The Lilac Diaries | ONC 2022

Chapter 1

Lazlo

. . .

Walking into school, I knew that this was going to be the same as everyday. Even though nothing ever changed, I always still had a tiny amount of hope that things would. 

I'm not the outgoing type, and I probably never will be. I don't do sports, and I'm not incredibly smart. I'm just an average guy trying to get through the depths of hell, aka high school. 

Things would be a lot easier if it wasn't for one girl and her little group of obsessed wanna-be popular girls that think they can do whatever they want. The girl in question was Ireland Summers, and my tormenter since the first day of 6th grade. It was just my luck that she lived in the same neighborhood as me and had to go to the same high school, too. I honestly couldn't have cared less about her existence if she didn't try so damn hard to get on my nerves.  

I heard the late bell shrill down the hallway, and I quickly picked up my pace, running up to the 2nd floor and into my 7:30am English class. 

Easily the worst class of the day by far.

"Ah, Lazlo take a seat." Mrs. Seinfeld instructed as she fixed her spectacles, pulling her cardigan around her waist.  

I sighed. Another boring day. 

 . . . 

Before I knew it, English was over and done with and I already wanted to claw my eyes out. 

"Hey, Laggy Lazlo!" I heard someone shout down the corridor, with immediate laughter following after.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes at how immature some people in this school could be, and continued to walk down the hallway. 

That's when I came crashing into Jeff Stone, the labeled 'bad boy' of the school. 

It's as if no one in this school had imagination to come up with better nicknames. 

"Speak when spoken to, retard." He grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me around in the direction of whoever called out to me a few moments before. 

I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw Ireland's face, but then again her voice wasn't particularly one that I wanted to remember. 

"Next time don't ignore me." She huffed as if her and I were old friends that were in some kind of silly argument. 

Jeff still had his hands on my shoulders, so I had no other choice but to stand there awkwardly staring at the floor in silence, waiting until she got bored with me and left. 

"Well? Aren't you going to say something?" She crossed her arms, waiting for a response. When I gave none she said, "It's rude to ignore people you know." 

There was no amount of words to express how much I would have liked to punch her face in at that exact moment. 

But still, I persevered with silence.

After a few more moments passed by, Ireland rolled her eyes and stalked off, Jeff (or as I like to call him; Irelands dog) following closely behind. 

I smiled happily, knowing that I had made her annoyed even if it was for a second, and enjoyed my relaxing walk to Chemistry already planning what I was going to daydream about next. 

"Ayo, Lazlo." I heard a small peep from behind me, and felt a jab at my back. "What's the answer to number 7?"

I sighed and reluctantly turned around to meet my one and only friend Preston Niles, "How did you not know that one? She literally gave us the answer in class you idiot." 

He smiled sheepishly and handed me his paper, expecting me to fill in the answer for him. 

I quickly wrote the answer down and handed it back to him right as she walked up to our aisle, collecting our homework papers. 

"You owe me a snickers now." I whispered to him to make sure our Chemistry teacher didn't hear us, and smiled at his nodding head in agreement. 

"Yeah, yeah whatever." 

. . . 

The day continued on like this, with absolutely nothing even remotely interesting happening. I felt like I was being robbed of my Junior year, with my school being as dry as the Sahara Desert. And yes, if you count harassing me to no end interesting, then I guess that would count as something to look forward to, but it's happened so many times in so many of the same ways that it just feels normal now. Even kids that are walking down the hall don't stop to gawk and stare at me anymore when it happens. Even I'm used to it. 

So yes, you could consider my life boring to say the least. 

I continued on walking through the halls, with my thoughts blocking out everything else until I felt my toe stub on something. 

Something extremely unpleasant. 

I yelped, flailing around like a bird, "What the heck was that?"

I looked down and saw a mini journal of sorts, filled to the brim with pages and pages of paper. 

"Really." I deadpanned, thinking all of this to myself. "I really am weak if a tiny notebook can almost make me shed a tear." 

I bent down and snatched the notebook off the floor, and quickly looked around to see if anyone saw me. Luckily, I was in the back of the school where hardly anyone went through. 

The notebook was a light purple, more of a lilac shade than anything. To be honest, it was an ugly looking thing, with the pages not fitting into the hardcover of the journal, making the sides of the paper crease. It reminded me of one of those "wreck me" books that you bought to ruin on purpose. 

I felt excited, knowing that I had power over whoever's notebook this was, and quietly slipped it into my backpack. I didn't plan on looking through all of it, but at least enough to figure out who it belonged to. The name wasn't written anywhere on it, and whoever it was didn't write a closing after each entry. 

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to read through it. 

What a shame.