Chapter Two
One morning before school, I woke up sweating. I had kicked off all of my blankets, and I laid on my bed in just a skimpy, loose black dress, and my hair pulled together in a messy bun. I looked like a mess, and I felt like one, too. I had dreamt about how Langer had kissed me, and how my reputation had been killed. It was then that I realized that I hadn't drawn in over a month, and that I missed it. But at this point, I didn't even care. I had no one to turn to, and drawing my weird pictures suddenly felt like a waste of my time.
I walked downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed some cereal for breakfast. Lucky Charms seemed too fake and happy, nowadays with the colors and the shapes. I mean, are you kidding me? My little sister, who was in seventh grade, was sitting at the table chatting with her friend on the phone. She had this head full of blonde curls, these huge blue eyes, and a pink tank top with a huge bow hanging off the neckline near the shoulder. Lindsey thought she was all that, but what she needed to realize was that she was living in real life, not some dream land.
As I ate the stale cereal, I felt like a huge waste of space, dressed as if I had just come back from the dead. However, this was the new and improved Mikayla Brookes, and nobody could take this from me now. This feeling of nothingness absorbed me whole without a way to escape, and this was how I should be feeling. I finished my meal, grabbed my bag, and rode to school on my bike. I passed neighbors on the street who waved to me, but I didn't say a single word to any of them. I just stared straight ahead, and felt the stares of people looking at me but I did not acknowledge it.
When I got to school, the principal called me over, and said, “Miss Brookes, you've changed a lot lately. That's great! I love to see kids expressing themselves, and I know how you love to express yourself through drawings. New Water High is entering this little show on Saturday where we enter students' works, and so I thought that perhaps you'd like to enter one of your amazing drawings. Ms. Greper tells me all of the time how your work is so detailed and...”
“I don't draw anymore,” I cut him off and walked away, leaving him to scratch his head.
Later on I found out that during the Faculty Meeting yesterday, they had discussed me. The faculty were considered about me, saying that I used to be such a quiet student who gave all I had, and how I was their little ray of sunshine. Now I'm broken, and apparently they were going to try to fix me. Good luck.
I went through the day not taking a single bit of notes. Even Mr. Kraner seemed to be worried about me. It’s incredibly how as soon as someone becomes “broken”, everyone begins to care about them. This pathetic world never even realized that I was here before, but now that I’m basically dead, I’m everyone’s hero. This was the problem with society, nowadays. Suicides happen all the time, but people don’t begin to care until it’s too late.
During class, Mr. Kraner walked over to me and offered help. “Kaylie, you've been doing so well with Langer's help lately, but now that your tutoring sessions have stopped, it seems that you're getting a little confused again. Is there anything I can clear up for you?” He had even called me Kaylie, and not Brookes as he always had. I looked away, rolled my eyes, and walked out of classroom.
When I got home, I ran up to my room, threw my empty bag on the floor, and changed into this dress I had. It was a plain, black dress that reached the middle of my thighs, with black lace decorating the neckline. Whenever I wore it, my dad would say, “Kaylie what are you wearing?”
“A dress,” I would say.
“A dress? Says who?” he would reply angrily, ordering me to take it off, but I never did. Today I thought that would wear the dress and annoy him.
When I went to the kitchen to get my dinner, my father gave me that disapproving look that I knew he would, so I took my plate and as I headed up to my room. My mom called after me, “Kaylie, honey, why don't you eat with us tonight?” Her eyes pleaded for me to stay, but there was no way that I would. Why should I? No one wanted me to be with them, anyways.
I studied her before asking, “Why? It's not like you ever asked me to before.”
“Honey, you always walk away. Why don't you join your family for once?” she said sweetly.
“Family? Is that what you call this?” I shouted, running to my bedroom. I heard my mom crying from the kitchen, but I didn't care the least bit. I ate in the peace of my bedroom, feeling somewhat satisfied. After dinner, I threw my dirty dishes in the kitchen, and then went upstairs, opening up to my homework. I spread it out on my bed around me, but the more I looked at it, the more that I didn’t want to do it. Not having even done a single assignment, I threw my books back in my bag, and hopped into my personal shower. Each bedroom in my house had its’ own bedroom, which I always appreciated because it gave me even more privacy.
