A Sister's Betrayal

Without thinking Leila Samson let her fist fly. Its impact on the already disfigured nose was more than she had expected and, at first, she couldn't tell whether it was her blood or his that erupted from between their skin. She just stared at her reddening fingers as he he clamped his hands over his face. A small crowd of students began to gather around them.1

'You liddle bidch!' he screamed, ever so elegantly. 'You're lugy you're a girl, or I'd bead the shid oudda you!' 2

What a gentleman, she thought, but she was rendered speechless. Someone had gripped her arms behind her back as if she was about strike again, though there was less chance of that happening than of her suddenly running up and kissing the bully on his sick, bloody lips.3

'What's going on here?' It was the principal. He hid a smirk when he saw Jimmy Taint's face covered in his own blood, and a shy, small-framed girl as the culprit. 'Tamara, isn't it?' he asked Leila. 4

'N-no sir,' she finally stammered out. 'I'm Leila. Tamara is my sister.' Tamara had graduated 3 years ago, when Leila had been in 9th grade. However the two were only a year apart. Tamara seemed to have gotten all the 'good genes.' She was incredibly smart, talented in sports and music, and beautiful. On top of winning both the state soccer championships and the Intel science award in 10th (or rather, 12th) grade, Tamara still had time for dozens of friends and boyfriends. 5

Leila, on the other hand, was clumsy, shy and averagely equipped as far as looks and smarts were concerned. She was almost 17, but had never even kissed a boy. She had few friends because she was so quiet, and even her teachers seemed to forget she was there sometimes. More than anything in the world, she HATED being compared with Tamara. Leila's parents constantly used her sister to reminder her just how inadequate a child she was. Tamara was off at Harvard and Leila was just hoping to get into her 'safety schools' next year. 6

'Right, er..Leila.' She could tell he was searching his mind for any recognition of the name and failing. Leila saw his thoughts etched on his face like the pages of a large-print book. Tamara Samson has a sister?..in the school? 'What's going on here?' he repeated.7

One of the kids in the crowd spoke up and told him the story. Leila suddenly realized that the boy had let go of her arms.8

As she sat in the school office, she felt her heart pounding harder than it had been during the fight. She was being sent home early before her one week suspension would begin. She could only imagine her parents faces when they came to pick her up. Leila would never live down the humiliation. Tamara had never fought anyone in her life. She began to get anxious. She started to panic. Her thoughts seemed too many and too thick. "Too many thoughts at once!!" she cried to herself softly.9

She couldn't rid her mind of the day's events. Jimmy Taint, the school biggest bully had started in on her for the 3rd week in a row. 'Hey, Lola!' he had spat at her across the hallway. 'Aren't your parents ashamed to have a drag queen in the family? Guys aren't meant to wear the girls' uniform!' He and his dirtbag friends cracked up. One even slapped Jimmy five, a classic meathead move. Leila didn't say anything. She kept repeating to herself, you don't look like a boy, you don't look like a boy, but it didn't eliminate the uncontrolable thoughts that she always got at moments like these. 'See that?' it told her. 'You're so ugly they can't tell whether you're a boy or a girl. Tamara would never be mistaken for a boy. She's prettier than you are and always will be!' The truth was that Leila was rather flat chested and wore her brown hair very short because she had chopped it all off one day in the midst of a horrible panic attack. And now, she felt that she was slipping into one as the floor shifted from under her feet. She stumbled, and the boys laughed even harder. No, no not here! she told herself, but she couldn't control it. It controlled her. "Tamara never had these!" her voice screamed in her head, "you're such a freak!" 10

Leila had to slip into the bathroom before she did something stupid as usual. She sat down on one of the toilets, not even checking to make sure her pleated skirt didn't fall into the water, and rested her head on her hands and rubbed at her eyes until all she saw was black. Then she raised her right arm above the black plastic toilet paper dispenser and slammed it down as hard as she could. With a sickening crack, the nerve endings in her already bruised wrist screamed in pain but she didn't stop banging until her breathing became regular again and her thoughts became less of a thick, jumbled mess.11

She had sulked out into the hallway, glad to notice that Jimmy wasn't around. She made her way back to her locker, which had been left open, and closed it, just as the second bell rang. She was late for class.12

"Too bad you don't look like your sister,' a familiar voice whispered in her ear, 'then we might have had something. You know, I banged her once, Tamara. She was so incredibly hot, but way too hesitant. I guess you could say I had to take charge on that one.' Jimmy winked; his more-than-once-broken nose wrinkled as his eye closed.13

It took Leila a minute for the full intensity of the statement to hit her, but when it did, she was sent reeling from its forceful smack.14

'Damn, if only you were that fine! Maybe then you'd have some friends.'15

It wasn't his last statement that caused her to attack, but she did it right after it was spewed. Leila Samson may not have gotten along with her sister, but Tamara was the closest thing to a friend that she had, a no one, not even the school's biggest, toughest asshole was going to defile her or her reputation. 16

Later, when she woke up in the hospital with a thick, bloody bandage on each wrist, Leila told her parents and her sister the story of what had happened, why they had found her passed out in a puddle of her own crimson essence on the floor of the school office bathroom. But when she explained what Jimmy had said about Tamara, her sister's reaction was not quite what she had expected.17

'How DARE you?' Tamara shouted. Despite Leila's condition, their parents did not try to calm Tamara. 'That's MY business, not yours! How dare you say that in front of my parents?!' 18

'But I didn't say it, Tamara,' Leila attempted, 'Jimmy Taint did! I was trying to protect you!' 19

Tamara looked away, disgusted. She mumbled something about 'excuses' and 'betrayal.'20

As Leila lay in her hospital bed, weakened and close to death, her mother shed her first tears of the day. 'Tamara,' she squeaked, 'You were...raped??!'21