Life Is Real

Life Is Real (2)

Or maybe it was something as simple and insignificant as her appearance. Gwyneth never considered herself pretty, though she believed that she looked better now than she did years back. She had since come to the conclusion, though, that she didn’t want to be friends with someone who would judge her appearance.

Whatever the reason was, Gwyneth was never accepted. She was mocked for so many things that she didn’t bother remembering, and just shadowed in general, to the point that she couldn’t bare it anymore. So, she left it all.

She isolated herself from others as much as possible. She never joined any homeschool groups; she socialized online on teen forums, and even there she never really had any friends. There were never any teenagers in her neighborhood, and whenever there were Gwyneth always remained inside. She was just afraid of people now. She was afraid of what they would think of her, and how they would shun her. She didn’t want to risk it until she had completely left West Chester for a place where she could start fresh.

And now, being thrust back amongst many of the same people who had rejected her before, she was scared. She had no idea how she was going to put up with simply a year of this, let alone four years if she was forced to by her parents.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and she pulled the pillow from her face. Marvin was looking at her, and she knew he wanted to talk. She sighed as she took him back to Rudy’s.     

**

Their food arrived, and Marvin thanked the waiter. The waiter had been trying to flirt with Gwyneth as he was delivering her food, but Gwyneth was too depressed to bother noticing his attempts. The waiters here had a tendency to flirt with her, and she usually tried to flirt back; her attempts typically failed, though, due to the fact that she was in no way flirtatious. However, they all still fawned over her, especially Roger, the waiter who looked and acted very much like Roger Taylor when he was younger.

Gwyneth wove her fork through the noodles in attempt to entertain herself and lift her mood, but it didn’t work. When Marvin had all of her favorite songs played, Gwyneth just cried and borrowed the napkins from the couple eating at the table behind them to wipe her eyes.

“Gwyneth, please talk to me.” Marvin pleaded for the tenth time that evening. They had reached dessert; Marvin ordered cherry cheesecake, while Gwyneth chose a bowl of bran.

“I can’t right now.” Gwyneth said quietly. “I’m busy.”

Marvin looked at her place at the table, and noticed she had spelled out her name in bran on her placemat several times. Marvin sighed as he hopped down from his seat and tugged on Gwyneth’s leg. She looked down at him, and he motioned to the rope ladder. She rolled her eyes and stood from her seat, climbing over the railing and thick branches to reach the ladder. She climbed up the ladder slowly, and when she reached the tree house, Marvin was already sitting on the floor. I forgot the stupid bugger could fly, Gwyneth muttered to herself.

“What’s wrong?” Marvin asked as Gwyneth sat in the corner.

She hesitated. Of course he knew; he just wanted her to say it.

“I can’t go back into that environment. Not an environment in which I don’t feel accepted.” Gwyneth mumbled.

Marvin hobbled over to the other end of the tree house. He sat in front of Gwyneth and waited for her to dump the rest of her heart on the floor in front of him.

Gwyneth sighed. “I wasn’t accepted there. After Wendy moved, I had no friends. They all made fun of me.”

“You’re nothing like you were in sixth grade.” Marvin said.

“You’re right; I’d be even more unaccepted.” Gwyneth muttered. “I mean, you’ve seen me. I’m nothing like the mainstream teenager.”

Marvin didn’t know what to say. He had never been forced into this situation before. He wanted to help, but he didn’t know how to. And Gwyneth knew that.

She sighed as she let the tree house disappear, and examined her bedroom. It was fairly clean, except for some paper strewn on the floor surrounding her desk. She stood up and began to pick them up.

If there weren’t going to be so many people she had seen in middle school, Gwyneth probably would have been okay. But she was going to see most of them again. They’d remember her; they wouldn’t give her a second chance to show that she was a decent person worth knowing. They’d just judge her. Gwyneth was scared of that. She was scared of what people thought of her, and what negative things they would say about her behind her back.

She heard some muffled calls for her emitting from the kitchen, and assumed that dinner was here. She stood up slowly and opened her door. She could hear her parents playfully mocking the fact that she liked olives on her sandwich. Gwyneth rolled her eyes and slowly made her way downstairs.

 

Author's Note: If you noticed the hints, then you could tell that bits of this chapter did not take place in reality, but in Gwyneth's imagination. There will be plenty of that throughout the story, so hopefully you won't get confused.

I'd really appreciate comments, telling me what you like and dislike about this story so far. Chapter 3 is still in the process of being written, so it may be a day or two before it's up, but it should be up soon.