Even though everyone thought that I was strong I wasn't, but you know something interesting about human nature. Humans can quickly adapt to their environment and that was what I was doing. I was left by myself most of the time so I just accepted that and moved on. Afterwards I even liked being by myself except for the part where I cried alone. I was perceived as ghost in that house. I was silent all the time and even when I walked, I tiptoed. I hated any interaction so I would run away as fast as possible whenever I was presented with the chance. I would spend most of my days near the creek cooling off my feet or jumping from rock to rock. I found it peaceful, sometimes I would even bring pebbles back home for some artwork; at least that's what I think. I joined my new school which was right in front of my new home. I did try making friends but ended up in vain because I started giving out things for free. I didn't want them to hate me but by doing that it made me a pushover.
My childhood friend was in the same class but she acted so entitled that I couldn't get along with her and her clique. I would always be seen arguing with them. Instead I found a friend who was just like me. Rejected by others. We got along really well and she was the one who would stop me from doing idiotic things. Once I got involved in a pretty serious fight with my childhood friend and when the teacher interrogated us she obviously took her side since she was the student representative and I was just the new girl. We stopped fighting from there. There was this girl, let's just call her K. K was the type that would change her personality depending on the person she was talking with. Because of that, both of us had a really big fight and fell apart.
One day my childhood friend randomly suggested that all of us should go near a river and we all agreed. They wanted to take K too but I was against it. They didn't listen to me and I had to give in. We reached at our designated place but the problem was that the spot we wanted to go to was on the other side of the river. We decided to cross the river but couldn't and we were just discussing about leaving. That's when K and one of our friend had reached in the middle of the river. Just when we thought that they could make it, the river swept them away. It was a tough blow and we didn't know what to do except scream and follow them.
Just when we lost all hope some boys from our class came right at that moment and helped us when we told them the whole story. The other girl was saved but unfortunately K died. I felt extremely guilty because I wished she had died before all this shit happened. The cops took the saved girl and me to investigate. After a while they found K's body all swollen up and blueish purple. At first I was blaming myself but when we heard that the body was found, her parents were distraught and asked me what I did. The blaming then turned into I'm innocent. I don't know what I was saying at that point. By that time my uncle was newly wedded and his wife who loved to scold me, found out about it.
The student representative's mother was my uncle's wife's friend and she asked her to pick me up too while she went to get her daughter. The mother kept on asking why I did that? Like seriously? Her daughter was the one who planned it. But when she asked me who planned it I couldn't blurt out her daughter's name since she would get in big trouble so I just said one of the girls( who was present at that time) name. Big mistake as the mother made that girl cry.
The situation became a hot topic and everyone in the neighbourhood kept on blaming me and saying that it was my fault that K died. Damn I experienced defamation at a very young age even though I'm no celebrity. My uncle who was usually harsh with his words didn't take this well and since he was the owner of the building (where the student representative's family rented an apartment) was really angry. He even wanted to kick them out but didn't since rest of our family was against it.
The pebbles I used to collect from the river was used in making K's name and ended being glued to my wall. I had a laptop at that time and one day I discovered free wifi. I was so happy about that and I told my sister about it and she kept on staying in my room from that day onwards. She would call her friends to use it too and sometimes I would be chased away from my own room. Guess you don't get to say much when it's not your home. I accepted everything. I cried most of the days and I think my uncle heard my sobs as one day he and his wife came in my room to comfort me. He asked why I was crying. But how could I even say that it was because of his wife.
That day, before I started crying I was just getting a glass of water when the glass slipped out of my hands and she scolded me asking me to be careful and that it wasn't my house neither the glass was my mom's property. Damn that hurt more than anything. But I sucked it up because what could I even do. My mom would come visit me sometimes and I would beg her to take me with her. She would straight up deny it. She would hand me some money and poof, gone. I asked her so many times that after sometime I got tired of asking and I would just anticipate for the money. My disappointment was at it's peak.