Chap-3*What About Bullying?*

Once the painful punishment of the couple was over, we were sent back to our homes as if nothing had happened.

"Is this how everyone is living here?" Once I slammed the door shut behind us, I couldn’t hold back the anger boiling up in my veins. They turned to see my face, confused, badly lost.

"This is horrible. The way he dealt with this is just absurd," I added once they failed to pick up what I was talking about.

"What are you talking about? Mr. Mayor has already taken care of this matter, so don’t put stress on yourself." Derrell spoke while holding a newspaper. I glanced at Mia and Zoe, who were busy arguing about something. Darrell spared a quick stare at them and tugged his face back into the newspaper.

"I’m talking about Mr. Mayor. How come he goes around ordering people and nobody seems to object?" I argued in anger, recalling every time they clapped, I wished to chop their hands off.

Whatever the mother and the daughter were arguing about went out of the window when they heard me. Derrell shook his head to make sure he heard me right.

Whatever rules he established are for our benefit, so you should learn to respect him." Derrell threw away the newspaper and towered over me in rage. I was a little terrified but composed my posture, anyway. It was awkward to see how educated people were blinded by their faith in this evil in human skin: Mr. Mayor.

"If he meant to do anything right, he should have called their parents and would have had to sort out this whole matter in private. Instead, he turned this into a circus and embarrassed them in front of the public. Nobody even talked about the accusations that the girl made towards him." I narrowed my eyes at the ground while my hands followed my gestures. I had stepped back from my father in fear.

"You think you are cut above him? Just because you have come from a big city doesn’t mean you can throw allegations against our Lord. His family has been protecting us for years. You don’t know him the way we do." I could see his big finger waving at my face as he growled, his face turning red.

I was taken aback by his reaction. Lord, what sort of sorcery was that? How had he wrapped them around his feet like that?

"Your lord had just punished a teenager to get married to an old man. He chopped off that boy’s finger. Does that seem normal to you?" I looked him in the eye, as I was not afraid of him anymore. I saw how that girl’s father acted around people. And I wouldn’t want to give that power to my father as well.

"He can go to hell. If Mr. Mayor is against him, so is the whole town. And this was a lesson for every young girl who walks around with a bunch of boys, thinking no one can see their dirty actions." When he said the last line, his eyes were sort of directed at Zoe.

"But the parents were wrong too. Why don’t they accept their relationship?" Out of nowhere, Zoe yelled. She was staring at her father with her hands on her waist.

"For that, a girl needs to choose a good guy, not just any guy. Look what that guy did to Felicity," Well, Derrell was correct at this point. Jonas did throw her under the bus just for the sake of some money. But it was still her choice. She is an adult. Not to mention, the punishment and all that character assassination had driven me to dislike Mr. Mayor.

"Parents always have these lame ass excuses." Zoe rolled her eyes, only to get a slap on her shoulder from her mother. "Ouch, I didn’t say anything wrong." She hissed, walking straight to her room.

"This is all your fault. You were unable to teach her manners." Derrell's scream at Mia made her frown.

"She has your genes, too," Mia replied, pushing him off more and leaving for her room. Before it could get any more awkward, I thought it would be best to take a nap since I was hella tired.

I thought, after ripping off my mother, they were living a life in paradise. It seems like I was wrong.

"And I don’t want to see you go against Mr. Mayor, because I’ll be the one to hand you over to him. And also, your citizenship papers are in your room. Fill them out and submit them to the mayor’s office." With a command like that, he let me explore my room. Truth be told, there wasn’t much to explore since it was a small room with a small bed at the entrance and two small-sized bedside tables with a closet facing my bed. There was a window on the left side of my bed, from where I could see the houses across the road. The sun had almost drowned, and the darkness had devoured the surroundings. I took a nap, and my sad life continued.

For the next few days, it was just me finding a high school to cover my last semester. Derrell was definitely not like a father to me, but surprisingly, Mia helped me get admission.

High school was wonderful; I guess some of the Mayor’s rules weren’t so bad after all. Aside from some harsh rules, some of them were actually beneficial to us. I mean, there was no concept of rape, theft, poverty, or even bullying in this town.

Everyone was being treated with equality. I was starting to like the place until one day. A storm started to settle in one evening when I was heading back home.

"Ugh! Couldn’t you wait till I reached home?" I cursed the clouds above me and ran a hand through my hair.

"I wish they could speak our language." I was startled to realize that someone was right behind me. I quickly stopped in my tracks and swirled my head to see who was interrupting me.