She survived
Bingo doesn't care if she is being dramatic, but she survived her first day of middle school.
Hooray
And to celebrate, she and her sister Bluey convinced their parent to have fish and chips for dinner.
Oh, fish and chips, a staple food in the countries of the Commonwealth of the Crown in London—battered fried fish with a side of fried crunchy potato chips. Bingo's mouth salivates at the thought of that definitely not-healthy combination.
Finally, she has an entire plate in front of her in the safety and comfort of her home.
Night has fallen, the city out of the balcony rests, and nature continues its course in the dark. Inside the two-story house in western Brisbane, a family of four heelers peacefully eats their homemade fish and chips.
After biting half the battered fish in a single action, Bingo hears her father asking on her right, "Soo, how was school today?"
Her sister, Bluey, right next to her on her left, answers right away, "It was good. Most of my friends are in the same history class where I'm at"
"Wow, that's lucky," The Mother says. On the other side of the table, Chili comfortably replies, "What about you, Bingo? How did your first day of school go?"
Bingo swallowed the fish down her throat, mentally debating what to say. Her day went 50/50 on the happiness/sadness scale, so…Down the Middle Road?
"It was…good," Bingo said, playing with a chip on her plate to calm herself down.
"You see?" Bandit starts speaking happily. "We told you it would be fun in middle school."
"It wasn't!" Bingo snapped at her father. "I didn't have fun in there. Yeah, sure, it was good in the sense that everything could have been worse, but I didn't like it."
"Just…" Chilli closes her eyes, holding herself back. She rethinks what she wants to say and tells her daughter, "It's normal to feel like this on your first day; give it a couple of days, and it will be better."
"I guess…" Bingo gives up talking; with an elbow on the table, she supports her head on her hand and grabs the rest of the fish to send it to her mouth
Bingo and her family kept eating their fish and chips peacefully; it didn't take long for Bingo to fish both her fish and move on to the rest of the fries.
"Hey, Bingo," Bluey calls her out of the blue.
"Yes…"
"Where were you during lunch break?"
"Oh!" Bingo's eyebrow jumped up. She didn't say anything to her before standing up from the table and talking to Dougie…because she was busy talking to her friends…but the truth had to come out eventually. "I was talking to a new friend," she answers.
"A New friend? For real life?" Bluey questions again
"Yeah…" Bingo 100 percent knows what her sister is going to say next, but she is too tired to avoid the obvious follow-up conversation "...Do you know the deaf boy who is with us in Math?"
"The deaf Cavapoo, you looked at the entire class, yeah?"
"Wait, what!?" Chilli and Bandit both exclaimed at the same time
"Girls!" Chilli is the first parent to speak, "You can't refer to them as deaf. You have to refer to them as 'hard hearing.'"
"And what did we tell you girls about dogs with disabilities?" Bandit continues with the scolding, "Don't look at them too long."
"That's what I said!" Bluey exasperatedly tells her father, "You should have seen Bingo in that class. She looked like the old pug lady whenever a car with a rainbow sticker drives by."
"Bingo…" both parent slowly shift their sights on the red Heeler, expecting an answer from her
"Ok, yeah, im sorry," a high pitch apologetic tone came out of Bingo. "I couldn't help it. He looked so happy to finally hear and react and-"
"Bingo…" Bluey stops her. "Are you in love with him?"
"What!?" Bandit Exclaimed, accidentally smashing the table with his palm and open long eyes
"No!..." Bingo shut down her question, and tears started to form in her throat from the pressure of being in the spotlight. "I was just amazed, that little device on him, it made him finally hear and talk like a normal person would."
"I wouldn't go as far as saying he is a 'normal person,'" Chilli opinionated. "he still has a condition, and just because he has a hearing aid, It will not change him who he is."
"Yeah, I guess," says Bingo, grabbing and putting another Chip in her mouth
"So…" Bluey keeps on the pressure. "...You walked off the table to talk to him?"
"Yeah?... I saw him by himself, and I thought he needed company."
"What about Lila? What happened to her?"
"She didn't go to school today. She got sick."
"Wow, Thats not good," Bluey says with empathy.
"Ok, so…" Bandit gets in the conversation. "...Who is this guy?"
"Bandit…" His wife warns in a low, menacing tone
"What!? I am trying to strike a conversation."
"We talked about this," Chilli continued menacing.
"We indeed talked about this, but for Mackenzie and Lucky."
"Ayo, what?" Bluey reacts confused
"Doesn't matter," Chilli says. "You can't be intimidating every boy who tries to date the girls."
"Well, I have to be. Do you know how unstable boys at Bluey's age can be?"
"In Bingo's defense," Bluey talks "That Cavapoo seems nice."
"You see?" Chilli talks, "No, every boy thinks maliciously. And I'm sure as well that Cavapoo would seem nice if Bingo approached him."
"Thats what they want you to think. That Cavapoo could be playing games," Bandit insists.
"Dad," "Bandit," Bluey and Chilli complain simultaneously.
