Typical Day

 
"Jez! Wake up; it's already seven," Dez screams up. I roll out of bed grumpily. Oh, joy! Another day at school to be a freak. I hate mornings. What could be worse than waking up to a clear, sunny day? Nothing...besides the freak part. I walk over to my dresser.

Hmm...what to wear today? My brother's old, too-big black shirt with faded black jeans torn at the knees? Or my brother's old, too-big black shirt with faded black jeans torn at the knees? Tough choice, but I guess I'll go with the second one. I sigh. These are the only clothes I have, and I wear them everyday. Not that anyone will let me forget that. It's not my fault, though. When Dez gets too big for something, it's given to me. His clothes aren't new either; he gets them from secondhand stores. We're not rich, so there's usually not enough money for my clothes. My parents figure, hey, why not wear Dez's hand-me-downs instead of buying seperate wardrobes? I do until they're way too worn out. At least I have one pair of jeans that weren't his. Oh well. No use crying about something that can't be helped. After a quick shower, I grab my new old, worn out black jacket and my backpack.

"Jez! Hurry up!"

"I'm coming!" I shout. Okay, now where are those ratty sneakers I wear? Under the bed? Nope. In the closet? Nope. Where are they? I could've sworn-

"Are you deaf?" Dez calls as he climbs the attic stairs to my room. My door swings open, and I'm facing my twin's wrath.

"I can't find my shoes," is all I say. He sighs, exasperated, and goes over to my desk. He paws through my papers hurriedly.

"Oh, you can't honestly think they're on top of there, can you?" I ask indignantly. He holds them up triumphantly a moment later as a response. I scowl and snatch them out of his hands. While I tug them on, I can hear him trying, unsuccessfully, to stifle a laugh.

"Oh, yes. This is very amusing, but can we just get going?" I grumble. He laughs harder, and I'm again struck by our resemblance. We both have thick, sort of feathery dark brown hair. His is a little long, halfway past his ears. Mine's long and choppy with a part always covering my right eye. Our eyes are a weird, impossible green with long, dark lashes. Really, the only difference is our gender...and the fact that he's like a foot taller than me. I don't get why I'm always surprised; I mean, I should be used to it, shouldn't I? We've seen each other everyday for sixteen years, but for some reason, I just can't get used to someone having my face, in a boy version of course.

As we rush to the front door, a thud catches our attention.

"Where're you two goin'? You haven't eaten yet, have you? I'll make you some eggs and bacon and toasss and...and," my mom slurs. We look like her but couldn't be more different. Her hair's dirty and messed up, and she's been wearing the same clothes for two days. She always gets like this when dad leaves. He'll come back and say he's sorry and that he won't ever leave again. Yet, he's not here. Shocking.

"No, mom. It's fine; we're not hungry. There's no time anyway," Dez answers quickly, at the same time polite. What he really means is that we don't have food, and we're starving. We really don't have time, though. It's cool with me; I hate seeing mom like this anyway.

"Bye!" the four-year-old twins, Avery and Reed, call from behind mom. I turn to see ten-year-old Demetrius waving solemnly with Avery on his hip. I feel sorry for him because it's his turn to stay home. One of us always hangs back to take care of the twins when mom's a wreck.

We walk to school side by side but part ways when we get there. You see, we might be twins, but our popularity status differs. Let's just leave it at he's cool, and I'm not. I don't take it personally at all; he's a nice, outgoing guy. I'm more than a little antisocial, but can you blame me? Everyone's always making fun of what I wear. They all labeled me a loser the day I entered highschool, with the help of a certain backstabber named Amanda Blakely.
 

Ruthless

 

 I walked slowly to my locker until I saw Amanda look my way. She smiled wickedly and started towards me with Lana, Rachel, Faith, and Tanya right at her heels. In a panic, I hurry to my locker, my fingers fumbling with the combination. I wanted to beat her to class before she could do anything. Why won't my stupid locker open?

