CHAPTER 8: The Second Visit/Words of Hurt

"Elyssia! Is our little sprout gonna come down?"

I was awoken by those words coming straight from my mother. Boy, I guess I'll be called "little sprout" for the rest of my life. I got out of bed and marched down the stairs.

"Good morning, what's up?" I asked as I sat down at the table.

"We'll be going to your school again today, and see if we can talk your principal into biting down on those bullies. This has gone on long enough, and we need to stop it before something really bad happens." my mother answered.

I nodded and started eating my breakfast. Although gooey oatmeal was on the table, it tasted somewhat better because I felt confident that I'd beat Ellen and her gang into dust, not with my powers, but with my words, not to mention that my parents would faze them today. At least the consequences wouldn't be that bad. After I emptied my bowl, I ran up the stairs and into my room, where I paced back and forth.

"Gather it together, Elyssia. Take it all in. Don't let what they say hurt you. Just shake it off like an etch-a-sketch. At least you've got Mom and Dad with you." I muttered to myself.

"You survived sixth grade, you can survive seventh grade. You survived a visit, you can survive this one . . ."

"Hey! We're leaving!" my father called out.

"Coming!" I responded as I flew down the stairs.

"So . . . you're the parents of Elyssia Antonia Maccabaeus?" a Cactus asked as she found my parents and I sitting on the bench inside the office.

"Yes. We are here to see her teacher, the principal and the vice principal." my father answered.

"Nice to meet you, then. My name is Miss Sanatria, and I am the new vice principal for St. Henry." The Cactus said with a smile.

Then, she looked over at me with a smile.

"You must be the famous Elyssia Antonia. I don't believe we've met." she said.

I was about to ask, "Wait, what? How am I famous? I get into trouble every other day, but that isn't putting me in the papers!"

"Wait . . . did you say that your name was Sanatria?" my mother asked.
When the vice principal nodded, I knew that these two knew each other well. Next thing I saw was that the two plants were hugging like crazy.

"I never got to see you!"

"I thought you died in the ACC riot!"

"If you know me, I'm particularly hard to kill!"

"Umm . . . why don't we get to the issue at hand?" I asked timidly.

"O-oh . . . my bad!" my mother giggled before we went into the principal's office.

"Erm . . . Mr. Fernandez, we have company." the vice principal whispered to the Tall-Nut writing out discipline reports for insubordinate students.

"Ahh, tell them to go to hell." Mr. Fernandez muttered.

I was shocked that the principal of a Catholic school would cuss just like that, for the whole world to hear. Not like any my teachers haven't done that once when they thought I was missing in a lockdown.

"Um, language, sir." my father whispered.

"Alright. On with the darn program!" Mr. Fernandez growled as he swivelled around in his chair.

He pointed to several chairs off to the side.

"Drag 'em over." the principal commanded.

"Sit!"

My parents and I sat instantly, as if we had been whipped.

"Now, we just have to call your teacher over . . ." Miss Sanatria muttered as she swept out of the office.

"So, why did you call this meeting up? To waste my time?" Mr. Fernandez asked in a sharp voice.

My mother answered that question.

"My daughter has been getting bullied at school so many times. It's been going on since grade . . ." I picked up from there.

"One. It was because of my powers, and because I got perfect on every single test ― even diagnostics, which don't go on report cards! The slander intensified in grade five because I landed in a gifted class. My teacher would never listen to my complaints, no matter what." Mr. Fernandez leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it? Cut off the heads of those freaking bullies?" he asked.

"Well, we expect you to suspend or punish those students who are hurting my daughter, and we expect you to put Madam Hibiscus on probation for ignorance if her attitude doesn't change." my father answered tartly.

"Did you just say my name?" my teacher asked as she slipped in behind Miss Sanatria.

"Yes. I've been noticing that you've been doing absolutely nothing to stop those plants who are bullying my daughter ―" my mother began to answer, but she was interrupted by a myriad of justifications from my teacher.

"No! Y-you don't understand! I care so much about little Elyssia! I just don't want to be criticized by my students!" she shrieked.

"Oh, sure. Like that's an awesome excuse. Keep it up, loser." I hissed coolly, earning a disparaging look from my principal.

"Please forgive me. I called Ellen, Carol, Alduin, Albert and Brian down. I'll call them in." Madam Hibiscus whispered.

She stuck her head full of petals out the door and motioned for Ellen and her gang to come in. As they entered, I was shocked dead at what I saw. Albert and Brian had braces in place to get their teeth back in the right position, while Ellen had a red bandage around her head that looked as if it would leak blood anytime soon.

"Well, well, well. It looks like Weird-e actually came to school! Back from that little sojourn ― or suspension?" Ellen asked evenly.

"Yeah, I'm back ― to tear your heart out, throw it on the ground, trample on it, and then feed the rest of your hell-born, messed up ruts to the fire dogs. Of course, I just might feed your brain to the zombies! Oh wait ― you have no brain, whatsoever! Oh, how disappointed Mayor Fred would be!" I retorted calmly, putting at least 90% of my energy into keeping my icy voice from shaking.

The other gang members wanted to fire back, but as soon as they saw my father, a Gatling Pea, and my mother, whose eyes probably looked like soul-eating laser beams, they stiffened, and took their seats at a fast pace.

