Chapter 26. Schooling.
Growing up in France, I know how to speak French and English, but that is not a reason for Momma to send me to school. Papa didn't seem to like it either, but if he put up a fight, I wasn't in the room.
But now I'm sitting in a chair outside the principal's office while Momma spoke to him, when he walked out and said. "Good morning Erica, I'm Mr. Kent. I'm going to show you to your new class."
"Yes sir." I said standing up, and then Momma came and took my hand as Mr. Kent walked us down the hall and up some stairs to open a door to a class room with a red headed lady teacher and about 19 kids.
"Ms. Slim, this is Erica Parmar."
Momma let go of my hand and I stepped into the room and smiled, then frowned seeing the teacher had a big mole on her nose.
"Good morning Erica, you can sit right thereby Carl and Alice." Ms. Slim said and pointed to an empty desk between a red headed boy and a brown haired girl.
I looked at momma who nodded then I went and sat down.
"I'm Alice." The girl said.
"I'm Carl Junior. You can call me Carl." The boy said.
"I'm Erica. With a 'C' not a 'K'. It's nice to meet you."
"You too."
"Why did your mom come with you?" Alice asked. "My dad asked if I wanted him to come but I said I'd be fine."
"My momma's worried I'll have problems because someone tried to kill me this summer."
"Why would someone do that?" Carl asked.
"Because Papa owed him a lot of money for burning down and opera house."
"Who's your Papa?"
"Mr. E. The owner of the Coney Island amusement park."
They all got quiet then Alice said. "That's your dad?"
"Yep."
"Does he really where a mask?" Carl asked.
"Yep. He uses to hide his deformity."
"What deformity?" Alice asked.
"He was born with an odd looking face."
"How odd?" Carl asked.
"In nice words I can say about my dad's looks, pig snouts and deep eyes."
"He must give you nightmares when he takes his mask off." Alice said.
"He hardly ever takes his mask off and I don't get nightmares about it. I do however get bad dreams about cages…"
"You're weird." Carl said. "You'll fit in with us kid."
I had friends for the 1st tiem in my life that weren't Momma or Angel…