My life at school…
and at home By Safaya A. Youssef
Chapter One
The
Secret
“Come on, I’m popular, and you’re not, so tomorrow,
I want that outfit ditched and fixed!” I said pointing my ring-studded hand
out to Joanie Merlyn’s face and giving her a disgusted look. She said, “ Yes
Mila, I-I-‘m cool with that, I promise I’ll wear something really great
tomorrow”. Joanie said with a terrified look on her face as she ran off to
class. My two best friends, Jennifer Hinsdale and Jewel Crisman giggled
along with me as we walked down the stairs to our first period social studies
class.
You’re probably wondering what this is about, why
I’m writing a book about this. Well, this is about my life at school… and
home. Just like the title. This story talks about my life in seventh grade and
how between the fifteen-minute bus ride home from Schlosberg Junior High to my
huge Victorian house my life completely changes. I’m in eighth grade now, but
this is a story about my life in seventh grade. How hard a life changing
secret is to keep, especially when theirs no one to confide in. Well, at
least, there wasn’t. So I wanted to keep it in a diary, everyday write about
the same day this time last year. I have a really good memory. So, let’s
continue…
At lunch the next day, I was in quite a good mood,
because I had yelled at three different people that day, and Joanie was
wearing something a bit more normal. As Jewel, Jennifer, and I were writing
drafts for the gossip column, I saw someone new (it was only the first week of
school and a lot of new sixth and seventh graders were coming in.). I decided
to give her the “way of welcome” technique. The “way of welcome technique is
my way of saying welcome…Duh. So J.J (my abbreviation for Jennifer and Jewel)
and I tell the person that if they want to be in the “in” group they’ve got
two days to decide. Then, two days later at lunch we tell them to give us an
answer. Most of the time, it’s yes. But sometimes people are big fat bozo
brains and say no, that was my ex- best friend, Cindy. Once she saw my new and
improved look she thought that I had gone crazy, so she told me that popular
kids have a hard time with the teachers. As I had known Cindy well for three
years, I was prepared to give her lots of reasons. In the end, we both got in
huge fight, so I found Jennifer as someone who was really cool that I could
talk to. She said that sort of the same thing happened to her. I asked her if
she wanted to hang with me. She was really happy and said sure, so we ended up
having a sleepover and had the coolest time. Then, about a month later, we
asked Jewel into the group. She completely agreed. Then Jennifer (one of the
tallest girls in the school, with long, straight brown hair and dark hazel
eyes attracted a few of her other best friends with her new look (that I
helped make) and now we have two groups, with six people in each, that patrol
around the school and check out for people. Cindy and I are rivals and while
she tries to talk people out of being in my group, she’s been having no luck,
I’ve even managed to get a few of her people onto my side (they’re spies for
me). But enough about that, let’s get back to the conversation.
“Hey, welcome to Schlosberg, I’m Mila and these are my
two best buds, Jennifer Hinsdale and Jewel Crisman. As Jewel and Jennifer
waved and shook hands, I continued on. We’re here to give you an offer that
will change your life, so listen carefully, I said after brushing a thin bang
out of my eye. You have exactly two days from now to give us your decision if
you want to be part of Jen’s, Jewel’s and me, Mila’s founded “in” group.” The
short, brown-eyed seventh grader gaped up at each one of us in turn while we
each gave welcoming, hopeful smiles. Then she said to break the silence “
I-I’m Kieko, I was born in China, but my parents are both speak English so I
speak it as my first language.” Now it was our turn to gape at her. Almost all
the kids in my school were really prejudice of foreign people, but we kept it
quiet to the principal. She gave us a worried look. I said to her, “one
second” and gave J.J. the sign to huddle up. Then I said in a rushed whisper,
“what are we going to do about her?” Jewel and Jennifer shrugged and said,
“what’s the matter with her”? Now I gaped at them. My mouth was fully open as
I said, “What do you mean what’s the matter with her?!” She’s well, foreign.”