I let the cold water down on me, and felt my eyeliner beginning to run down the side of my cheek. I appreciated the iciness of the water, relieving me from the stress in my life. As I showered, I felt like all of my worries were being washed away. My shower became a bit of a comfort zone for me.
When I got out of the water, I looked at myself in the mirror. I saw a girl with too pale of a face, and ruined make up. My eyeliner, mascara, and eye shadow streaked my face, thanks to the water in the shower that I drowned it all off. As I looked at myself, the only word that came to mind was “ugly”. I finally saw what everyone else has seen my whole life, but back then, I had been far too stupid to realize it. Why did I let my optimistic mood swallow me, when all it was turned out to be a lie? Never again would I allow myself to live a lie.
At night I fell asleep on my bed, and no matter how many blankets I threw on, it was still freezing. I woke up in the middle of the night, annoyed by the chill in the air. It took a while, but I eventually fell back asleep to dream land. Honestly, I never remember my dreams, but this time I did, and it seemed so real. It was like I was Alice from Wonderland. I stood in some big forest, so small with a huge caterpillar in front of me. I bet that the dream was triggered by the fact that I had watched too much of that movie when I was little. He kept asking me if I remembered him, and I repeatedly said no. Then he kept asking me if I remembered myself. I said, “Don't be ridiculous.”
In the morning, my alarm rang. It was school time again. I threw my dark clothes on my body, and some heavy make up all over my pale face. It was then that I realized that I probably looked like a vampire these past few weeks. That fact sort of scared me, but I really didn't care. I went to the kitchen and found a note from my mom saying that she had to run to work early and she already dropped Lindsey off at school. I went out to the garage and grabbed my bike, and began peddling it down the street.
I started down our street, and then turned right onto Laynt Rd., passing right by Langer's home. Oh, and guess who was home? Langer was sitting on his porch, and I saw him smile at me and wave. I’m not sure what made me do so, but I stopped my bike right in front of the gate to his home. He came and met me by the entrance.
“Kaylie, I am so sorry,” he began to apologize, but I cut him off.
“No, I am the one who is sorry,” I told him. “I was the fool who ran away, and threw away her life.”
“When did you figure all that out?” he laughed.
I cracked a smile and said, “I shouldn't have done that to you, and I'm sorry. After everything that you did for me, too! I am such a fool, and hope that you accept my pardon, Langer. Honestly.” I looked down at myself and frowned for my whole outfit was insane without a doubt. The dress I wore was way too short, and quite inappropriate. I sighed and Langer accepted my apology before asking why I had sighed. “My outfit! My life! I wish that I could just be me again,” I said with tears coming to my eyes.
He took me by the hand, said “C'mon,” and led me into his sister's bedroom. “You're about the same size as her, so help yourself to an outfit that's more you. I'll wait for you outside,” he said, and I smiled gratefully. Once Langer left, I rifled through his sister’s closet, seeing that her taste in clothing was much more acceptable. I never even knew that Langer had a sister. I only knew that he was a school nerd and lived around the block from me.
Eventually, I found this white dress and little, red heels. Throwing the clothes on, I emerged from her bedroom, and Langer gave me an approving thumbs up. I was back, and I would never leave my side again.
“You look beautiful, Kaylie,” he smiled.
I chuckled. “Thanks. Do you mind if I duck into your bathroom for a moment? I should wipe all of this gaudy make up off of my face.”
Langer smiled, “Yeah, just hold a second.” He went into his sister’s room and came back with a bag from Sephora. He handed me the bag, “There’s some make up in here that you can use. Don’t worry, she didn’t even touch it, yet.”
I shook my head, “I can’t take that. This is your sister’s make up!”
He laughed, “She went to Florida a few days ago, and won’t return for two years. She called my mother, complaining about how she had lost her new make up somewhere in her luggage, but I knew that she had just forgotten to pack it.”
