(Title card by paransomico)
It was Tuesday October fifteenth.
Bright and sunny and warm.
Maggie opened her eyes to the burning sunlight and shut the blinds with a snarl. She hated waking up with things shining in her face.
She got out of bed and lumbered her way to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. bending her knees slightly because (big shock) the bathroom mirror isn't positioned correctly for someone of her stature and she has to stoop to see her whole head.
She pulled out the Acne-sheen face cream and slathered it on her rashy blotches. Then she powered her face so that the cream didn't show up as much.
Then came the eyeshadow and liner. Making sure to really capture the sense of crushing misery and furious anger she felt on a daily basis.
........
Her mother had already laid breakfast on the table and was fussing with the kitchen tap. Breakfast was a big plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and four slices of toast
"Faucet still broken?" Maggie asked
"Uh-huh. I'm going to have Dave come over and take a look at it. It has to be a flow problem because I've replaced the taps and screwed them on tightly."
"Why not just call a plumber?"
"Because plumbers are expensive honey. Alright? Now I almost- hey!!"
"What?" Maggie said with her mouth full.
"Half of those are mine thank you."
Maggie looked down and realized she had been eating off of the full plate of scrambled eggs instead of taking her portion. Now two thirds of the eggs were gone.
She rolled her eyes and began scooping the rest of the eggs onto her mothers plate. Dinah sighed, "Oh fine, I'll make some more. Just leave me some-"
"Bye mom."
Dinah Lacroix turned around to find her daughter gone and every scrape of breakfast had been eaten.
"Toast....to take my pills with....siiiiiiigh...."
..............
At the crosswalk Maggie was accosted by an annoying bug.
Bug being her codeword for "friendly gentleman who likes to talk."
"Morning there sunshine!"
Maggie took a deep breath. She had met this guy before. She just had to keep her cool.
"See any low flying planes? I'm just messing with you. L-O-L you know?" He laughed
Maggie cringed and gritted her teeth. Does this guy talk about anything else?
"Hey, your face cleared up this morning! That's nice. You were kind of spotty yesterday but you look much better this morning."
That called for profanity but Maggie settled for a withering glance.
The guy was about forty years old. Chunky fella in bright orange and sporting a pencil moustache. His reddish-orange hair starting to thin out. He held a red leash with a tiny little peckanese dog at the end of it. Maggie bumped into this guy every morning without fail since she started going to high school.
Not by choice, its just that her walk to school happened to go at the exact same time as this guys morning dog walk.
They always bumped into each other at this EXACT same spot every day. and every day it was the same.
How's the weather up there?
You must play basketball.
What size shoes do you wear? They look like ski's.
I saw you coming from down the block. Can't miss you huh?
on and on and on.....
"Missy! Missy no! Stop. That's not-"
and now the dog was biting her pant leg. The man apologize perfusly as he bent down to pull the mutt away.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!
"No....you've got to be kidding......" Maggie looked down in horror.
Right at the seam. The dog had ripped a huge gash in Maggie's pant leg that stretched up to her kneecap.
"Oh geez! Oh I'm so sorry. Missy! Bad dog! Look what you did to the nice girls pants." The man gave Maggie a look of sincere apology. "I am so sorry. That's on me."
"Its okay." Maggie replied glumly
"No its not. Now you have to go to school with that all day long. Oh man, the kids are probably going to make fun of you looking like that. Big rip almost to your undies. That's...I mean thats bully fuel right there. I don't suppose you have an extra pair?"
Maggie resisted the urge to put her fist through the mans skull and tried to tuck her pant leg into her sock.
but the man continued.
"Naw honey thats not going to work. Hey! You know what?!"
And then he bent down, grabbed her leg and pulled it towards him. "I always carry some duck tape in my pocket there. Lets see."
Maggie was horrified. The guys head was right near her crotch. At a distance it would look like- yep, people were staring, Time to go.
"Just got to wrap it around a few times and-" The roll of tape was yanked out of the mans hands as Maggie crossed the street on a red light. Cars honked and tires squealed but the gangly girl paid them no mind and ran across the street trailing the roll of duck tape behind her.
"You go ahead and keep that! I have plenty of rolls of tape at my house!" The man called after her, "you see that Missy? Boy I tell yah, kids these days. Always in a hurry to get nowhere at all."
..................
"Whoa Lacroix, what happened to your pants?"
"They got caught on a bush."
"You taped them up?"
"Shove it."
Things were going good. Maggie managed to wrap her right leg in enough duct tape that it cut off her circulation. Meaning NO ONE could see her skin for sure.