"Nah Nah, let's not do this tonight," Bandit asserts. "We can't, as a family, accept every person we meet into our life like it is nothing. So, excuse me if would like to know about this Cavapoo boy."
"For some reason, we meet them first!" Bluey says, getting more annoyed by the second. "Of course, im not going to drag a boy into the house five seconds after I meet him. and im sure as hell Bingo is not going to bring the Cavapoo home and say," Bluey makes her best impression of Bingo with a sarcastic voice, "Hi Mum and Dad, here is the Cavapoo I was talking about yesterday and we are going to get married in five hours.
"You will be surprised how many people do that." Bandit rolls his eyes.
"But we are not those people," Chilli says pleadingly, trying to get her husband to stop the conversation. "We are not…Dumb, we know how to take care of ourselves, we know who we shouldn't spend time with, and we are sure as heck we should encourage Bingo to seek a friendship with this Cavapoo."
"Plus, he has a condition," Bluey uttered, "and dogs with conditions are not evil…" Bluey rolls her eyes around until she says, "...I think?"
"You see!?" Bandit points at her daughter "Bluey and Bingo need to spend more time learning about the dangers out there. Just because this Cavapoo has a condition doesn't mean he is an angel. As far as we know, this Cavapoo could be evil."
Bingo slams the table with her fist and cries out, "HIS NAME IS DOUGIE, AND IT'S THE ONLY GOOD THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME TODAY!" she grabs the remaining four chips, puts them in her mouth and shoves the plate away to get up and walk out of the dining room.
"Bingo…" repentantly, Bandit tries to call her, but she ignores him and continues walking to her room. He looks back at his wife and daughter to see them with crossed arms and angry faces, a clear sign for the adult Heeler he messed up.
After eating the rest of the chips in her mouth, Bingo arrived at her room, the ample bedroom she used to share with her sister before she started middle school, who now occupies the other room she used to spend her first few months of life
She opens the door to enter her room, slams it close, and locks it to be by herself. Bingo's room changed after her sister moved out. Her bed is still next to the door, and she still uses many soft toys to sleep, but it's a bigger bed to account for Bingo growing up. Under the window Bluey's bed used to be, there is a white desk Bingo uses to do homework, but other than that, it is still the same room Bingo spent all these years in
Bingo doesn't waste time getting on the bed. She screams with her face submerged in the pillow while she kicks both legs uncontrollably to the surface of the bed in a tantrum.
"THIS IS UNFAIR!" Bingo screams, but it is muffled by the pillow. The screaming and kicking were replaced by soft, heartbreaking weeps against fate, against growing up, against leaving Caplyso's school, against the misfortunes she had to experience at school, against the treatment her sister and friends had towards her, against her father's miss trust on her new friend.
Bingo turns her head to the nightstand, revealing her squinty wet eyes to look at her resting cell phone—the brand new cellphone her parents gifted her as a sign of maturity and the brand new responsibilities she will have growing up.
But her cellphone also grants her the ability to keep in contact with her friends from her old school, Glasshouse…Including her best friend, Lila, who together have been each other ride or die for the last 7 years
"Wonder if I can talk to her?" Bingo thinks as she reacts for the cell phone and looks for Lila's contact, and when she finds it, she presses the bottom to call her
*Diiiiiiiing*
…
*Diiiiiiiing*
…
*Diiiiiiiing*
…
*Diiiiiiiing*
…
Your call has been forwarded to an-*
"Biscuits," Bingo curses like her father and hangs up the call to put the cell phone back on the nightstand. "She must be really sick if she doesnt answer back."
After crying, throwing a tantrum, and trying to call her best friend, Bingo rotates her body to look at the ceiling of her room, with her arms extended over her bed with a lost look on her face to, again, contemplate what her future will be like
"Today sucked" Bingo starts a dialogue with herself in her mind. "And I have to do this for six more years… this will be the end of me; I don't know if I can make it till I graduate. What the hell should I do next?"
"You remember what we said when we feel down?" Chilli's voice resonates in Bingo's head. "It's time to go through the checklist again."
"The checklist…" Bingo thinks, analyzing what her mother said earlier until she finally decides, "It's worth giving it a try."
"Ok, Think Bingo"
"Have a Little cry."
Bingo sniffs repeatedly to try and cry again, replaying the scenes she experienced at school and the dinner moments ago until two small tears come out of her eyes.
"Check…Pick myself up."
Bingo slowly gets up from her bed and hops to stand beside it.
"Check…Dust myself off."
Bingo passed her hand through her body and face, simulating a comb to make up whatever strings of fur stayed up.
"Check… And keep going."
Bingo slowly strolls to the light switch to turn the lights off to sleep.
"Check…"
Bingo moved some of the soft toys to make space for sleeping. She got on the bed and arranged the blanket to cover herself from the cold and make herself comfortable.
And after she closes her eyes, she thinks for the final time before ending her day.
"The show must go on."