On the drive home, Second Sis was quiet. Mother tried twice to start a conversation but Carrie simply answered her and would not say more. Mother questioned her silence but Second Sis denied any anomaly. Annie decided that her questions could wait until she was alone with her sister.
Finding out the truth was easy, it appeared. Once they were home, Carrie followed Annie into the little girl's room (her bedroom, not the other room) and closed the door. It had all the signs of a meeting of secrets between sisters, except for the missing 'No Entry' sign outside.
Second Sis dropped her schoolbag. "I am so embarrassed," she began as she threw herself on Annie's bed.
"What happened?" Annie shot the question she had been burning to ask.
Second Sis buried her face in a pillow. "Oh, Darren and Keith saw me, and Saki. I had that little girl's blouse in my hand."
Annie sat on her chair. "Okay, so you were holding on to Saki by her blouse."
Second Sis rolled around and sat up. "No, I was holding on to her blouse. She wasn't wearing the blouse."
Annie's jaw dropped. "You stripped Saki!?"
"No!" Carrie denied fervently, "I grabbed her blouse and she just took it off and ran! Then the boys came in, saw me there holding the blouse and Saki in only a bra... I looked like a bully!"
Of course she would look like a bully if she acted like one!
"And, and Darren wasn't even interested in that girl. I am so, so embarrassed!" Carrie hid her face in her hands and kicked her legs.
Annie went to seat beside her sister, not knowing what to say.
"It's all that little bitch's fault!" Second Sis declared, "If she hadn't run, this wouldn't have happened!"
Annie knew better. It was not Saki's fault that Darren, Second Sis and the small girl were in that same place. And the start of the misunderstanding was definitely not the Asian's fault. If Annie had been more honest, she would be the one in trouble instead.
"Sis, you should leave Saki alone," Annie advised.
"But it's all her fault," Carrie protested.
"If you do anything to her, it'll only reinforce Darren's belief that you are a bully."
Carrie thought about that for a moment. Her shoulders slumped. "I guess you're right." She hugged Annie for comfort, filling her sister's nose with the scent of dried sweat.
"Maybe you should stay away from Darren for a while," Annie suggested, "At least until he forgets."
"Yeah," Second Sis agreed. She sighed. "Oh, and Keith's going to put this in the paper next week. Guess everyone in school's going to know your sister's a bully, huh?"
Annie leaned on her sister. Again, she did not know what to say. She could only her support her with her presence.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment