You Buckled Up Your Heart

Fairly Local❥2

"Coming!" Jenna dropped her school thing on her bed, and took her place at the diner table. Dinner consisted of potatoes, barbecued pork chops, and broccoli. Jenna loved her mother's potatoes, and her father's pork chops, so she eagerly began to eat along with her family.

"So how was the first week of school, Luke? Jenna?" Her mother asked, trying to start a conversation. Jenna immediately turned her head toward Luke, her brother, not really wanting to speak.

"Well," Luke began, "I hate my science teacher, but the rest is pretty good. Oh! Me, and Carl..." Jenna zoned out of the conversation, and let her brother ramble on about eighth grade. Jenna began to stress about her upcoming presentation. It was so unfair how you couldn't prepare at all, whenever Jenna normally had to give a presentation, she would memorize her notes to a tee, and give only the facts. That way, there was no chance of embarrassment. What if she said something stupid, or stuttered uncontrollably, she tended to do that when she couldn't think of what to say.

"Jenna! Stop that!" Her mother's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. It turned out she had subconsciously began wringing her hands at the thought of this presentation.

"Sorry," She mumbled, ducking her hands hands under the table.

"So Jenna, how was your week? Did you catch up with Madison, Caitlyn, and Laura?" Her mom asked. Jenna hadn't hung out with them all summer, yet her mom still thought they were friends. How, and why? Jenna began to wring her hands again, this time under the table.

"I talked to them a little, but we don't have any classes together, so it's hard to find the time." Jenna lied. Really how was she supposed to tell her mother that her friends ditched her? Seriously how would that conversation go? She thought she might have gotten the hint when she hadn't seen them in like a year.

"Oh, alright, and your classes?" Jenna nearly ripped her fingers off, she was rubbing her hands together so hard.

"They're going well," She answered simply. "Except for my crippling fear of presentations, or basically speaking to anyone at all, and you know, only having one friend is just totally making my senior year," She added silently, to herself. Realizing she hadn't finished her food yet, she clenched one of her hands into a fist, and shovelled the last few bites into her mouth with the other.

"That's nice, dear," She mother said distractedly, she had already began another conversation with her father about taxes, or the government, or something like that.

"I'm going back to my room," Jenna announced tossing her dishes in the sink. Once she was safely in her room, she slid down to the floor against her door, letting out a sigh. Just talking about all of that stuff was enough to make her want to rip her hair out.

Shaking it off, she went over to her speaker, and blasted 'What A Catch Donny', trying to forget all her shitty fears for a while. She changed into some pyjamas, and crawled into bed. It was only 7:30pm, so she grabbed her history essay, and finished writing the last paragraph.

It turned out that her essay hadn't been revised yet, so what should have been a fifteen minute job, turned into two hours. When she finally finished it was 9:30pm. Jenna didn't even remember putting her books away, all she knew was she was being woken up by her mother at 6:45am the next morning.

"Jenna! Time to get up!" Her mother cooed.

"What?"Jenna rolled over in her bed. She was so confused, it felt like fives minutes ago she had finished her essay.

"It's quarter to seven! You don't want to be late!" Her mom said cheerfully. She was such a morning person, in was nauseating. Jenna, however, was not. She groaned, and pulled her pillow over her head, but her mother just pulled it off. "Up, up, up!"