101 Reasons (A HUNDRED AND ONE REASONS NOW AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES)

Reason Number 1

Good girls barely make history.

-Marilyn Monroe

Everybody knows my name. Not because I join loads of charities nor am I smart.

I'm not even kind for crying out loud! I'm known because I am mean. I bury anyone alive if he/she comes across my path. I am known in the meanest possible way, probably the reason why everybody seems to hate me. My name is Ann, which I probably think is the most boring name my parents could ever think of giving me. It could've been cooler like, Blair as in Blair Waldorf, but life doesn't work that way for me. So I'm stuck with boring Ann.

I am seventeen years old, and I'm telling you seventeen is not really a very nice age to be at. It is where people expect you to rebel; I think I started to act like one ever since I learned how to walk, which is way too early I guess. When I turned seventeen everyone around me acts strange and overly protective.

I was about to go out on a Saturday night when my Mom stops me by the door and says, "Where are you going in this time of night?"

I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath, trying hard not to yell at Mom just so she won't ground me.

"Out." I replied in the nicest way I possibly can.

"You're always out Ann. That's why you've been sick a lot lately. John, please tell your daughter that she's not allowed to go out."

She sternly looked at my Dad, her lips pressing into a very thin line, that it can immediately vanish off her face. My Dad looked at me and I just stared at him without any expression. My Dad is not stern unlike Mom who probably thinks that she is always right and never, as in never will she be wrong. My Dad looked back at my Mom who seems undecided, with my Mom's deathly stare he cleared his throat, "Ask your brother if he can escort you, and please change what you're wearing."

My Mom sighed and whispered incomprehensible words, I think Dad will be in grave danger tonight.

I went upstairs, grabbed a coat and covered the mini dress I'm wearing. I ran to James' room and opened the door without knocking. I saw my older brother pretending to be a rock star! AGAIN! I caught him once doing some electrifying strumming with his invisible guitar. As much as it is fun seeing him like that, it is never really pretty to look at.

"When will you ever learn how to knock?" He said glaring at me but obviously embarrassed that I caught him AGAIN doing his die-hard dance moves.

I smiled sarcastically, "One day I'll place a camera here, record everything and post your craziness on YouTube."

He threw a pillow at me and slumped back in bed, "What do you want?" He asked as he neatly rolled his earphones. My brother has this weird case of OCD. His room might just be the neatest room a guy could possibly have. Plus the certain need to have flowers in his bedroom. Yes the flowers in his bedside table is real, he changes it every three days, said it adds a unique sense in his manly aura. I told him it is totally gay.

"Well, I'm just here to ask how your day was." I said batting my eyelashes at him rather annoyingly.

"Five. Four. Three." He counted slowly pushing me away and out of his room.

"OKAY! Please drive me to Aya's house. She's throwing the biggest party ever."

My brother is a senior while I'm only one year behind him. He's quite reserved though I should tell you, he is quite a looker, I guess. If he is not my brother and if for example he asks me out, I'll most probably say yes. But he is my brother and talking about him nicely would be incest.

"Pay me 5000 and I'll wait for you until you're ready to go home, which can be anytime." He said smiling.

"I'll go on my own!" I said and then started to march away his evil lair.

"Good luck." He said laughing triumphantly.

"Four thousand! I'll pay for gas!" He jumps from his bed, gets his jacket and opens the door. "Ladies' first."

The 'quite a looker' thing I said a while ago? That's all a lie.

"Bye Dad. Mom." We both said and just as we are about to get the car keys, the phone rang and Mom gestures us to stop for a while. It is from my doctor, I've been sick lately but I don't think it's something anyone should worry about. So I'm kind of pissed off when we went to the hospital just as I am about to go to Aya's party. When we arrived, the doctor gave no medical prescriptions, just the news that I have leukemia. It's pretty dramatic in movies but really shocking in real life. I am seventeen when I learn all of it.

I told you it sucks being seventeen.