Chapter 1:
The beginning
"C ome on! Hurry up!" "Heather, would you calm down? I'm going as fast as I can!" "Well go faster!" I muttered something under my breath as I turned and leaned against the lockers, hugging my books to my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my best friend, Lacey, give me that look she always does. Rolling her eyes, she pulled another book from her backpack and slid it into her locker. "Chill out, already! Adam won't flee the planet before we get there!" I glared at her, though I couldn't help but smile bashfully. She knew me well. Too well. "Yeah, well, he'll probably go off campus and I don't want him to leave without me at least saying hi!" Lacey grinned maliciously, swinging her head around to look at me. "Hi? You sure that's it?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean?" "What about saying, 'I love you, Adam! Come sweep me off my feet and marry me!'" she exclaimed, waving her hands in the air emphatically. *SMACK!* "Hey!" she cried, rubbing her arm. "Why are you always hitting me?" "Cause you always deserve it!" I screamed. "Not all the time," she muttered quietly, fitting her last book in her backpack before shutting and locking her locker. Swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she looked at me and smiled, tilting her head to one side in that familiar way that meant she was pondering over something. "What are you smiling about?" I asked, walking beside her outside the double doors into the quad of Trabuco Hills High School. "Oh nothing. I was just thinking how ironic it was that we're technically the best of friends yet we do nothing but make fun of each other and torture one another." Despite my frustration at her earlier comment, I couldn't help but giggle. Count on Lacey to think of the deeper aspects of life. As we sped towards the theater, I glanced at her and thought about what she had said. She was right. We're almost completely different, yet it's strange how close we are. She walked with a smile on her face (I rarely saw her without one), her short, golden-auburn hair bouncing just below her shoulders. It really was an unusual color, almost coppery, though it held its own unique beauty, especially with her ever-changing hazel eyes and lightly freckled tanned skin (her mom is white and her dad is black). She wasn't at all fat; though she wasn't exactly an anorexic, too-skinny-for-her-own-good, runway model either. In my opinion she was just in the middle, well proportioned for her somewhat tall height. I was just about completely different. While her hair was short and a beautiful reddish, mine was long and a shiny dirty blonde (a little wavy, too, as a result of a recent perm). She has hazel eyes and mine were a clear blue. I'm just a hair shorter than she is, but again, well proportioned for my height. Though I dream for the day God will grant me skin as soft and clear as sand, I shall remain satisfied with the light skin I have (with easily flushable cheeks). Personality wise was another aspect of our personalities that were also absolutely un-alike. Lacey is the kind of friend you'd turn to when you feel bad and somehow will always make you smile. She's got that outgoing, hyper, crazy, funny personality that makes everyone around her in a good mood. Her mind is something I will never even attempt to interpret, and despite her insanity, she somehow manages to convince her teacher's she's smart enough to be in higher-level classes. How she does it, I will never know. Not that I'm dumb or anything. I'm really smart, too, and I get good grades. I have a crazy side, but I don't exactly tend to show it all that often in public. Trust me, if I were to show the full extent of my madness, I'd scare people. The side that others' generally see is my more sweet, caring, no-crap-tolerated side (intended 100% for Jason!). As different as the two of us are, we do share some things in common (believe it or not). We both love MUSHI! (Mushi- anything pertaining to love, romance, and lots and lots of KISSING!) and make sure we let the world know of our obsessions through our billions of fanfics. When we're not spending our time writing or drawing for our writing, we're either talking about guys, watching anime, or munching on See's milk chocolate toffee bars. Yeah, that's Lacey, and me, I thought, smiling to myself as we entered the theater. A world and a half apart, but still closer than ever. Noticing my quietness, Lacey paused and looked back at me curiously. "What's with you?" "Oh nothing." Lacey smirked. "Yeah right. Was it not you that said, and I quote, '"Nothing" always means a whole lot of "Something"'?" Oh yeah. Lacey has a real witty way with her words. I think she actually takes pride in this. "And your point would be?" Lacey merely laughed and shook her head. "Do I ever have one?" she replied, stepping up onto the stage. "Nope." I answered, following