“Well, now that you know where it is, shouldn’t you send it to her?” I asked, handing him back the bag.
“No,” he shook his head. “After all, I’m the one who paid for the darn things. Why don’t you just go ahead and use it? I insist. Besides, right now, you need it a lot more than she does.”
“Wow, thanks,” I squinted my eyes.
“No, you look beautiful, Kaylie, but that look isn’t you! You are far too beautiful and feminine to turn emo,” he smiled. “Besides, Lauren has other make up that she can use.”
“Lauren?” I asked.
Langer laughed. “That would be my sister. It’s a shame that you never had a chance to meet her.”
“Maybe someday,” I smiled, before realizing what I had said. That suggested that I would be seeing Langer sometime again. I headed into the bathroom, closed the door, and grabbed a few tissues. I washed my face off, and took a look in the mirror. I already felt better. I removed the contents from the bag, and let out an almost silent squeal when I saw what was in the bag. There were so many beautiful products that I was lucky enough to use.
I applied some Nars concealer to my face with a brand-new Urban Decay brush that had been stuck in the bag. Using a different Urban Decay brush, I applied a subtle pink blush to the apple of my cheeks from Nars, as well. I found a white eye shadow from Stila that I brushed onto the lid of my eye, before I topped it off my look with a new black, liquid eyeliner from Benefit. I approached the eyeliner, applying it on my eyelid in a classic style. After throwing a modest amount of mascara onto my lashes, I took my hair out of that messy bun. I combed my hair with my fingers, and then smeared a baby pink lip gloss on my lips. Looking in the mirror, I smiled out of approvement, happy to see myself as I had before.
I’m not sure what it was that had changed my mood about everything. Just last night I was looking in the mirror, calling myself ugly, but now I felt illuminated by beauty. It was as if just apologizing and talking to Langer had made me happy, but I haven’t the slightest clue as to why it would. Then, it hit me. Why else would Langer forgive me so easily, and help me out so much, like he just had? It came down to one inevitable conclusion; Langer was my friend.
I stormed out of the bathroom, and Langer gave me a quick thumbs up. “Thank you for everything,” I smiled. “Do you want the makeup back?”
He laughed. “Yes, I will let my sister wear used makeup. Kaylie, that is just disgusting. Do you know how many germs she would catch from you? It would be for the best if you just kept it for himself.” I caught Langer give me a slight wink, before speaking again, “So, we’ve missed half of first period, already.”
I stopped, dead in my tracks. “I would never have missed school before, and if I’m returning to my old self, then this is a bad way to start off!”
Langer squeezed my hand. “Well, you can be bad just for one more day, can’t you?”
“What do you mean?” I laughed.
“Ice cream before we go to school?” he shrugged his shoulders.
I faked a gasp. “Oh my, Mr. School Nerd skips school to have ice cream with a nobody?”
For a moment, Langer joined in on my laughter, but stopped. He looked me in the eye, and said, “Honey, you’re not a nobody.”
“Then who am I?” I asked him. Langer didn’t answer me. He took me by the hand and we walked out to his garage, where he pulled out his bike, but it wasn’t a bike like mine. No, this was a motorcycle.
“Langer, is this yours?” I asked, eyes wide.
He nodded, “Yeah, do you like it?”
I shook my head. “This is so cool, but how do you have one? I mean, you’re not exactly old enough to drive one!”
Langer laughed, “Says who?”
I laughed. “Apparently you’re not as much of a goody-goody as everyone had thought!”
“There’s a lot more to me than what people think,” Langer sighed, throwing on his helmet. “I know that you can relate, Kaylie. People never give us enough credit, but, anyways, hop on!” So together Langer and I rode to the nearest ice cream parlor, ordering large cones because neither of us were in any kind of hurry to get back to school. The lady serving the ice cream was weary to serve it to us, thinking that we should be at school, but I lied, saying that we had off today for some teacher meeting, thing. Luckily, we got away with it!
“Kaylie, can I just say something?” Langer asked, licking his ice cream.
