Ugly Ugly Ugly

Ugly. Everyone and everything is ugly.
"Do you like it?" Lesiah asked, watching me with her poop-
colored eyes. She was still holding onto her small paint set,
which she ruined by mixing the colors together, and with her
other hand, she gestured to the canvas in my big hands.
She painted a broken-down, bloody car that was hovering in a
sea of darkness. She received many lies from our classmates,
all of them saying the painting was beautiful. Of course, she
must have known. It was ugly.
"She loves it!" Maryam replied with yet another lie. Lesiah
looked doubtful - and she should - but Maryam moved the
topic onto another one of Lesiah's ugly paintings. This time, it
was a haunted house, I think.
I don't have many friends. Maryam and Lesiah are my only
friends, and they seemed to enjoy each other's company more
than mine. I'm actually quite comfortable with how things run
between us, even if I am the third wheel.
"What about this?" Lesiah asked as she handed me a smaller
canvas. The painting was of a boot. It was a rainbow-colored
boot, painted in what seemed like a splattered technique. It
was as ugly as the first piece she had shown me.
"That's beautiful !"
Maryam was lying again. It was nothing new. I've gotten used
to her calling Lesiah 'pretty', 'beautiful' and 'gorgeous' - the
complete opposite of what she really is.
Lesiah is too tall and disgustingly skinny. She has a wide, flat
nose and big, dark lips that she regularly bites into. Her eyes
are too close together and her forehead is too big. Her ugly
features are completed with her black, nappy hair. The fact
that she's black makes her twice as ugly.
Maryam isn't any better. She wears a headscarf, which covers
her peanut-shaped head. Her eyes are far apart and her
eyelashes are too thick, making her eyes stand out in a
horrendous way. Her nose is really long. I'm not the only one
who thinks so. An ugly, annoying boy by the name Nathan
once said, "Who needs Pinocchio when we've got Maryam?"
I remember Maryam crying after his comment. I couldn't help
but wonder why she couldn't accept the truth.
That's the problem. A lot of people refuse to believe the truth,
even when they can see for themselves how ugly the world is
- how ugly everyone else is.
One time, on my sixth birthday, my sister said to me, "It
doesn't matter what you look like outside, but how you are
inside."
Now I hear that stupid phrase everywhere.
"Don't throw that away!" Maryam yelled. She ran to the big,
plastic bin and threw her flappy arms out, blocking Lesiah's
path.
"Move!" Lesiah demanded as she held tightly onto a medium-
sized canvas. Her knuckles were extremely visible, making
me sick to the stomach. How is Maryam not affected?
"It's beautiful! You worked so hard on it! Don't just throw it
away!" Maryam said, her voice screeching as she got louder. I
wanted someone, anyone to slap her. How can Lesiah stand
this?
"Let her throw it away if she wants to," I said calmly.
I should have known Maryam would turn against me.
"What the heck, Jiao? Don't say that! You're supposed to
reassure her that her work is fantastic , not tell her to throw it
away! What the heck is wrong with you?"
"I didn't say she should throw it," I said, struggling to keep
calm. I hated it when Maryam said my name with her ugly
voice, "I said you should let her, if she wants to."
"And I will," Lesiah added. She tried to push Maryam aside
but, seeing as Maryam has excessive fat in her body, it was
proven difficult.
Out of my two friends, I don't understand Maryam at all and
how her mind functions. She's constantly lying about
anything and everything, always repeating the same thing.
"Oh, that's so beautiful!" or "Oh my god, that's so cute!" and
"Wow, you're so pretty!"
I don't see how these lies benefit her. Does she want people
to like her? Does she want to poison their minds into
believing they're not hideous? That the world isn't a living
nightmare?
Another thing that confuses me about her is when she says
one thing and denies it afterwards. For example, last week
she was complaining that she was fat, and when Nathan -
yes, the annoying, ugly boy - called her fat this morning, she
became defensive and claimed that her doctor said she had
just the right weight for her size.
Why, Maryam, why?
"Hey, look, your future boyfriend is coming over!" Maryam
trilled as she nudged Lesiah in her skinny ribs. Lesiah looked
shocked.
I'm shocked too. How is she still standing up? Maryam's
nudges are painful, as I've experienced for myself,
unfortunately.
"Whoa! Did you do that?" Thomas, a white, ugly boy asked.
He was looking over Lesiah's shoulder at her painting with an
ape-like expression on his face.
A month ago, Lesiah confessed to me that she had a crush on
this buffoon of a guy. I confessed to her that I think he's ugly,
and Maryam lied to her saying that her and him make a good
couple.
Lesiah is tall and black. Thomas is white and short. Lesiah is
skinny. Thomas is chubby. Lesiah has a flat nose and
Thomas has a nose to that of a pig.
They don't even make a good, ugly couple.
"Can you believe that she's gonna throw that away?" Maryam
asked him.
"What? No way!" He exclaimed like a fool. "That's awesome,
what you did. I can never do a painting like yours. If you don't
want it, can I have it?"
"Um... sure," Lesiah said. The canvas shook in her hand as
she tried to give it to him. Maryam stopped her.
"No! Keep it!"
"Yeah, you should keep it," Thomas said, chuckling. "Thanks
anyway."
Then he walked off with his pants sagging down, showing off
his dark-blue briefs.
What an ugly sight.

By Jasmine Charms

Very funny, I can't laugh alone