Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

one here’s got any kind of glamorous life or anything. Case in point …,” she said, stopping to gesture at my leg.
    “I have no idea what she’s jealous of. It’s her own twisted mind making crap up,” I said bitterly.
    “She’s jealous that Bryn got the attention of a lot of guys here. Everyone kind of hates Coli; and even Trip likes Bryn. He’s the hardest one to win over, so when Bryn did it her first day, that probably made Coli feel … I don’t know. Left out, maybe. Trip’s never liked her, even though they’re cousins.”
    “Well, maybe if she didn’t walk around like she has a bee up her butt all the time, it’d be easier to like her,” offered LaShay.
    “Seriously,” I agreed.
    “Several people have mentioned it to her, believe me. But all it does is make her worse,” said Paci.
    “Girl’s got mental problems,” said LaShay. “I’ve seen that before, you know. Girl I knew … she was all bi-polar an’ shit. All the time she was like perfect and everything was just so in her life, you know? And then one day, she comes to school a wreck . I mean her hair was all tore up, her clothes were dirty and wrinkled, lookin’ like she slept in ‘em all night. She was talkin’ crazy too, like accusin’ me of hiding my glasses when I was wearin’ contacts instead. It was wild, the way she was bein’ all aggressive towards me and other girls. I was ready to slap that bitch, but something made me not do it. She reminded me of a wounded animal or something - upset but only because she was hurtin’; and it didn’t seem right to slap a girl who was havin’ a hard time about something and confused about it at the same time.”
    “What happened?” I asked, almost able to ignore the scrubbing LaShay was back to doing quite rigorously.
    “The principal called in the school cop, and they took her to the hospital, eventually. She was there for a couple weeks, got some medicine, and came back to school like nothin’ ever happened. She was back to bein’ all controlled again, only now she had a smokin’ habit. Smoked like two packs a day in the smokin’ area. Saw her there all the time, hangin’ out with a different crowd than she used to. She lost all her old friends.”
    “Wow. Holy crap. That must’ve been horrible for that poor girl; and that was when we had hospitals and medical professionals and pills you could take. Now we’ve got none of that stuff.” I hadn’t thought of anyone with mental disorders being left alone to deal with their problems before. I’d only considered it in the context of sociopaths who’d turned to cannibalism to survive, and they were definitely not in the same boat as people like LaShay was talking about.
    “Do you think that could be Coli’s problem?” asked Paci. “It would explain a lot of things.”
    LaShay shrugged. “How do I know? I ain’t no doctor. I’ve only seen one person with it, and I didn’t know her that well. I have no idea what it was like for her on the inside - and the outside stuff I saw, was just kind of like casual bystander stuff, you know? We weren’t really friends or anything, so lots of stuff was just gossip.”
    I couldn’t think of anything else to say, but my mind was racing. What if Coli has a mental disorder? Should I forgive her bullcrap just because of that? Should I offer to help her or would that just make her more mad? Am I in danger from her? I felt like a jerk, not knowing the answers to my questions. I wished they had a library in the swamp so I could go look bi-polar disorder up in a book and learn more about it. I had no delusions about becoming a psychologist or psychiatrist or whatever, but I felt like a complete idiot knowing so little.
    “Well, whatever,” said LaShay, sighing. “I think no matter what, everyone around here deserves a little extra forgiveness, just because of all the garbage we have to deal with. I’m not talking’ about them demon canners, though. They get no forgiveness from me. But the indians here, they do deserve it. I’m just sayin’.”
    “You know, LaShay, you guys really should stop calling us indians,” said Paci. “I don’t mean to be critical, but some of us get kind of offended over it.”
    I frowned at him. “Why? You are indian tribes, aren’t you? Or did I miss something in school?”
    He smiled mirthlessly. “No, I’m sure you didn’t miss anything. They taught you that explorers like Christopher Columbus came to this country and found the