"Hey, Jez! How are you?" Amanda asked from behind me, oddly cheerful. She was definitely up to something. I'm trying to ignore her, but someone grabs my arm and spins me around, slamming my back against the lockers. Amanda's shadow, Lana, looks at me furiously. She's about two inches taller than me and crazy strong, with a bad temper.

"Amanda's talking to you. Answer," she growls. I glare at her and keep my mouth shut stubbornly. Annoyance flicks across Amanda's face briefly, but she goes on anyway. At least I have her beat at this.

"So, I heard your dad left again. In fact, someone told me they saw him checking into a sleezy motel with his new girlfriend. I guess your pathetic, slut of a mom can't keep him interested," she grinned. I felt heat creep up my face.

"You're calling my mom a slut? Ever look in a mirror?" I fire back. "What am I saying? Of course you do. How else would you put on all your hooker make up? Tell me something, Amanda. Can you still stand to look at your own reflection or are you too ashamed?"

No one makes fun of my mom and gets away with it. No matter how messed up she is, I'll always defend her. Amanda's face turns red, knowing what I mean. She hates that I know something no one else does about her. Something she probably only ever told me. I know it's a cheap shot, that she'll never forgive herself for what she did, but she started this, not me. Lana's fist comes fast and hits hard, wiping the smug smile off my face. The halls are nearly empty by now, but there are still people around who surround us while I'm beaten. They cheer while I take the blows. Lana sits on my stomach and punches my face, and Rachel and Tanya kick and stomp on me all over. Amanda watches with a smile on her face, but Faith looks like she's about to cry. She doesn't hate me like the rest of them, but she won't stop them if they gang up on me. Finally, she looks away, unable to watch me suffer anymore. Coward.

Before I know what's happening, Rachel's heel comes down on my head. Damn, those things hurt like hell... 

Waking Up

 
"Oh my God, Rachel! Why the hell did you do that?" Tanya shrieks. I can't open my eyes; everything hurts so bad. At least Lana's not sitting on me anymore. At least I think she's not. I can't really tell.

"Is she dead?" Faith asks shakily. When I finally get my eyes to open, the halls are empty except for Amanda and her clones. Lana lets out a relieved sigh.

"She's awake. Let's get out of here before a teacher sees us," Amanda says, white-faced. They all hurry away but not before Lana gets in a final kick to my ribs. I scream, making them run with their tails between their legs. Oh God, it hurts. I think that bitch might have broken my ribs!

I slowly drag myself up and take one agonizing step after another to the nurse's office, leaning against the wall for support.

"Hello?" I wheeze, poking my head through the doorway. Empty. I guess I'll just stay here until she gets back. I go into the bathroom and close the door. When I look into the mirror, I almost scream at the sight of my grotesque face. I now have a black eye, bleeding temple, bloody nose, busted lip, and wildly tangled hair. Oh yeah, that's real attractive. Rage washes over me, but I just take a deep breath, trying to squash it down. Maybe I should just go home; I don't feel like going to the stupid pep rally. Well, maybe not home; I'm not ready to take over holding mom's hair while she pukes her guts out just yet. I'll hang out in the woods for a little while. Mom and her puke aren't going anywhere.

I sneak carefully past classrooms just in case there's anyone outside the gym and make a quiet beeline for the front entrance, skidding around a corner to avoid a late teacher. Funny. They're the one's always lecturing us about coming to school on time. When she's out of sight and hearing range, I do a full-on sprint to the doors, sneakers pounding loudly. I grin triumphantly as I burst out into the freezing, gray morning. It feels so good to run, I don't stop until I'm at the edge of the woods. I bend over with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

I straighten up after a minute and walk happily to my favorite clearing nestled against a wide river deep inside the woods. Settling down on a fallen tree trunk, I rifle through my backpack for my little comb and work my hair into a loose ponytail with my bangs still hanging over my right eye. At least my black eye's covered. I dig around for a pack of tissues and walk over to the river, dunking them in the cold water. After I wipe off most of my blood, I sit back down and press the tissues to my aching eye. Snap.

