Fearless

• Mimi Nicola, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

“So, how did everything go sweetheart?” Amanda asked from the front seat.
“Everything went fine; school was great,” Kelly lied to her mother. “The kids were nice and my teacher was awesome.”
This was true, as the students were friendly and Mrs Kettle was okay. “Are you sure? You don’t sound very convincing,” Amanda asked, starting to sound a little concerned. Kelly found it quite hard to make friends; that being the whole reason she was sent to her new school, in hope that at least one new acquaintance could be found. “Yeah, I’m sure,” Kelly answered. “Can we talk about this when we get home,” she added, just in case her nosy mum tried to get any details out of her.
As the car pulled up into the driveway, Kelly began to hear the sound of her younger brother, Anthony, singing loudly and way out of tune to his favourite TV show’s theme song. The family was still working on keeping him quiet. Kelly walked through the door to find her stepfather, brother and older sister, Hannah, waiting for her.
“We missed you so much!” her family shouted enthusiastically. The next ten minutes were swarmed with hugs and kisses and questions like, “How was it?” or “What did you do today?” or “Did you make any friends?” The last question was particularly desperate, as of what I have told you before.
“Seriously guys? It was just school,” Kelly said, a little surprised that everyone was so excited. They just ignored her and continued bombarding her with questions. “Homework,” Kelly muttered as she walked up the stairs, towards her soft, comfy bed. She lay down and slowly closed her eyes.
Whispers flooded the room. All eyes seemed to be hooked on her, as if she was some sort of magnet pulling them towards her. “What’s with her leg?” some people were questioning. “What happened to her?” others asked each other.
“Please, settle down and welcome the new face in the room,” Mrs Kettle announced. “Everyone, this is Kelly; would you like to share a couple things about yourself dear?”
Kelly took a deep breath. She wasn’t used to seeing so many people in one room. It had been a while since she had been at school; almost two years. She spent that time in hospital and being schooled at home, being operated on and recovering. She stood up, feeling shaky.
“Hi everyone, my name is Kelly Ferret and this is the second public school I’ve been to. I just came out of the hospital about three month ago. As you can probably tell, I had to have my leg amputated after I was… ” she went silent. Tears burned her eyes. A lump rose in her throat. Her face turned bright red.
“That’s okay dear, you don’t have to continue,” Mrs Kettle said anxiously, hoping she hadn’t done anything wrong. Every person in the room was staring at her.
“After I was in a car crash with my dad,” Kelly hesitated, then decided to tell the truth, “I was lucky, but he… he was k-killed.” She sat down, and stayed silent for the rest of the day.
As Kelly opened her eyes, she felt no fear. She had faced her traumatising sadness, although it pained her tremendously to do so. Tomorrow will be different, she thought. I won’t feel embarrassed; I will be brave. As sad as I may be, I will be fearless.