I said, my mouth now closed. Jewel and Jennifer looked at me with a look that
said that I was forgetting something important about them, and then I
remembered that Jewel’s dad was from Russia, and only spoke Russian and
Jennifer’s mom was from Austria. Then I said, “Sorry, no offense, but this
will bring down our reign, the unpopular ones will think that now that we have
someone foreign on our side that they don’t need to listen.” Jennifer and
Jewel gave me reproachful looks and raised their eyebrows at me, but then
after a little of my convincing skills they agreed. We then approached Keiko
and told her that she wasn’t really the right material that we were looking
for. I could see that Keiko was swallowing a large lump in her throat. She was
trying not to cry. I hid my smirk. She was meek, I could tell, she was the
kind to express her anger and sadness in tears. From my experience of being in
charge, I was used to this sort of thing and couldn’t care less if she did it
in front of the President. But anyway, this next part is a little more
interesting. But before I even do anything, I have to explain (I know, it gets
boring, but it’s the only way that you’ll understand and that I’ll feel better
about it) what happens. Because as I said, the fifteen minute bus ride home
temporarily changes my life. So you probably want to know how. Well, here
goes…
“Hi mom, I’m home from school, I’ll be up in my
room if you need me, I said as the butler, Samuel, opened the door for me.
Then I muttered under my breath, to torture me”. But I was too late; my mom
was already coming down the stairs in a billowing, dark red silk dress. As the
butlers bowed and the maids curtsied when she walked by them she put a long
arm around me. I tried to squeeze my way out, but her grip was too tight. I
then said, “Who died mom”? She looked at me with a puzzled look and I said, “
well when I saw that you weren’t looking like a clown in all your make-up, I
thought that something must be horribly wrong.” She said, “ Well, it’s worse,
you’re father’s going to be working full time, now that the beauty salon that
I worked at closed down”. “WHAT!!!!!!!” I shouted, now feeling like punching
my mom. “Well, I managed to convince him.” She smirked and then said when she
saw me mouthing wordlessly “now no need to thank me Mila, I know that you
were sick of your father leaving his office right after you came home from
school, you said so yourself. So I managed to convince him that I was speaking
for the whole family when I said that I wanted to get rid of him.” I then gave
her one of my looks, and she just laughed and told me that I shouldn’t have
meddled and have been rude. I stamped out of the room, my face now a bright
crimson and it didn’t look much better as I went up the long flight of stairs
to my room.
Once, when I was about eight years old, my
three-year old brother asked my mom who was her favorite child, now this was
all before the big fight…
“I WISH THAT WE COULD JUST GET DIVORCED!” My dad
shouted at my mom one evening when I was about ten. My mom screamed back at my
dad “IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU’RE BIG PILE OF MONEY, I WOULD BE PACKING MY BAGS AND
TAKING THE KIDS WITH ME!” My dad shouted at her as though she was at the
opposite end of a football field “ DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH JOEY AND MICHAEL,
BUT NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY I’M TAKING MILA!” I was shocked to hear my own
voice in my parents’ conversation (who am I kidding, it was a yelling
argument, not even my deaf cousin could argue with that). Joey gaped at me as
though I had just transformed into some sort of alien life form. I said in a
hushed whisper, “do you think that they’re really going to get divorced”?
Joey, who was twelve at the time shrugged (you would think that he would be a
bit smarter than just to shrug!). Without further word I was rushing down the
stairs as fast as I could, rushing to my dad’s aid. When my mom and dad saw me
in the kitchen doorway, they immediately stopped fighting and made the
atmosphere seem falsely kind and homey. I said with anger swelling up more and
more in me with every word “ SO ALL THOSE YEARS YOU NEVER REALLY CARED ABOUT
ME MOM, AND DAD, WHY ARGUE OVER ME? I REALLY WISH THAT YOU TWO WOULD QUITE
ACTING LIKE BABIES AND GROW UP, NOT EVEN MICHAEL IS SO STUPID TO SHOUT SO THAT
THE REST OF THE WORLD CAN HEAR HIM, AND HE’S ALMOST TEN TIMES YOUNGER THAN YOU
TWO!!!” They both stared, wide eyed at me and my dad finally broke the silence
and said, more to me than to my mom, “ you’re right Mila, we are acting
stupid, we should have known better than to argue while you three could hear”.
I muttered under my breath, “ you’re darned right!” But just the same I smiled
at my dad and gave him a look that said,
I’m-glad-that-someone-in-the-house-listens-to-me, sort of look.
My mom on the other hand, was a different story, as she
knew that I wanted to help my dad a lot more than I wanted to help her. Then I
changed from a grateful, kind look, to a look that I wish could just have
blasted my mom out of the universe forever, (maybe then life would have been a
little easier.) but unfortunately, my wish was far from being granted. My mom
was trying not to throw a fit on my now even more protective dad. She gave me
a look that I knew swore revenge, and she stomped off to her private area
where no one but her personal maids and invited guests were allowed in.
