Chapter 1: Free
"All over the world butterflies soar into the hearts of man, they sail boundless and free, speaking the universal language of beauty."
~K. D'Angelo
It is the first day of 8th grade and being free as I, Aislinn, aka "Dream" O'Neill walk into the freshly cleaned junior high. The floors are neatly waxed and the lockers are freshly painted. The bathroom stalls are cleaned of their scars from pencils and pens writing things like "AO+MM=True Love" or "I Love Billy". I walk down the crowded halls to my assigned locker, number 84, and put in my combo, 30-4-24 and it opens with a click. I put my new binders, notebooks, and other school supplies into the locker and toss my lunch bag on the top shelf, while hanging my jacket on the hook. Before shutting my locker and going off to first period, I grab a sticker and write "Be Mike's girlfriend, for real." And put in in my skirt pocket. I go through first period in a disappointed manner; Mike Mancinello was not in my first period class.
I walk hopefully out of the girls' locker room off to second period, social studies. "Maybe he'll be in this class…" I think to myself. I walk into the classroom 204 and walk right into…MIKE! Yay! I yelp and he apologizes, "Hey A! Haven't seen you in a while. Maybe we can hang out sometime, like go to a movie." I stand there stunned and say, "Yeah, I would love to! Oh yeah, you can call whenever now and come over anytime too!" He replies, "Awesome! I'd love too!" and we scurry off to two open seats next to my best friend Maize. The bell rings and our teacher, Mr. Pindell, who immediately raises his voice, telling us to be quiet. "Oh dear," I think to myself, "He is going to be a problem. Ugh."
During third period, my Italian class with Mrs. Caraccio. Mike is not in this class, but I am not too bummed out, because I know I have at least one class with him. But, I am pretty bummed when I see Sue-Ellen aka Snoot-Melon sitting across from me. Ugh. Why her?
During the school day, I am blessed to have four classes with Mike. Social Studies, 6th period English with Mr. Lemper. We also have 7th period Band with Mr. Grey, and 9th period Reading with Mr. Nassa together. When I get home, my mother greets me at the door of our new home. The home my father has always wanted to get us. We finally got it! After my father practically dying from over drinking, he decided to clean up his act. He has been going to AA meetings (it took a lot of convincing) and has slowly stopped drinking. He is now limited to no more than 5 or 6 glasses a day, that may sound like a lot of drinks, but when he used to drink multiple bottles of alcohol a day, it is very little and he is going through withdrawal. When I go up to my OWN room, I find my sister C sitting on the floor playing with her dolls waiting for me to join her, I do. I played dolls with her until the phone rang…it was Mike! I answered the phone, "Hey Mike-."