her. Turning behind the curtains on the right side of the stage, we opened a door leading into the practice and tech room. As Lacey went to lay her things on the practice stage, I cautiously peeked through the window on the door leading into the Tech room. "Sorry, Heather, but your lover-boy isn't here," said a voice, dripping with sarcasm and malice. A chill of annoyance slid down my back as I lifted my chin slightly higher and walked over to Lacey. "I wasn't looking for Adam, Jason. I was just-" "-looking for Adam." Lacey filled in, grinning. I glared at her, holding my fist close to her face. Lacey leaned back, holding her hands up in defense. "Hey, don't look at me! It was my imaginary friend! Honest!" I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest and closing my eyes. "I swear, both you and Jason are out to get me!" "Nah, it's just too much fun seeing you turn into a tomato." Jason cackled. I spun around, looking fiercely at Jason's large, ugly figure. And I'm not kidding when I say large! And let's just say what he lacks in petite-ness, he definitely makes up for in annoyance, sarcasm, and just plain rudeness! Sure, I suppose it's true when people consider him a comedic relief, but why does all his "comedy" have to involve me!? "Sorry, Heather, but I have to agree." I spun back around to face Lacey. She shrank back. "Again, my imaginary friend." "Yeah. Right." I muttered. Turning to Jason, I asked, "Where is he?" "Who, Adam? He went home a while ago. Right after the bell rang." "See? See? I told you!" I exclaimed accusingly, pointing my finger at Lacey. "I knew you should have moved faster!" "Hey, it's not my fault Adam decided to go home early!" Lacey replied defensively. "He always does!" "Yeah, Heather," Jason added slyly, "maybe that tells you something." I twirled around, not sure of whether to be angry or shocked. "What do you mean by that?" I asked suspiciously. "Think about it, Queen of the Blondes! He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" "Shut up, Jason," I spat. "That's not funny." "Hey, I'm not joking. I'm being completely honest." "Huh, that's a first!" Lacey said skeptically. "Okay, then, psychos," Jason replied, "Tell me this. When was the last time he actually came up to you and said hi?" "He said hi to me today at snack!" I declared defensively. "No," he began, "saying hi as a result of you going up to him first doesn't count. When was the last time HE sought you out to say hi?" I glared at Jason, slowly growing more and more angry with him for some reason I wasn't sure of. This was Jason- it's practically human nature for people to get mad at him. But for once, I found myself turning cold on the inside. Deep on the inside. Jason could tell this. "See? I told you." He said, turning to go back into the Tech room. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, but was too stunned to turn. "Heather, you okay?" Lacey asked softly. "Aw, is the poor little baby scared?" Jason cooed sarcastically. "Shut up, Jason! Leave her alone!" Lacey demanded. Grinning viciously from ear to ear, Jason merely shrugged and walked into the Tech room, slamming the door behind him as he left. Of course, I was hardly in a state to notice. Man, I wasn't even in a state to care. Was what Jason said true? Could it possibly be? Then, like the friend she was, Lacey interrupted my thoughts by gently saying, "Come on, Heather, don't pay attention to Jason. Hey," she added in a more cheerful tone, "you never did before, so why start now?" She was right. In the past, I had always disregarded Jason's lame comments. So why did this one seem to stick to me so much? It was a question I pondered the rest of lunch. Despite Lacey's efforts to shake me out of my trance (whether it's like some sixth sense of hers or what, she somehow always can tell when people are down, no matter how much they try to hide it from her, and this especially applies to me!), I couldn't keep Jason's words out of my head. "He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" Like some really messed up music box, these same words repeated themselves over and over again in my mind, even as I lay in my room on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Suddenly, a voice shook me violently from my thoughts. "Hello? Is anybody in there?" I rolled my eyes. Mothers. Someone wanna remind me why we need them again? "Come in." I muttered. The door opened, and my mother, Cheryl Berg, walked in, hands on her hips, looking like she was about to lecture me on the importance of room maintenance or some other "mother pet-peeve." "Uh, excuse me? Did you even know I was out there, banging on your door for, like, five minutes?" she began. "Sorry to have abused those precious moments of your ever-demanding schedule, Mom." I replied, more sharply than I had intended. My mom stared at me, changing arm positions from on the hip to crossed (which, in "parental body language", means 'watch out, you're treading on borderline danger zone!). "Well, first of all, what's with the attitude?" she demanded. I sighed, turning to my side, facing away from her. "I'm just not in a good mood right now, okay?" I couldn't see, but I knew she probably did some form of eye rolling just then. "Yeah? Well, I highly suggest you get yourself in a good mood next time you decide to talk to me like that, got it?" Not answering, I closed my eyes, pretending to try and sleep. "That silence had better be your declaration of submission," she warned, probably narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously. "And speaking of silence, why didn't you say anything about this!?" Too tired to sit up, I merely turned my head to glance at the paper dangling between her fingers. All I needed was to see the white and brown coloring of the school district document to inwardly cringe, knowing exactly what was coming next. "Don't you ignore me, Heather Renee Berg! Were you planning on 'just- so-happening' to forget to tell me about these? I mean, come on! How stupid do you think I am?" I bit my lip, refusing to answer (though with the mood I was in, I desperately wanted to). "I mean look at this!" she continued, looking at the progress report herself. "One B, three C's, two D's and an F!?! Did you actually think you could get away with me not finding out?" Suddenly, I felt all my anger and frustration completely burst as I stood up and twirled around to face my mom. "Hey, it's not like I tried to hide my grades from you! You got them in the mail, just like everyone else, so don't blame it on me!" "Hey, watch it, young lady! You can't just sit there and talk to me like that!" "Oh yeah? So, just because I came out of you, you think I'm just going to sit back and watch while you totally blame me for something that isn't even my fault!" Just then, my mom got this really nasty look in her eyes as she threw my progress report on the ground. "Heather, are you blind? Right now, I couldn't even care less about that! What's with your grades? That's what I'm ticked about!" "So what?" I screamed back, becoming more and more furious as I went on. "It's only a progress report! Six weeks, Mom. Not that big of a deal. I'll bring them up!" "Heather, that's not the point!" she exclaimed, already starting to sound worn out. "Your grades never should have been there in the first place. What were you thinking?" I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands up in the air emphatically. "Oh, yeah, now I wasn't thinking. What a horrible person I am!" "That's not what I said!" "I don't care what you said! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed in full fury. I could tell I really surprised Mom (and actually, I kinda surprised myself, too!) cause for the next few moments, she just stood there with a look of complete shock on her face. And during all this, I'm thinking What the heck am I doing? Finally, after what felt like forever, Mom just turned and walked towards the door. "Fine," she spat, "You want to be alone? You can stay alone as much as you want. while you're grounded!" And with that, she slammed the door closed, shaking some of the perfume bottles on my table. "Fine!" I shouted back, collapsing back on my bed and burying my face in my gigantic stuffed German Shepard. It was as if my life had done a total 180! Just a couple of hours ago, I was joking around with Lacey about my boyfriend, smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong. Then, Jason starts giving me the idea that my 'so-called' boyfriend really is so-called, and now this whole grade-thing with my mom erupted. I mean, was my life a soap opera, or what? At the least, a sitcom where people can watch my problems from behind the safety of a TV screen and just laugh. Well, I thought, at least Lacey wouldn't laugh. For a few moments, this eased me. Then, I cringed again. The instant I tell her about this one, she'll go all 'motherly' on me and side with my mom, like she normally does, trying to make me feel bad about what I did so everything will be smiles and sunshine, again. I sighed. Actually, that wasn't completely true. Sure, Lacey does side with Mom sometimes (not all the time), but she is generally right about things like that. And it's not like she tries purposely to make me feel bad. Somehow or other, I just do. But still, being reminded of all this, Lacey wasn't exactly the first person to talk to right now. In fact, knowing me, if I tried to talk to anybody, I'll most likely just end up blowing up in their faces, too, and getting them all ticked at me. Rolling to my side, I looked at the many pictures and posters plastered on my walls. Most of them were magazine and calendar cut outs of wolves (just to let you know, I LOVE wolves), but some tigers and horses were up there, too, along with drawings of my own. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't talk to anybody about my problems; it'll just make it even worse. It wasn't exactly like I could just forget about it all, and for some reason, my pride wouldn't allow me to go back and apologize to Mom. Again, I sighed. If only I could wish my problems away. Suddenly, my eyes fell on one of the pictures on the wall; one of the ones I drew, and was very proud of (if I do say so myself!). It was a picture of a teenage girl with long, bright red hair that brushed just past her waist (except for a few strands that framed her face) and large, emerald-green eyes. On the paper, she looked kinda tall, even though in reality, she'd be just a hair short. She wore a light blue sleeveless sweater with a white shirt underneath. The white shirt had short, puffy sleeves with the same light, blue-colored hem, and the bottom of the shirt kind of hung out beneath the sweater. A short, school-type blue skirt and long, blue socks adorned the outfit along with small, shiny black shoes. Now, if this were all one would see, you'd think she'd be an ordinary cartoon girl, right? But (thanks to my creative genius) that's certainly not all! Atop her head sat a pair of cute little cat-ears, the same red color as her hair. A red tail also curled around her from underneath her skirt. So, instead of being a regular teenage girl, I made her into an ultra-cute, cat person! Beneath the picture, the word 'Prance' was written in bold, pink letters. See, Prance was a character I had made up a long time ago. Like, years ago or something like that; not even I can remember how long. I totally came up with a whole story behind her, too, like her personality, where she's from, her bratty older sister, you name it! She's kind of become my alter-ego.. or more the kind of hero I've always dreamed of being. And, in spite of all the drama revolving around me right now, I smiled and closed my eyes.
To be able to run away to my own little world and have my own little adventures, not having to worry about all these stressful problems.
Then, I thought of something that actually made me giggle. Yeah, and as long as Lacey doesn't try to reprimand all the time, she can come, too. We can both have fun in our own worlds together. Sighing deeply, I suddenly found myself growing extremely tired. And, since I was on my very comfortable bed, and my eyes were already closed, it was only natural for me to drift off to sleep. At least, I think so..
The beginning
"C ome on! Hurry up!" "Heather, would you calm down? I'm going as fast as I can!" "Well go faster!" I muttered something under my breath as I turned and leaned against the lockers, hugging my books to my chest. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my best friend, Lacey, give me that look she always does. Rolling her eyes, she pulled another book from her backpack and slid it into her locker. "Chill out, already! Adam won't flee the planet before we get there!" I glared at her, though I couldn't help but smile bashfully. She knew me well. Too well. "Yeah, well, he'll probably go off campus and I don't want him to leave without me at least saying hi!" Lacey grinned maliciously, swinging her head around to look at me. "Hi? You sure that's it?" I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean?" "What about saying, 'I love you, Adam! Come sweep me off my feet and marry me!'" she exclaimed, waving her hands in the air emphatically. *SMACK!* "Hey!" she cried, rubbing her arm. "Why are you always hitting me?" "Cause you always deserve it!" I screamed. "Not all the time," she muttered quietly, fitting her last book in her backpack before shutting and locking her locker. Swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she looked at me and smiled, tilting her head to one side in that familiar way that meant she was pondering over something. "What are you smiling about?" I asked, walking beside her outside the double doors into the quad of Trabuco Hills High School. "Oh nothing. I was just thinking how ironic it was that we're technically the best of friends yet we do nothing but make fun of each other and torture one another." Despite my frustration at her earlier comment, I couldn't help but giggle. Count on Lacey to think of the deeper aspects of life. As we sped towards the theater, I glanced at her and thought about what she had said. She was right. We're almost completely different, yet it's strange how close we are. She walked with a smile on her face (I rarely saw her without one), her short, golden-auburn hair bouncing just below her shoulders. It really was an unusual color, almost coppery, though it held its own unique beauty, especially with her ever-changing hazel eyes and lightly freckled tanned skin (her mom is white and her dad is black). She wasn't at all fat; though she wasn't exactly an anorexic, too-skinny-for-her-own-good, runway model either. In my opinion