Meet Gwen
There she was. Just another girl. Gwen thought her life was just as any other's.
She was never a great and popular person in school, in fact, she was more of a lonesome and a bookworm. She was the youngest one in her grade and had gone through more than ten different schools. The reason for this constant change had never been to clear to her, even though she did question it as any curious sixteen year old would. Once, they even took her out of the middle of a class in one school to put her in another school. Even though the last change in schools was by her own will, she could not help but wonder.
Her life, she thought, was boring, very boring, if she were to tell it to anyone she would definitely bore him or her to tears. This were the things that passed through her head as she racked her brains out for pointers on very important things in her life she could put on her essay. She was not going to tell the complete truth and spill her life out in an essay for a grade. If Miss Tonina thought she would, she was a fool!. Nobody was completely truthful when it came to cursy-titled-easays such as the one she was doing right now. But it still made you think about it. "Damn! What the hell should I write in this stupid paper!"
"Imagine your life was a road and the buildings alongside it were the most important occurrences on your life. Starting from your birth, state and explain those occurrences which you find fascinating in your own life."
Gwen stared at her paper. The only things that came to her where the numerous school changes. She never felt anything when she left one school for the other, except maybe the last one, and at that she could only muster relief from that experience. Saint Larry's Academy was a very good school in terms of faculty, grounds, and linage, but all of those things could do nothing when it came to bullies, and when a whole class is full of them, it really makes one who isn't want to leave. That was the reason Gwen asked to be changed
Her mother was the one who's life had had any type of fun in it, she though, Gwen thought that her mother's life had been a difficult one, but she had taken it bravely and had come through. Any part of her life with any fun or important occurrence was always protagonisted by her mother. When my mother married for the first time and I had a father for once... When my mother moved with me to the US after her divorce it was the start of a new life for us... This were the thoughts passing through her mind as she tried to write.
Gwen had learned from her very early childhood that people come and go, and that it was of no use to have any type of emotional bond with people who she knew she was never again going to see after she left his school for another, because this is the way she thought, give a little of yourself away and you will never get it back. The only constant thing in her life was her own mother, who would always be there, or so she thought. She shuddered at the thought of what would happen to her if her mother was not there, even though she annoyed her daughter to no end, she gave her a roof, clothes and affection. Gwen was not really poor, her mother was a very successful merchant and her schooling had been of the best quality. Gwen had always been put with high IQ classes because of her own, and even though she made no effort at all Gwen found that she could always pass up with fairly good grades (which of course where never high enough for Gwen's mother…Parents!)
Time to go back to that paper Gwen, she reminded herself. She risked a peak at the paper on the desk beside her,
When I was 6 years old I learned how to ride a bicycle…
It seems like the bigger the scrawl, the smaller the brain. Gwen reflected on the stupidity of us human beings for letting our self over-important egos making us believe that our lives are anything but important. Please, who cares about when some stupid kid learned to ride a bike? Even my mother forgets that type of things. She was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea wish would satisfy the over-sentimentalist teacher. So she started writing in her own medium sized, maybe even small script, an invented tragic story on the many non-existent friends on her many schools and how it pained her tragically every one of those loses
…And then, in the mists of my solitude trapped in my own world, created by the continuous turns of events in my own nomadic lifestyle, again a group of wondrous adventurers got past the jungles of my mind and trapped my heart in friendship…
By the time Gwen had finished the last masterful touches, she had concluded a very deceiving masterpiece, if she said so herself.
Now, Gwen thought, all I have to do is wait. And wait… And wait… Gods! I hate waiting, when will the stupid ring bell so I can go have my damn lunch? I'm hungry! What the..? Liliana is turning her paper in, and here I thought that you had to wait, isn't that what Miss Tonina said at the beginning of the term? That we would have to wait to give in any type of paper in an orderly fashion starting from the back of the files and working themselves up to the front? That if not be met by the consequences? Life is not fair! Words are only used to tell lies! I know this shouldn't surprise my by now, but it is still deceiving. Oh well, I suppose that is the world we live in, I suppose I should take my paper to the teacher's desk, that done, maybe I will be able to read in peace, or for at least enough time for the rest of the class to finish their essays and start speaking (or shrieking, and I so lovingly call the animal noises they so gracefully cover by naming it speech).
Gwen did not consider herself a social person and did not try to be something she was not, she much preferred a book over a bunch of petty conversation which most of the time she did not understand the half of. She was polite enough to reply when she was spoken to and tried to make up conversation when she was alone with someone, for some reason, she felt awkward when somebody she didn't trust was alone with her, so she tried to make up conversation to fill in the noise... it usually was just small-talk. The problem was not the people, she thought, it's just that I simply cannot adapt to their talk. There are few times I've ever felt comfortable with other people and these times can be counted with the fingers of one hand.
"Missis Gwen, please, put that book down and work on your assignment" said the annoying voice of Miss. Tonina.
"Sorry Miss. Tonina, I already finished"
Oh, oh. Bad move. Now everybody turned around in their seats to glare at me. Again strikes the great show off.
"Well, Missis Gwen give me your paper and put down that book, the class hasn't finished yet and you will disturb them"
I gave her a look that clearly said: Do you know how stupid you sounded? Me. Disturbing the class. By reading? I glanced to another direction: There Liliana is, already very much engaged in what seems to be a delightful conversation. But no, always pick on the bookworm. Does that stupid woman think that she will gain popularity amongst students by picking on me? She is dumber than I thought.