And it was only the third time someone had commented on her pants so far. Not bad. Things were getting better. Whats her first period? English? With her least favourite teacher? Fan-frickin tastic. Second period? Gym! Why, that means she'll have to take her pants off somehow, switch to shorts and then somehow put them back on.
Perfect day. Absolutely perfect. It's not even eight thirty.
................
"Alright class, I'll be handing back your book reports from last week." Ms Finnigan said to her students.
Ms Finnegan was an old Irish woman with a blunt tongue and no patience for kids who fool around. On the plus, its nice to have an honest teacher. In the minus, she practiced public humiliation as a form of punishment rather than the typical detention.
Maggie had been punished by her before. Souring Maggie's feelings towards the woman.
Maggie scratched her leg as best she could. The tape was really itchy.
"Alexi Brennigan, very nice job as always. Always good to have one person who stays awake when I'm talking. A plus. David Crooner, Yer doin much better. Keep it up. A plus. Maggie Lacroix!"
"Huh?" Maggie looked up in alarm. Ms Finnegan stood in front of her holding up Maggie's book report like she had just been handed a joke.
"Look, I admire your boldness, but this was supposed to be a book REPORT. Meaning your supposed to write down the facts of what the book was about and the characters."
"That's what I did!"
Ms Finnagen put on her glasses read out loud. "Deckland Meyers view of the world is nothing short of the most useless mind sappy dreck. Chapter after chapter of meaningless buzz words and self righteous blathering make this book almost impossible to get through, and even if you do, I doubt you'll be able to keep your lunch down. Don't read after eating."
Some of the kids snickered.
"Thats not a report Maggie. Thats a review. I wanted facts, not opinions. This is a school, not the bloody fox network."
She handed Maggie the report, a big C minus written in red ink at the top of the page.
In little blue scribbles the teacher had written. "Although you failed to complete the assignment, this was quite well written. Next time save the diatribes for the internet."
Maggie took her report and tore it in half with a scowl. So much for independent thinking.
The rest of English was pretty easy for a change. A little grammar. a couple of pages of free writing....
"Okay class shut your gobs. Yer homework tonight is going to be a little bit different. We're going to experiment with descriptive vocabulary."
The class waited while she explained what that was.
"...So what yer going to do is describe a dream. Its going to be the dream you have tonight, and your going to write about it when you wake up in the morning."
Everyones hand shot up.
"You will also be writing about your feelings BEFORE you go to sleep to help you remember what you dream about. So if your one of those people who can't remember what they dream, fine. Then thats what you'll write about. You'll write about everything before going to bed and the fact that you woke up the next day without remembering a thing. Even if you can remember a few images or even a feeling that you felt when you opened your eyes, this will all be helpful in your experimenting."
Two thirds of the hands came down.
"And no, you don't have to read this out to the class. I'm not here to phsyco analyze you. I'm not grading what you dream about, just how you describe it. You can have no dream at all and give a very descriptive narrative. So there's no reason you can't get full marks."
Every hand came down except three. and those three were known to the school counsellor.
"...sigh...and if its really a big deal you can leave out parts of the dream that are too personal. Heck, I won't even know if your making stuff up. But try to do this authentically guys. Its supposed to be a fun little creative excersise. Not a confession."
The remaining three kids breathed a huge sigh of relief. One took out his anxiety pills and his hands shook as he popped a couple.
Maggie made a noise of contempt. "If thats the case I'll just make it all up. I'm not sharing my dreams with anybody."
............................
"Come on Lacroix! Ball in basket!" cried the gym teacher
Maggie tossed the ball high and it bounced off the rim. The other team took it and ran down the other end.
A girl with a brown ponytail swiped the ball and tossed it back to another girl but the pass missed and the ball landed in front of Maggie.
"Shoot!" cried the girl
Maggie, shot. The ball bounced off the basket.
Her team got the rebound and passed the ball to her again. "Come on Maggie try again. You can do it!"
Maggie shot. It bounced off the backboard.
Some kids were laughing now. The girl in the Ponytail was starting to lose her mind. "Are you kidding me?! Just do a slam dunk or something! You can totally reach the net."
"Fine!!!" Maggie roared. "Since everyone care so much about MY GAME, I might as well please you morons!!!"
She snatched ball right out of the hands of her own teammate and rushed the hoop.
"You want a slam dunk?! Heres your slam dunk!!"
She jumped and slammed the ball right into the front edge of the rim and sent it flying out of bounds.
The gym filled up with laughter.
One girl fell to the floor in hysterics.
Maggies face went beat red and stomped away in furious anger to the change rooms.
No. Being tall does NOT make you Micheal Jordan.
........
