entire class about what she did and having the audacity to pretend she didn't utterly humiliate Lakeisha afterward. She hated her parents for wanting to lock her up, monitor her every move, being obsessed with her grades and friends, and stop her from having fun, especially for wanting to keep her away from Kirsten. She hated everyone in her family for being right about what she did and wanting her to take responsibility for it. She hated the world for making her suffer for what she felt was a stupid thing blown way out of proportion. Why couldn't everyone just get over it and move on? Lakeisha didn't see why this had to be such a big deal.

Most of all, she hated Merlin and everything about her.

And she vowed to hate her until the day she died.

---

A/N: Yep, this chapter turned out way longer than I intended, but I'm kinda proud of how it turned out. For those wondering, I wanted to try writing from a bully's point of view and show some bits and pieces of Julia's time at school before she started her journey. And yeah, Lakeisha's being pretty ableist to both Julia and her sister. Her behavior will be addressed further in the next chapter, where I intend to have Julia, Perrine, and Caiseal run into her and Merlin before they leave for Tohjo Falls.

Random fact: Some of the characters are named after directors and actors who worked on the Pokemon animes, both the regular one, Origins, and Generations, in some way. Cindy Stuart is named after Eric Stuart (Voice of Brock, James, Squirtle, and many other Pokemon), Mikayla Haigney is named after Michael J. Haigney (Director, script adapter, writer, and voice of many Pokemon characters and creatures such as Charmander, Psyduck, Geodude, etc. in the 4Kids era), and Mrs. Cabanos after Christine Marie Cabanos, who voiced Mew and various Pokemon in Pokemon Origins (and is super adorable at it, too!).