Sorry the strip was an hour late. Was messing with a few things and tweaking dialogue.
I think after I finish this arc, the between-chapter shorts are going to be saccharine as all get out to make up for all the dramabombs. XD
Sorry the strip was an hour late. Was messing with a few things and tweaking dialogue.
Uh oh.
…again.
Poor Keisha.
And the next time it happens, it WILL be Keisha. You only need to repeat the lie so many times before it becomes the truth. Tell a kid they’re dumb, and they’ll squeak by with C’s, even if they used to get A’s. Tell a kid they’re a ruffian, and don’t be surprised when they’re at the center of every kerfluffle.
This will take an outside source to set everyone straight. My money’s on Todd. Well-dressed businessman, ideal father, covered in tattoos, unexpected taste in music. This is going to be awesome.
Ooh, truth hurts. Because even if Keisha didn’t do it this time, she’s certainly been in on it before. How does it feel, kiddo? Because you deserve to be in that office, even if it wasn’t for this event.
I often wondered about the kids who bullied me…did they ever honestly understand just how awful they were? Did they ever get it? Did somewhere down the line their own child come home crying and they remembered that they’d done what the bully of their child did when they were younger?
I can’t speak to all bullies, but I can tell you that several of mine apologized to me at my 10 year HS reunion. They grew up, maybe saw someone else bullied, and truly did realize how awful they were, so I think there is hope for some… There were others, who have never grown up or changed, that didn’t, and they’re the ones I’m afraid will be raising the next generation of taunters…
you got an apology? wish my bullies apologized.. I moved to a small town and was immediately let known I wasn’t wanted there because I was an “outsider”. The head bully was the “star” of the school who had to be told he was best at everything…I let him know he wasn’t…that made me the target.
When I met my bullies againb (after moving through two different schools inbetween theirs and high school) they had no idea they had done anything wrong and were shocked I was so upset. You’re lucky your bullies at least have brains.
When I was in second grade, I was mean to a girl named Juanita because her name was Juanita. I made her cry.
OH GOD HOW I WISH I HADN’T!!!
And not because from third grade on, I was the target. By the end of second grade I’d realized I was wrong to tease her (in-depth convo w/dad re: foreign language) but she moved in January. I never got to apologize.
I feel a little bad about saying this, but out of the three of them, you’d think Keisha, at least, would understand the folly of mistreating someone based on physical differences.
You sort of have a point, but there’s an odd issue when it comes to marginalized groups. A good example is black men and women of any race (at least in the U.S.). Black, Hispanic, etc. men are more likely to be demeaning to women than white men.
You have to feel like you’re better than someone, especially when someone else (white people) has spent all this time asserting dominance over you. It’s the same logic that makes abused/neglected children transform into bullies and/or abusive/neglectful spouses and parents.
Violence begets violence, disrespect begets disrespect. It’s a very messy and widespread cycle.
Somehow, I think Keisha’s unlikely to keep repeating this behavior. She’s already shown that she has an idea of how badly Heather treated
Selkie with this “prank.” And not all kids are the sort to go along with what adults say or think of them. Quite a few I’ve known, made it a point to be the exact opposite of the labels people tried to glue onto them.
I also think the teacher is leaning toward believing Keisha, judging by her expression and word choices. Or at least, giving her the benefit of the doubt.
I have to agree with you there. Keisha’s too nice of a person to really do anything this mean. She might be angry and upset, but I think Heather will be the one to take the real beating.
Heathers adopting parents seem rather shallow;
I wonder if they will return her to the orphanage for being too much “trouble”.
I don’t think the teacher is so much “leaning toward believing Keisha”, as much as she is “protecting Keisha from the beast that is all fangs, and is about to attack”. Remember, this is the first time she has ever seen Selkie, so she has certainly never seen her angry before. When you have two kids – one of whom is clearly terrified of the other one, and the second one looks to be about to jump out and tear the first one’s face off, you protect the first one.
…and the child behaves as the adults have taught her. The great circle of strife continues.
I think the teacher is leaning due to the “evil angry shark face” Selkie is sporting in the second panel
awwww,keishas face in the last panel makes me wanna cry!
Is it wrong I want Keisha to be adopted as Selkie’s sister? 🙂
yeah, I’ll be happy once this is resolved and things are better and awesome stuff from Selkie’s life… poor Keisha~
The principal seems all business. For some reason, this admin, reminds me of some I’ve seen at schools (including the horrible secretary). One thing I wonder… Why is Selkie covering her face in the last panel?
She’s putting her hairclip back on.
Hopefully the teacher will be able to clear things up. I don’t like bullies, but I like it when people are punished for things they didn’t do even less.
