i. Little One {6}

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Omniscient.

Week later, Friday,

September 2006.

Park.

Laanville, Mississippi.

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Part 1

"Go Cateleya" Sarahi cheered and Cateleya turned around and smiled at her. They were at the park and Sarahi was watching Cateleya, her brother and their male friends play football. Now Sarahi still thought football sucked, but it was funny seeing Cateleya tackle the boys.

Sarahi also noticed that Cateleya never spoke english when speaking to her brothers and she wondered why.

In the end Cateleya's team won, and she decided to take a break and talk to Sarahi as they snacked on barbecue chips.

"It doesn't hurt when you hit the floor?" Sarahi asked, then put a handful of chips in her mouth. Cateleya watched her movements, small smile on her face before putting 2 chips in her mouth as she shook her head. "Not anymore, I like it now" Cateleya replied, with pride and Sarahi playfully cringed.

"I have something for you" Sarahi announced as she dug in her front pocket. She placed 20 dollars on the table and Cateleya slowly chewed as she eyed it. "Que? What's that for?" She asked, swallowing.

"So you can wear girl clothes" Sarahi happily explained, her smile falling when she saw Cateleya look down into her lap. "So you can dress like me. Don't you want to go to heaven?" Sarahi continued "what?" Cateleya looked up and Sarahi swore she saw her pout before her face hardened then scrunched up.

Cateleya went through a wave of different emotions, not knowing whether to be angry or sad. She stood and Sarahi started panicking, 'why is she leaving? What did I do?' She thought. "You should leave" Cateleya told her "b-" "leave" Cateleya repeated, dryly, not sparing a glance before walking away.

Sarahi's eyes followed Cateleya as she walked back to her brothers, her older one specifically and they started talking lowly. She knew they were talking about her because her brother had a mug on his face then wrapped his arm around his sister's shoulder. Sarahi who was still confused, grabbed the money and went home.

When she made it home, her face was ashy and stained with tear drops. Her grandmother greeted her with her confusion "I fell at the park" she lied, feeling guilty immediately, but her grandmother would never understand. "Hmm okay. Are you excited for tonight?" Claretha asked, smile on her face "tonight?" "Bible study" "oh right, yes" Sarahi lied again, her focus was still on the hurt look on Cateleya's face. She hurt her friend, and she didn't even know how...

"SARAHI" "ah yes" Sarahi flinched and her grandmother eyed her suspiciously. "Go wash up, I put yuh dress on your bed" Sarahi walked to the stairs, ignoring how her fingers went into a ball hearing about the dress.

"We're going to Mrs. Stuart's house" Claretha continued and Sarahi tripped on the stairs as she heard the name.

10 minutes later Sarahi was in the same place she had been hating herself in for the past six weeks. The mirror.

She felt like a disgusting weirdo. Not because of the dress but because she didn't want to wear the dress. 'What type of girl doesn't want to wear a dress?' She repeated her grandmother's question in her head. "What is wrong with me?" She whispered as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"It's so nice to see you Ms. Claretha and you too... Sorry" Mrs. Stuart greeted with and Sarahi waited for her grandmother to correct the older woman on her name, but it never came. "Hello ma'am" Sarahi lowly forced out, wishing she was with Juno and Jayla. 'At least they get my name right' she thought and followed her grandmother into the house.

Sarahi sat on a single chair in the living room as Claretha was in the kitchen. Sarahi started coloring in her Cars themed coloring book, it was her prize after she beat Juno in a race, the night before. She heard kids playing upstairs, but ignored it and lowly sang the gospel music that was blasting.

It wasn't that she didn't want to play with the children, she simply wasn't allowed to. Mrs. Stuart had twin daughters. When the church found out about Sarahi's wandering eyes, all the parents forbid her from playing with their daughters. Sarahi specifically remembers Mrs. Stuart telling her "if you ever THINK about looking at my STRAIGHT daughters, I'll break you into two." Sarahi expected Claretha to speak up for her but instead was told "you were dead wrong. You better be lucky all she did was SAY something to you, These people could've killed you for looking at their babies"

Sahari had to ask herself whose baby was she?

It was also then when Sarahi's nightmares started and her fear of going to the restroom alone increased.

She was already getting bullied at the time, but that's when she also became Ariel's main target.

Sarahi felt someone staring at her and when she looked up it was Mr. Stuart. She thought it was innocent until he licked his lips and his left hand grabbed his lower area. She immediately crossed her legs and made sure her dress was pulled all the way down. She ignored his eyes and distracted herself by continuing to color. It didn't stop the tears from coming out though, she sucked on her bottom lip as a tear hit the page.

They didn't leave until an hour later.

"Sarahi. Nice to see you out of school" the children's Bible study's teacher greeted with. "Hi Mrs. Anderson" Sarahi mumbled, giving her art teacher a small smile. "I like your dress" she continued "thank you sweetheart. Go ahead and sit in the front for me" Mrs. Anderson smiled softly at her.

Sarahi scanned the seats as she walked into the room. She didn't expect to see Cateleya and she immediately wanted to go to her and beg her to forgive her. She knew it wasn't a good idea though because when they made eye contact Cateleya quickly looked away. Sarahi's stomach immediately was in knots, she sat down and forced herself to look straight.

