At the park, Hope sat thinking, on the swings. What can I do to make things better? It’s like every time i try, I do something to mess it all up. She got a text from her mom, that said “ get home now.” she send a thumbs up in response, she only go halfway down the street when a group of girls approached her and slowly from the center emerged Emily,

“ Hey dope, didn’t see you there. Though I did smell a faint whiff of lesbo.” the other girls acted as her laugh track, giggling on cue. “ What's wrong? Don’t you cats get your tongue? Or were you trying to lick the cat?” Every word was like daggers and it made it hard to hope to ignore them because no matter what they would win. She just kept walking but for some reason the girls walked like they had become leashed dogs, following closely beside her. The taunting, and teasing was relentless but she hung in there, until.

“ I smell smoke, did someone try to kill themselves just ‘cause their crush didn’t like her?” hope had enough at this point, all those years of empty threats would finally end when hope stopped dead in her tracks, turned and gave a single blow to Emily’s nose. The rest of the girls first crowded around the unconscious Emily but he serried to their homes to give an ear full to anyone who would listen.

When she got home, she and Cecil’s mom were staring at a phone with widened eyes while Cecil sat impatiently on the couch.

“ Hey, what are you looking at?” she asked.

Her mom slowly looked up at her, “ you punched your cousin?! IN THE GODDAMN FACE!”

“ she was messing with me and wouldn’t leave me alone-”

“ oh no-” her voice rumbled like an earthquake, “ I’ve been hearing that you were threatening her but I didn’t want to think that you were saying things like that to family, but now!”

“ SHE WAS MAKING FUN OF ME!”

“ THAT GIVES YOU NO RIGHT TO PUT YOUR HANDS ON SOMEONE- ESPECIALLY FAMILY!”

“ like you're any better, you’ve been hitting on miss lee for a really long time.”

“ What?” everyone said, confused. Lee and Franny more embarrassed

“ Yeah, that’s what aunt Susan said.”

The two moms looked at each other, both flushed and trying to hold back laughs. Franny took a deep breath and tried to redirect to the conversation,

“ look, let’s just calm down for a moment and-”

“ no, wait. You hit on my mom?” Cecil said in shock.