SHUTTER
“There
was a rumor going around that you say ‘I’m cute and Matt knows it.’ Is it true?”
The blond girl stared into Cora with bloodlust in her eyes.
“No. I don’t even like Matt.”
“Guys! She says she doesn’t even like Matt.”
“Who even said that to you?” Cora sounded incredulous now
“Who?!”
The
blond girl’s eyes sparkled with wicked focus on Cora going down her body to her
shoes. Cora’s brown hair was pulled back into a pony tail that frizzed, and was
oily from not having a bath in a few days. She started to have pimples only a
few months ago, and her two front teeth were bent inward. Her shirt didn’t
flatter her shape as her hips were square cut as a box. The cuffs of her denim jeans were rolled
upward to reveal clunky tennis shoes with old tube socks that went clear over
her ankle to her calf. The blond girl looked back up at Cora’s face. She then
started to smile at her, just as a lion shows their teeth before they rip a
carcass to bits.
“Let’s ask him.” She said.
Cora
felt horrified and looked pleadingly to the other three girls standing next to
the blond girl with pink nails. They just as coldly stared back at Cora. A
brunette with earrings and purple eye shadow turned to face a group of teenage
guys huddled around the school fence.
“Matt!” A boy with light brown hair and blue eyes popped
his head out of a circle of friends he’d been standing with.
“What Heather?” He called back to the brunette.
The blond girl grabbed Cora’s arm pushing her to the front
of the group of them.
“Cora’s cute and you know it!” She shouted. Cora felt her
arms and legs go numb as she made eye contact with Matt, the shame on his face
looking at her. He ducked his head back into the circle of friends. The four
girls burst out laughing taking out their phones pointing at Cora.
“Stop it! Stop taking my picture!”
“What’s the big deal? It’s just your social death.” The
blond girl smiled. Cora picked up her back pack with her head down, she sped-walked
right inside the high school praying for the class bell to ring at any moment.
Cora was in the school library looking at the year books
for the previous year staring down at the picture of the blond girl from this
morning.
“Avi.”
Aviarna
to be exact, but people at school called her Avi for short.
“I
didn’t even know she knew my name.” She whispered aloud.
“Can
I help you?” An elder woman with a floral shirt and wrinkled face approached
Cora.
“No.”
She said complacent. The woman gave her a short nod and walked away. Cora flipped
through the pages to the “Ps”. There she was, “Coraline Pegersky”. A sappy
picture of herself smiled vacantly back at her. She’d always hated her name, it
had such a guttural sound when pronounced aloud during role.
“What
are you looking at?” A hand with electric pink nails pulled the book out from
her hands.
“Give
it back.” Cora made a reach for it and Avi pulled it away. Avi took out a pen
from her back pocket and began to scribble something on the page.
“Avi
give it back!”
“Shhh!
We’re in a library.” She finished the last stroke and handed it back to Cora.
Coraline Pegerskys face had been mutilated with black ink of devil horns, a
beard, and a uni brow.
“Why…
why….” Cora started to feel her throat close and pain pricking at her eyes.
“You’re
right, the drawings no good.” Avi grabbed the yearbook again. She licked the
pad of her thumb and began to rub the page. It smeared the ink across Cora’s
face past recognition, blanketing her image.
“See?
Invisible. Just like you.”
Cora
eyes flooded with tears as she pushed Avi brushing past her. Avi knocked into the
shelf behind her making the whole row teeter and shake loose a couple of books.
“Ooouch! Freak pushed me!” Avi wailed. The woman in the
floral shirt eyed Cora in disapproval. Cora felt the first streak rolling down
her cheek. She couldn’t see where she was going but felt a hand grab her and
pull her to the side.
“I think you need to go to the counselor’s office young
lady.” Cora looked through blurry lenses up at the elder woman in a floral
shirt who had apparently followed her.
“Does your mom talk and listen to you?” Her counselor
asked pleasantly.
“She doesn’t need my problems.”
“What makes you think you can’t confide in your mother?”
Cora recessed her mind into a memory from the year before.
Her mother came into her bedroom shaking her awake. She had a bleeding lip and
purpled face telling Cora to grab only what was important to her right then,
and that they were never coming back home.
“I tried to pull your file. But not much was in there.”
“Invisible.” Cora sulked.
“I don’t understand.”
Cora was feeling insolent, she turned away crossing her
legs and arms.
“Cora do you have any hobbies? Is there anything else
that interests you much?”
“I like reading, and taking pictures. But cameras are
really expensive, and also it’s not just camera’s, you need a computer these
days for photos.”
Mrs. Piquero nodded and smiled at her.
“Not
totally true Cora, I used to do quite a bit of photography back in college and
we had to use actual film that develops in a dark room.”
“That’s expensive too.” Cora spat back. Mrs. Piquero gave
a sigh and leaned back in her chair. A knocking came at the door. A blond woman
wearing a green blouse turned the handle and leaned into the room.
“I’m
sorry to interrupt, but Mrs. Pegersky is at the front desk wanting to know more
about the message you left? I told her you were meeting with her daughter and I
don’t know much about the situation.”
“It’s
quite alright Mindy, if you would be kind and show her in. Is that alright
Cora?” Mrs. Piquero asked her. Cora shrugged. She figured even if she said no
that it would only drag out the inevitable.
The whole ride home was silent. Thankfully Cora didn’t
need to finish the rest of her school day. Her mother slowed the car and pulled
into the complex parking lot. The old brown brick was stained in white circular
sprinkler patterns around its feet. The face of it had seen better years. The
banisters which led up to the apartments above them were once white, but now
had turned a creamy color chipped with rust patches. The outside lanterns
weren’t much better, the glass on them was dirty, yellowed, with dozens of
bodies of bugs that had unwittingly wandered inside trapped until their death.
