Dennis sat alone in Elliott’s study. He hoped that nobody would find him there. Not even his parents.688Please respect copyright.PENANAhT3brBPxhT
He wished he were at home. Being poor, he didn’t have much at home. But he would rather be in his own house than a house full of people that he didn’t want to be around.
Dennis had no friends. He simply didn’t want to make any. At school, he consistently heard people complaining about their laptops not working or their haircuts looking stupid. Or even worse, he would hear complaints about living at home and people saying things like: “God, I can’t wait to graduate.”
This was why he hated people. He hated them all. They acted like their lives were so difficult when they weren’t. Their parents made a decent amount of money and his did not. Only he had the right to complain about anything.
And it wasn’t just people at his school. It was people in general. They all acted that way. The people that were not poor always act like the world was over if there car wouldn’t start or if the pizza they ordered has onions on it when they didn’t want any. They didn’t understand the problems that people like him had to go through.
He didn’t even like to be around his own parents. He didn’t hate them, but anytime he was with them they would try to make him feel better and encourage him to make some friends. They knew why he did not want to do this, but they had their long conversations with him anyway.
Dennis always just stayed in his room with the door closed. His parents never bothered him in there. This made his life only a little easier.
Dennis knew that being made to go this party would be a low point in his life. He didn’t fight his parents after being told that he had to go, as he knew there was no point. He just vowed that when he got to the party, he would stay away from everybody.
He felt sitting in Elliott’s study with the door closed would be good enough, but it turned out not to be. After sitting in there for about an hour, he got a very unwelcome surprise.
The door to the study swung open and the Anderson Girls all poured in. Dennis groaned. He’d forgotten about the possibility of them being at the party.
George Anderson’s eight daughters were horrid little girls. They were spoiled to death by their parents, they dressed like whores, and they loved to taunt non-rich people.
Anytime Anderson showed up at Dennis’ house to remind them that the rent was overdue, he brought his daughters with him. When they came over, they always went to Dennis’ room to torment him. They would call him names, laugh at him, talk badly about him and his family, and say that all people like him were the scum of the earth. And they would not stop until their father left.
Dennis already knew that Anderson would show up at the party, but he hadn’t even thought about his daughters. He had so much else on his mind.
The Anderson Girls were wearing heavy amounts of makeup: lipstick, blush, eye shadow, and everything. They also were wearing high heels and carrying purses.
“What are you doing in here?” Dory asked. “Did you get hungry and wanted to eat the books? There are refreshments in the kitchen. This isn’t your house! There’s actually food here!”
“Wait, don’t you mean Daddy’s house?” Callie asked her.
“Oh, that’s right!” Dory said. “It’s not your house! Because your scums of parents are so goddamn poor that they can’t afford to buy their own house!”
Dory, Callie, Robbie, Lily, Elsie, Poppy, and Heidi were only six years old, but they acted like immature teenage girls. It was very strange.688Please respect copyright.PENANAl59th0tOlL
“Why on earth would the mayor invite scum like your family to this party?” Dory asked. “Did he feel sorry for you?”
“Who would feel sorry for poor people?” Lily asked. “Nobody gives a rat’s ass about them!”
“Yeah, they’re better off just starving to death!” Heidi yelled.
“Starving to death!” Molly yelled.
Molly was only three years old. She always followed her sisters around and joined in on the torment they gave Dennis. All she ever did was repeat things that they said. Dennis wasn’t as annoyed with her, but he still wouldn’t have minded to see her fed to a bear along with the rest of the Anderson Girls.
“You are dressed like sluts,” Dennis said. “But what else is new?”
“Our clothes are pretty,” Dory said, stroking her body as if she were Marilyn Monroe. “And they are about a one hundred times better than anything you have ever worn in your life.”
“Two hundred times!” shouted Callie.
“One thousand times!” shouted Elsie.
“One thousand times!” shouted Molly.
Dennis was used to the torment by the Anderson Girls. He’d dealt with it more times than he could count. But it still drove him crazy every time.