I whirl around, startled to find a strange boy I'd never seen before watching me intently. He was dressed all in black from his expensive-looking leather jacket to his brand-new combat boots. His short, spiky hair was a really dark blood-red, and his left ear had a lot of piercings. The weirdest thing about him, though, was his big, yellowish cat eyes that seemed to be examining me like mine were doing to him.

Beautiful Idiot

 
"What's with the mask? Is it Halloween already?"

Snapped out of my reverie, my face burns with rage. Who does this guy think he is?

"What the hell did you just say, you freaking bastard?" I roar. He grins crookedly, amusement dancing across his face.

"I said-" he gets out just as I tear a chunk of muddy grass out of the ground and hurl it at his stupid face. He scowls, attempting to clean the oozing mess off his forehead without much success. I bite back the urge to laugh hysterically because all he's doing is smudging it everywhere.

"You little bitch!" he screams furiously, lunging at me. I literally dance out of the way while he crashes into the log and slips through the mud. This time I do laugh, scooping up my backpack and racing away. He yells after me, but by the time he's up, I'm too far away to hear or care. My whole day just got so much better. That guy was the most beautiful dumbass I've ever met, and I don't even have a name to put to that dirty face of his. Shame.
 

"Home"

 
I stand with my hand frozen on the doorknob. I really don't want to go in, but I can hear Avery wailing at the top of her lungs and Demetrius yelling at Reed. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, pushing the door open slowly.

The moment I set foot in the house, Avery barrels into me, her head ramming into my stomach. It's cute, yeah, but it hurts like hell. I nearly fall when Reed and Demetrius ambush me. No, wait! I'm goin' down!

"Timber!" I cry, wheezing out a shaky laugh when they fall on top of me in a giggling heap.
"Okay, okay! Let me up! I can't breath; you guys weigh a ton."

"Jezabel? Is at you?"

I shut my eyes and take a deep breath. Here we go-the moment I've been dreading.

"Yeah, Mom. It's me," I answer, shooing the kids away to their hiding place behind the staircase. I can see them peeking through the slightly open door fearfully. I brace myself for the next question.

"Where's my Dezmond?" she asks, stumbling down the stairs excitedly.

"He's not home yet," I murmur, averting my eyes. Here we go.

"Why? Where is he? Why's he gone? He left, didn't he? He couldn't stand me anymore, could he?" she cries in a heartbreakingly sad voice. Then she turns on me. "No! My baby would never leave me! He's strong, and he loves his mama! You drove him away, didn't you? You were always so jealous of him! What did you do to my little boy?" She grips my arms and shakes me so hard, my head snaps back and hits the closed front door.

"Mom, he'll be home in a few hours; he's still at school," I yell, trying to stay calm while black dots dance across my vision.

"I don't believe you! He's gone! My little Dezzy's gone!" she wails, throwing me against the wall and turning her back on me. She races back upstairs, sobbing. I sink to the ground and listen to the slam of her bedroom door. I long to shout that I'm her child, too. That Dez isn't her only kid. But what was the point? She'd always love him more; he'd always be her favorite. The Golden Boy. It was like the rest of us didn't even exist. I don't think it would matter to her if we all died as long as she had her Dezzy.

In that moment, I realized, with horror, that I hated my twin. How could I hate the sweet, lovable brother I'd grown up with? The brother who'd always protected me when Mom's boyfriends got violent.

But then...how could I not hate him? The perfect everything who was loved by everyone. The boy who turned his back on me at school. The boy who didn't do anything when he saw me getting picked on. The boy who always left me to take Mom's scary tantrums and beatings. Why had it taken me this long to realize that Dez was the person I hated more than anyone or anything else in the whole world? 

The Next Week

 
I got dressed and left in a hurry without Dez again. Ever since I realized how much I hated him, I haven't been able to so much as look at him. Golden Boy didn't seem to care too much about that though; he's busy flirting with Amanda these days. They definately deserved each other, I can tell you that. Alright, on to other miserable topics. What should I make for dinner? Let me think about what we have that isn't rotten.

"Hey!"

