Her Story

Chapter 1

September 6

Cassandra

Dear Diary,

My parents give me lecture after lecture. Telling me how I should be. How I should act. How I should look. They go in to such long details on how they were as kids...well guess what? I'm not them. Of course, I would never say that to them. That would earn another lecture and a smack to the face.

They compare me to my siblings. Straight A students who "go all out" for anything and everything.  I try to do things to get their approval. I really do. One time, I dressed like a "preppy princess" for an entire month. Got new clothes. New make up. Got a boyfriend. Everything that my sisters had. But they never saw it. It just passed right over their heads like a gust of wind. I tried so hard for their attention. I hung my progress reports, straight A's I might add, on the refrigerator for my mom to see. She didn't see it. If she did, she ignored it. I brought my boyfriend over for dinner once, we all acted like the perfect family. Until he left, then they all shot me looks and walked away from me like I had a disease. I felt hurt. Sick to my stomach, that my family could be so...so nasty to me.

I eventually dropped the boyfriend. And the make up. And even the clothes. Went back to dressing like me. No, I never wore black or anything. Just normal clothes. I gave up their attention. I didn't need it anymore. I focused on being "happy" for  my best friend. Dawn. My best friend since 6th grade. No one would have ever thought we would get along, let alone become best friends. I was a blond-hair-blue-eyed-cheer-leading-loudmouth. She was brown-hair-brown-eyed-quite-punk-rock-chick. Never would have saw it coming. She even called me a bitch before we became friends.

I still laugh at the first memory I had of meeting her. It was 5th period language arts. I sat right next to her. She had never talked to me before, and I really didn't care to try to talk to her. We had little shelves underneath our desks and I would always put my feet on it.

Mrs. Kiser would always scold me for it. One day, I had my feet on it reading. Mrs. Kiser marched right up to me, "Cassandra, if you do not keep your feet of the desk, so help me God, I will turn you into a worm." I looked at the woman as if she was crazy. I set my book down when she walked away and sat up right. Then I heard a chuckle. Then a giggle. And then a full-out laugh. I turned to the quiet girl next to me and looked at her with and eye brow raised. After a while, I started laughing too. From then on, we became friends.

Now, the only reason I live, is to make sure Dawn is happy. I want my best friend to always smile and never have to go through what I encounter. I can't remember a time I was happy without Dawn beside me.

So my main focus in life, is to live it with my best friend.