Then there were no more arguments in the house
unless it was between Joey and me, because to make sure I was safe from my
mom, dad worked only while I was at school. I felt a whole lot better knowing
that I was safe at school or at home. But anyway, now you see why I was so
angry, mom and dad were still continuing their fights, except across the
street at a large vacant lot that they put a soundproof barrier on. My mom
was trying to tell my dad lies about me so that she could fire all the maids
and butlers, keep the extra money that we didn’t have to pay to them anymore,
and make me her Cinderella. So as I went upstairs, I decided to call my dad.
But then I remembered that he thought that I was his true enemy, and
considering that he had caller ID he wasn’t going to answer.
Dad had left me, the only person that I loved.
Chapter Two
Kieko, J.J., and I
There are many ways that people show rudeness, and my
way is that I am sober, I become out of focus, and many people don’t even
notice that inside my head I am having a screaming fit with whoever I am mad
at. I think that, though it is not good to bottle up one’s feelings, it helps
me immensely with my self control and how not when I am even enraged at my
older brother, that is extremely annoying, I can manage to find one object
that can’t be broken by being kicked or punched at. I find that a pillow is
just the right object for this job. After about half an hour or so of just
kicking or punching a pillow alone in my room, I notice that I calm down.
Okay so let’s drop the dignified fashion and continue
on with the story. The next day at school I saw Keiko in a corner alone and
though I didn’t usually notice people unless it was one of the cool kids or
one of the lowly bozo brains that I happened to be really mad at, Keiko was
neither, but a little voice in my head kept saying that I should go over to
her, say I was sorry and give her another chance. But that not being
influenced around my family I didn’t know how to do it and I didn’t want to
bother with trying. I mean, I knew that even though Keiko was sweet and
pretty, I didn’t think that looks matter more than knowing how to act around
the right people. But never in a million years would I tell Jennifer that,
maybe Jewel, if I was desperate but looks matter to them as much money (which
helps them buys what they need to get their looks) and if I said that wasn’t
as important as life then I would be going to the “lake of the Beauty
Goddesses” (really Jewel’s two cousins from Spain and Jennifer’s older
sisters, the “lake” was really a bathtub always filled with apple blossom
scent bubble bath solution that the “goddesses” were worshipped in.). But
that’s not important right now; we have to get back to my conversation with
J.J. about my dad. This is when I learned, the hard way, that J.J. aren’t
confiding material, unless it’s about a make-up or money crisis (usually
ending up to be a smudge of shiny light red lip gloss or mascara or the loss
of that extra dollar that they needed to get that new pack of mini nail polish
decals.). So when I tried to get them to listen to my story about my dad they
said that if I wanted comforting for a family crisis to go to my mom or a maid
and if all else failed, to call them and they would somehow get me hooked up
with the “lake of the Beauty Goddesses” to consult about my problem. They said
this as though they had planned it, because they took turns saying sentences
without looking up from their lunches. I was very depressed and exhausted, and
my automatically becoming somber when these two emotions mixed, didn’t improve
my mood. But let me tell you about the next day when the most remarkable thing
happened to Jewel, Jennifer and I…
Two days later, J.J. and I were looking for our
part of the gossip column. We were comparing whose hadn’t been edited the
most. As usual, I won. I have a very special trick of forcing things out of
people, especially when I want gossip. So from many reliable sources, and my
great writing skill, I easily had the longest column. Things were going great,
and with meek little Kieko out of the way and scared of us, things were only
going to get better.
BUT BOY, WAS I WRONG
It wasn’t till the next day at lunch in the hall when it really happened. Then
the last person I wanted to see right before my worst subject was Keiko.
Unfortunately, when the last person you want to see happens to be around, as
in your same grade, life has a tricky way of always making them turn up. Why
did this have to be the only period that J.J. and I weren’t together in,
science with my least favorite teacher, Mrs. Weller (how she got married is a
mystery to me). So, it all started right after lunch in the hall, J.J. and I,
as usual, parted our separate ways so that they went down the short hallway
that led to the Math and Spanish classrooms, and I went down the long one,
that led to the Social Studies, Drama, Language Arts, and the Science rooms.
