The New American Dream

Part One: Before | Chapter One

"Alissa! Are you ready?" my mom called from downstairs.

A look on the clock told me that I was definitely late. "I'll be there in one minute!" I called back, frantically throwing on my black skater dress over the black and white striped shirt I was already wearing, pulling on some black over-knee socks and converse afterward.

When all my clothes were finally in place and I looked somewhat decent I swung my backpack over my shoulder and grabbed handfuls of bracelets and necklaces from my dresser and shoved them into my dress' pockets, pulling several on as I was hurrying down the stairs.

My outfit got a disapproving sigh from my mom, I hadn't expected anything else.

"I'm not even done with the accessories yet," I joked, adding more as we were speaking.

That wasn't really bound to help my mother's opinion, as the amount of jewelry on my body didn't find approval from my family either.

"Look, shoulders and knees are covered, my dress is longer than my fingertips." I tried to convince her.

"Just go," mom said, "or you'll miss the bus. Where is Louisa?"

"Here mom!" I heard the bell-like voice of my sister and cringed. She always tried playing the perfect daughter in my opinion. To me that seemed stupid. Didn't she have any other plans than pleasing everyone around her?

"Go, go, go!" mom hurried us out of the door.

I barely managed to grab my headphones off the table next to the door, then it was already closed behind us.

My sister and I looked at each other, taking a look at each other's outfits. Weirdly enough our outfits weren't that different from each other today, just that her dress was white, she wore a floral blouse underneath and some tights.

The looks we gave each other were equally as disapproving. Without another word I turned around and started walking towards the bus stop a few streets down.

"Could you at least try to dress normal?" Louisa asked from behind me.

I laughed at her and turned back around. "Could you at least try to be interesting?"

The look on her face was priceless.

"Normal, how boring," I mused, "do I have to wear pink blouses and floral print too? White dresses? Should I dye my hair blonde and slap on some Barbie eyeshadow?" I had turned around again and resumed walking.

"Well, at least I don't look like a corpse!" Louisa said outraged, "Whose funeral are you going to anyway?" I heard the satisfaction in her voice.

"Keep talking and it's yours," I replied and pressed play on my phone, putting in both earbuds. The familiar sounds that brought me through the day started playing and drowned out Louisa's response which had undoubtedly been outraged again. I took a deep breath and let the calm spread over me, the bus ride to school was suddenly more bearable.

When the bus arrived at school I was more than happy to get away from my sister. Once more we gave each other a disapproving look, then we finally separated. She walked over to her awful preppy friends that always lingered in front of the school while I made my way through the building to get to the spot just outside of the library where my friends and I always spend our time outside of class.

As I was walking I was almost bouncing in my steps, the music reverberating from my headphones. I reached my friends and poked my best friend Nate in the side, who promptly jumped at the sudden contact.

"Jesus Christ, Allie!" protested the brunette boy and made space so I could take my place beside him. Our friends around us laughed at the spectacle.