Maggies team lost after that. So Ponytail girl got up in Maggies face after gym. She was a yappy little mutt who seemed to think she was offering Maggie advice on how to play better but her tone made it sound like a lecture.
Maggie scowled through the whole thing and waited for ponytail to pause for breath. "You finished?"
"I don't know. Did you listen to a word I said?"
"Nope."
"Then maybe I should bring your ears a little lower." Ponytail rolled up her shirt sleeve and Maggie cracked her knuckles.
Fortunately two other girls got in between and convinced them it wasn't worth it. Cooler heads prevailed and Maggie and ponytail went to get changed at different ends of the locker room.
And of course, Maggie couldn't get her pants back on. She had to cut them off with scissors, wrap her pant leg around her thigh and then tape it back shut.
She looked like she had a cast on. One kid even signed it.
Which was a bad move, because Maggie didn't remember asking anyone to do so. So once she read the name she tracked the kid down and put him in a head lock for scribbling all over her leg.
At lunch, she sat with her friends in the cafeteria. Her first real break of the day.
"Theres supposed to be a comet flying over Greenland this evening. Some people say it s an omen of doom." said Alexander, a black haired boy in a skull hoodie.
"We should be so lucky." Said Catherine, the larger goth in the fish net stockings.
"We could have an end-of-the world party tonight if you guys want." said Ritchie. A red haired boy who wasn't able to dye his hair black.
The other three sighed at this idea.
These were Maggies people. Four kids who hated life and celebrated their misery together. Happy in the knowledge that they weren't alone. They just felt that way. The other Emo kids had moved on to other things. Some had gone to different high schools, but Ritchie, Catherine and Alexander were still here and still had Maggies back when she needed it.
After a few minutes Ritchie spoke up.
"So. The sports club is having their stupid fund raiser dance."
The others looked at him in silence.
"Do you want to ditch it? or do you guys want to do the ironic thing and go just to show how pointless it is?"
Three shrugs. None of them cared about the sports club. The dance was just a lame attempt to make cash. Like everything else in this stupid world.
Ritchie sighed. "Alright. The truth is my twin brothers going to the dance and my parents are pressuring me to go support him. I'd feel... I dunno.... it'd just be nice if I wasn't the only emo kid going...or whatever."
"Why's your brother going?" asked Alexander
"He's on the pep squad."
The other three gave him a look of pity. "Yeah. Now you guys know my totally shameful secret. My twin brothers a cheerleader. With the pom poms and everything."
"I'm so sorry Ritch."
"We feel your pain dude."
"My mom forced me to learn how to sew doilies. We all have our private struggles." Catherine said
"Thanks guys. Your support means the world to me." Ritchie said in a voice devoid of all emotion. "Still be nice if I wasn't the only emo there."
The other three looked at each other.
"We'll think about it." was all they could come up with.
Then Maggie got hit in the face with a rolled up ball of tinfoil with a leftover burrito inside.
"Sorry! Was aiming for the trash can next to you." Said some smarmy little punk over at the next table.
Maggie trembled in cold fury as chunky burrito meat oozed down her face.
................
Maggie sat on the stairwell writing in her little black book. All the anger and resentment she felt poured from her pen and slowly drained out of her as the ink hit the page.
This miserable day was almost finished and she was just biding time until she felt like getting up to go.
But life had yet one more curveball to throw.
"OW!!" a massive cardboard box landed on her head and scattered clothes everywhere.
"Alright! That tears it! I'm going to put my foot up your-"
She tore a purple boa off her face and saw Benny Berkowitz standing behind her looking guilty. He was a skinny little fifteen year old in a blue shirt and brown pants. His brown curly locks matched his dark brown eyes and his shoes were old and untied.
And he was dating Luan Loud.
"Sorry. The elevator was full so I was trying to bring it downstairs and it slipped out of my fingers."
He had a screechy pubescent voice. Not quite through puberty yet.
Maggie stood up to her full height and glared down at him.
Beads of sweat appeared on his brow. But as satisfying as it was, Maggie didn't want Luan to know her as "The girl who was picking on Benny."
"It's fine." Maggie said as she bent down and helped pick up the clothes. "What is all this junk?"
"Its for the drama club." Benny said, with more than a little relief in his voice. "The costume storage room was upstairs and it was really inconvenient for us but now the back room of the theatre has finally been fumigated out and we're shifting the costumes back there instead."
"Huh. Well good luck with that."
"Hold on a second." Benny answered his cell phone.
He listened for about four minutes while Maggie stood there like an idiot holding his stupid boxes. She was about to shove them into his arms-
"Thanks, my girlfriends on her way over as well. I'll take that-"
"No I've got it." Maggie pulled away.
"Huh?"