I admire… difference in size between scared gym coach and principal. His apprehensive downward eyes are adorable. …Selkie’s angry face, but also her posture which shows good control. …Principal Ashton’s cheekbones and balding spot. You do a fantastic job of giving characters different features. I do NOT muddle your characters up at all, which is unusual for me. …Keisha’s instantaneous retreat behind the teacher. …the teacher’s non-western traditional jacket and head scarf. …the way Keisha’s shoulders go up as she hunches up while crying.
Monday and Thursday are my favourite days of the week!
Squelch SOPA and PIPA!!
Oh gosh that’s an evil face.
Poor Keisha didn’t do anything wrong!
But then I also want Selkie to get VENGEANCE…
…Secondhand embarrassment is everywhere D:
I really don’t like Keisha, but at this point I do feel for her, she’s telling the truth and was trying to right a wrong and is now taking the full heat and doesn’t know what to do.
Selkie’s angry face continues to be awesome. I don’t think Keisha’s ever seen her really angry, considering how she reacts here.
Also, Selkie putting her hairclip back on in the last panel while Keisha’s wailing makes me think of a gunslinger hero re-holstering his gun, not deeming the opponent worth a fight.
Anger can be a powerful weapon when you’re scared/upset, but I hope Selkie doesn’t completely dismiss her upset feelings. (The anger just helps to cover them up, it doesn’t erase them.)
Anger can also remove bullies as an issue entirely. It probably won’t happen here with the others, but after this is done, even if Keisha doesn’t learn her lesson on her past bullying, she will never bother Selkie again. She’ll remember the fear of dealing with Selkie’s angry face and she’ll know that she can hurt her severely. Anger is a great weapon when used correctly.
Anger doesn’t always remove bullies as an issue. Sometimes it just means they’ll never again bully you alone, they’ll always come as a pack. But sometimes, hopefully often, it does work. And as far as I understood, Keisha was never the worst of Selkie’s bullies anyway.
Now THAT is a great scary face in panel two.
I feel bad for Kiesha, she didn’t do a dang thing and she’s gettin’ in trouble. Well at least Selkie got her shirt back.
And just seriously how dumb do teachers have to be to think “LIEK ZOMFG IF THEY HAVE THE SHIRT THEY DID IT. DERP!”
If some poor student had her shirt stolen, and you walk into your classroom to find a student holding the shirt, would YOU really immediately think that she was just taking it from the real thief so she could go tell on her? Hint: if you are not a psychic, and you haven’t seen the previous events, just a girl holding a shirt, the answer is no
Well for one thing, if I saw that I’m about 99% sure my first reaction would have been “how did you get that shirt?” being that I’m NOT psychic and don’t know what happened. Not sure I’d believe her blaming it on someone else, but you can bet your ass BOTH kids accused would have been accompanying me to the office in that case!
I really hope it works out for Kiesha and that she learns a lesson and she’s not mean anymore.
I really don’t want to see a kid accused of something they didn’t do, but I think Keisha needed something to make her see just what she and her friends have been doing: selkie has already moved out of the orphanage, but she still has nightmares about them. I think the whole bullying group could use a dose of cold harsh reality, but I think Keisha’s the most likely one to wake up here.
I have a feeling that when Todd comes to pick up Selkie, that he’ll be able to tell that Keisha isn’t the one who did it simply by the way she’s acting.
He was an orphan once too, so he knows how they act. Maybe something similar happened to him when Marigold and Theo adopted him; Selkie was the “outcast” and he was too.
O_____O Also, you managed to make Selkie freak me out in the second panel with the barring of teeth; I think it was the showing gums that did it for me. But I do like how you made Keisha hide behind Mrs. Afkhami.
And for some reason I was a little happy that she put her hair clip back in in the last panel. She doesn’t feel the need to cling to it anymore. :3 Good for her, but… I am still SO VERY HOPEFUL that they’ll find Keisha innocent.
On the subject of Mr. Thompson getting in trouble, I’m pretty sure ‘I don’t follow young girls to the bathroom’ is a pretty good explanation as to why this happened under his watch.
I’ll buy THAT for a dollar.
you better believe it!
Aye, what was he supposed to do? His options seem to be 1: Follow the little girl to the bathroom and leave the rest of the class behind, unsupervised or 2: Bring the entire class on a field-trip with the little girl to the problem (which beings it’s own set of problems). Darned if you do, darned if you don’t!
to the bathroom* Drat…
That’s school administration for you. One adult, 20+ kids…. it’s not a battle you can win. You might as well try something easier… like herding cats.
