Nervous(8)

Her mother said, “Mrs. Greer said you two had an altercation earlier today. Something about you climbing over her fence to get a ball.”

“Yes, I did get my ball and she did yell at me but that was it.”

“She said you yelled back at her later when she was on the way to the store.”

“No, I didn’t,” Jonquinette said on the brink of tears. “I didn’t see her at all after that.”

Her parents eyed each other with confused expressions. Finally, her mother patted her on the hand. “Go back to sleep. Everything will be all right.”



The next morning, Jonquinette headed back upstairs after breakfast to get dressed for the day. There wasn’t much to do but she figured she could ride her bike around the block. She entered her room to find both her parents standing there. Her father had an empty can of rat poison in his hand. “I found this under your bed.”

Jonquinette fell on the floor and cried. “I didn’t do anything!”





5




April 1991

Seventh Grade

Jonquinette sat in the bleachers, faking a muscle spasm as usual. She hated to participate in gym class. It was ironic because at home, she had become obsessed with physical fitness. All of the baby fat was long gone and she had an hourglass shape. Many of the boys that used to tease her in elementary school were now sweating her to go out with them. She was too nervous to even think about the prospect of dating.

Sheila Vale hated Jonquinette but no one truly understood why. Jonquinette kept to herself, tried to concentrate on her studies, and went directly home from school every single day.

Sheila came over to the bleachers, dressed in her gym uniform, and folded her arms over her chest. “So what’s supposed to be wrong with you today?”

Jonquinette eyed her. “I have a muscle spasm.”

“Again? You don’t look like you have a damn thing wrong with you.”

Jonquinette didn’t respond. She waited for someone to come to her rescue and a few seconds later, someone did.

Mrs. Yates, their teacher, yelled toward them. “Sheila, what are you doing? Leave Jonquinette alone. She’s not feeling well.”

Sheila smacked her lips and walked off.

After class ended, Jonquinette was in the locker room organizing her locker when she heard several people approach her from behind. She turned to find Sheila and a few of her flunkies staring at her.

Sheila stepped forward. “I don’t believe there’s a damn thing wrong with you. Take off your clothes.”

“Take off my clothes?” Jonquinette asked in disbelief.

“Yes, take them off or I’ll take them off for you.”

Everyone had gathered around laughing. Not one single girl seemed to be on Jonquinette’s side. She looked toward Mrs. Yates’ office but she wasn’t in there.

“I’m not taking off my clothes, Sheila.” Jonquinette slammed her locker, grabbed her bookbag, and tried to get past the group.

“Excuse me.”

Sheila grabbed her arm. “Maybe you didn’t hear me good enough. I said take your clothes off.”

Jonquinette started breathing heavily. She saw no way to escape. She blinked twice and then Jude glared at Sheila before speaking in a threatening tone. “If you don’t get out of my way, I will break every bone in your body. You don’t want to fuck with me. Just ask Brenda Morrison.”

Fear came over Sheila’s face. Everyone had heard about what Jonquinette had done in second grade and many of them had attended the same school. Brenda and the other two girls had never returned to school, but Jonquinette had returned after a week’s suspension.

Jude continued, “Now, are you going to move out my way or do I need to start putting foot to ass.”

“Damn!” one girl yelled out. “Check out Jonquinette breaking bad.”

A roar of laughter engulfed the room. Mrs. Yates came in and said, “Break it up! Next period starts in five minutes!”



The next day, Jude asked for a bathroom pass during her second period calculus class. Instead of going to the bathroom, she headed to the girls’ locker room and retrieved the three bottles of hair remover she had placed there earlier that morning.

By the time gym class started, fourth period, the dirt had already been done. It was a particularly sweaty period because Mrs. Yates had them run around the indoor track for an entire thirty minutes. Because one girl misbehaved, they were all being punished.

Jude fell right in with the rest of them, shocking just about everyone there. Not only did she run; she outran all of them for the entire thirty minutes. Jude wanted to show the world their bomb-ass body.

After the thirty minutes were up, Mrs. Yates told them to hit the showers and that’s when Jude started acting like Jon again. She went into a stall to change and skipped the shower. For good reason.