Chapter 3 A WALKING JOKE
“Yes mother! I’ll be right there!” I hollered back.
“Just tell her about the braces-”
I interrupted her before she could finish the sentence, “she won’t approve.”
“Who cares if she approves or not?”
“She’s my step mom and my only guardian present right now, she has the right to tell me what to do,” I sighed.
“Not in my book.” Kasay looked me straight in the eye. “You’re her puppet.”
I glared hard at her, “get out.”
“Are you on your monthly or something?”
I glared at her harder before she finally threw both her hands in the air. “Don’t kill me, I’m too young to die, I’m leaving.”
And with that, she left. I felt bad for snapping at her, but she had no right telling me what I was.
I sighed as I made my way downstairs. I hated how controlling my step mother was, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Deep down inside, I knew Kasay was right, but I wouldn’t dare say that to anyone.
“Rosie,” my step mother greeted coldly with a smile. “I have great news to tell you,” she beamed. “I have been offered a new job with Mr. Spencer, and I heard he goes to your school.” My ears perked up at the name. Mr. Spencer? Did she mean Axel? I covered up my curiosity by keeping my shoulders sagged. “No congratulations?” she questioned. Her voice was as cold as ice.
“Congratulations,” I mumbled gloomily.
“That’s more like it.” She replied snippily. “So how was your day?” the question I dreaded came out of her mouth. When I didn’t reply, she sighed. “Let’s go talk in the study.”
I followed her into the study and slumped into her ‘patient’ chair. She sat at her desk, observing every move I made closely. “You had a bad day.” She stated.
“No shit,” I grumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing ma’am.”
“Tell me, what happened.” I shook my head in reply as I stared at the empty space between us. “That wasn’t a question, that was an order.” She snapped. “Now tell me what happened.”
“I’m tired.”
“Then go to bed early.”
“No, I’m tired of being like this.” This time, I stood up and stared down at her ice cold chocolate brown eyes.
“Like what?”
“Like this!” I gestured towards my body.
“Don’t raise your voice at me.” She stared me straight at the eye. “And I don’t see anything wrong with the picture. There’s nothing wrong with being the way you are.”
“I don’t want to be this way,” I gestured towards my geeky clothes.
“You don’t want to be yourself?”
“This isn’t myself!”
“Don’t raise your voice,” she growled. “We shall work through this together.”
I groaned out of frustration. “You’ve said that every other time I came to you with this problem. I don’t want to be viewed as the school’s ‘nerd’ anymore!”
Her lips pressed into a firm straight line. “How can I help?”
“I want to remove my braces.”
“Why?!” she gasped in shock.
I felt like screaming in her face. I had just told her exactly why. I stared down at her before storming out of the study. I didn’t want to be this way anymore. I wanted to have a social life instead of locking myself in my bedroom on a Saturday night reading cheesy romance novels, I wanted to feel confident with how I looked, and I desperately desired his attention.
It pissed me off how everyone looked down on me. I had to change.
~*~
“I never thought this day would come,” Kasay said. “So who’s the lucky bastard who got you so hooked?”
“What do you mean?” I furrowed my eyebrows together.
“You couldn’t have just decided you wanted to change. There must’ve been a specific reason, and I have this feeling it’s a guy.”
“It’s for no one but myself,” I replied confidently.
“That’s a lie,” the girl snorted. “I know a guy is behind it all. I mean, you would never do ANYTHING behind your mother’s back.”
“Step mother,” I corrected her. “And can’t I make decisions on my own? I’ll be in a college far, far away from this sad town soon.”
“You know she’d kill you if she heard you talking about going to college far away, right?”
“I could care less. Once I’m out of school, I’m out of here and I’m never looking back.”
She sighed sadly. “I wish I were like you. I wish I could just go far, far away, but my mom would murder me before I reached the front door. Plus, my family’s broke.”
“You could get a scholarship,” I suggested.
