PROMPT

“Get your over-sized mitts off of me!”

Teacher’s pet used to mean something different. It used to be some goodie-two-shoes who always knew the answers and who would take on extra responsibilities, so the teacher didn’t have to.

There was another form of pet in the classroom – class pet.

It used to be a gerbil or mouse, maybe even a fish. Fish, mice, and gerbils didn’t understand though. They were cute, but relatively mindless.

So, with the creation of bipedal, language capable creatures resembling humans which averaged around five or so inches tall, it was no wonder they were swept off of the shelves. How similar they were to humans was rule “inconclusive” at best by various doctors and legal speaking pencil pushers.

So, this was where Nivea found herself.

She was sitting in the bottom of her cage, pressed under the pathetic squeaking wheel, and hoping that those kids would leave her alone. Middle schoolers were particularly vicious, but her owner, Ms. Robinson, could keep the kids at bay if Nivea were asleep.

So, Nivea would cram herself under the running wheel and pretend to sleep for hours on end, only exercising and being active at night. At the moment, the kids were outside performing an experiment, so she had the whole classroom to herself. Needing a stretch break, Nivea decided it was safe and crawled out from the wheel.

She stretched and walked up to the pure glass container she was forced to stay in. The holes at the top were too tall and too small for her to fit through, but maybe she would get lucky one of these days and the lid would be left ajar. Kids were careless after all.

The water dripped rhythmically onto the base of the cage beside the pellets of food. Disgusting. It was like chewing on stale bread, but at least that had relative flavor and texture differences.

Nivea walked along the edge of the cage, running her fingers over the cold, glass surface. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the far corner as she walked by. Narrow, sharp features that she wished would cut the glass and set her free. Thin, dexterous limbs. Short auburn hair that fell by her shoulders. Tired, hazel-brown eyes looking back. A miserable five and a tenth inches tall. Crazy to think she wouldn’t grow anymore. Rumor was that pets didn’t stop growing until they were twenty-three, just like humans, but that was five years away.

While she paced back and forth, all Nivea could think about was how to get out – escape. What would she do after? No idea. The impossibility of escape prevented further planning.

Still, a girl could dream.

Nivea could do it. She pressed her back against the glass and stared at the latch at the top of her cage. If she could just grab that, she could swing from side to side and knock the latch loose. It wasn’t locked after all. Guess the humans thought they were too stupid to figure out how to escape.

The word wasn’t stupid – it was short. Pets were too short to escape most containers.

But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try.

Nivea took off running as fast as she could with the limited space available and used the food bowl as a spring point.

*WHAM*

Nivea slammed against the side of the cage and slid down in a crumpled heap. That was definitely going to bruise. She forced herself upright again. She was barely an inch short of her target.

She would’ve tried again if she didn’t hear a bone-chilling sound. The sound of the door opening and the overwhelming shouts of the middle-schoolers of the classroom. It was too late. The first three, all boys, saw she was awake and made a bee line for the cage, their voices raising to a near shriek.

“She’s awake! Ms. Robinson! She’s awake! Can we play with her?”

No.

Please no.

Nivea ran for the wheel in a desperate attempt to play it off, but she knew she was already too late when she heard Ms. Robinson give the okay.

Like sliding into home plate, Nivea slipped under the wheel, but the lid was already coming off, shaking the whole cage. She heard their cooing voices already and felt the cage shudder with vibrations of them grabbing the ledge.

Nivea’s heart was pounding mercilessly in her chest. Her whole body was tense and shaking. She just got over the bruises from the last time. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone?

She gritted her teeth as she heard the wheel whirring just above her as it was removed from the wall. She braced herself, clenching her fists and tensing her whole body. Their sweaty, oversized digits closed around her frame in an instant and hoisted her into the air at an alarming speed.

“Hey there sleepy,” the boys grinned, their teeth forming menacing grins that could easily snap her in half.

