Victim of Progress (134 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 1 review (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Hirilnara (View user info) at 2006-11-20 08:51:39 EST
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
"...trav'ling at the speed of light, I wanna make a supersonic man of you! Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time..."
The sudden drumming of water drowns out the radio, whipping across scraped skin. The hiss of the water mingles with her hiss of pain; blood and dirt running in filthy rivulets down her body, swirling round and round the plug hole.
Having a good time? Now there's a laugh! She gropes blindly for the switch, anything to silence the mockery. But even when the music goes, taunts still echo in her head.
The sponge is rough against too tender skin, as she tries to scrub away the blood; tries to scrub away the last hour. But she can't shift the feeling of taint, even when her skin is raw, shiny with its apparent cleanliness. She can still feel a grubby smear inside. She wishes she could stay here, safe, isolated...but she can't.
There's a tapping on the door, and she flinches.
"I'll be out in a minute!" Even to her own ears, her voice sounds... wrong.
"Kerry... Kerry, honey, what's the matter?"
"Nothing - I'm nearly done mum. And there's plenty of hot water left, don't worry."
"Kerry..." There's a sigh; for a second her mother, her pillar of strength, sounds so helpless. "...if there's anything wrong, if you needed something, anything at all, you know I'll help you fix it, right?"
Gods, she wishes she could believe that. She'd give anything to be young enough again to believe that her mother can solve all her problems.
"I'm fine mum. Really."
Another helpless sigh, and retreating footsteps. She almost gives in, calls out after her, confides in her. But she doesn't; she's a big girl now... has to take care of herself.
---
To see her in the street, you wouldn't notice anything different about her. Just another teenager, spiky short hair, baggy black hoodie and shapeless jeans. Perhaps, if you looked really closely, you'd spot the black eye blooming under the hastily applied foundation, or the lip that's not so much full as swollen. That's all though; you'd never even think that she's living the life of a victim of progress.
---
Running late... she's always running late.
Or maybe it's just the world, hurrying on without her. Not like she wants to make the effort to keep up; would be easier to stay at home, curl up in bed and let everything race off, leave her behind. She'd be happier that way. Safer too.
But the world keeps going; marching blindly on in the name of progress, dragging her along with it. And time; the seconds always slipping away. She has to run to keep up - it feels like her whole life is going on fast forward.
She's running again now; avoiding her mother this morning has made her late, and if she doesn't get the school bus she'll have another tardy on her record, and that will be enough to earn her a detention.
The bus is still there on the corner. A final desperate burst of speed and she makes it just before the doors start to close. For the briefest of seconds she almost believes the day could be going her way after all.
Silly really.
"Sorry love. No pass, no ride - you know the rules."
Yes, she does; the rules of the new system, put in place to make life "easier" for everyone, are clear cut and devastatingly simple in their rigidity.
But, search as she might, her pass that allows her to bypass the traffic of the city centre won't come to light.
He gives her an apologetic shrug as she gets off the bus.
"Chin up love. There's a local through in a couple of minutes."
She checks her watch; if the traffic is abnormally clear, and it only catches green lights, the local bus might get her there for the bell.
Five reds. Five red lights, and a snarl on the ring road that had the bus stationary for seven minutes. So now she has a meeting with her tutor, another "you must try harder" speech ringing in her ears, and another mark on her record.
Black marks - flags to tell the school when there's a problem. Hers all fall under attendance and punctuality, and scream to the administration that she's a low level nuisance that needs to be reprimanded to put her back on course. If they were all under attitude, she might get the help she needs. Like Robyn does.
Robyn has been a "special case" since she started the school. On her first day she broke Kerry's nose for getting to the last slice of chocolate cake before her. Since then, there's been a constant campaign of terror and abuse.
The school's "forward thinking" new policy has Robyn labelled as "misunderstood". They've got rid of the "medieval" attitude that would have her punished or, gods forbid, expelled for her actions. Now, she receives regular counselling, and time off whenever she feels like it.
They tell Kerry that she needs to appreciate the trouble Robyn is going through, and she needs to make more effort to get on with her.
Kerry appreciates the situation all too well; Robyn is a violent bitch, who takes great delight in making her life a misery, and is smart enough to save the physical torment for after the school day.
Like yesterday - she caught her outside the supermarket; nearly split her lip for being there at the "wrong time", bruised her ribs for having the wrong hairstyle, and used the pavement to scrape the skin off her arm because... well, just because she could, really.
Kerry also makes the effort - to avoid her at all costs. Never works though.
Complaining only gets her disapproving looks, and comments that she needs to stop being so negative, so set in her ways; she's had a little trouble with Robyn in the past, but that's no reason to discriminate against her now.
She's tried talking to her tutor, but that only leads to sit down meetings with Robyn to "discuss the accusations", and then to "private meetings" after school to "solve" the problems.
The cuts and bruises go unnoticed; she obviously just needs to move on - needs a fresh take on the world. Needs to stop causing trouble.
So she struggles to keep up.
Struggles to stay afloat as progress keeps pushing her down.
Struggles to find the will to keep going.
And just keeps going under.
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Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-06-05 12:18:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2