My flushed face and now frizzy French Braid helped me look just right for
“Miss Foreigner” Kieko. So totally NOT. As I saw her running down the hall,
I felt like Miss Perfect compared to her in her t-shirt stained from lunch,
and her long, wavy, black hair looking as though she had just woken up and
forgotten to brush her hair. I thought that I saw her running into the
Language Arts classroom, but when she saw me she stopped and walked over to
me. The flushed look on her face not able to hide her anger and sadness. Just
then, Jewel and Jennifer came running out of the classroom with panicked looks
in their eyes and on their faces. They came flying toward me down the hallway
and stopped right behind me. Jennifer said to Keiko in a soft, dangerous
voice, “What’s the matter Miss Foreigner, come to strike again, ohh, I’m so
scared” she said absentmindedly while blowing a piece of dust out of one of
her long, slender fingernails. For a minute, Keiko looked terrified, but then
gave a furious look at each of us in turn. I was excited to see what was
coming. Joanie had tried this approach once, but it hadn’t worked because she
chickened out really easily, and unfortunately, I felt that that wasn’t what
Keiko was going to do. Then, amazingly, Kieko was yelling at us from under her
breath, or at least, in a way it felt like that because she was whispering and
telling us off all at once. She said, “ You think I’m stupid and little
innocent foreigner girl that doesn’t know a single thing about you’re lives.
But I know more than you think.” These last words she said with a look in her
eyes that said that she was pleading for someone to believe her, then I knew
that she wasn’t lying. That’s the same look I had given my dad during the big
fight. I suddenly had this strange, strong urge to go to Keiko’s side and
comfort her and tell her all my problems. But then a voice in my head said
“Snap out of it girl, she’s different and your cool so you should be spatting
your head off right now at her.” This voice was overpowering my other urge.
So, I decided to check out what Jen and Jewel were doing. Both were gaping at
her with mingled fury bottled up inside them just waiting to get out. Kieko
then gave a sarcastic, yet relieved smile as if to say, “I win.” We each gave
a glare back to her that said “not for long.”
When I went back home I was furious. That foreigner! How dare she, how dare
she! She thinks that she’s so perfect! Knows all our secrets, Yeah Right! I’ll
show her secrets! That minute I thought how stupid I was not to know that it
was all too good to be true. Of course someone would come up to J.J. and I in
the end. There was bound to be someone that would try and overrule us or do
something about the fact that we seemed to have a certain special reign over
everyone else in the school, even the eighth graders showed J.J. and I some
respect. So then I thought that if J.J. was going to sit at home and do their
nails and be furious, that was all fine with me, but I wasn’t going to. I was
going to go over to Kieko’s house and find out what were her secrets, and then
I would have a secret weapon over her. And my decision was made just then. I
ran to the telephone book and found out Keiko’s address. 2281 Defiant Ave.,
that’s the perfect street for her, I thought. So in the blink of an eye, I had
my light blue jacket on and was out of the house with my binoculars and my new
“listen in” spy gear.
When I got to her window I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were many
Chinese figures and as I took a good look at all the plates I saw what I
thought was a very deformed looking chop suey. But then I thought that it
really could have been anything.
I
guess you could say that on the long dining room table there was any sort of
Chinese food that you could imagine. Some of the foods freaked me out. Others
made my mouth water. And some were just so weird that I didn’t even know what
they were, but unfortunately, I could imagine what they were related to. Then
I saw Kieko’s mom and grandmother bringing out a huge plate to put in the
middle of the table. It was a huge, dead, baked squid. With the eyes still in.
I was overjoyed that that wasn’t my dinner. Then I heard her mother call the
kids, in very thick Asian accent, to dinner. I heard what I thought was a
stampede. Ten kids came barreling down the stairs at the same time, with an
exited, hungry, look on their faces as if they could eat just about anything.
Which was pretty much what they were about to do. Then, once they were all
seated (the ten kids, parents and grandparents, and what seemed like an uncle)
they said what seemed like a prayer and began to eat. I saw Kieko, and zoomed
in my listener on what she was saying.