she was just in the middle, well proportioned for her somewhat tall height. I was just about completely different. While her hair was short and a beautiful reddish, mine was long and a shiny dirty blonde (a little wavy, too, as a result of a recent perm). She has hazel eyes and mine were a clear blue. I'm just a hair shorter than she is, but again, well proportioned for my height. Though I dream for the day God will grant me skin as soft and clear as sand, I shall remain satisfied with the light skin I have (with easily flushable cheeks). Personality wise was another aspect of our personalities that were also absolutely un-alike. Lacey is the kind of friend you'd turn to when you feel bad and somehow will always make you smile. She's got that outgoing, hyper, crazy, funny personality that makes everyone around her in a good mood. Her mind is something I will never even attempt to interpret, and despite her insanity, she somehow manages to convince her teacher's she's smart enough to be in higher-level classes. How she does it, I will never know. Not that I'm dumb or anything. I'm really smart, too, and I get good grades. I have a crazy side, but I don't exactly tend to show it all that often in public. Trust me, if I were to show the full extent of my madness, I'd scare people. The side that others' generally see is my more sweet, caring, no-crap-tolerated side (intended 100% for Jason!). As different as the two of us are, we do share some things in common (believe it or not). We both love MUSHI! (Mushi- anything pertaining to love, romance, and lots and lots of KISSING!) and make sure we let the world know of our obsessions through our billions of fanfics. When we're not spending our time writing or drawing for our writing, we're either talking about guys, watching anime, or munching on See's milk chocolate toffee bars. Yeah, that's Lacey, and me, I thought, smiling to myself as we entered the theater. A world and a half apart, but still closer than ever. Noticing my quietness, Lacey paused and looked back at me curiously. "What's with you?" "Oh nothing." Lacey smirked. "Yeah right. Was it not you that said, and I quote, '"Nothing" always means a whole lot of "Something"'?" Oh yeah. Lacey has a real witty way with her words. I think she actually takes pride in this. "And your point would be?" Lacey merely laughed and shook her head. "Do I ever have one?" she replied, stepping up onto the stage. "Nope." I answered, following her. Turning behind the curtains on the right side of the stage, we opened a door leading into the practice and tech room. As Lacey went to lay her things on the practice stage, I cautiously peeked through the window on the door leading into the Tech room. "Sorry, Heather, but your lover-boy isn't here," said a voice, dripping with sarcasm and malice. A chill of annoyance slid down my back as I lifted my chin slightly higher and walked over to Lacey. "I wasn't looking for Adam, Jason. I was just-" "-looking for Adam." Lacey filled in, grinning. I glared at her, holding my fist close to her face. Lacey leaned back, holding her hands up in defense. "Hey, don't look at me! It was my imaginary friend! Honest!" I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest and closing my eyes. "I swear, both you and Jason are out to get me!" "Nah, it's just too much fun seeing you turn into a tomato." Jason cackled. I spun around, looking fiercely at Jason's large, ugly figure. And I'm not kidding when I say large! And let's just say what he lacks in petite-ness, he definitely makes up for in annoyance, sarcasm, and just plain rudeness! Sure, I suppose it's true when people consider him a comedic relief, but why does all his "comedy" have to involve me!? "Sorry, Heather, but I have to agree." I spun back around to face Lacey. She shrank back. "Again, my imaginary friend." "Yeah. Right." I muttered. Turning to Jason, I asked, "Where is he?" "Who, Adam? He went home a while ago. Right after the bell rang." "See? See? I told you!" I exclaimed accusingly, pointing my finger at Lacey. "I knew you should have moved faster!" "Hey, it's not my fault Adam decided to go home early!" Lacey replied defensively. "He always does!" "Yeah, Heather," Jason added slyly, "maybe that tells you something." I twirled around, not sure of whether to be angry or shocked. "What do you mean by that?" I asked suspiciously. "Think about it, Queen of the Blondes! He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" "Shut up, Jason," I spat. "That's not funny." "Hey, I'm not joking. I'm being completely honest." "Huh, that's a first!" Lacey said skeptically. "Okay, then, psychos," Jason replied, "Tell me this. When was the last time he actually came up to you and said hi?" "He said hi to me today at snack!" I declared defensively. "No," he began, "saying hi as a result of you going up to him first doesn't count. When was the last time HE sought you out to say hi?" I glared at Jason, slowly growing more and more angry with him for some reason I wasn't sure of. This was Jason- it's practically human nature for people to get mad at him. But for once, I found myself turning cold on the inside. Deep on the inside. Jason could tell this. "See? I told you." He said, turning to go back into the Tech room. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, but was too stunned to turn. "Heather, you okay?" Lacey asked softly. "Aw, is the poor little baby scared?" Jason cooed sarcastically. "Shut up, Jason! Leave her alone!" Lacey demanded. Grinning viciously from ear to ear, Jason merely shrugged and walked into the Tech room, slamming the door behind him as he left. Of course, I was hardly in a state to notice. Man, I wasn't even in a state to care. Was what Jason said true? Could it possibly be? Then, like the friend she was, Lacey interrupted my thoughts by gently saying, "Come on, Heather, don't pay attention to Jason. Hey," she added in a more cheerful tone, "you never did before, so why start now?" She was right. In the past, I had always disregarded Jason's lame comments. So why did this one seem to stick to me so much? It was a question I pondered the rest of lunch. Despite Lacey's efforts to shake me out of my trance (whether it's like some sixth sense of hers or what, she somehow always can tell when people are down, no matter how much they try to hide it from her, and this especially applies to me!), I couldn't keep Jason's words out of my head. "He wants to get away from the insanity known as you!" Like some really messed up music box, these same words repeated themselves over and over again in my mind, even as I lay in my room on my bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. Suddenly, a voice shook me violently from my thoughts. "Hello? Is anybody in there?" I rolled my eyes. Mothers. Someone wanna remind me why we need them again? "Come in." I muttered. The door opened, and my mother, Cheryl Berg, walked in, hands on her hips, looking like she was about to lecture me on the importance of room maintenance or some other "mother pet-peeve." "Uh, excuse me? Did you even know I was out there, banging on your door for, like, five minutes?" she began. "Sorry to have abused those precious moments of your ever-demanding schedule, Mom." I replied, more sharply than I had intended. My mom stared at me, changing arm positions from on the hip to crossed (which, in "parental body language", means 'watch out, you're treading on borderline danger zone!). "Well, first of all, what's with the attitude?" she demanded. I sighed, turning to my side, facing away from her. "I'm just not in a good mood right now, okay?" I couldn't see, but I knew she probably did some form of eye rolling just then. "Yeah? Well, I highly suggest you get yourself in a good mood next time you decide to talk to me like that, got it?" Not answering, I closed my eyes, pretending to try and sleep. "That silence had better be your declaration of submission," she warned, probably narrowing her eyes at me suspiciously. "And speaking of silence, why didn't you say anything about this!?" Too tired to sit up, I merely turned my head to glance at the paper dangling between her fingers. All I needed was to see the white and brown coloring of the school district document to inwardly cringe, knowing exactly what was coming next. "Don't you ignore me, Heather Renee Berg! Were you planning on 'just- so-happening' to forget to tell me about these? I mean, come on! How stupid do you think I am?" I bit my lip, refusing to answer (though with the mood I was in, I desperately wanted to). "I mean look at this!" she continued, looking at the progress report herself. "One B, three C's, two D's and an F!?! Did you actually think you could get away with me not finding out?" Suddenly, I felt all my anger and frustration completely burst as I stood up and twirled around to face my mom. "Hey, it's not like I tried to hide my grades from you! You got them in the mail, just like everyone else, so don't blame it on me!" "Hey, watch it, young lady! You can't just sit there and talk to me like that!" "Oh yeah? So, just because I came out of you, you think I'm just going to sit back and watch while you totally blame me for something that isn't even my fault!" Just then, my mom got this really nasty look in her eyes as she threw my progress report on the ground. "Heather, are you blind? Right now, I couldn't even care less about that! What's with your grades? That's what I'm ticked about!" "So what?" I screamed back, becoming more and more furious as I went on. "It's only a progress report! Six weeks, Mom. Not that big of a deal. I'll bring them up!" "Heather, that's not the point!" she exclaimed, already starting to sound worn out. "Your grades never should have been there in the first place. What were you thinking?" I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands up in the air emphatically. "Oh, yeah, now I wasn't thinking. What a horrible person I am!" "That's not what I said!" "I don't care what you said! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed in full fury. I could tell I really surprised Mom (and actually, I kinda surprised myself, too!) cause for the next few moments, she just stood there with a look of complete shock on her face. And during all this, I'm thinking What the heck am I doing? Finally, after what felt like forever, Mom just turned and walked towards the door. "Fine," she spat, "You want to be alone? You can stay alone as much as you want. while you're grounded!" And with that, she slammed the door closed, shaking some of the perfume bottles on my table. "Fine!" I shouted back, collapsing back on my bed and burying my face in my gigantic stuffed German Shepard. It was as if my life had done a total 180! Just a couple of hours ago, I was joking around with Lacey about my boyfriend, smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong. Then, Jason starts giving me the idea that my 'so-called' boyfriend really is so-called, and now this whole grade-thing with my mom erupted. I mean, was my life a soap opera, or what? At the least, a sitcom where people can watch my problems from behind the safety of a TV screen and just laugh. Well, I thought, at least Lacey wouldn't laugh. For a few moments, this eased me. Then, I cringed again. The instant I tell her about this one, she'll go all 'motherly' on me and side with my mom, like she normally does, trying to make me feel bad about what I did so everything will be smiles and sunshine, again. I sighed. Actually, that wasn't completely true. Sure, Lacey does side with Mom sometimes (not all the time), but she is generally right about things like that. And it's not like she tries purposely to make me feel bad. Somehow or other, I just do. But still, being reminded of all this, Lacey wasn't exactly the first person to talk to right now. In fact, knowing me, if I tried to talk to anybody, I'll most likely just end up blowing up in their faces, too, and getting them all ticked at me. Rolling to my side, I looked at the many pictures and posters plastered on my walls. Most of them were magazine and calendar cut outs of wolves (just to let you know, I LOVE wolves), but some tigers and horses were up there, too, along with drawings of my own. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't talk to anybody about my problems; it'll just make it even worse. It wasn't exactly like I could just forget about it all, and for some reason, my pride wouldn't allow me to go back and apologize to Mom. Again, I sighed. If only I could wish my problems away. Suddenly, my eyes fell on one of the pictures on the wall; one of the ones I drew, and was very proud of (if I do say so myself!). It was a picture of a teenage girl with long, bright red hair that brushed just past her waist (except for a few strands that framed her face) and large, emerald-green eyes. On the paper, she looked kinda tall, even though in reality, she'd be just a hair short. She wore a light blue sleeveless sweater with a white shirt underneath. The white shirt had short, puffy sleeves with the same light, blue-colored hem, and the bottom of the shirt kind of hung out beneath the sweater. A short, school-type blue skirt and long, blue socks adorned the outfit along with small, shiny black shoes. Now, if this were all one would see, you'd think she'd be an ordinary cartoon girl, right? But (thanks to my creative genius) that's certainly not all! Atop her head sat a pair of cute little cat-ears, the same red color as her hair. A red tail also curled around her from underneath her skirt. So, instead of being a regular teenage girl, I made her into an ultra-cute, cat person! Beneath the picture, the word 'Prance' was written in bold, pink letters. See, Prance was a character I had made up a long time ago. Like, years ago or something like that; not even I can remember how long. I totally came up with a whole story behind her, too, like her personality, where she's from, her bratty older sister, you name it! She's kind of become my alter-ego.. or more the kind of hero I've always dreamed of being. And, in spite of all the drama revolving around me right now, I smiled and closed my eyes.
To be able to run away to my own little world and have my own little adventures, not having to worry about all these stressful problems.
Then, I thought of something that actually made me giggle. Yeah, and as long as Lacey doesn't try to reprimand all the time, she can come, too. We can both have fun in our own worlds together. Sighing deeply, I suddenly found myself growing extremely tired. And, since I was on my very comfortable bed, and my eyes were already closed, it was only natural for me to drift off to sleep. At least, I think so..