I shrugged, “Uh, sure.”
“Well, I’ve never had a real friend like you before. I mean, my fellow nerds and I, of course, but I never had a friend that I could trust so much. Around my nerd friends, that’s all I can be, a nerd. However, with you, I can be whatever I want, or at least, that’s how I feel,” Langer spilled, feeling a little bit shy about what he was saying at the end of the statement.
“Langer, I understand. There’s no one else that I can be myself around, except for you! I mean, for a while, I couldn’t even be myself around me!” I laughed, understanding his feels.
He shrugged, “Just as long as you don’t mind being friends with a school nerd like myself.” Langer scratched his head, obviously trying to show me that no matter what I said next, he wouldn’t get upset. Although I knew that if I told him that I wouldn’t want to be his friend, Langer would be completely crushed, and then I would be left, feeling guilty.
“What do you mean?” I chose to laugh it off.
“Well, I may have, kind of have heard your conversation with Ms. Greper all that time ago. As I may recall, you said that you and I weren’t friends, and that I was a school nerd. No hard feeling, though. I am a school nerd, and I enjoy being one, too,” Langer confessed.
I felt my face flush, and I began feeling quite guilty. “No, Langer, please don’t believe what I said back then. Honestly, I didn’t mean any of it. At that time, I was just mad and upset, and I said far too many things that I shouldn’t have. I’m really sorry. In fact, now I know that I have a lot of apologizing to do today. I hurt too many people when I abandoned my side,” I sighed. “Langer, I’m sorry, and I really do appreciate your friendship.”
Langer laughed, “Don’t worry. I figured that was the case. I mean, I had been completely out of sorts, and had no right to kiss you. I should be the one apologizing! I’m the one who made you go all emo.”
I arched my eyebrow and laughed, “Yeah, well, it’s not your fault, entirely. I mean, you may have triggered it, but I didn’t have my head on straight to see things clearly.”
“Well, we had better hurry up, and get going,” Langer smiled.
So Langer and I headed off to school, and I caught myself doing something that I hadn't done in weeks, I smiled. Little Miss Sunshine was back! I walked into school as Miss Sunshine and went straight to Art class, the class that I was currently missing. When I walked in, I saw Ms. Greper spot me, her eyes filled with confusion. I waved to her and gave her a small smile, and she reciprocated.
“Kaylie, we have a free studio today,” she said to me.
“Thank you,” I smiled back.
I grabbed a pencil and some paints, and sat next to an empty easel. I quickly sketched an outline of a mythical creature. Grabbing some paints, I threw the colors onto the canvas, not caring how the picture looked. I wanted a sloppier look to the painting, for now, and later I would go back in and use paint to make the more important details finer. In my head, I imagined that this was the creature that I had just set free from my body.
At the end of class, Ms. Greper walked over to me, “Kaylie, your art looks amazing! What is it, exactly?”
“The demon that I just escaped from,” I responded, my eyes not leaving the painting, but tracing the shapes with my eyes. This was something I did often, as to stay in touch with my work, familiarizing myself with it.
Ms. Greper chuckled. “Well, I’m glad that you’re back!”
I sighed, “Me too, and I’m so sorry that I went off on you like I had, all those weeks ago.”
Ms. Greper shook her head, “Everyone has their bad days.”
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At lunchtime, I sat at my usual table, and Langer quickly joined my side. This time, he wasn’t here to tutor me, but just to hang out. The rest of his nerdy friends sat at their usual table, and they kept giving Langer weird looks, as if he shouldn’t be hanging out with me. They were probably right, too. I felt as though something wanted me to not hang out with anybody. Deep down, I felt as if I were supposed to be some lonely loser for the rest of my life.
Halfway through lunch, Ashley came over to our table. “Oh, so loser girl has returned from the dead?” she said in her loud, obnoxious voice, getting the whole cafeteria laughing.
“Ashley, I don’t care what you have to say right now,” I shook my head. “I’m not going to be mixed up in your petty little games.” My eyes searched the cafeteria for Bryce, someone else that I had to apologize to. He joined Ashley’s side and began screaming at Ashley to leave me alone. It wasn’t long after he appeared that Ashley stormed away, upset.