“Get your over-sized mitts off of me!” she howled as she thrashed in their grips.

“Aww! It’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you. You don’t need to be scared,” they said. It was all downhill from there. The boys passed Nivea around, setting her on their desks and poking at her ribs. While they weren’t trying to be purposefully hurtful, their size alone caused perfectly finger-shaped bruises to form. The entire class got their turn with the class pet until Ms. Robinson pulled her away and placed her back in her cage.

“That’s enough class. We have work to get to. Also, we have a new student joining us. Settle down and get out your books,” instructed Ms. Robinson as she set a shivering and bruised Nivea back into her cage. She didn’t know if they were being rough on purpose or if it was an accident, but what she did know was her will to fight had never been stronger.

The pet limped back to the corner of the cage and slumped down into the crease where the glass met. Her breathing was labored and, for the life of her, she was having a hard time feeling her fingertips. Her limbs stung and ached, but she didn’t want to give anyone the satisfaction of whimpering or asking for help.

Nivea would do what she always did – handle it herself.

She watched with mild distain as the door opened and two humans entered the classroom. They were both girls. One was undoubtedly the student while the other was an adult. They didn’t look related, but what did Nivea know. The girl, middle school aged obviously with very fair skin, had curly blonde hair and big, bright blue eyes. The adult also had curly hair, but it was jet black which complemented her darker skin tone.

Ms. Robinson stood at the front of the room and gestured to the girl, who looked around nervously at the classroom.

“Class, I’d like you to meet our newest student. This is Kaylee Ella, our new transfer student; and this is Miss Rachel. They’ll both be joining us. Kaylee, would you like to say anything about yourself?” asked Ms. Robinson.

The girl, Kaylee, looked curiously at the teacher before turning her eyes to Miss Rachel. Miss Rachel, instantly, began using her hands to make different symbols which Kaylee focused on. Nivea knew exactly what this meant.

Miss Rachel was an interpreter, and Kaylee couldn’t hear.

Kaylee was deaf.

Nivea had been in the classroom for nearly six years and had managed to pick up on the sign language dialect, not that it would impress any human by any stretch of the imagination. Nivea read what the interpreter signed and quickly picked up on Kaylee’s response.

“Hello, my name is Kaylee Ella. I’m from Maine. I just moved here. I like to read and write. I also like to draw, even though I’m not very good. Also, I was born deaf, meaning I can’t hear. If you need my attention, just tap on the desk or tap me on the shoulder. Thank you,” said Miss Rachel as Kaylee signed.

The other students start asking her questions and Kaylee answers, Miss Rachel responding verbally, but Nivea could see Kaylee’s responses before the verbal response. Nivea laughed to herself. She wasn’t the only one reliant completely on another to interact with the world.

The rest of the day went without a hitch, but Nivea couldn’t help but watch Kaylee for the rest of the day. It wasn’t until the end of the day that Kaylee had to go and put her papers in the cabinet – the same cabinet that Nivea’s cage was on top of.

Nivea squirmed and tried to make it back to her hiding spot in the hopes that she would be unnoticed under the wheel when she felt bright blue eyes on her. The teenage girl walked over and had stopped moving entirely, eyes locked onto Nivea.

What was it about humans and wanting to just watch someone smaller than them squirm?

The pet clenched her teeth and glared at the teenage girl but was immediately caught off guard by the look in the girl’s eyes. Sympathy? Remorse? Pity?

Nivea wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but all she wanted was to be left alone.

“Go away,” said Nivea spitefully. Kaylee’s eyes narrowed as they locked onto Nivea’s lips. “Leave me alone.” Kaylee didn’t move. Instead, she continued to watch Nivea’s features.

Nivea, frustration and rage boiling in her, readjusted her body position and used what she understood about sign language in hopes to get the teenage human girl to go away.

“Leave me alone,” Nivea signed. Her heart was pounding in her chest, making the deep bruises in her body throb. “Just go!”