“ So anyway, as I said before, all they did was glare, they looked really mad,
but since we were surrounded by teachers, they couldn’t do anything.” She said
triumphantly to what seemed like a set of ten year old triplets. Three girls
looked back at her, amazed and fascinated. Then I looked for a sign of
anything unusual about anyone in her family. But then I heard something. I saw
a thirteen-year-old boy in a wheelchair moving his strong arms hard. He seemed
to be in a big hurry. I wondered where he was going and right then I wanted to
ask him if he needed help and jump out from behind the bush I was hiding
behind and tell him all my secrets. Then a voice in my head said, “why do
that, I mean, he’s disabled and a total stranger”. Then I said to myself,
that’s right, what am I thinking? Then I saw that he was in a hurry to go to
Kieko’s house. He didn’t look at all Asian. He had very round eyes and brown
hair. He had slightly darker skin. No one seemed to care that he had come in
late. In fact, the parents waved and smiled and continued eating as he settled
his chair down in an empty space.
I couldn’t believe it. Part of me wanted to shout out and tell the world about
this special secret that Kieko and her family were hiding. They had an adopted
son with a wheelchair. But part of me also wanted to dig deeper and find out
how Kieko was spying on J.J. and I. Then I thought maybe Kieko might know
about how my parents got divorced. I thought to myself “No Way, I didn’t even
know Kieko two years ago. Then I thought harder, “my manuscript”!!! I said,
almost shouting. Then I remembered that it was saved on my computer. But my
diary, No!!!!! I decided I wanted to just go home and have a nervous breakdown
with a cup of tea.
When I got home, I saw two notes on the door to me. The first one said, in my
mom’s pathetic, elegant writing:
---Mila
I am out to a bar to
see some friends and have a drink. I will be home by one” o Clock. If you need
any help Mila, PLEASE hesitate to ask. And if one thing happens to Michael or
Joey, you’ll be doing chores for one month. Do you hear me Mila!
You’re
very unaffectionate, yet absolutely
gorgeous
mother,
Tina
“Yeah, going out to get a drink, get drunk you mean”. I muttered under my
breath. But I was happy that she was gone. I was sick of all her visitors and
her high shrill laugh. The next note was from Joey.
Mila,
Mikel
and I r going on mi motirbyk to a parti for little giys and big giys. Mom nowz.
B bak by alavan a clok. Bi from JOEy and mikel
Gosh, Joey was in the best high school in the county and still can’t write or
spell. Maybe he should try public school. Michael probably told him what to
write. Michael is the only one other than the servants that talks to me. He’s
really smart but mom doesn’t care about him at all. She says that he lost his
cuteness. She only said that she was taking the boys because dad wanted to
take Michael and she wanted to make dad jealous. I never get to see Michael
anymore though because he’s always with Joey. Mom told Joey to get Michael
away from me after we she saw us playing together. So now, like usual when I
got home, almost no one was going to be home. I was getting used to having no
company. I wasn’t allowed to have friends over because I was punished. And you
know why I was punished? Because I was me. Yeah, totally unfair. But today,
unlike most other days I had the whole house to myself until twelve. I could
have a party where two hundred people were invited and have it till twelve.
That was when Joey would get sick of all the activity downstairs while he was
trying to sleep. Then he would tell my mom the next morning if I didn’t clear
out the party by twelve thirty. Talk about a party pooper. Then I thought just
about calling Jen and Jewel and having a sleepover at one of their houses.
Then I thought that we could invite Kieko. Whoa, now I cannot believe that I
said that.
I mean, what is it with me? I keep thinking about Kieko. As if I feel sorry
for her. As if I actually want to be FRIENDS with her. Well, whatever. I mean,
well what would Jen or Jewel do? They would go up to her and insult her like
there was no tomorrow. But I never saw the benefit of that other than when it
was about someone else’s clothes or personality that seriously needed to be
changed. But I didn’t want Kieko’s personality changed. I realized that one of
the reasons that I was feeling so secluded by my own family was because I
wanted my personality changed. Maybe seeing that guy that lived with
her, it was pretty odd to me. As I had never seen anyone that I knew
personally with someone in his or her family with a handi-cap, I wasn’t really
to blame for being so stunned. Then it occurred to me that maybe I really did
want to be friends with Kieko. And this time that thought wasn’t driven away.