"So . . . is it true that for six straight years you have been hurting Elyssia both emotionally and physically?" Miss Sanatria asked. "And if you're honest . . . well, you'll still be suspended, but you won't get thought papers times twenty, you can keep your recesses, and you won't have any trip cancellations."

Ellen sighed, and put both of her leaves down on the table.

"Yes. We hit her, punched her, spread rumours about her, called her names . . ." she whispered.

"Why would you do something so . . . so horrible to a perfectly innocent Snow Pea?" Mr. Fernandez asked.

"It's because we were jealous of her! She's drop-dead beautiful, she passed diagnostics, she got medals, she had those powers that we didn't have,she's in a gifted class where they basically have fun round the clock, and she's . . ." Cactus sputtered.

"That's not an excuse! You can do things that Elyssia can't!" Madam Hibiscus protested.

Ellen's eyes filled up with tears, and they just fell down onto the table.

"She's Little Miss Perfect of the Intermediate division! She can find solutions that we can't find, she gets straight A's everywhere . . . it's just not fair!" she cried.

"Ditto! I mean, she can conjure jets of ice and hurt plants in a flash of blue... we don't have that ability . . . she's just like Jesus!" Albert added.

"Hear, hear." Alduin and Brian chorused morosely. I gasped, and spoke for the first time in the longest while.

"I'm not Miss Perfect! I . . . I'm just like you! And having those powers aren't exactly my idea of a blessing! I got into huge trouble because of them! I even ran away from home, because I wanted to run away from . . . the truth." I objected.

There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room at those words.

"And I didn't choose to get straight A's, and I didn't choose to be in a gifted class! They were hardwired into me, and that's that!"

Mr. Fernandez sighed.
"Ellen, you and your gang can stay here for some lecturing. Elyssia, you and your parents can leave. Thank you for notifying me about this."

I pumped my leaf into the air with joy. I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of my stem, and that I can finally move along with life, devoid of these jerks.

"Praise the lord, praise the lord, my life is my life minus these jerks!" I chanted softly as I skipped out of the office with a light heart.

"Congratulations, sweet pea! You've taken care of your problem!" my father whispered as he hugged me tightly.

"Thanks for sticking up for me and all." I replied as my mother joined the hug.

At long last, we separated and went our own ways. As I dashed up the steep stairs, I encountered Renaldo, a Chomper who enjoyed teasing me, though for some reason, he wasn't part of Ellen's gang. Why did he start teasing me? Probably because of . . . ehh, I don't wanna talk about it.

"Oh, hi weird-e." he snickered.

"Hi, Renaldo. Got any meat to grab from me?" I asked.

"I don't care about what that means, but listen here. You're just so dumb, girly!"

"My name is not "girly!" I have a name, and that name is Elyssia!" I retorted.

"Well, I have to memorize the names of all of my teachers! Think that I'd be obliged to remember yours?"

"Well, the frigging principal has to memorize the names of at least 200 students! Got anything to say on that, big brother?"

"And I happen to have a name that is not "big brother"!"

"You God-forsaken idiot! Go to hell and rot! Honest to God, I can't see why you're so frigging hell-bent on being idiotic! Hello! Is this year your first year in school? Even a backwards backalley school like JD Parker would be able to smarten you up, dumb-dumb!"

"Well, I bet North Kipling could do a better job!"

"Psh, oh yeah! And that's why it was converted into some kind of community center! Think that drug dealing does a good job? Maybe for you!"

"Hahaha, very funny!"

"Besides, you've never been to the North End, have you? Idiot!"

"What did you just call me?"

"An idiot, deaf dumbhead! Maybe you need hearing aids!"

"Go to hell!"

"Say that to yourself! No wonder you're so dumb! Like your mother!"

"How dare you insult my mother! What's more, your mother's so old that she uses a twig from a poison ivy tree as a cane! That's probably why she has these really ugly rashes on her body!"

"Oh, yeah? You're mother's so old that her birth certificate says "EXPIRED" on it! Not to mention that my mother's prettier than yours!"

I could tell that Renaldo "Dumb Bully" Kingsley was losing it, because he looked as if he wanted to eat me alive, even though we had already pretty much shaken up the stairwell thanks to our argument. But instead of chomping down on me and giving the walls in the stairwell a do up with my blood, he calmly said the some of the most insulting and hurtful words ever uttered to me.

"You know, I know a lot about your family. The Maccabaeuses had a rather eventful history. You guys are loyal, but hotheaded, and sometimes prone to do horrid things by an impulse that they can't seem to control. Maccabaeuses often made mistakes that they'd regret later. So that's why everyone really hates you. It's not your race, it's not your crazy powers, and it most definitely is not your smart-streak. It's the name. And speaking of which, I know about you. You weren't supposed to be born at all. You were only kept alive because you almost died. But your folks swore an oath to pay as little attention to you as possible. Thank me later, Antonia. For telling you the ugly truth."

I nodded, and just pretty much hung around as Renaldo skipped up the stairs on the whole, a look of sheer joy and accomplishment on his face. Then I realized that everyone hated me for pretty much who I was. Renaldo's tale was anything but true. I was just some kind of unappreciated freak. Well, when I get back home, I'll do something about it.

That is a promise.