Bryce took the seat next to me. “She’s put you through enough, and I’m so sorry that she did that to you. Kaylie, you looked dead to the world for the longest time, and I felt so bad, thinking that it was partially my fault.”
“It doesn’t matter, Bryce, I’m back now, and here to stay. So you and the rest of them can go back to ignoring my existence, again,” I shook my head with my mind made up. “But before you do, I would like to apologize for when you tried to have lunch with me and make me feel better, and I acted so horrible to you.”
“Its fine, Kaylie,” he smiled, making my heart melt a little bit.
“Alright, now go back to ignoring me,” I laughed, with sincerity ringing through, even though I didn’t want Bryce to ignore me. I wanted him to want me and love me, but I knew that this could never happen. He was too far up in society to deal with someone like me.
“Kaylie, I don’t want to ignore you,” he said, his eyes dazzling. Do my ears deceive me, or had Bryce Leony just told me that he doesn’t want to leave me? Does this mean that he likes me, or just wants to be my friend? Whichever he wanted would be good enough for now, to keep my heart satisfied. Now I was just stuck wondering how I should respond to that.
“Bryce, trust me, it’s better if you just ignore me. That’s how it’s supposed to be, after all. You are supposed to hang out with all of those popular kids, jocks, whatever. I’m supposed to be the dweeb on the sidelines. You can’t interfere with the balance of high school,” I looked him in the eyes, surprising myself with my own words. Why did I just have to turn away the school’s cutest boy? Why did I just do that?
Bryce shook his head, “Then, I’ll become a dweeb, if that’s how you classify yourself.”
“Why?” I laughed.
“I love you, Kaylie,” he blushed. “You’re beautiful, so sweet, and you can stick up for yourself against Ashley! You’re all that I need in a woman! Wait, can you cook?”
“A little bit,” I shrugged my shoulders, my face flushed.
“Then, see, you are all I need!” he wrapped his hands around my waist. I buried my head into his shoulder to hide my pink face, and realized just how comfortable his shoulder was. How come I hadn’t felt this comfort so long ago? “Please, let me stay,” he rubbed my back.
I bit my bottom lip, “Yes, Bryce.”
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After Langer and I had become friends again, we began hanging out together, as friends, of course. Then, there was Bryce, whom I had would hang out with whenever I wasn’t with Langer. These were my only two friends, basically. Things seemed pretty great in my life, as of right now, but I still felt like I was a waste of space in the world.
However, ever since we became friends again, I began noticing weird things. Very strange things, and then it all happened late at night, two weeks after Langer and I had become friends. I was in my bedroom, already tucked into my bed, trying to fall asleep. I probably shouldn’t have had that much coffee before I was going to go to bed. Just when I was about to fall asleep, a huge purple glow appeared from my eyes. This light grew bigger and bigger into it was in the shape of a jagged oval. A voice came out of it, whispering to me. “Kaylie. Kaylie.”
I got out of bed, and walked over to it, scared. What was this? Then, all of a sudden, a chill picked up in my room and became a wind, pushing me to the oval. I stood in front of the oval, wondering what in the world this could be. I looked into the oval, and then was pushed again, but this time, I went inside of the glowing oval. It was a portal.
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Author's Note:
Oooh, a portal!!! That's honestly not something I usually write about, to be honest... Well, anyways, Chapter Two, ladies and gentlemen.
Do you know how nice it is to be doing NaNoWriMo? It gives you a reason to write, and you cannot procrastinate. (Especially if you're apart of your school's virtual classroom where your classmates and teacher can view your progress...) Anyways, I'm having fun with this story. It's something different and I can only hope that it is executed well throughout the course of the story writing process.
And I hope that you enjoy it! Please leave feedback- I would LOVE to know your thoughts. It will help improve the story or make better sense of it. Trust me, I am constantly on Wattpad, so it's not like I won't see your comment, haha.
Thanks~
Ali