Well that's the most random beginning to a story I've ever written. Almost all monologue as April Rhodes on her deep down secret love and a life of struggle. Oh well, I hope ya like!
Oops! Thanks to my friend AnimegirlTohru for my current title: Shattered and Healed Dreams, you rule! See ya in high school!
Btw I'm starting my freshman year of high school with honors L.A. and Science, Geometry, drawing, and Spanish (omg Mr. Schuester on glee teaches Spanish hahahaha I'm a dork) and I plan to try out for the school play and cheerleading so FYI I might write less often… our school seriously needs a glee club! And I have the perfect teacher in mind to be a real-life Will Schuester! He sings, plays guitar and knows Broadway, not to mention that he's also pretty good lookin' (me: *blushes*). Okay sorry! I'm rambling! Enjoy the story!
This time I'll make it… I hope…
It's the next morning and my doubts have completely vanished. For the first time in years I feel… confident. And I don't mean that strutting around that I do in public and with the glee club. That's all an act… kinda like the rest of me.
People always see me confident, proud, and often drunk. But that's not really me… okay, well the drunk is but that enhances that act I keep up. So I'm gonna be completely honest with ya-I have practically no self esteem and I pretty much hate myself for being who I am. I'm ashamed. I've always been the floozy alcoholic, or that short girl who lost everything. I'm hoping this new start will change that.
I continue to walk down the streets (I sold my car since you can't really drive anywhere in the city) and at this point I've gotten to a quieter street when I hear something down an alleyway.
"Um, hello?" I call down the dark street, unable to see a thing.
Something isn't right here. Maybe I'm hearing things. Maybe it's just an aftereffect to being sober after such a long time drunk. It's nothing…
Something in my instincts tells me to turn in my six inch death defying heels and run in the opposite direction. Instead, I feel myself walking forward.
This ain't gonna end well…
And it doesn't. Just as I think this someone grabs me. I begin to struggle when someone punches me. I try to yell when someone covers my mouth and so I start trying to kick, punch or scratch whoever this is as much as I can but I still can't see anything that clearly. They continue to punch and beat me… and everything goes black.
~•~•~•~•~•~
Hours later, my senses begin to come back. I don't what time it is, but I can tell it's late. It's dark outside and it's pouring down rain.
Wait… where's my stuff?
I begin to sit up and try to see through the dark when a pain shoots up from my neck to the back of my head.
"Owww…" I mutter, rubbing my head and feeling a bump on it.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Suddenly, it all begins to come back to me. The noises, the alleyway, the attack… then blackness.
Once the pain begins to lessen I get back up (much throbbing in the process) and look through the dark for my stuff-it's gone.
I bend down and feel around and my hand meets one of my bags. I quickly grab for it and feel around for my cell which is nowhere inside.
I start searching around in it for something, anything, left.
Nothing. I don't have anything. All of my bags are gone, WITH all of my belongings.
But I like my belongings… that's why they belong to me!
I continue looking around in my bag. It's completely empty.
Two million. I just lost TWO MILLION DOLLARS!
Okay, well… almost two million. I spent a little bit of it on some new clothes and the auditorium for the glee club.
Feeling even more angry at myself than ever before, I begin walking back to town, wondering where to go.
1. A bar. It's always been so easy to find some guy who'll offer to buy me a drink and take me home… no, I've decided to stop doing that. Will said I'm better than that… and we arrive at option two…
2. Will. Well I don't know about that either… want would he think about me getting mugged? Well after getting over whatever I'd done he always helps me up and sets me back on track. But I feel so much like I'd be a freeloader just going there.
Well I don't have much option, do I?
Glad that I know Lima like the back of my hand (well, up until now… it's covered in scratches), I start off in the general direction of Will's apartment when a shot of pain shoots through my ankle. I notice that I'm still wearing my heels and slide them off.
Dang it, those were Jimmy Choos. I paid a bunch for those… oh well, I broke a heel anyway.
I start walking again but my ankle is still in agony so I start limping. As I head down the streets, the weight of this situation begins to sink down on me.
I'm broke, alone, and sober. The three things I hate most. Well actually, when it comes to sober, I'm trying to work on that (another fact on me: when I drunk, it's usually because I'm trying to drown out depression). But either way, I've always hated being alone and I've found myself broke many times. There's a reason for both. As I begin to think clearly for the first time in I don't know how long, memories begin flooding back to me…
When I was a kid, I was always lonely. Both of my parents were always too busy with either work or their social life to deal with a daughter. The only time they would (sometimes) acknowledge me would be to pretend to be proud when I would win a local singing competition (even though I won every freaking one) or to give me some kind of present for landing the lead in the school or local play/musical (again. Got. It. Every. Single. Dang. Time.). Being the type who always needs to be in the spotlight, that motivated me to win every competition and to get every lead hoping that I would finally win my parents love… or at least get them to notice me.
By the time I got to high school, I had given up on that and noticed that I had caught a lot of the boys attention. Every day I would spend as the school's biggest star. I was considered a goddess, talented and popular, then and every night I would be going to some party or seeing some person or another. That way I was never really lonely… though really deep down I still wanted my parents to at least NOTICE me, so I decided to become the biggest star on the Broadway… and oh, DID I GET NOTICED.
I dropped out of high school. Then they noticed me, but not the way I had planned…
"APRIL! Why would you do somethin' so STUPID?" my mother yelled.
"I'm gonna be a Broadway star! I should start as soon as possible!" I raise my voice also to emphasize my point.
"That won't help you at all! All you did was disappoint the family!" my father shouts.
"Like ya even NOTICED ME!" I retorted, my hurt and anger rising from me, "How could I let ya down when you were just IGNORING me every day!"
"Now don't start, you imp!"
I must interject here that both of my parents are tall or at least an average height. To this day I don't know why I'm so short.
"Ya know what! I'm done! I'm not gonna keep trying to get your attention when you obviously don't care! (my voice miraculously going up another octave or so… daddy always resented my height and my high-pitched speaking voice…) I'm going to Broadway and I'm gonna DO IT!" I yelled in my I'm-April-Rhodes-so-I'll-do-whatever-I-dang-well-please voice.
With that, I stomped out of my home forever with my dad yelling, "AND DON'T BOTHER COMIN' BACK!"
Yup. That's my parents. First they ignore me, then they yell at me for leaving school, suddenly acting like my education is IMPORTANT! What kind of technique is that for raising a daughter?
A while after that (time moved so fast I don't even know how much passed), I found myself broke, alone, and pregnant in New York City. Eventually I slowly traveled Cleveland. Things got worse from there and I eventually made my way back to Lima where I knew I didn't have anywhere to go.
Just like now.
Wow… I must have been lost in my memories for a while-I'm already at the apartment building and up to his room.
I wring out my golden curls a little (like that's gonna help any), try to straighten up my clothing a little, hope my bruises from earlier aren't that bad (they probably are), and gently knock at his door.
CHAPTER THREE Y'ALL! Yes I know that was kinda mean to do to April but there's a reason in my story for all of this! Just ya wait! Also, her past: nobody really knows it, and if ya read the Rhodes series (note: there will be 2 "acts" when I'm done) she's got a totally different background. That is because I'm making up different ones since they never revealed a real one, and if ya don't like it… DEAL WITH IT!