Chapter Five:

Snap Out Of It

Kelsey

"That's it. I'm sending you home." Dad levels a look at Bella, who's stirring her cereal around in her bowl. Mid January now and Bella's as zombie-like as ever. I want to smack her, but Dad made me promise not to be violent.

"I am home." Bella responds dully. I shove the last of my eggs in my mouth and grab a napkin to wrap my two slices of toast in.

"As much as I'd love to watch this, I'm gonna be late. Buy, Dad. Love you."

"Love you too, Kelsey. Be careful, yeah?"

I flash him a thumbs-up and head out to my car. The second-hand Lexis had been a welcome gift from Dad. Bella got a truck that looks like it hasn't seen the light of day since the 1960s. Probably hasn't.

I set my phone in the cupholder after getting it hooked into the Bluetooth system before pulling out of the driveway. I don't hurry on the wax to school; I actually left early so I wouldn't have to deal with Bella's stupid reactions.

I pull up outside the Coffee Bean, the local coffee shop run by Lauren Mallory's mom. They have killer caramel apple lattes. They're worth the blood sugar spike that comes with drinking liquid sugar. I get it even if I bolus for the right number of carbs; liquid sugar just raises blood sugar real fast. Of course, I can always bring it down via correction dose when it spikes, so that's something. And my DexCom will help me keep a close eye on where it's headed.

I end up buying a chocolate chip muffin, which I eat on the way to school instead of the toast. Now I really am almost late.

I'm kinda surprised when Jessica Stanley pulls me aside before third period. Jessica and I aren't exactly friends. She's the gossip mill in town, right along with Lauren Mallory. And I don't do gossip.

"Bella asked me for a girls' night. She wants to see Dead End." I crack up.

"No way! Damn." I know it's the result of Dad's ultimatum, and feel it's only fair to warn Jessica. "She's probably only doing it because Dad threatened to send her back to Forks if she didn't get her shit together. Let me guess, she suggested a movie that's been out for months?" Jessica nods. "Thought so. Just pretend you don't know anything and enjoy the look on her face when she realizes what she resembles now." I quip. Jessica laughs.

"Okay. Will do. Thanks, Kelsey."

"No problem."

"What was that about?" Karla Rosario, my good friend, asks from her spot leaning against my locker.

"Bella's trying to get back to being friends with Jessica and them. And she's only doing that because Dad yelled at her to snap out of it."

Karla rolls her dark brown eyes. "Wow. I feel so bad for Jessica." Then, whispered, "I never thought I'd say that."

I meet up with Karla outside the cafeteria after fourth period chemistry. She had fourth period English and is prone to making stupid English jokes and trying to speak in Shakespearian.

"How art thou?" Karla smirks.

"Fine. Shall we see what poison the cafeteria cooked up?"

As it turns out, the cafeteria fare is less edible than normal. I take one look and decide to skip lunch, a luxury that modern diabetes treatment affords me.

"So, do you think you'll do to the dance?" Karla asks.

"No. Nobody to go with." I say. This is partially true; Alexander Blake had asked me to go last week, but he broke his ankle and can't dance. I could still have gone with him, but we'd just be standing awkwardly together against the back wall of the gym. Not exactly fun times.

"You should totally sign up for a committee." Karla says, her eyes sparkling.

"Who's signing up?" Emma Monroe claims the seat next to Karla.

"Kelsey." Karla says.

"Great! That makes you the first person to sign up." Emma says. She's the chair of the Valentine Dance, and I guess nobody signed up to work with her.

I take back my refusal to join the committee. Emma's cool and it's clear she needs some help.

"Cool. You got a preference for where you want me?" I ask.

"Yes. Decorations. And food. And music. Can you do all three?" Emma speaks a mile a minute as usual. "This is the last day to sign up; we can't let it drag on any longer."

"Yeah. I got you." I say. I have nothing better to do.

So that's how I find myself folding origami on the front stoop of Billy Black's house. I'd intended to stay home, but Bella was there and in full bitch mode, so that didn't work out.

I'm making the origami hearts to hang from the rafters. Why they held the Valentine Dance the day after Valentine's day, I do not know. But the deadline is fast approaching; Emma was right, we gotta move.

I'm sitting in a pile of origami hearts, roses and some paper lanterns that I made with the help of a YouTube tutorial. I'm not artistic, but I'm good at origami and it's hard to mess up paper lanterns when someone is literally guiding you through every step of the process.

"I need to run to Seattle for some good crepe paper. We can put it around the doors and windows." I muse to myself, reaching for the knife I'm using to cut out a new circle for the lantern.

"Shit!" I curse; I'd sliced my hand open; blood flows freely down on the lantern circle. "Shit." I mutter again before digging through my backpack with my good hand and removing my first aid kit. I pull out some tissues and press them hard against the bleeding gash.

Stupid. Stupid. I berate myself as I clean myself up. I'd been so distracted by thinking of decorations that I'd screwed up. Thus violating an important rule of knife safety: be fucking careful with the knife!

I study the cut on my palm. Medium-sized, but not deep enough to leave a scar or require stitches. I wipe it thoroughly with an alcohol swab, trying to ignore my OCD telling me that I could have picked up an infection from the opened pack of tissues; I'd lent to Karla last time she'd had a cold. I scrub just a bit harder before smacking a band-aid on top.

I make sure to pay better attention to what I'm doing from then on. I'm pleased to say that one cut was my only casualty. I did, however, get rid of the lantern circle; the theme of the dance isn't horror, after all.

A/n: Hi, guys. I'm updating, y'all! I don't actually have COVID, so yay! I hope you enjoy this chapter, y'all! Please review and let me know. Thanks!

Later!

Lauren.

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Twilightfanjm: Thanks! I'm glad you love Kelsey as a character. I actually wrote Kelsey with OCD because I have OCD, too. I've lived with it since I was fourteen, and I want readers to relate to the characters I write. I hope you like this chapter, too; please review and let me know.