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"I was saving that seat, you know," Her sharp tone was the trademark of that certain group who hated everybody else. My friend, the occupant of the chair, looked at me from across the table, her face growing red with anger.
"I'm not moving," She said, her gaze never leaving mine. "I'm not scared of you."
They all laughed at this.
"Hey girl, she's not scared of you!" Their sarcastic voices all blended together as they insulted her. We both sat there, silent. Not wanting to piss them off.
But then, without warning, one of the laughing hyenas got up and pulled the plastic lunchroom chair out from underneath her. There was a sickening thud as she fell to the ground. A moment of silence, as we all took time to register what had happened. The hyenas laughed again, pointing and calling names. My friend stood up quickly, trying to shake it off, hurt and embarrassed.
"Can we go outside?" She asked quietly. Nodding, I stood up.
"Definitely."
We left the cafeteria, trying to ignore the laughter that was radiating from the far right table. But that wasn't enough for those animals. Two of them followed us outside, making loud, exaggerated remakrs, and putting us in an awkward position. We found a bench and sat down, both of us looking at the ground and swinging our feet, feeling their eyes on us as they walked by. I looked over at her, my stomach dropping at the sight of tears rolling down her face.
I hated myself at that moment.
For not saying anything. For letting them get away with it. For not forcing them to apologize. I wanted to rip their head off, and smear their sneering faces in the mud.
But I had no courage. None to protect my friend. None to protect myself.
I tried to cheer her up.
"We can talk about Baboon..." I suggested, hoping to see her smile at the name we used to describe one particularly bothersome boy. But at the same time, I felt low, and hypocritical. Calling names. Making fun of someone who probably felt the same way that we did. I turned to something else, wanting the nauseous feeling in my stomach to go away.
"I could sing Spice Girls for you..." I said, raising my voice to my best British Vally Girl impression, and looking back to the day before, when we had danced about in her front yard, making a parody of their ill-fated career. She laughed through her tears. Bittersweet.
But they came back. Passing the word on to anyone else who would listen.
"That fat, pimply-faced bitch fell so hard! The whole lunchroom shook!" We heard their peals of laughter follow us as we escaped back inside to find the rest of our posse. She did the best to wipe away her furious tears as we all gathered in a circle, each one of us contributing somehow to the cheering up of a friend, knowing that it wouldn't really go away. Everyone wanted revenge, but no one was brave enough to face the wild animals.
We were at the zoo, helplessly watching the ravenous creatures tear apart the bodies of the mild-mannered herbivores, looking on with horror, unable to break the cycle. Hoping that afterwards, with the fresh meat of the kill resting inside their stomachs, that they would get the same sick, churning feeling that we all had suffered-that I had suffered- and know that they wouldn't last long on stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. On greed, and hate, and everything else that made them do what they did.
Who knows what goes on in the minds of savages? Of wild, stupid creatures, who torture and tease for the worst of good reasons. Who pester and poke until you can handle no more. But eventually, hopefully, one day, all of those nasty, clawing, scratching, biting hyenas will be extinct. Wishing they had apologized. Wishing they could have done better.
And I'll be there.
Pulling the chairs from underneath the lot of them, and watching them sink down where they belong.
The only ones who will mourn the loss of the hyenas will be the jackals, and the wild dogs, and the mangy wolves. Standing at ready, waiting for their moment to taste the flesh of embarrassed souls. To swallow the laughter from everyone else and spit it back out, cynical and disparaging. To breed hatred, injustice, unfairness.
There will always be prey. There will always be predators.
But someday, somehow, the prey will get their revenge, and the hyenas will no longer be laughing.
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Robin
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Comments
wow aclam | Apr 23rd, 2003
This is such a good story. I really like the analogy of school as jungle - we all know how vicious things can get sometimes. I hope to read more of your work soon! :)
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