This, I thought, could seriously change my life. Because Jen and Jewel would
probably dump me from the group and I would become more unpopular than that
kid in sixth grade with the thing about sheep. I mean he even has a nose
problem and is obsessed with sheep. How incredibly scary, weird, freakish,
unpopular, and amazingly sickening can you get? So that’s why I am physically
and emotionally stuck. When I say emotionally, I mean my feelings. But when I
say physically, I mean that my mom just dropped her opal ring down the drain
on purpose and instead of the three bathroom attendants that rushed to her
aid, she insisted that for my skinny wrist exercises I must put my entire arm,
with fresh nail polish on my manicured fingers (I knew I shouldn’t have
borrowed her nail polish last Tuesday, she always manages to get back at me
for things like that). I made a note of this with my free hand. I was
eventually going to publish my book that I would name “The Book of Terrible
Tortures and Their Extent”. I find that one day I might make a lot of money
from it. Considering I get a decent publisher. When I was typing this onto my
computer after I finally got the ring and my arm out, I heard the voice on my
computer screen go “You’ve got mail”. So I saw that very surprisingly it was a
person’s screen name that I didn’t happen to have ever heard of. And I have
every person’s screen name in the entire school because almost all of them
really want to be my friend. This person’s was called CoolGy. I was thinking,
mortified that it might be the kid with the nose and the sheep issues, because
he would probably want me to think that he was a cool guy so that I would like
him. I thought to myself, Nice try sheep guy. Then, before I checked my
mystery e-mail, I thought of names for this guys screen name, like maybe,
FREEEkHEd, or maybe, sheep n’ nose nerd. Those seemed decent enough for him.
The e-mail said as follows
CoolGy: So Mila, I see that
you’ve got a really good rule on school. It figures, you seem really cool and
I really envy you. By the way, do you know who I am?
I looked at this, shocked. I thought for a second that it could be a practical
joke that Cindy was playing on me. But then I remembered that Cindy was
horrible at playing practical jokes. I remembered the time when she tried to
make Jennifer and I scream on Halloween. Well, she really did freak us out,
but that was only because she was acting like a really freaky weirdo. She
snuck up on us when we were comparing and counting lollipops. She was dressed
up as an overlarge shoe. Then we both turned around and were about to scream
because we thought it was Frankenstein or something (we were really believed
in ghosts and all that stuff in fifth grade), and then when we saw this giant
shoe, all we said was “Nice try Cindy, it was a lot better than the giant tree
costume you used last year from the school play” and then we just laughed
until we were hiccupping so bad that we had to go home.
Then I thought that maybe Jen and Jewel were trying to be mysterious, like
last year when our new years’ resolution was to be more mysterious and
watchful, like Nancy Drew (After we met Jewel after the “shoe” incident, we
ditched the Frankenstein and started to get into undercover spy stuff and
mysteries.) But then I remembered that we gave that up last summer because
everywhere that we went, everyone knew our names and basically knew what we
were doing. Maybe it was Soto, one of the only guys in my patrol, he just
moved here in February, and he was in my other patrol, so I hadn’t really got
to know him well. And he really didn’t seem like the type of guy that would
envy me, since he really liked Jewel. Then I thought that it was probably the
sheep kid’s brother or something, or one of the guys that are freaks in my
school that just wanted me to get them into the group. Maybe I did want to
know who the person was though, then I wouldn’t have to sleep thinking that
maybe the sheep and nose guy might like me or something, I think that that
would make me more than slightly disturbed for the rest of my life. But then
I thought that I should probably write back. It was an e-mail that he sent,
but he wrote it as if he wanted to instant message me. Well, my e-mail said
Swetteepink94: Hey CoolGy, no, I don’t know who you are, but if you’re the guy
who has the thing about sheep and the nose problem, please tell me now because
I just want to get it over with.
As I waited impatiently until he sent another e-mail, I heard one of the
maids, Tanya, ask me how school was and if I got the notes from my mom and
brothers. I told her yes I did and then she asked me to come down there. I put
the volume on loud on my computer so that I could hear if I got mail, and went
downstairs huffily. She then whispered quickly that someone was at the door
for me. I thought that it was probably Jen or Jewel or maybe Sarah, another
girl in my patrol. But I wasn’t prepared for what I saw next. I walked
casually into the large entrance hallway. When Tanya opened the door my eyes
opened wide and I my jaw stretched long. There in the doorway, was Kieko and
the boy in the wheelchair.
Chapter Three
What do I
do next with my life?
