Susan in Wonderland

Chapter 2

It was every 5th month of the year, one summer before high school, when their moms could actually agree to get them all in one place, that Susan and her friends had a meeting. It was all the girls that could come together in the neighborhood, thinking themselves the new Sylvia Plaths and Anne Sextons. Poor things.

Her friend were all super excited about meeting her brothers.

"I don't know if I can come, Susan. I might just melt when Nick's eyes gaze upon mine. Do you think he knows I like him?" asked Taylor.

"Taylor! All my friends have a crush on my brothers" said Susan.

She walked around in circles in a paddock that her mom's horses could not join her in. One pony named Willy liked to nip at her hair and clothes, which made Susan terrified of horses.

"The girls have arrived!"

Susan looked at the driveway where a blue carriage sat.

It was Henry's. He was now 16 years old, and he could drive. Ws he always gonna be like 15 steps ahead of her in everything he did?

Instant memories came back of the love letter she had sent to him, one letter she had come to regret ever since.

The jerk rejected her. Said, "Sorry, I don't really know you that well" as if that was an excuse for her deep, undeniable feelings. She never felt more lonely. What gave him the right to come over here like her feelings didn't matter?

The only person who understood was Anna, who asked that night why she was crying. Anna comforted Susan that night, secretly sharing in the grief for a boy she also loved.

Now, Susan saw Caroline and Nicole play with their cat Rocky.

Elena, Taylor, and Margie gazed at John and Nick from afar. John had just finished singing a song for Margie. She was shaking all over. John smiled half-heartedly - he wasn't interested in his sisters' friends, he just liked to mess with them because of how disgusting he was.

Henry was there. The way he looked at Susan seemed to be full of guilt, passion, and mystery. Susan tried to ignore it - remembering that pedophilia is illegal, and that anything she felt for him was probably in her imagination.

Henry's sisters Nicole and Taylor did not know of Susan's crush.

Susan first befriended Nicole Panera back in the second grade with their friend Caroline. Back then they were already drawing manga by looking at their Ham-taro figurines and copying the eyes into their drawings.

Third grade was when Caroline, Nicole, and Elena were in their homeroom class with a teacher who had an extreme smoking problem.

Fourth grade came and Susan made friends with Lauren whom would teach her about the birds and the bees long before her mom would proceed in telling her. Susan loved Lauren, but she wanted a group of friends. Lauren had her own middle school friends.

On the first day of 7th grade: Anna, Taylor, Margie, and Susan agreed to become friends.

Now, the girls made their way upstairs.

Elena took her place by the window, avoiding Nicole and Caroline's togetherness.

"Alright girls so what do we have?" asked Susan.

"Poetry, stupid emo stuff," said Anna,

Susan had always worried about the silent depression that was tearing at the edges of Anna. One night was the darkest night of all in Susan's memory. Anna had her rock music blasting in her room and Susan got super irritated. She stomped all the way up the stairs and down the hall to Anna's room, opening the door.

"What are you doing in here?" demanded Susan.

Anna stared back at her expressionless.

"I'm having a going away party. Goodbye Henry! Goodbye, our stupid mother! Goodbye!" yelled Anna kicking the furniture about her bedroom.

Then Anna opened a bottle of sleeping pills which caused Susan to lunge at her.

The road to recovery took months.

She told Mrs.Mason immediately about it the day after. Her mom had to check Anna into a behavioral center by herself. It had turned out that Anna had befriended a creep on the internet who told her, after seeing nude pictures of her, that she was fat.

"Taylor what are we going to do with you?" said Margie with a sigh and smile.

"Well mine is... okay I haven't done anything! I've just been really busy with acting classes!" said Margie.

"Come on Margie we need you to participate"nagged Susan while rolling her eyes.

"Susan, some writers move ahead at different speeds than others," said Elena."Madeline found my notebook full of all my stories. She's showed them to all her friends."

"Has she given it back to you?" asked Susan.

"No she stole it," said Elena.

"Why I ought to..."

"I don't want you to do anything! I'll handle it myself" said Elena.

"Well I have a story but I'm nervous to talk about it. It makes no sense at all" said Taylor.

"Tell us!" the girls shouted.

"Well, its about this girl who visits a secret world in her dreams" started Taylor excitedly.

The girls then had to listen to Taylor ramble and stutter words in the explanation about her story for a good 30 minutes.

"Mine is about a boy who finds a secret forest and there are all these magical creatures in it," said Nicole.

"Oh you mean based off that anime we watched last Saturday?" asked Susan.

"Yeah," said Nicole, "Except I'm working on it as a Dungeons and Dragons game with other people online." Nicole wrote the name of the anime on a sheet of paper for all the girls to look up on Princess Mononoke on Youtube when they got home.

They all turned to Caroline.

"I haven't written anything yet. I'm still waiting for the right inspiration to hit me" said Caroline. Caroline looked so insecure, yet like she was rolling through the punches as if none of it mattered whether life miraculously changed or not.

"What have you came up with?" asked Margie and Elena to Susan.

"Well, I was thinking we should write a story about all 7 of us! We could all share a diary and pass it back and forth at school! How does it sound?" asked Anna

"Anna... with all due respect, you do know that this is probably a terrible idea right?" asked Taylor. "There is no reason we need to be airing all our dirty business to each other. One of us could piss the other off, and then things would be hellish."

"I'm fine with it," said Margie.

"Of course you are" retorted Taylor.

"Me too!" chimed Anna enthusiastically.

Susan rolled her eyes, remembering that Anna had read her diary long ago. All she wanted to do was write erotica in her journal. This was stupid, but if Margie would do it if everyone else was. Margie always had a way of controlling the actions of everyone around her.

Yet Susan did wonder, what was it that her friends saw? Was there anyway to escape the curse that wretched over her mind?