"Colossians 3:13. Forgive one another as Christ forgave yuh. Y'all are too tiny to be having hate in your heats. Yuh want God to forgive your sins correct?" "Yes ma'am" the children replied in union. "As yuh should. Now I think it's okay to be angry or upset, but think of what God would do" Mrs. Anderson smiled. Sarahi felt eyes on her and turned to Cateleya and when they made eye contact, they held it. Until Cateleya looked down and Sarahi did the same, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Which brings me back to Samuel 16:7. The lord said look at the heart of the person..."

After the teaching was done, all the kids went their own ways in the room while they waited for the older folks to finish so they could eat.

Sarahi moved to the corner to hide herself, but she didn't know it would make her the perfect target. She kept looking around the room but she kept coming back to Cateleya. Who was playing a serious game of paper rock scissors with the boys then Sahari's vision was blocked by 3 bodies.

"You just can't keep your eyes to yourself, can you?" Ariel taunts and Sarahi lowered her head. Hating how fear ran through her body. "First me and now Leya? You're such a creep" she continues and Sarahi feels that familiar lump in her throat. She wanted to tell Ariel that Cateleya is her friend, but she didn't even know if that was true anymore.

"Disgusting dyke" minion 1 whispered with a look of disgust on her face. Minion 2 points a finger to her mouth and fake gags making Ariel smirk smugly.

"L- Leave me alone" Sarahi hesitates as she tried to defend herself. It just made matters worse because it came out soft and squeaky and made the 3 girls laugh. Sarahi's throat burned, but she promised herself she wouldn't cry in front of them anymore. Then she felt the minions grab her hands and put the behind her back, her watery eyes widened.

Before she could scream Ariel punches her in the stomach and it left Sarahi gasping. "Don't even think about it" Ariel whispered with a nasty look in her eye that scared Sarahi.

"You don't deserve to know God" Ariel smacks her lips then knees Sahari in the same spot she hit her. It wasn't the first time she had done such thing to Sarahi, but Ariel was taller and had more strength than before. Minion 1 covered Sarahi's mouth as she starts to whine and groan as minion 2 pokes her with a pencil in her side.

Sarahi couldn't understand why no one was stopping them? It had to be suspicious that 3 girls were hovering over her, right?

Tears streamed down her face as she realized no one cared. 'God please' she mentally prayed and looked towards the sky. Ariel smirked at her victory and punched her again and Sarahi's knees buckled.

"Come on everyone, line up" Mrs. Anderson announces as she finally looks up from her Bible. Sarahi couldn't see but when everyone started lining up, Cateleya eyed the room for her.

Wondering why for the first time tonight, she hadn't felt Sahari's eyes on her.

"Creep" Ariel whispered one last time before the minions let go of Sarahi making her fall backwards and she hit the back of her head on the leg of a chair. Sarahi groaned and took deep shallows breaths as her eyes closed. She laid there, breathless and embarrassed. Everyone left while she was still laid out in the room by herself because the older women didn't care to check the corner.

She laid there for almost 10 minutes before getting the strength to stand up. "Owie" she winced as she slowly walked to the dining area. When she sat next to her grandmother, she felt eyes on her, but kept looking at her lap. Her grandmother didn't acknowledge her for the first 10 minutes.

"Where were you?" Claretha asked, tight lipped "I-" Sarahi wanted to explain, but she knew her grandmother would never believe her. She adored Ariel's family. Knowing that, Sarahi just put her head back down and sat in defeat and pain.

Claretha tried not to let it be known she was embarrassed by not knowing where her grandchild was when she saw the faces from the elderly ladies in front of her. She put a fake smile on her face and took a bite of her food. She didn't ask if Sarahi wanted anything and just tried to be discreet while she lowly cursed her out for embarrassing her.

Sarahi didn't eat anything that night. On the ride home she looked out the window the whole time, and ignored the throbbing in the back of her head. When they got home, she took a bath, prayed then dozed off. She woke up an hour later, not from a nightmare, but from the pain from her stomach.

She eventually went back to sleep, but it was very light and restless.

The next day was exhausting and tiresome. She spent the whole day on the couch, she was staring at the tv but she wasn't there mentally. Claretha noticed, but didn't say anything because when Sahari came back to her 2 years ago she stayed in bed, looking at the wall for a whole week.

Claretha thought maybe Sahari just missed her mom or that Juno might've told her something about her. So she didn't pry because she knew she couldn't say anything to make her feel better.

That night, Sahari took a bath and when Claretha was helping her put on lotion she noticed bruises on Sahari's stomach. She gasped as her hand went over her heart as her eyes watered. She checked every part of Sahari's body and almost fainted when she saw dried blood in the back of her head.

"Put on your shoes" Claretha told her, leaving the room. Sahari froze, confused on why she wasn't praying right now. "Now Sahari" Claretha demanded and Sahari quickly did as told then followed her grandma downstairs and outside. They went next door to a close friend of Claretha's. The older lady saw the distress on her friend's face and let her use her car, no convincing needed.

"You know where Be- Juno lives?" Claretha asked, about to deadname Juno, but stopped herself because Sahari only knew him as Juno. Sahari who was in the passenger seat, nodded, not hiding her confusion.

💟💟

Claretha said I'll allow you to verbally abuse my granddaughter but physically? Hell no 😭 smh. Pt2 sometime this week byeee

03/8/24