It’s more that he let Selkie leave, then Heather, before Selkie came back. In most schools I attended, there was a bathroom hall pass that only one person of each gender could use at a time. That Selkie never returned to gym is telling, especially since she went *before* Heather. And since gym was over and no one looked for her, it seems, there was a lot to find fault with.
somebody must have noticed she was taking too long and looked for her during gym, because the gym teacher explained the situation to the other teachers when he brought the kids back from the gym, meaning that she was already in the office as close to being “taken care of” as she got. I’d say more blame belongs to the office people for not covering her up than lies with the gym teacher for not predicting that this would happen.
*sighs* I feel for Keisha. I’ve been in her position exactly, and it’s the worst place for a kid to be. You haven’t done anything wrong, you were just trying to help someone out and right a wrong and then you get blamed for it.
In my case, it wasn’t a shirt, it was a backpack. I had no idea whose it was, but my classmates were playing ‘keep-away’ with it, tossing it around the classroom, so I-being the tallest in the class at that time- grabbed it and was about to scold everyone for stealing it when the teacher came into the class. The girl whose backpack I was caught holding was talking to the teacher in the hall and since I was caught holding her backpack, I was blamed for stealing it.
In my case, I was saved due to the fact we were still in class, and my crying got the entire class to rally behind me and support my story. Even the girl who owned the backpack didn’t believe I stole it-even if the teacher did. The bullies outted themselves because seeing me cry made them feel bad about the whole thing. Too bad things don’t always work out like that.
I can hardly wait to see how this all is going to end. There are just too many options. XD
The teacher could consider that Kiesha is telling the truth – or not.
What will Selkie believe? At least, Kiesha WAS mean to her.
And of course, what is Kiesha going to say? I can imagine she already got the idea, that Heather only stole the shirt to get her “lost friends” back. (simple trick, isnt it?) .
And I’m totally curious about how this event will affect the different relationships. A few strips ago it looks like Amanda is REALLY angry with Heather now. Maybe Amanda (and Kiesha?) will start being mean to Heather instead of being mean to Selkie.
It’s also possible that Heather blames Selkie for everything….
urgh… enough speculations… my brain is melting. XD
Well, good job, great story. Just keep it up. 😀
Even if Keisha didn’t do the crime I agree with those who say her bullying antics make her deserve to be there regardless.
Huh…i was kinda hoping after reading the last comic that selkie had seen it was Heather that had done it and would clear this all up, instead we now have all 3 girls on bully watch..
Selkie didn’t see who took her shirt. She had her face in a pan of water at the time.
On the other hand, since Chris is present, he might realize “hey, wait a minute, wasn’t Keisha in the middle of playing dodgeball at the time?”
Somebody listen to Keisha’s story for ONE moment, darn it!
All we are saying is give Keish a chance…..
I wish I could “like” this. 😀
I suspect they’ll listen to her like they got Selkie a shirt.
Is it just me or does Principal Ashton’s comment of “Oh, good you’re shirted” come across as relief that he can put the issue behind him instead of actually dealing with the problem?
Sorry have to say it…jesus selkie looks sorta scary in panel 2 but good for her! and yes keisha’s crying but maybe now she might think twice about being mean to selkie.
Trying to figure out what Selkie’s doing with her arms in the last panel.
Not -too- sympathetic to Keisha yet, but here’s hoping she and Selkie talk it out.
Split the evil party, have Keisha come to the fishy side…
There is nothing quite as bad for a child as being wrongly accused of someone else’s misdeed. Poor child, though admittedly she and her friend have been rotten little snots to Selkie. So it may yet be a touch of karmic justice, but to be truly proper the whole group should have their debt catch up to them.
It really bothers me that everyone here is saying that Keisha deserves some kind of punishment. She never actually harasses Selkie. I have read the comic over just not to be sure I wasn’t mistaken. The only instance where the actual Keisha, not dream or awkward sequence Keisha, says anything mean about Selkie was when she was telling Heather that she was wrong for what she did to her. Amanda is always the one who is mean to here. I am not even positive that Heather did anything to her. The only reason she did this was to get back on Amanda and Keisha’s good graces since they kicked her out of the group for abandoning them. The only thing that Keisha is guilty of is having mean friends.
Not to mention Keisha is taking the blame here because she snatched the shirt away and stood up to her friends. She was doing the right thing.
just to be sure I wasn’t mistaken* Sometimes my English is bad.
Oh wow. Selkie isn’t lying, Keisha certaintly hasn’t been little miss-sweetheart to her at any point in the past, but in this instance it was Keisha who did that right thing by standing up to her friends and defending Selkie’s right to remained fully clothed in a public setting… but that WAS honest. I kinda feel bad for Keisha. She was the only one doing the right thing this whole time.