“Go to hell,” Dennis said, gruffly.
“Ooooooooooooohhh,” the Anderson Girls all said together in a sarcastic and rather insulting tone of voice.
Dory walked over and climbed on top of Dennis’ lap.
"What the hell are you doing?" Dennis growled.
The girls are howled with laughter. Dory stood up on Dennis' lap and got right up in his face.
“You don’t belong at this party!” Dory yelled. She had a very nasty grin on her face.
Dennis would have loved to have smacked her off of his lap, but the last thing he needed was to get in trouble for hitting the six-year-old daughter of his family’s landlord. He decided to just deal with it. Although, it was very hard to deal with her high heels digging into his legs.
“Then why was my family invited?” Dennis said. He was ready to pass out from Dory breathing in his face.
“Because Elliott felt sorry for you!” Dory said. “Which he shouldn’t!”
“No. It’s because Elliott is friends with my dad.”
“That’s a lie!” shouted Poppy.
“That’s a lie!” shouted Molly.
“It’s true,” Dennis said. “The mayor and my dad have been friends since they were kids.”
Dory insultingly patted Dennis on the head.
“Oh, Dennis,” she said. “You need to get it through your thick skull. Or, thin skull for that matter. Luis Elliott would not be friends with your scum of a father…”
Dory grabbed the collar of Dennis’ shirt and pulled him so close that their faces were touching. Dennis felt like throwing up.
“…if he had a pot of gold growing out of his ass.”
Dory let go of Dennis and patted him on the head again. She turned around and hopped back on the floor. Dennis was beet red.
“Oh, look!” Callie yelled. “His face is getting all red!”
“Maybe he’ll start crying!” shouted Robbie.
“Start crying!” shouted Molly.
“Dennis,” Dory said. “Don’t you see how pretty we are? Look at our hair. Look at our clothes. Look at this dress.” She slowly slid her hands down her dress. “We’re pretty.”
“And we live in a mansion,” Callie said.
Dory smiled even nastier than she had before.
“And do you know why?” she asked. “Do you know why we have so much? It’s because of our Daddy.”
The girls all started to swoon as if they were talking about a boy that they had a severe crush on.
“Our Daddy is the greatest man to ever walk the planet,” Elsie said.
“We love our Daddy,” Lily said.
“I love my Daddy!” Molly shouted.
Dennis knew very well that their father was a scumbag who did not care if the Carter family starved to death. Anderson gave Dennis’ father hell and his mother hated him for it. Dennis hated him as well.
“Our Daddy has a lot of money,” Dory said. “And that’s what makes our family genuine. Your family is a bucket of goat piss. Your father can’t even pay the rent of his so-called home. He is scum. Your whole family is scum. And scum like you shouldn’t have come to this party.”
But just as she turned to walk off, Dennis snapped. He’d had it.
“Your stupid father was only invited because he’s the richest man in the city!” Dennis shouted. “Nobody even likes him!”
Dory turned back around. She was no longer smiling.
“Piss off,” she said, angrily. “Elliott has been friends with our Daddy for quite a long time. Everybody likes him. As for your father, people may act polite to him, but behind his back, they are laughing at him.”
Dory turned around and started to walk out. “Come on, girls!” she said.
The Anderson girls all walked out of the study, but then Callie quickly walked back in and yelled: “If you ever insult our Daddy again, I’ll kill you in your sleep! Kill you in your sleep, goddamn you!”
Molly then walked in and yelled: “Kill you in your sleep!”
Then, finally, the Anderson Girls were gone.
Dennis slammed the door to the study shut and sat back down.
If he had one wish, and it couldn’t be for his family not to be poor, he would wish that the Anderson Girls were all burned alive in a furnace. Molly wasn’t so much trouble, but if she were accidentally thrown in the furnace as well, he’d be okay with it.
Dennis hoped that the party didn’t last much longer. But he had a feeling that it would last forever.
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