“The Future—never spoke—
Nor
will He—like the Dumb—
Reveal by sign—a syllable
Of
His Profound To Come—…”
-Emily Dickinson
Flora Walked up to the entrance of her apartment building, Her once youthful smile gone and replaced with a deep cold straight face. She had been dealing with some fellow students who found her naturally extroverted nature to be insufferable, and they decided to make her the target of their unwanted attention.
The leader of this group of fellow students was Sandra Gutierrez, a tenth grader with a penchant for hating those who dare steal any attention away from her.
She IMMEDIATELY despised Flora.
The first day that Flora arrived at Stuyvesant High, She instantly attracted the boys with her curly black hair, her soft, warm smile and overall good looks reminiscent of her mother.
Instead of just accepting the fact that she might not be the only person deserving of attention in a school of over three-thousand students, Sandra decided that picking on a ninth grader who did nothing to her was the right thing for her to do.
So she did.
CONSTANTLY.
Every morning for the last week at homeroom, Flora would be constantly harassed by some of Sandra’s lackeys. At first it seemed playful, with questions about her home city, her past life, etc.
Then they started to pry into more personal territory.
“So, are you a virgin?”
“Are all girls from Allentown like you?”
“Is it true that y’all got no fashion sense?”
“I mean, with how you’re dressed, haha.”
“You seem kinda dumb. You ‘special’?”
They then relayed all her answers to Sandra, who then used that information against her.
Oh, Flora kissed her first boyfriend before she left? Nah, she really screwed him, and he probably wasn’t the first.
Oh, Allentown? That’s a hick town for idiots. Therefore, Flora is an idiot.
...And so on.
So after the third day of this, Flora went to the principal’s office as she was advised to do by her teacher, who noticed her discomfort.
The principal brought the girls who were harassing Flora to the office, who then fingered Sandra as the ringleader of this ‘Harassment campaign’.
The principal then gave Sandra a three day suspension from school.
The next three days went by swimmingly, with Flora being able to avoid the group and even making a new group of friends during lunch: Jermaine, a shy kid who also moved to Washington heights recently from Brooklyn; Delia, who came from the Dominican Republic and was taking ESOL classes to help her adjust to her new surroundings; and Nour, a tough sporty girl who’s parents immigrated from Egypt in 2002.
They had just finished getting home from school and were each heading to their homes, when Flora received a text from Nour:
“Hey bud, be careful, word is Sandy is looking for you. Payback for the supension.”
After reading that, Flora went from smiling brightly to a deep cold straight face.
“Hey snitch!” A voice bellowed from behind her.
It was Sandra, accompanied by three others.
“You gonna tell on people bitch? You gonna snitch and fuck up my perfect attendance because you can’t take a fucking joke, bitch?”
“I didn’t tell on you though,” Flora began, “It was your frie…”
She was interrupted by a full coke can that was thrown at her by one of Sandra’s cohorts.
It hit Flora on the left cheek, putting a welt below her left eye.
“Stop lying you little thot!” Yelled the can thrower.
Sandra then got really close to Flora and said, “I’m going to enjoy fucking you up, and I’m going to enjoy making you leave my school.”
She then wound up her right arm, but was then quickly subdued by The building superintendent Hidalgo, who took her arm and flung her back like a rag doll towards her friends who caught her.
“You little assholes gonna attack one of my tenants? Come after me first,” Hidalgo stated, “I may be old but I can still teach y’all some manners with these hands!”
The girls, a little puzzled by what had just occurred began walking away.
Sandra turned her head to look back, thought about saying something, then decided not to and just kept on walking.
“Are you okay, mi hijita?” asked Hidalgo.
“Ye… yes. Thank you.” She answered.
Then she began to cry.
“Ayy mamita, it’s ok,” Hidalgo said as he hugged her, “Do you want a piragua? There’s a guy selling some right down the corner.”
Flora then nodded yes and they walked towards the piragua stand together.