"Well Miss Gwen? I'm waiting" she said singing the last part, as if challenging me to tell on my fellow students, but I knew better than to transfer my responsibility on to anyone else.
I clenched my jaw biting back a few choice words, stood up and walked to her desk, left the paper, but not before seeing the ridiculously smug grin in her face. What is her problem?
I sat back down on my desk and got bored after about a minute. It might seem that I never do anything, but I can never be without doing something, whether it is reading or thinking or counting or watching something in movement. Not many people stopped and looked at the wonders of the world. Not many people tried to put themselves in other's shoes, not many people would just look at something. Anything. And detail it.
Gwen had just about exhausted the possibilities of observation in this classroom from the first day of school, when all the teachers start babbling about useless introductions. People where always fun to watch, but they all feel kind of uncomfortable when you are looking at them, so Gwen started making a drawing on her desk. She was never a very good painter, that honour went to Adam, Gwen's cousin. She still liked to try though.
Contrary other families, Gwen's was very united. Her best friends where her cousins, or at least she thought of them that way. Her family consisted of her maternal grandmother, her mother, her aunt, and her cousins, Adam and Ember.
The bell ringed and I grabbed my backpack and left the school. I didn't even bother going to the locker to leave unnecessary luggage, I might want to read the material anyways… if I got bored enough.
Gwen took out her car keys, put her backpack in the back seat and got into the car. Her mother had given her the car on her birthday and she had brought her foreign driver's licence from her native country. She started driving home while caught up in her own thoughts and memories…
The essay was not completely lies. Lies are unpractical, you have to start telling more lies to support the first one and then, the lies start crashing with reality and truth makes it fall all over you. It is much easier to base them on the truth: She and her mother had been nomadic. At first it was only from one place to the other in the same city. Then it had extended through the country until at last it had become international.
The place changes had affected very little of Gwen at first, when she was a child and her whole family travelled together. She remembered when it was only Adam and Gwen. And then Adam, Gwen and his annoying little sister. And then Adam, Gwen, and Ember.
At some point in her life her family had drifted apart. Aunt Pecker, mom, Adam and I went to North America; and Ember and grandmother stayed in the south. Adam and Gwen were always seen together. That was the first time that either of them had visited another country. The language was strange, everything was scary and unfamiliar. They only had each other. But as they learned the language, they did not have to rely on their family so much. Eventually they started to adapt to life there, as children tend to do. Later that year Ember had come to live with them and mom had gone back to grandmother. Ember and I didn't hit of well and frequently Adam had to be referee to the fights between us.
She would forever remember those times because those were the last times she lived with them, at least consciously. Gwen was sure that a year afterward, the whole family returned to grandmother's. They all reunited that December in Lumenor, as they called the place, and lived there for a period of time. Gwen could have sworn that the time they passed there was much more than only a month, but as they didn't have calendars and there was no need to keep time on vacations, the children didn't worry about it.
It was about that time that the doubts had begun. Strange thoughts and dreams. Reality started to shatter the spell of happiness that is childhood.
It was about that time that the bond Gwen felt with her cousins had grown…
After that, Gwen had moved with her mother to South Africa, and then France, then Austria, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, and finally England.
She passed some time in each of these countries though not long enough to be considered a resident. She remembered England most of all which she visited at 10 years of age, because she felt very identified there. Especially at the entrance halls of the great castles and the gardens of Versailles which she once visited. The place was full of history and beautiful places, but they had to leave according to Gwen's mother, because everything was way too expensive.
They had returned to South America, where Gwen found out how much of a bookworm she was. She spent almost all her time in books and rarely saw to anything else. Gwen and her mother had returned to Lumenor for a year when she was thirteen years old and a very miserable girl. It was about that time that Gwen noticed how far away her cousins where and how their relationship had deteriorated, so she set herself to fix it.
About two years later though, Gwen and her mother moved out of the country to England. It was the only time Gwen had asked her mother not to leave, she had cried and tried, but it was useless.
At last Gwen got home. She started cooking for herself and put on her music. She was feeling melancholy, so she put some evanescence and started to sing along. She wasn't such a great singer either, that honour would be given to Ember, but she liked to sing anyways. She got a book out and started to read. After her food had been finished she started to eat while she started the computer and logged into messenger. She smiled as she saw her cousin Ember was connected.
À bon entendeur salut, says:
Heeeeeeeeeelllllllllllooooooooo Emmmmmmbbbbbeeeeerrrrrr!-
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
Hey! What's with the French nick?
À bon entendeur salut, says:
Only a joke, for me to know and for u to find out ;)hehehe, and what's with the love peace and prosperity thingy?
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
(blushes) I have a new boyfriend and he is SO cute! (blushes some more if possible)
À bon entendeur salut, says:
What! Who? When? How? Tell me everything, is it the undying love of yur life again?
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
Shut up! This guy is 4 real!… I think
À bon entendeur salut, says:
Reeaallyy…hummm. Sure, right, that's right. (notice the sarcasm)
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
Well he is. Maybe... Besides, you still haven't told me the "joke"
À bon entendeur salut, says:
it means: to an understanding person, few words are necessary.
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
soo... whats the catch? Whats the joke?
À bon entendeur salut, says:
À bon entendeur salut!
Amor paz y prosperidad, says:
AAARRRGGGHHH! Good thing im not there to rip your gusts out!
Those words, even though they were just tease words, jesting words, struck me terribly. Good thing I'm not there… How I wish you were here my cousin.