I
stood there, rooted to the ground from shock. I turned around very stiff and
said, “help”, in a feeble voice. Joseph, one of the stronger butlers bumped
into me and steered me back into the hallway. He tickled me on my left ankle,
and I immediately snapped out of it. After seven years most of my butlers and
maids know me quite well. Then, wanting to make myself heard once and for all
so that Kieko would get out my already horrible life, and that I would have
one less thing to be worried about, I said, “So, why are you here because I am
really busy and it’s really annoying when you are always turning up Kieko! And
who are you, have you come to donate to Kieko. Does she have a new foundation;
rid the Rulers of Schlosberg, R.R.S. for short! They both gaped at me for a
second, and then Kieko got to her senses and said, “Just wanted to warn you
that your friends are phonys and liars. But since that’s of no importance to
you it seems than I’ll go.” Then I remarked while she turned “And what’s your
little friend here doing, or shall I say, your brother.” I finished with a
smug smile on my face. Then, Kieko slowly turned around again to face me.
“What did you say”? She said in a soft, dangerous voice. “Um, whoa girls,
break it up”, I was shocked to hear her brother’s voice, and stopped thinking
about Kieko for a second. Then, Kieko, mad at her brother for speaking said
what I thought a normal goodbye when talking to an enemy. The ever famous, “We
shall meet again Mila, make sure of that”, and I knew better than anything
that with that look that she wasn’t joking.
“Wait, so what did she say again?” Jewel asked, still stunned when I told her
about my meeting with Kieko. “I told you, she said that you guys were liars
and phonies and to stay away from you. Then I threw a remark back at her
because I knew that she was just lying to me to be my friend”. I said for the
millionth time that day during lunch. Then, Jen, who had been quite quiet for
Jen (as she was a big gossiper) said quietly while looking down at her
sandwich while saying it, “I have a feeling that you’re not telling us the
whole truth Mila”. I myself knew this, but I put on an innocent, puzzled face
when I spoke to her, “What do you mean Jen, I told you and Jewel the remark I
said in the restroom after second period. What more truth is there to tell”?
Of course, I hadn’t told the whole truth, and I guess I gave myself away when
I looked down at my feet while telling the remark I had made up the night
before. Unfortunately, when looking for gossip from unsuspecting students, she
could tell when they were lying, and when it came to her best friends, she
knew when they were lying even better than anyone else. Then Jewel, the one
that could spot a fight a mile away changed the subject and said, “Hey, did
you hear about Moreno, he’s getting divorced, and he had a fight with his wife
in his homeroom classroom after school. I heard the whole thing and recorded
it on my Walkman yesterday”.
Once again, after lunch, J.J. and I parted our separate ways. I, nervous about
what had happened yesterday afternoon, hoped that if I left lunch early and
got to my next class on time, that I might avoid Kieko. But then, as usual,
fate had its ways. She was coming back from the bathroom while I rushed to
class. I tried to hide my face with my hair so that she wouldn’t recognize me.
But Keiko could recognize my hair from a mile away, as I played with it a lot.
Besides, with hair like mine, it’s hard not to recognize me. Then, Kieko also
trying to avoid me, just turned around and said in a voice that said she
didn’t mean it. “I’m sorry, okay, about yesterday.” I put my hair behind my
ear and looked at her, astonished that she would say anything about yesterday,
let alone apologize. Then, she glared at me and said, “my brother made me say
that, so I’m not the least bit sorry, but he threatened me, so I had to give
in.” Then I figured, duh, it’s not like she wanted to be friends or anything.
Not like I thought that. Then I snapped, thinking that it wasn’t natural to
end the conversation there, “well, since I don’t have anyone threatening me to
say sorry, the last thing that I ‘m going to do, is say so.” She looked at me
as if I had highly offended her. Well, I had, but that was the point. So I
just said to end the conversation, “there’s no special rule saying that you
have to say sorry when someone else does. Besides, even if there was, I
wouldn’t say sorry to you if you paid me. And if you think that lying to me
about my friends was going to make me want to be your friend, then you are so
totally wrong, because I’d never be a friend with you even under a death
threat.” Then I glared at her, thinking in my head that I would be beating
myself up for the rest of my life if I didn’t say sorry soon turned huffily,
and left her standing alone, awestruck with tears forming in her eyes and a
tardy slip waiting for her on her late arrival to class.
Chapter Four
I write again
Sorry, it’s been almost two months since I last wrote in here.
I’ve just been so busy with my life. That’s because, well, I haven’t had any
time to write, considering that my parents are getting divorced…! Hold on
though, I’m getting ahead of myself…
The
second that I got home from school, I ran up to my room and cried. I cried for
almost an hour straight. I had no one in the world to confide to. There was no
one to help of protect me. Just then, I got a call. Great, I thought to
myself. It was
TO BE CONTINUED