The building was old, out of the way, and indiscernible from any other complex
in town. She walked into her apartment with her mother and took a deep breath.
The place smelled of wet clothes left in a washer for too long. That sour, lint
smell that never leaves a shirt after it’s been contaminated.
Cora sighed, tossing her backpack on the carpet. She looked
to her mother and began to start walking down the hallway.
“Cora,
I get things aren’t perfect here.” Her mother called after her. “But, being
away from your father is so worth it to me. This life here with you is so much
more ‘worth it’ to me.”
“This life is worth it to you. Everyone here hates me.”
“I don’t.” Her mother said as she quietly sat down at the
table facing away from Cora. Quietly, Cora shut her bedroom door behind her.
Cora
was lying on her bed glaring at the designs on the ceiling. The way a mountain
range looks from an airplane window, accept all the rivers, bushes, trees, and
hills had been drenched in dry white paint forever freezing the landscape. She
compulsively rubbed her arm over her wrist contemplating how much or if it
would hurt to cut herself. Would it be like a needle prick? A continuous needle
prick until you’re done cutting? Do you feel the warmth of blood running free? The
way hot tears feel rolling over your cheeks but thicker like tomato juice? Cora
observed these thoughts with a calm breath. Her eyelids drew heavy with each
blink, until she fell asleep.
Cora
awoke groaning. She looked to her nightstand with half open eyes. The electric
clock beamed neon red of “5:58 PM”. She heard the sound of a car starting from
outside. She rubbed her eye’s awake rolling over sitting up on her creaking
bed. The sun outside was beginning to set and it turned her white ceiling into
a ripened peach color. Standing up she went to her door and opened it.
“Mom?” She called out to the empty space. “Mom?”
Cora wandered out into the hall toward the kitchen and
saw a clunky black box with a strap attached to it sitting out of place in the
middle of the kitchen counter. Next to it was a note on a piece of paper torn
from a notebook.
“Hey sweetheart. I’m sorry about the fight we had. I got
called in for an emergency shift but there are some instant noodles in the
pantry. I was walking past a garage sale today and I found this camera for you,
I was saving it for your birthday this month but I think today it would be
perfect. The cartridge only has 5 photos left, so use them wisely until I can
find you more. I used to have one when I was your age, it’s a Polaroid. It
takes instant pictures for you and prints them out! I hope you enjoy it I’ll be
home late tonight. Love, Mom.”
Cora reached out to the black box. Lifting it was heavier
than she would have thought to believe. It was large and difficult to hold in
her hands. Curiously she attempted to look inside the view finder, but it was
pitch black. Puzzling for a moment or so she simply tugged on the large rounded
section. It clicked open to reveal the lens and flash pieces. There was also
the word POLAROID in big chrome letters across its face. Smiling she turned it
back around to look in the view finder again. Pointing it forward the bulging
glass revealed a tame kitchen.
Taking it away from her face again she placed the strap
around her neck and walked outside of her apartment to the front lawn of the
complex. The evening chilled crabby grass scratched against her bare feet. Coming
to a stop on the cracked cement sidewalk she sat there for a moment rubbing the
strap between her fingers feeling the pattern of it. A rustling came over her
head. She placed her eye to the view finder craning her neck upward. Like
binoculars the dusk lit tree limb above her was magnified into a perfect square
up close. She rubbed her index finger over the round grey button. Cora moved
her face to the right and spotted a small chipmunk perched on a branch. It was
black-brown with cream stripes down its side. A white spot in the shape of a
heart was on its head. It sat fairly still with its ears perked staring off
into the distance.
“Sit still little guy.” Cora smiled to herself and
pressed her index finger down on the grey button.
KACHINK!
Kuh-ERRRP!
The
view finder blinked shut and open again immediately to the chipmunk now looking
directly at Cora and the strange clicking machine in her hands. A blank white
picture scrolled out of the cameras mouth as if it were a sickly pale tongue to
taunt someone. Cora took the photo out and looked at the picture. Blank.
Nothing but blank.
“Of
course.” Cora said to herself disappointed. Holding the photo loosely in her
hand, she walked back inside. She opened the drawer placing the photo down
first and then the camera on top of it.
“Dumb
thing is broken.” She sighed to herself and went into the front room to watch a
little TV.
“Hey.”
Avi’s blond ponytail swung in a smug fashion. Cora had been sitting in the
hallway away from the lunchroom for the sole purpose of being out of Avi’s way.
“Go
away.” Cora said keeping her nose in a copy of “Enders Game” as she felt her
breath pick up.
“You’ve
been spreading lies about me.”
“Get
over yourself Avi. I don’t talk to anyone you know. Besides, no one would
listen to me anyway. You’ve made that clear.”
Avi
kicked the book out of Cora’s hands making it slide across the tile floor. Cora
tensed her muscles reflexively wrapping her arms around her body and looking
down feeling her own face turn hot.
“I
got sent to the principal’s office the yesterday. I am bullying ‘someone’. My
step mom screamed at me for an hour.” Cora hugged her knees to her chest and
began to cry silently to herself. Avi crouched in front of Cora with a smirk on
her face.
“I
can make your life Hell, I’ll be there to remind people about what kind of
freak you really are.”
Cora
tears ran hot, leaking from the corners of her eyes. She stalled her breathing
to stay as quiet as possible in the echoing hallway. Avi stood up straight and
sauntered off, her blond ponytail swinging left to right. Cora took a deep sigh
as she tucked her head into her knees.
“Please
let the bell ring. Make this day go faster.” She whispered to herself. Her nose
ran free, dribbling out heavy droplets onto her shirt.
“Hey,
you alright?” Cora looked up to see loafers, khaki pants, and a white dress
shirt with a vest.
“Mr.
Cohen?”
“That’s
right. I’m sorry I don’t know you’re name though, you’re not in any of my
classes.”
Cora
swallowed and wiped away her snot with her sleeve.
“Coraline.”
“That’s
a nice name. Who is your counselor? I can give them a call to meet with you.”
“Please
don’t.”
“Is
it something you could tell me?” His bright eyes were a deep comforting dark
brown with long lashes. Mr. Cohen was a young professor, tutor really. Lots of
girls in Cora’s class had crushes on him, Avi included. He smiled at her
becomingly and Cora blushed forgetting what she was going to say.
“Come
on. I’m not so scary am I?” He tugged on his pants as he crouched down sitting
four feet away from Cora against the wall.
“This
yours?” He reached out to the book on the floor and slid it back over to Cora’s
leg.
“Yes
thank you.”
“I
remember High School. Forgive my language, but it was a bitch.”
Cora
laughed out loud heartily taking in wavered full breaths staring out in front
of her.
“It’s
just…” Cora started and then led off into nothing.
“Yes?”
Mr. Cohen urged on.
“There’s
a girl who is mean to me. I don’t know how to make it stop, or what I did to
make her mad.”
“You
talked to a counselor about that?”
“Mrs.
Piquero, yeah.”
“Okay.
And?”
“It
did nothing. If anything Avi just got word and..”
“Avi
Canlan?”
Cora
looked to Mr. Cohen mortified.
“Oh.
No. Please. Please, don’t say anything. I mean it.” Panic had crept into Cora’s
voice. She was more than positive Mr. Cohen had heard it because his face went
from relaxed to severely concerned.
“If
you ask me to not say anything, of course I won’t. But Coraline, you know I
can’t sit by and do nothing if she starts really hurting you or pushing things
too far. She shouldn’t get away with anything that makes you feel bad about
yourself to the point of tears in the hallway.”
Understatement
of the year, Cora thought to herself harshly looking to the tile by her feet.
“Coraline,
have you tried to stick up for yourself? Seriously what is the worst that can
happen?” Cora shrugged.
“Avi’s
got imagination, I just don’t want to go and poke that bear.”
“I
need you to promise me you’ll come find me if things get worse and we’ll go find
Mrs. Piquero. Hey you never know. If it’s bad enough we could get her
transferred to another school.” He smiled at Cora broadly.
BRRIIINNNNGG!!!
The bell had gone off.
“Oh,
time for 5th period. You better get to yours. Stand up for yourself
girl, I believe in you.”
Cora
was smiling at herself. Advocate. The only word she thought of when she saw
that smile from Mr. Cohen. Advocate and angel. Cora kept the thought in her
heart as he stood up and walked away dusting off his pants.
“In
chapter twelve of your reading assignment what did you find interesting?” Her
teachers walk was more of a waddle to Cora. Teachers don’t often look natural
at the front of a classroom, this Cora observed in her first classes of public
school last year.
“If no one answers me we’re having a quiz.” Mrs.
Belongier sighed as she readjusted a loose salt and pepper curl that had fallen
into her face. Cora and Avi raised their hand at the same time. She pointed to
Avi in the front row of desks.
“Despite the fact that Ender is this great leader, his
superiors don’t want anyone to interfere with people who challenge him, because
it may hinder his ability to lead anyone in military future. He has to learn.”
“Ender finally stood up to Bonzo by kicking him where it
hurts.” Cora interrupted.
“Cora, I didn’t call on you.” Mrs. Belongier said. She
stood up once more pacing the front of the room and folding her arms gave
another sigh. “Who was it that warned Ender that Bonzo was out to get him?”
“Petra!” Avi blurted out sitting straight up.
“Almost.” Said Mrs. Belongier
“Technically Avi, it was Dink with a note for Ender.”
Said Cora. Avi turned from her seat in the front to stare fire into Cora.
“That’s right Cora.” Mrs. Belongier smiled.
Cora
beamed, smiling at Avi with all of her teeth. She felt like she’d earned it.
“You
think you’re pretty smart with that comment don’t you?” Avi slammed shut Cora’s
locker door.
“Hey
Coraline!” The voice was low, smooth, and comforting. Avi looked up and stood
speechless at the person behind Cora. She turned around and smiled broadly,
holding her folder and books to her chest.
“Mr. Cohen.”
“Having a good day I hope?”
“Awesome.” Cora said with a full smile.
“Well… Awesome.” Mr. Cohen smiled. “Keep it up.”
Mr. Cohen began to walk away.
“Hey Coach Cohen!” Avi called after him. Mr. Cohen still
walking away from them turned back to wave to Avi but said nothing. Cora looked
at Avi and Avi stared back at Cora with something Cora knew was sinister, like
Avi was planning her next step.
“You’re not as stupid as you look, Coraline.”
“No one calls me Coraline, Aviarna.”
“He did. And I find that… fascinating.”
“The smallest things amuse you. Like a toddler with a
spoon of peanut butter.”
“It’s not my peanut butter I’m worrying about mixing with
someone’s illegal chocolate.”
Cora
studied Avi’s expression. Her nose was cocked high in the air, shoulders
square. Avi’s arms were folded as her fingers tapped in a drum along the cusp
of her arm. Cora’s stomach did a summersault. That sort of rumor was beyond
cruel. Cora turned her back and began walking away. Cora could feel Avi’s stare
burning a hole into the back of her head as she paced away from the lockers.
Cora
had just finished her P.E. class for 7th period and was looking
forward to going home and reading Enders Game. It had taken a twist and she
couldn’t wait to finish the last fourteen pages. Tugging her tee shirt over
hear head she felt it slide off of her back onto her arms. Her name was
scrawled on it with marker across the front next to her school logo. A call
echoed from the girls coach office down the gym locker hall.
“Everyone
needs to shower. Don’t have to do the whole thing, just enough to rinse your
arms and legs.”
Cora
wrapped a towel around her flat body wearing her underwear and sports bra.
She’d taken longer to get dressed and looked around from her locker. The entirety
of the crowd had already gone. Cora huddled up to the doorway gripping her
towel high over her chest and peeked around the corner. The showers were
totally empty. She placed one foot onto the chilled tile in trepidation. Scrunching
her face, her toes curled in discomfort at the frigid temperature. She allowed
her feet to touch as little as possible of the tile as she pranced over to the
nearest stall. Holding on to her towel with one hand she pushed the curtain aside
listening to the metal rollers tinkle and swish like tiny bells. The nozzle had
a single lever she twisted to ‘on’ as freezing water catapulted above her.
A
hard shove from the heel of a strangers palm smacked the middle of Cora’s
shoulder blades. It pushed all of Cora including her towel into the cascade of
water. Mid fall she reached her hands outward as they hit the slick wet sides
of the stall crashing her head with a tin bang. A thousand pricks of ice hit
her bare skin. She gave a desperate and surprised gasp as her breath was sucked
out of her lungs from the cold. Her
towel dropped to the floor in a splush. Rivers of liquid ran down her face,
draping clumps of her hair over her eyelids as she stupidly looked around.
“SMILE!”
She turned upward toward the voice dumbfound. A CLICK was heard and two girls
laughing with one another as they made their getaway through the screeching of
the locker door. Cora felt horrified as she tried to gather her composure
wiping her palm across her face to clear her hair away. She stood out from her
stall and looked around. Her underwear and sports bra clung wet to her shaking
body as she hugged her torso. Softly, she began to cry. The sound of the
overhead shower covered the echoes of her sobs.
Cora’s
mom playfully jumped onto Cora’s bed and Cora snuggled up placing her head on
her mothers lap.
“You
okay sweetheart?”
“Will
you play with my hair?”
Her
mother yanked loose the hair elastic letting Cora’s hair run free. Cora sat for
a minute silent feeling her mother’s fingers work through the locks of her brown
tresses. She twisted her fingers around into a knots listening to it crackle.
“Oh,
what did you think of the camera I left for you? I know it’s not fancy but I
used to have one just like it.”
“I’m
sorry mom, but I think it’s broken.”
“Oh
no, it didn’t work?”
“Sort
of, here.” Cora reached to her drawer and yanked the old wood open. She laced
her fingers around the strap of the Polaroid camera, and lifted the elephantine
black box. Beneath it was the square picture, no longer blank. It had the
chipmunk that was black-brown with cream stripes down its side and a white spot
in the shape of a heart on its head. It wasn’t sitting on a branch, he was
strewn across a sidewalk its neck so misconfigured and bent the wrong direction
the only explanation was that it was broken. The white heart on his head was
dirtied and crusted with blood. His black eye’s stared dead and unfocused as if
they were made out of glass beads.
Cora
sat there holding aloft the camera on the strap in one hand and staring down
into her drawer unable to move.
“Cora?” Her mother reached for the black
Polaroid box and lifted it out of Cora’s hand. Cora looked to her mother and
immediately closed the drawer.
“What
do you mean it sort of took a picture?”
“It
came out of the camera blank.” Cora said distracted looking back to her
dresser.
“Where
is it?”
“I
threw it away.”
Her
mom smiled and stood up off the bed.
“Come
on.”
Cora
stood up with her mother and followed her out of the apartment to the front of
the complex.
“Okay,
now watch.” With her fingers she pried open the face of the camera. Cora stood
behind her. The street was empty save for a young woman in her twenties running
with her dog along the side of the street. Cora studied the woman, she had ear
phones in, holding her ipod in one hand and a purple leash for her Labrador in
the other.
KACHINK!
Kuh-ERRRP! Cora heard the click come from her mother’s hands.
“I
took a picture of that lady across the street.” The slit in the front of the
camera spit out another square picture that was totally blank. Her mother
withdrew it and started to fan herself with it.
“Mom,
what are you doing?”
She
stopped, looked at the picture and smiled again. She handed it over to Cora.
“You
see it? Outlines?”
Cora
took the photo and held it very close to her face. Brown feathered lines
started to emerge. The picture was eliciting shapes that became darker and more
defined. The process was painfully slow.
“Old
camera’s use light to expose a photograph. It takes time for it to form the
whole picture, here.” Her mother smiled and placed the strap of the camera
around Cora’s neck.
“Why
does it make that sound?” Cora asked.
“When
you took that first picture, as you pressed the button the lens went black for
a second right?”
“Uh
huh.”
“That’s
the shutter, it controls how much light it captures from the image you’re
pointing at. It makes a click noise when you do it.”
Her
mother smiled at her, patted Cora’s hair then walked back inside. Cora placed
the forming picture in front of her face again. The light brown feathered lines
were now dark brown and white blotches filled in some negative spaces around
them. It started to look like a road lined with trees withered and bent from
lack of gardening care. The trees were changing from the strange brown color to
that of a darkened green.
Then Cora saw it. She
felt all the blood from her face drain, she squinted her eyes as she looked at
it to make double sure. A woman wearing electric green sneakers and black
shorts lay face down in the street. A dog lying on his side with his feet limp
and buckled sat 3 feet away from her. Around its neck, its purple leash hung
loose and lay out across the pavement. Dead. Panicked
Cora looked up to where her mother had originally pointed the camera. But the
woman was gone. There was no sign of her.
Cora
looked back to the picture this time all the colors had been filled and it was
easy as daylight to see what the picture was. The woman was face down, small
wet patches on the street stretched from her head, the dog’s golden fur still
shone under the sunlight. Only this time while looking at it Cora noticed one
last thing. The houses along the street…they looked so familiar.
The
screech of the tires had been powerful, as was the sound of a hammer crashing
into fleshy beef spattering against the ground. A dogs yelp was heard before it
too was silenced. Cora ran from the front of her complex to the street around
the corner. An elderly man in a woven fedora and Hawaiian shirt was outside of
his Lincoln with his hand over his mouth in shock. The front hood of his car
bent inward and his fender cracked. Cora held up her picture parallel to the
scene. The houses matched.
Cora
slowly walked home feeling the weight of the Polaroid camera pulling and
swinging against her neck. She walked in the door with a dazed look on her face
wondering if she’d seen everything right. Her mother was in the kitchen making
some pasta and cooking chicken as she turned to face Cora.
“Are
you alright?
She
nodded in silence and closed her bedroom door behind her slowly. Cora sat on
her bed looking at the camera resting around her neck. She took it off
carefully and sat it down gently facing it away from her. Somehow, she felt
like she didn’t want to make it mad.
“Separate
into groups of four people and solve the problem on the board together.” Mr.
Beecraft was sitting at his desk with his feet propped up and pointed to the
board ahead of the class.
Cora was distracted. She looked up at the scratchy
whiteboard.
4x + 10(4x) = 44 / Solve for ‘x’
It was simple enough but Cora couldn’t focus, she had
mindlessly been sketching the chipmunk with the broken neck on her notepad.
“Cora, what did you get?” Cora looked up to Bethanie. They
weren’t friends but talked enough in class to work together when prompted by
the teacher. Bethanie had always been nice to Cora, but Cora knew Beth would
never say hello to her in the hallway.
“Oh, um I’m sorry I um…”
“Guess the freak couldn’t figure out the answer was a
complicated ONE.” Cora heard Avi
snicker two seats over from Cora’s back. Cora’s blood ran cold, and wanted
desperately to throw something at the petite blond head of hair with a flower
woven into her curls today.
“Don’t pay attention to her, I got an answer of one
also.” Bethanie said in a matter of fact. Cora snapped the sharp edge of her
pencil onto her paper.
“Avi, you’re a brat.”
“Come on Core-Core. We both know that I have you by your
girl-balls in that picture of you.” Cora felt her whole face flush. Bethanie
stared at Cora then back to Avi not saying a word.
“What picture?” She heard a boy whisper to another boy at
his math group. Cora grabbed her back pack, stood up and abruptly began to
leave.
“Should I show them Cora?” She heard Avi shout out after
her. Cora stopped for a moment and turned around to Avi holding out her phone,
tossing it playfully from one hand to the other. Mr. Beecraft who had been
leaning down speaking with another student suddenly perked up at Avi’s shout to
Cora and for the first time noticed Cora’s attempt to flee.
“Cora! Sit down. Aviarna! Phone. Now.” Avi stared at Mr.
Beecraft in shock clutching her phone with both of her small manicured fists.
“Mr. Bee’s! Please!” She called playfully. Mr. Beecraft
still held out his hand toward Avi.
“Aviarna you know the school policy on phones. I’ll hold
it till the end of the week. Unless you have your parents contact me.” Avi’s
angelic face melted to a sour pout, handing her phone over to Mr. Beecraft. The
whole class was so quiet you could hear the clicking of shoes outside the class
door to the main hallway. Mr. Beecraft rolled his neck giving it a few pops.
“Alright
you’ve had enough time, what did each group get for an answer?”
Cora
was worried. She had to tell someone about the picture, perhaps find a way to
get it deleted since a teacher already had the phone. She knew who she wanted
to talk too. Her footsteps beat against the linoleum down the hallway as Cora
found Mr. Cohens room. She took a quick look around and found that the room was
empty. Cora stepped inside the vacant space in dismay.
“Hey
tramp.” Cora’s skin crawled as she turned to see Avi leaning against the door.
“Avi,
why can’t you leave me alone?”
“We
are alone.” Avi said approaching Cora. “You want to run to him for help? You
two make such a cute couple.”
“I’m
going to tell someone about that picture.”
“Then
I’ll just say you were posing like that
on purpose in the showers making the other girls uncomfortable, you know
they’re all my friends and will back me up. Anyone finds out about it from you
I’ll just turn it around.”
“What
do you mean ‘like that’?”
“Piss
me off at all and you’ll find out.” Avi said folding her arms walking very
close to Cora.
“Coraline?”
Both
girls turned to the door to see Mr. Cohen standing holding a stack of freshly
printed papers.
“Girls,
is everything okay?”
“We’re
great Coach Cohen! I hear that the baseball team is so excited for their first
game. Matt won’t shut up about it.”
“Yea
it’s going great, thank you. Coraline?”
Cora
looked at Mr. Cohen then back to Avi.
“We’re
fine. Just talking.” Cora said looking to the floor.
Avi
sauntered to the door looking back at Cora before she disappeared again.
“Coraline,
seriously what was that? You know you can tell me.”
“N-nothing,
Mr. Cohen.” Cora bowed her head and walked out of the room once again with a
drag in her step.
Cora
was howling into her bedroom pillow. The stifled screams vibrated against her
hands holding the pillow to her face. When her lungs were drained of air she
sat the pillow down and began to take small breaths, which led to huffing
tears.
“Can’t
I have one win?” Cora sobbed to herself. Cora stood up to walk to the bathroom
to grab some toilet paper to blow her nose. Looking into the vanity mirror she
saw herself. Her eye’s seemed to be puffy and red. Her lips and cheeks were a
stark pink against bloodless skin. She let her head drop forward knocking it
against the glass. The rattled bump of the mirror was loud as it clanged
against her forehead. Taking it away again she saw the stamp of her oil in a
pattern intercepting her reflection. She came back to her room and leaned on
the doorway rubbing her forehead to relieve the oncoming headache. Taking a big
breath she held it as she looked over to her nightstand with the camera. It sat
there menacing, Cora hadn’t touched it since the street accident. She let out
pulsing breaths as she walked toward it. It was ominous, like a predator
sitting patient and still until prompted by its master to strike. The camera couldn’t
do what Cora was sure she thought it could. But then, she never even saw what
became of the chipmunk, not really. She thought about testing the theory, and
who to test it on.
The
next day Cora brought her camera with her to school. It was clunky and in the
way of everything. A couple of times she’d accidentally let it hit the top of
her desk as she sat it down. Back in math class again she was at her desk
doodling. Mr. Beecraft had left to run a quick chore to the administrative
office. He told them he’d be back soon and that the class should finish the
problem on the board.
“What is that?” Avi pointed to Cora’s camera. Cora
ignored Avi. “I said, what is that?” she asked again more forcibly.
“You’re pathetic Avi. It’s a camera.”
“So your boyfriend can take nudie pictures of you?”
It’s getting worse, Cora thought as she held on to the
edge of her desk.
“Leave Mr. Cohen out of it. He’s not my boyfriend.”
“You still knew who I was talking about, and just
admitted it to everyone sitting around you. Mr. Cohen is taking naked pictures
of you for his ‘break periods’ right?” Avi taunted and laughed in a hateful
tone as she made quotation marks in the air with her fingers which today were
neon green.
“Shut up!”
“OH! Oh Coach Cohen! Oh! Oh! That feels so good!”
“I SAID SHUT UP!”
Avi was breathing heavily, wailing as if she were in
rapture. Boys around the room were smiling entertained by the soundtrack. Most
of the girls seemed either alarmed by it or too interested in the fight
happening to care.
“I’ll make you sorry, Avi.” Cora said empty of feeling.
“Really?” She said high fiving a boy in a desk over next
to her. “How?”
“You like having your picture taken.”
“Okay creeper.” Avi raised an eyebrow.
“I hate you.” Cora said darkly staring in front of her.
“Don’t
forget I’ve still got that picture of you.” She smiled and giggled to herself.
“At
least my real mother wanted to keep me when I was born you adopted bitch.” Cora
turned over her shoulder to see Avi’s face.
Avi
stopped her high giggle and fell silent. The rest of the class gawked at the
both of them in shock. The only sound was bubbling from Mr. Beecrafts aquarium.
Avi
decidedly stood up letting her desk creak and drag a few centimeters. Stomping
over to Mr. Beecrafts desk Avi reached down. Tugging open his stationary drawer,
on top sat a pink cell phone. She picked it up and took a few minutes to press
buttons. People in class began to whisper. With a foul sneer she pushed one
final button and sat the phone back in Mr. Beecrafts drawer, giving it a slam as
she closed it. About three people immediately pulled out their phone to look at
their screens. One was a boy sitting right behind Cora who laughed out loud
hysterically and leaned over to another person to show it to them.
“Come
on! Let me see!” A girl whined next to someone else in the room who had also
received the message. Cora couldn’t stand it, she grabbed the boys phone from
behind her. The picture was of Cora. Her hands out in front of her in the
shower stall soaking wet, her white sports bra showed through to her nipples
hardened in the cold water. Her legs sprawled to catch her balance but in this
picture it looked raunchy like she’d been posing with her legs open and her wet
hair running wild about her face. Below the caption read “I like it wet”.
“It’s
you who likes having her picture taken.” Avi taunted.
Cora’s
thoughts suddenly leapt into a malevolent hatred as a ring of red pulsed around
the peripherals of her eyes. Adrenaline hit her chest making her heart beat
wildly as she stood up to face Avi. Her hands were shaking in such anger she
had trouble opening the face of her Polaroid camera as she started to lumber forward,
fumbling the large and heavy machine between her hands. Just as Cora raised it
to her face, it slipped between the few fingers that had a grip on it. Cora
dove to catch it. Cradling it with one hand she felt the round button press
down with her middle finger, a flash and then the familiar click.
KACHINK!
Kuh-ERRRP!
Cora
froze in her position feeling her anger sober up. She wanted to see where the
camera was pointing in her blinding madness, where the accidental picture was
taken. She looked to the line of fire and saw that it was not toward her
classmates, but rather the large aquarium near Mr. Beecraft’s desk. She had
missed Avi entirely in her shot. Avi took advantage of Cora’s frozen state and
charged her, knocking into her hard. The camera dropped to the carpet. Cora
gripped Avi’s hair and pulled hard throwing Avi off balance making her falter
back onto Mr. Beecraft’s desk pulling Cora with her. The room of students burst
out in a chorus of talking and cheering. Cora let go of Avi’s hair and turned
around to lunge for the camera. Cora bent forward almost reaching the camera’s
strap when Avi’s foot kicked into the small of Cora’s back, forcing Cora to the
ground. Cora felt the impact in the heels of her palms as she crashed forward
below the fish tank. Cora sat up to examine her rug burned palms. Looking up, Avi
was poised to throw a baseball she’d taken from the top of the teacher’s desk.
Cora ducked covering her head with her arms as Avi threw hard from the
shoulder.
It
sailed over Cora piercing through the fish tank. The room filled with a smell
of murky fish water. The tank drained all over Cora soaking her. Broken glass
fell over her head and cut her bicep. The flapping soused sounds of frantic
fish was loud about her body as students began to stand up from their desks,
some panicked of what to do, and some doubling over in pure mirth and laughter.
She heard classmates laughing, and chanting ‘She likes it wet!’ Avi pranced back to her desk.
Mr.
Beecraft walked back into the classroom.
“WHAT
THE HELL?!” His voice boomed over the room sending everyone mute.
“What
is going on here?!” The class just stared back at Mr. Beecraft in silence, lost
in what to say. Too much had happened, and they weren’t quite sure how much of
it should be kept from him. He looked around the taciturn room expectantly
until he turned to the now sodden fish smelling Cora.
“Cora,
Principals office. Now.”
Cora
was walking around the outside of school feeling her socks in her shoes squish
and squeak with each step, she had never felt so humiliated in all of her life.
The principal’s office didn’t do much outside of sit with Mrs. Piquero and try to
discover the nature of Cora’s acting out. Since the last period was about to be
over they let Cora go to fetch her things from Mr. Beecrafts room. She never
once mentioned the picture. It was embarrassing enough for her classmates to
know about it, the last thing she wanted was the school faculty accusing her of
child pornography.
Cora walked down the hall just as the last bell rang.
Students flooded into the hallway swarming like locust in all aimless
directions to the lockers. Tentatively she walked up to Mr. Beecrafts room and
knocked on his door. As she opened the door poking her head inside, she
couldn’t look him in the eye. She rubbed a hand over the bandage on her arm. She
had just enough strength to mutter out loud.
“I’m sorry Mr. Beecraft. I won’t act that way in your
class again.”
Mr. Beecraft took a deep breath through his nose not
looking up from his papers.
“Your things, they’re sitting on the edge of the counter
over there. Don’t bother looking for your souvenir picture of my tank I already
threw it away.”
Cora looked at him a moment then nodded. She turned from
him to grab her back pack, books and camera from the counter. Cora felt agony
twist in her stomach. The camera was gone.
Cora didn’t know where her camera was, but was sure she
had a pretty good lead. She hustled up to Avi in the hallway talking to Matt.
She was standing on one foot, a coquettish laugh floated from her glossy lips
as she talked to him.
“Where is it?” Avi tensed at the sight of Cora but didn’t
back down.
“What?” She said
“Avi are things cool here? Or do I need to you know,
protect you?” Matt asked Avi.
“It’s alright I can handle animal girl.” Avi said looking
to Cora.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about Avi. Where is
it?”
“The heavy box? Camera?”
“Stop it. Yes that’s exactly it. Just tell me.”
“I don’t have it.”
“I can’t think of anyone else who would.”
“I didn’t say I don’t know where it is.”
Cora’s attention picked up. This time her voice was more
of a begging plea.
“Please Avi. Where is it?”
“I gave it to ‘boyfriend’. He has it, I asked him to take
care of it for you.”
Cora furrowed her brow and started walking away from Avi
and Matt in the hallway. Last period was over and she only had so much time to
get that camera before Mr. Cohen would be gone for the day. She bolted into his
room her eyes terrified in feral desperation looking around for the camera. Her
grand entrance made Mr. Cohen raise his eyebrows and start to laugh to himself.
He was sitting at his desk holding a paper in one hand, and his computer mouse
in the other.
“Where’s the fire?” He smiled at her sitting down the
paper and turning to face her in his chair.
“Camera?”
“Camera…?” He repeated back to her.
“Where is my camera?”
“I’m sorry Coraline, I don’t know. What does it look
like?”
Cora walked over behind his desk pacing around it
frantically.
“Avi said she gave it to you to give…”
“Avi did what? I’m sorry Coraline is she playing another
trick on you? I don’t have it. She may have hid it around here I’ll help you
look.” Mr. Cohen stood up facing toward Cora.
“You look in the back of the room, and I’ll start over
here.”
Cora nodded and let her eye’s wander past Mr. Cohen.
Inside the doorway blond hair and neon green nails held up a large black box
pointed straight at Cora and Mr. Cohen. Cora’s blood rocketed. She tried to run
forward pushing Mr. Cohen. She felt her foot catch under the roller leg of his
desk chair. Tumbling to the floor, she landed on her hurt arm behind Mr. Cohens
desk. A flash and the...
KACHINK! Kuh-ERRRP!
Mr. Cohen looked to the door.
“What in the world was that?”
“No.” Cora said. “No… NO!” Cora picked herself up and hurtling
down the hallway after Avi. She tackled her, pining Avi into the side of the
vacant hall.
“GIVE IT TO ME!” Cora yelled grabbing onto the strap
around Avi’s neck choking her like a horses reign. Wrangling Avi she swung her
around about and back into the indoor brick wall. Avi gave a light shriek as
the strap burned her neck, Cora felt Avi’s skin tread and skip under the
friction. The Cameras mouth had another blank picture printed.
Avi thrust Cora away from her. The picture had fallen out
of the camera’s mouth to the floor and Cora could already start to see the
light brown feathered lines beginning to form inside its small frame. Cora
reached again for the strap around Avi’s neck, feeling it snap and let loose
away from Avi. Avi dashed away as fast as she could, her blond hair flying
behind her. Cora knelt down resting the camera as she picked up the forming
picture in front of her. Mr. Cohen came out of his room and started after Cora.
She stood up and sprinted past Mr. Cohen back into his classroom.
“Scissors! Scissors!” She cried in hysteria. Cora paced
toward his desk and began rummaging around.
Mr. Cohen came back in the doorway staring at Cora in her
lunacy picking up and setting down papers around his desk.
There
was a huge grapefruit sized purple glass ball as a paperweight siting in the
corner, along with coffee mugs full of pens. Cora reached for his drawers
shaking them loose and rattling them wide open. When she couldn’t find what she
was looking for, she slammed them shut violently. The coffee mugs with red and
black ink pens began to clink together with each slam. In frustration Cora
shoved the papers off of his desk sending them flying like giant white fall leaves
to the floor. The paper hissed with ruffled sounds as they fell. The large
purple glass ball toppled of the desk and rolled around freely to the ground
even knocking into Cora’s ankle painfully.
“Whoa! Hey! Stop that!” Mr. Cohen grabbed Cora by the
shoulders and pulled her closer to him to restrain her. Cora then spotted
scissors just on the corner of his desk behind a picture of Mr. Cohen with an
attractive girl. Cora gave a wild desperate buck kicking her legs.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Cora wailed.
“Blake? Is everything alright?” Mrs. Belongier had been
walking past. In consternation he let go of Cora almost pushing her away.