She snorted out loud. “Scholarship my ass, I barely passed elementary.”
Jaxon came running up to us as we entered the school doors. He stopped in front of me, panting heavily with his hair filled of sweat. “R-Rosie” he panted, leaning both his elbows on his knees.
“What is it?”
He held up his index finger, telling me to wait as he tried to catch his breath. Whatever he was trying to tell me must’ve been urgent. Once he finally got his breath back he got up into his normal standing position again. “What are you going to be for Halloween?” he asked.
I stared blankly at him. Was he serious? He ran all this way just to ask me that? “That’s all?”
Kasay started giggling like a middle school girl on crack. Jaxon glared at her as she walked away cackling like a dying hyena. I turned back to Jaxon and cocked an eyebrow at him. “You came all this way just to ask me what I’m going to be for Halloween.”
“That makes me sound nuts.” He frowned. “I was just wondering if you wanted to coordinate this year.” In the past years, we had coordinated on Halloween costumes before.
In 3rd grade he was Ron while I was Hermione. In 4th, we were Siamese twins, let me tell you one thing-that costume was so uncomfortable. (Especially when we had to use the bathroom.) In 5th grade he was Peter Pan while I was Wendy. Freshman year, we were both zombies.
“So what’s your answer?”
I just shrugged. I didn’t really want to coordinate with him this year. “I guess we could…”
“Perfect!” he grinned. “So what should we be?”
I just shrugged. “Invisible people like we are in school?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “How about Bella and Jacob?” he wiggled his eyes at Bella.
“How about no? I don’t want to have a piece of paper stuck to my face the entire day.”
Kasay didn’t get my joke, but Jax did.
“She’s still hot.”
As we both entered the building, I saw a large banner hanging down from the ceiling reading:
“COSTUME DANCE OCTOBER 19TH”
“So have you changed your mind about going to the costume dance this year?” he asked hopefully.
All I could do was shake my head. “You know how I feel about school dances.”
“But this is our last year here.”
I shook my head again. “I’m not going.”
“This year could be different.”
“I highly doubt that.”
He sighed sadly. “There’s always hope, Rosie.”
“Not for me.” I mumbled under my breath as I headed straight to my locker. Jaxon and I exchanged our goodbyes before he headed off to class. Of course, I had free periods in the morning so I headed straight for the library.
As I stepped into the library, all heads snapped in my direction and all small chitter chatter stopped. All eyes were on me. I ducked my head low and made my way to my favorite spot farthest away from everyone, but I noticed someone had already taken my favorite seat. I cursed lightly and slipped into a section of shelves no one ever visited and made myself home there.
As soon as I was out of sight, small chatter was heard from everyone again. I started reading a cheesy romance novel about a bad boy and a nerd who fell in love. I knew things like that never happened in real life, but deep down inside, I had a little flame of hope.
The intercom switched on before the voice I hated most filled the whole damn school. “Good morning Jordan High Jaguars!” Layla greeted on the intercom in her annoying high pitched voice. “Are you ready for some good news?”
Everyone in the library cheered. I glared at the wall. I thought you were supposed to be quiet in a library. “First of all, this is anti-bullying week. So I would like everyone to help stomp out bullying!” More people cheered. Was she serious? She was possibly the biggest bully ever, yet she still dared to talk about stopping bullying.
“We are also having an all school costume dance on the 19th! Tickets are available now, don’t forget to come!” When the intercom switched off, I sighed in relief and leaned my head against the shelf, but my relief didn’t last for long. The intercom switched on again. “By the way, Rosaline Arlene Winnefred you need to report to the office. Your mother brought you some extra tampons and diapers.”
The whole school erupted into laughter. Every single person was laughing at me. I covered my ears with both hands and tried concentrating on the book I was reading, but it was no use.
Once the laughter partially died down, I got up and slipped out of the library without drawing much attention. I hugged my book to my chest and left the library. At the end of the day, I was nothing but a walking joke to everyone.
~*~