I turn, startled to find Mud Face shaking an angry fist at me. Oh, shit! He's still pretty far away, but he's catching up fast. Okay, time to run like hell! I turn and flee, with both fear and excitement bubbling up in my chest. You know, running from him is actually the most fun I've had in a while. He probably won't catch me if I can just make it to that bus over-

"Aaaaahhhh!!!!" I scream as I sprawl flat on my face with, like, a million pounds of someone crushing me. "Get off of me, you psycho freak!" I squirm, kicking wildly; by some stroke of luck, I kick him where it counts, and he rolls off of me into the fetal position. Now's my chance! I stand and am about to sprint away when the guy grabs my freaking ankle. I try to wrench it away, but all that does is make me land on my ass.

"What the hell was that for?" he says through gritted teeth, pulling on me until he manages to drag himself up against my left knee.

"Are you kidding me? A guy jumps on top of a girl, and you don't expect the girl to fight back?" I fire back. We glared at each other for the longest time until I realized I had to get to school. I kicked out as hard as I could, sending him toppling over. Standing, I turn and stalk away. When I looked over my shoulder, about to board the bus, he stood where we'd fought, watching me with a strange look on his face. Was he smiling?

Should've Seen It Coming

 
I got to class on time, for once, without being hassled. Taking my seat in the back beside the window, I prepared myself for another boring day.

"Listen up everyone," Mr. Carter shouted. "We have two new students. Go on, introduce yourselves."

I didn't bother looking away from the window, uninterested. At least I wasn't until one of them spoke.

"My name's Derek Fear, and that's my brother, David," Derek, Mud Face, said, sounding bored. He wore that same leather jacket and boots from the day I threw mud at him, the rest of his clothes black. I guess that's his thing, like the spiky hair and peircings. His brother, on the other hand, had his hair long in front and short in back, his eyes barely visible. David wore a simple, white sweatshirt and ripped up blue jeans with old black sneakers. He did have the same peircings but on his right ear. He also had one just below his bottom lip and looked shy.

"Okay, Derek, you sit in front of David, and David sits next to Jezabel. Please raise your hand so they can see you, Jezabel."

"Um, over here," I said in shock, waving my hand a little. Derek's eyes lit up when he saw me, his mouth curving into a dangerous grin. You've gotta be kidding me.

"Jezabel, huh?" Derek said smugly, taking his seat.

"Yeah," I grumble. "You can call me Jez, David. You can't, Derek."

"Huh? Oh, h-hi Jez," David stammers while Derek tries to hide his annoyance. Score.

"Alright everyone..." Mr. Carter goes on, but I go back to ignoring him. I draw what I see outside instead. A few trees. The sky. The gym, etc. That's when I got the feeling I was being watched. When I looked up, I saw David watching me with his strange cat eyes. He turned red and looked away hurriedly. Weird. Back to my doodles.

"Y-you're really good at drawing," David whispered, his lips brushing my ear. I turned to him with a smile.

"Thanks, but I highly doubt it."

"No, you are. It's so realistic. I like the way-"

"David and Jezabel, do you two have something you'd like to share with the class?" Mr. Carter asked, irritated. David shook his head, looking down and turning red. I shook my head but couldn't help giggling when he turned his back.

"Have lunch with me and I'll show you more of my drawings. Deal?"

"D-deal."

Literally My One And Only Friend

 
I sat down and waited eagerly for David at lunch. He was the only person who thought I was good at drawing! I personally thought my drawings were awful. Just as I was about to take them out, a tray slammed down in front of me. I looked up, startled to see Derek casually sitting down. David, on the other hand, sat quietly next to me.

"What are you doing here?" I grumbled.

"Eating. How about those drawings you promised?" Derek grinned. I glared and was about to tell him off, when David slammed his fist down on the lunch table.

"Sh-she invited me, not you," David burst out. "Go away Derek!"  

I stared at David in shock, but Derek just shrugged and left with his tray.

Impressum

Texte: All Rights Reserved.
Bildmaterialien: Google
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.04.2012

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Widmung:
I dedicate this book to my little sister who's always supported me no matter what. She's always been there when I needed her. You rock Gina!