“Amy, would you do me a favor and call Mrs. Piquero?” He
said trying to smooth out his hair.
Mrs. Belongier looked at the both of them and gave a
forced but suspicious smile. Cora looked back to the forming photo. It had
darkened brown with blotches of white and negative spaces between. Immediately
she reached for the scissors and began to hack the image to bits. With each cut
she prayed with some small hope it would stop whatever would happen.
“Give me those.” Cohen reached out snatching the scissors
out of Cora’s hand. Cora looked at her pile of picture, eying it in mistrust.
“There!” She heard a victimized voice from the door. Avi
had brought the principal with her pointing into the room where Cora and Mr.
Cohen stood. A raw scarlet line was visible about Avi’s neck.
“I
saw him kissing her with his hand under her shirt and I took a picture to prove
it. See how she’s trying to cut it to scraps? You can watch the hallway cameras!
She chased me holding that camera after I did it.” Avi pointed down the hallway
where the Polaroid camera sat.
Mr. Cohens eyes went huge.
“Excuse me?!”
“I did just see Cora yelling for help as well.” Mrs.
Belongier said folding her hands together.
“Ah, Blake I need you and Ms. Pegersky to come with me.”
Cora was still breathing heavily in panic. Mrs. Belongier
walked up to Cora, placing her arm about her shoulders.
“It’s alright dear. I saw what happened, don’t be afraid
to tell the truth.” Cora looked up to her English teacher in bewilderment. Mr.
Cohen’s face went white.
“She is lying!”
He frantically pointed to Avi. Cora looked to Avi whose own expression had
turned sickly cradling her neck in her hands. A man in uniform appeared at the
door one hand on his gun in his belt.
“Everyone calm down!” Cora jumped into the white board
behind her. She felt the eraser shelf dig into her back looking at the officer
in the door.
“Police!?” Mr. Cohen said.
“There was an accusation made Blake, I had our office
call them. We always have the police present for things like this.”
“It’s not TRUE.” On ‘true’ Mr. Cohen banged his fist on
his desk making a few of the overturned pens from Cora’s previous struggle
shift and roll around.
“Sir!” The officer demanded. “I will have to restrain you
if you do not calm down. We do not want anyone to get hurt.” Cohen threw up his
arms in agitation. Cora heard the sound of metal sliding from a holster. Cora
looked back to the officer holding out his gun.
“Sir! Put down the scissors. NOW.” Cohen immediately put
both hands up in surrender. “Drop it!” Cohen immediately let go of the scissors
letting them drop to his feet.
“Kick it away from you, hands on your head,
kneel down.” Cohen placed his hands behind his head. He attempted to kick the
scissors blindly without looking down as he stared directly at the gun pointed
at him. The plastic and metal of the scissors snagged against the cheap school
short carpet and only skidded over a few centimeters.
“Sir, again.” Cohen glanced down and tried to kick them
harder, the way you would tee a pebble on a sidewalk with the toe of your shoe.
As he swung his foot to the floor his weight faltered and he teetered to the
left.
Mr. Cohen threw his arms out for balance as he put his
free foot down quickly. Then Cora felt something heavy drop in her stomach, he
stepped on top of the purple glass paperweight ball. Mr. Cohen lost all
equilibrium and leapt forward grabbing the nearest person for balance. The
officer.
The gun went off.
The
crack was so loud that Cora felt deaf for a minute as muffled cries and screams
came around her. Mrs. Belongier shrieked with her hand over her mouth. Avi went
pale as a sheet, her hands at her sides staring in catatonia at the man who was
seeping a thin wine solvent from his stomach and mouth. The officer stood in
shock looking to his hands. Mr. Cohen convulsed on the ground crumpled up
holding his stomach. His fists pressing over his stomach gushed red. His
bloodied gargling mouth fell silent as his motion came to a stop. Cora looked
to Mr. Cohens desk where some of the small pieces of Polaroid confetti sat. One
small triangle shape had a nose, and a mouth gaping open leaking something dark
from it. It rested against a blue-gray back round. Cora sunk to her knees on
the floor and began crying in uncontrollable fits of weeping as she petted the
blue gray carpet around her.
Cora
sat outside the principal’s office in a daze staring out in front of her to the
beige wall. Avi was two chairs down from her fiddling with a loose string from
her pink and orange skirt, quietly sniffing.
“I
fell. That’s why the camera didn’t see me.” Cora whispered to herself.
“This
is entirely your fault Cora.”
Cora’s
attention picked up and she looked to Avi whose eyes had turned a fiendish red
from tears. Her face was so pale it looked like her skin was nothing more than
candle wax. Avi looked back to the floor and continued her accusations.
“I
liked Mr. Cohen. You got him killed and I’m going to make it my mission that
everyone in school will finally see you for the hideous slut, the worst
human...”
KACHINK!
Kuh-ERRRP!
Avi
looked up to see Cora with no expression on her face pointing her Polaroid
camera at Avi. The camera had a blank photo sticking out of its mouth. Avi
reached up taking the chunky piece of machinery and with both hands threw it to
the ground smashing it. Chunks of plastic skittered and the glass lens cracked
across the floor.
“What
is wrong with you?! You’re taking my picture? Do you understand how disturbed
that is?!”
“You
have no idea.” Cora said under her breath. Quietly, she walked over to the
blank photo among the pieces left over from the camera. It had already begun to
turn a hazed brown with undefined lines. Cora sat back down in her chair
holding it gently in her hands.
“I’m
sure of three things Avi. It will happen quickly, it will always look like an
accident, and you can do nothing to
stop it.”
Cora
felt her heart blacken as she mockingly held up the Polaroid photo in front of
her eye’s to Avi. Waiting and truly wanting to see how the picture would come
out. Waiting… Waiting… Waiting….