Hope

One

"Who are you?" I say over and over again. I am looking at myself in the mirror. We have just come back from Dana's funeral and I feel overwhelmed, exhausted and sad at the same time. "Who are you?" I whisper again holding unto my face. Suddenly, my door swings open and I look up, it's George. "Hi." He says. Immediately after the funeral he came home without a word and disappeared into his room so I'm pretty surprised to see him here. "Hey.." I reply not really knowing what to say. He must feel so hurt.

I reach out to touch him but he slaps my arm away. "Dinner's downstairs if you need it."

And then he leaves. Wow. Okay, I get that your wife died but at least be nice to me! I sigh and sit down on the bed. In the past two months so much has happened. I turned seventeen, my parents died, Dana died, now who? I shiver and grab my phone from my drawer. Then I go on Facebook and text my best-friend Nikki.

Me: Dana-dick died.

Almost immediately, Nikki replies.

Nikki: WHAT?!! ARE YOU FOR REAL?! OMG THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE! I'm coming over so we can celebrate.

I almost laugh. Nikki and I have always hated Dana. Since the day George introduced her to the family till now, I have always hated her. And no, it's not because she was incredibly pretty, it's because she'd always had a weird attitude towards our family. She was fake and bitchy too.

Me: No, don't come over. We can't exactly celebrate when George is grieving.

Nikki: Poor George... At least he's single now!

Me: Ew. He's 25 and you're 17... Just no.

Oh yeah, Nikki has always had a massive crush on George. It's like she has some undying love for him, it's so bad that she even wrote a twelve page fan-fiction for him when she was 15. It's truly, truly disgusting.

Nikki: Age is nothing but a number ;) You just jelly! Anyway see you after school tomorrow, Mum needs me to help her new dick head of a boyfriend wash the car. Talk to ya!

~~~

"I hate Mondays." I say slamming my head against the locker. My school friend Vera, who has every class with me and who's locker is right next to mine, seems rather happy today. "What's so funny." I ask groaning. Her cheeks are bright red and she's trying to hold in her laughter even though it's failing. She looks like a tomato. "What's so funny?" I repeat, but this time I'm genuinely interested in what she has to say. "You, like, so have-"

And then she loses it.

She laughs extremely loudly as she clutches unto her stomach. "Vera what the hell?" I say frowning. Then in between fits of laughter she says very slowly; "People are staring at you." I cock an eyebrow at this. "No," I correct. "People are staring at YOU because of how effed up and obnoxious your laugh is."

She shakes her head and her hand is covering her mouth. "Is it that time of the month?" She asks after her laughter has died down.

What? I'm confused but after about ten seconds, everything kicks in and it all makes sense. I run to the bathroom with Vera following close behind me and look at the mirror. Then I turn around and to my horror, there's a blood stain at the back of my trousers. "Shit!" I curse and search my bag for a pad or something. "Shit, shit, shit, Vera, why didn't you tell me!?"

"I tried to..." She says looking guiltily at the floor.

I scan the washroom looking for something to cover up my stain. "Okay, first of all, I need a tampon... Or something." I say quickly. Vera searches her back-pack until she finally gets one out before handing it to me. "Of all days, mother nature, you pick today." I mutter under my breath as I take the pad from Vera.

After about 15 minutes, Vera and I finally come up with a way to cover up my blood stain; Wear my bag extremely low. What? It's the only way to avoid embarrassment, but then that means that I can't take my bag off for the whole of today till I get home.

"I seriously can't believe you got your period and didn't know." Vera tells me as we line up for lunch, and yes, I still haven't take my bag off till this very moment. "Hey! I didn't expect it to come today, it usually starts at the end of the mo-."

"Okay tmi, I don't wanna know when your menstrual cycle starts." Vera interrupts. I stifle a laugh as I grab a seat from across the table. "Um, I think your boyfriend wants to talk to you." She says pointing at a tall brown haired boy with green eyes and glasses. I instantly recognize him; it's Zach - a guy I've been crushing on for a few months. I can tell that he's staring intensely at me but I try to avoid his gaze. "He's not my boyfriend, Vera." I mumble through gritted teeth. "Besides, I only started liking him like, 2 months ago, it's just a crush, I'll get over him soon." I tell her even though she's obviously not listening.

"He's coming." She says with excitement written all over her face. I put my head down and hope he ignores or doesn't notice me. But with my luck, he does. "Hey Hope." He smiles. Oh God, why does he have to be so perfect all the time? "Hi, Zach." I say cheerily through a mouthful of pasta. He looks disgusted but sits down anyway. "Did you get the Maths homework?" He asks.

I bloody knew it!

"Nope." I lie. I did get the Maths homework, I always get the Maths homework, but he's only talking to me to copy my homework, usually I just let him, this time I won't. He lifts his eyebrows. "Really?" He asks with a surprised look on his face. Great, I have a crush on an absolute douche-bag that considers me a nerd who spends her life studying and doing homework. Like, come on I'm not THAT smart!

"Yup." I reply. I expect him to leave but he doesn't. "Um, do you need anything else?" I ask a bit rudely. He looks at Vera and his entire face goes red. "Um, Vera, I'd like to know if you're available this week?" He asks her shyly.

What.

Oh, hell no!

I glare at Vera hoping she'd say no. "Yeah sure." She replies twirling her fingers around her hair. A satisfied smile spreads across Zach's face. "See you later then, I'll text you the deets."

And with that, he walks away. What just happened? "Vera! You're supposed to be my friend!" I scold her. She glares at me and eats her pasta like she didn't just betray me and trample on my heart a thousand times. "Vera, seriously, what the hell was that? You know I like him." I state.

Her head shoots up and I can tell she's angry. Why though? I did nothing to upset her. If anything, I should be the angry one, but I'm trying to contain my anger. "Do you not trust me? Come on it's just a guy. It's not like we'll do anything. I'll probably just end up standing him up anyway." She says nonchalantly. "Vera, please just call it off or something, I don't feel comfortable with my crush and one of my really close friends hanging out. Please." I beg.

She sips her orange juice and looks at me. "Fine, I'll call it off tomorrow." She says. "Thank you so so much!" I say with a relieved sigh. "You know, for a second I thought you liked him." I say laughing. She doesn't say reply. "Vera..." I almost whisper. "Y-You don't like him, do you?" I ask her. She shakes her head laughing. "No. 'Course not."

"Good." I say unsure of what next to say. There's something in the way she said 'no' that makes it seem like she does like him. Maybe I'm overreacting. I tend to do that a lot.