Life Points Onwards[Re-Writing]

Chapter 6

After the fifth period, I stood in front of the school, waiting for my mom. I felt someone hug me from the back, but whoever it was, I took their arms and moved away.

"Come on! You're not mad at me are you?" Ella whined. I didn't look at her. I felt betrayed. I mean, how could she? "Are we not friends anymore?" Friend, as if. In my opinion, we were never friends. And besides, friends defend each other.

"Leave me alone, Ella." I pushed her away and walked away, once more.

"Why aren't you in class?"

"Well, why aren't you?" I countered right back at her question. She sighed and talked as she walked away.

"I'll give you time to cool off, but just so you know, I don't care who your brother was or what he did. You're still my friend." Ella walked back into the building, and I rewinded the words she had just spoken. I don't care what your brother did. You're still my friend. Although I was mad at Ella, I was so relieved to hear those words coming out of someone's mouth. Just then, my mother pulled up in her Honda.

"Sweetie! I'm so sorry I was a couple minutes late!" Not saying anything, I got into the car and shut the door. "Why the long face?" She asked me.

"Someone called him a psycho again in class." I looked at the window, and I could see from the corner of my eye that my mom's fist was clenching.

"Kids don't understand yet, do they?" My mom softly said. I nodded. "How could they though? They'll understand, Meg." My mom looked back at the road, signaling that the conversation was over. I sighed. Kids would never let me be alone. Looking at all the trees, I wondered how my brother was doing. What he was doing, if he was well. I sighed again.

"Maybe if nothing happened..." I sighed for the third time in five minutes.

"For heaven's sake, Megan! Stop sighing! There is a Korean myth that every time you sigh, three years of your mom's life is gone!" I sucked in a breath. "Not that it's true, but stop sighing!"

After driving to my therapy, my mom turned back to look at me. "No matter what, Leena and I are here for you, Meg. Don't pressure yourself." She smiled softly at me and then turned back around.

As I was leaving the car, I said, "Mom, a couple of friends invited me to donuts later after the session. I can go right?" She nodded, and I entered the therapy building. Stepping into the elevator, I pressed 4. Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Weirdly, this elevator made sounds every floor you went up. On the fourth floor, I got up and bumped into someone.

"Oops! Sorry!" I apologized, and I saw it was Emily, my friend I had made at the tutor above the therapy floor. "Em!" I hugged her, and she hugged me right back. Emily was the only one that supported me after knowing who my brother was.

"Megan! I thought I would catch you before you had therapy. I got a new boyfriend, please tell me if he's hot!" Emily was a lovesick girl. Her storage was stocked with pictures of her and boys. Then again, it wasn't like she wasn't pretty. She was. And she had the personality of a lion. She would do everything her way, and in the bold way. For instance, she had bright green braces on. I could never do that. "Here's a picture of him and me at the gas station."

"Gas station? Why would you take a picture there?" I laughed as I studied the picture. He was hot, and I definitely shipped him with Emily.

"I don't know! He wanted to take a picture, so we did!" Emily's eyes wandered back to her phone, and after a couple of seconds, she clicked it shut and shoved it into her pocket. "Anyways, see you tomorrow!" In a millisecond, she was gone. Man, she came and went quickly. Walking into the office, I greeted the receptionist and sat on the couch, waiting.

"Megan, she's already in there." After getting the statement, I knocked on the door and entered.

"Megan! How are you doing today?" My therapist, Miranda, welcomed me into the room. Her room had always been welcoming and vibrant. It was yellow, with many, many, Picasso paintings. After all, her favorite artist was Picasso.

"I'm doing great." I set down my backpack and then sat at the chair. Miranda folded her hands and then leaned forward.

"Anything new going on?" Miranda smiled. As I opened my mouth to talk, she opened her drawer to take out my file.

"Well, kids keep calling my brother a psycho. And I got in a fight with a girl at my school because she called me the psycho's sister. I can't handle others saying that. But I made four new friends. Their names are...what was it? Oh, it was Arianna, Theo, Daniel, and Josephine. She likes to be called Josie, though." I said everything in almost one breath, and Miranda smiled.

"Looks like you have a lot going on! Why don't we go through one thing at a time?" She pulled out a pen and paper, and asked me to write a pretend diary entry. I obeyed, and the room was silent while I was doing it. Dear Diary, I started off. But I hesitated. This paper would probably be shown to my mother, and I didn't want that happening. Miranda saw me hesitating, and put her hand on mine.

"Don't worry. It's only between you and me." With that note, I proceeded to write. It was much easier to put things on a paper and get them out of my head. Today, I made some new friends. Friends that actually understood me for who I was. There. That was the sentence that had been lingering in my head for too long of a time. Miranda looked over me.

"I can't put everything onto a piece of paper, Miranda." I said and pushed the paper away. Miranda looked at me with worried eyes.

"Alright. Let's just talk it out then, okay?" For the rest of the hour, we discussed about school life. After the session, I forgot about the donuts. After a while in the car, we arrived at the donut place.

"Mom, what are we doing here?" My mom turned back to look at me.

"I thought you were having donuts with your friends?" I slapped my forehead. How could I forget?

"Oh! I totally forgot. Thanks, mom!" I got out of the car, and found the four sitting in the shade.

"Megan! You came!" Arianna came up to hug me. Once I was in her embrace, I felt good about myself. Like people cared and noticed that I was there. The rest of them smiled and waved from their position. "Do you want a donut? We bought a dozen, and you'd better have one before Theo eats all of them!" She said as we walked over to the rest.

"Hey! There were 12. I only ate four. You ate three!" Theo shouted at Arianna with a full mouth.

"Gross, Theo! Chew before you speak!" Josie squealed and then backed away from him. Yeah, it was pretty disgusting.

"Haha! Are you scared of me! Here comes the donut monster!" Theo roared and chased after Josie, who was running away. Daniel and I laughed. It was good to hang out with them. Although we were eighth graders, I felt like I was five with them, and I felt like I was sharing memories.

"Come on, Megan. Let's play with them!" Arianna grabbed my hand and ran toward Josie.

"No! Save me from Theo!" Josie laughed and allowed herself to be tickled by Theo. "Stop! Theo!" Theo grinned as he hugged her.

"You guys are really close." I stated after I saw Theo and Josie rolling on the grass.

"Yeah, we've known each other for a long time." Daniel stared at the sun, that was starting to set. "Where do you live, Megan? One of our parents could drop you off at home."

"No, that's okay. My mom's coming to pick me up soon." I smiled at him for his effort. Why was I smiling at boys? My mom would definitely have an opinion on that. A car honked in the distance. Arianna got up.

"That's my ride. See you tomorrow, guys!" Arianna waved and ran towards the car. Soon, our parents arrived and we bid our goodbyes. In the car, I couldn't help but smile at the experience I just had.

"Why are you smiling like that, Megan? It's creepy." Janice looked at me, dramatically shivered, and looked back down at her phone. I rolled my eyes. She wouldn't understand. Nobody called her the "psycho's sister" at school. That night, I think I fell asleep smiling.