"I.....I'll carry the boxes for you." Maggie's face went red.
"Really? you don't mind?"
"I said I'd do it alright? Now wheres the theatre?"
So Benny and Maggie walked down the hallway towards the theatre. Just as they were about to enter....
...there she was......
Like a daffodil amongst some weeds. Carrying three big boxes precariously and trying to open the door.
"Whoa! hang on!" said Benny running up and grabbing the top two from Luan.
"Thanks Benny. All this running around has made me TIPSY. Get it?"
"Not as tipsy as you make me."
Luan blushed and they smooched.
Maggie felt the cardboard crush between her hands. The little devil appeared again. "Drop the boxes on his head. We can break his neck and make it look like an accident."
"Are you nuts?!"
"Good point. Better to wait until he's alone."
Luan opened the door for Benny and they rubbed noses like eskimos as he passed by.
Maggie growled like a doberman. Her devil stroked her cheek. "Patience my pet...patience..."
Just before Luan entered Benny came running back out. "I almost forgot! Hey Maggie! come on in."
The Devil vanished as Maggie approached the door. "Luan this is Maggie. She came to help out."
"Hi there! Nice to meet you."
"Twice eating you...." Maggie mumbled incoherently
"I kind of dropped the boxes on her head by accident. She was nice enough to not deck me." Benny replied
Luan turned to Maggie and smiled brightly. Her adorable braces glinting in the light. "Well then we've got to pay her back somehow. Why don't you come on in and hang out with us?"
"I...don't....I kind of..have stuff..."
"There's pizza?"
"I suppose I could stick around for a few minutes."
"That's the spirit!" Luan clapped her hands together. "Alright Maggie, lets get the door for you here."
As Maggie guided the boxes through Luan said, "Sorry the doors so small. It's like in Willy Wonka, we keep the door small to keep all the big delicious creativity inside."
Hey! a height joke that wasn't actually about her! How refreshing!
Maggie spent an hour helping to carry boxes up and down the stairs. Normally she'd be complaining the entire time but for some reason she felt a rush of energy. And all the bad things that had happened today were becoming a blur. The unpacking as done in no time at all.
The pizza was pretty good too. Maggie had three slices.
"So Maggie, what clubs are you in?" Luan asked as she wiped a little sauce off her nose.
"Nothing really."
"Nothing interests you?"
"Not at school anyway."
"You ever tried for the basketball team?" Luan laughed
"Nope. Dangerously uncoordinated. Last time I tried a slam dunk it bounced right off the front rim."
Luan laughed.
Which, in turn, made Maggie laughed. "you seen what happened to my pants?"
"I was about to ask you about that. You have a run in with a Duct Hunting club?"
"No. This annoying guy, he walks his dog every morning. And his dog bit my jeans and ripped them right at the seams."
"Wow. that's some shoddy clothing."
"And then he pulls a roll of duct tape out of his coat."
"What?!"
"Yeah.
"Duct tape in his coat?!"
"And he's down on his knees and-"
Maggie had never told a funny story before in her life. But suddenly all the crap she went through the day seemed humorous while Luan was listening. Too bad she never finished.
"Hey Luan. I finished the props box. Mrs Bernardo says we can go." Said Benny as he wiped his forehead.
"Great! I'll be right there."
"Also, I wanted to ask you." Benny positioned himself ever so slightly in front of Maggie. Blocking her without realizing. "I got two tickets to the comedy fest this Friday."
Luan's whole face lit up like Christmas.
"Want to come check it out?" Benny asked
"Do Clowns love pie? Heck yeah I want to go."
"Thanks then I'll pick you up-"
Luan grabbed him and kissed him full on the mouth. "See you Friday?" she said with a voice that sounded like Friday couldn't come soon enough.
"See you Friday." The boy blushed and grabbed his jacket.
After he left, Luan suddenly remembered.
"Sorry Maggie I cut you off."
"It's fine. The punchline is he taped up my jeans with duck tape. I better go." Maggie needed to get out of there as fast as she could.
"Hold on." Luan put her hand on Maggies arm. and the impact of Luan's hand of Maggies elbow was like a wave of water against a locomotive. The very touch of her fingers slowed the towering emo girl to a halt.
Luan bent down. Took a pen from her ear, and autographed Maggies leg in big yellow letters.
"Have a good day. Luan L."
...................
Maggie exited the school and watched as Benny and Luan walked home hand in hand.
Maggie stroked the part of her leg with Luan's name on it.
"Just die already you little puke..." Maggie felt hot tears start to form.
Benny was cute enough and sweet enough to have any girl he could want. Why couldn't he let Maggie have this one?
.................
To be continued