Kaylee’s expression changed from keen observation to surprise and, finally, to remorse. She reached up to her chest, making a fist, and rubbed it against her chest.

“I’m sorry.” She was saying “I’m sorry.”

Nivea stiffened and leaned forward, seething. Her head was starting to hurt as her breathing became more ragged. So, that was how she wanted to play? Fine.

“Sorry?” She signed, baring her teeth at the girl. “If you were sorry, you’d tell them to leave me alone. If you were sorry, you’d not treat someone who can think like a mindless gerbil. If you were sorry, you would help me.”

Kaylee, the girl, kept her eyes fixed on every word Nivea signed, looking more and more guilty and heartbroken. The pet knew there would probably be consequences to her actions, but it felt so good to finally vent her frustrations to the first person who actually seemed to be listening to her.

Kaylee bit her lower lip and signed, “I’m sorry,” one last time before backing away from the cage. Was she offended? Or was she listening? Nivea decided she would rather nurse her wounds and rest instead of calling the kid back.

She slipped beneath the wheel once again and stared up at the obnoxiously colored piece of plastic above her until exhaustion pulled her into unconsciousness.

~~~^*^*^~~~

Several weeks passed since that day when she told the human, Kaylee, off and, surprisingly, no repercussions were inflicted. She wasn’t put into solitary confinement. Her food wasn’t reduced. She didn’t even have to engage in “playtime” with any of the other students because, oddly enough, Kaylee would interfere.

Nivea first noticed it one day when a group of girls, including Kaylee, asked Ms. Robinson if they could play with her and get her out of the cage. Nivea, barely healed from her last “playtime,” started to hunker down in hopes to stay out of their clutches when Kaylee signed to them that the pet made her uncomfortable and suggested another game instead.

The girls initially started to protest when Ms. Robinson said that they needed to find a game where everyone could be included, especially Kaylee. Annoyed, they found another thing to play, but not before Kaylee made direct eye-contact with Nivea as they walked by.

Coincidence? Most likely. Still, the pet couldn’t help but feel overwhelming relief that she was spared for now.

Another time was when the boys were coming over to see Nivea to play with her when Kaylee once again ran interference, seeing if they wanted to do an experiment instead. Because the experiment involved race cars and building track to test speed or something like that, they agreed.

Each time, Kaylee would make deliberate eye-contact with Nivea and offer a small, thoughtful smile. Nivea had to admit that even though her loathing for humans was deep, this one didn’t seem that bad overall.

Then, one fateful day, Kaylee was out of the room when the girls came back and asked Ms. Robinson if they could play dress up with Nivea. Kaylee was at some kind of special class, which left Nivea to endure the groping hands of the girls and the forced stripping of her clothes to put on scratchy costumes.

Once again, Nivea cried out for them to stop. “Get your over-sized mitts off of me!” Her cries only received a coo from the girls in response, all of them saying that all she needed was a spa day to relax.

Nivea had to admit that she would rather play dress up than wrestle with the boys. For whatever reason, the girls who were fascinated with how Nivea held her arms and why she stood the way she did had softer grips and at least tried to be, for lack of a better term, nurturing and “careful.”

Still, it didn’t stop them from pinching her arms too tight, making perfect finger pad bruises, and tugging a few chunks of her auburn hair free from her scalp.

Nivea was writhing in their grip when Kaylee came back into the room. The moment Kaylee saw what was happening, her face melted into sadness and mortification. She started signing immediately and rushed over to the group of girls.

The pet recognized the signs Kaylee was making immediately, even though the girls didn’t seem to know what the problem was.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kaylee signed as she knelt with the group of girls. “She doesn’t want to be bothered. You’re hurting her. Just leave her alone.” Nivea was beyond shocked at this teenage human girl attempting to defend her. What was even more shocking was when Kaylee lowered her hand to the ground and looked at Nivea directly in her hazel-brown eyes.