Waiting To Become A Butterfly

chapter 2

                It's Monday today which means it's officially four more days until my first day of school and I am extremely nervous. But, I try not to think about it and my parents know how anxious I am. So, they are taking me to Barnes & Noble, to make me feel better. My siblings never had a problem with school, probably because they are not fat like me. I frown looking out the car window.

               "Mom?" I asked my mother. "Yes sweetie?" She responds and does a quick turn from her seat to look at me, since I'm in the back of the car. I was going to ask if she thinks that I'm going to be okay in my first day of school but I decided not to, since my siblings were all hearing and I don't want it to get awkward. "Um never mind." My mom turns back again, "Ok?" She says while raising one eyebrow up. She turns back around and yells "MIKE WATCH OUT FOR THE CAR!" She pretends to almost hit her head at the window and my dad starts laughing. "Now you see kids, now you will be believe me when I say you're mother is crazy." My father says and chuckles. "I AM NOT CRAZY AND IF YOU THINK IM CRAZY HOW BOUT YOU TAKE THIS RING OFF MY FINGER!" She yells at him and shows him her hand with her wedding ring on it.

            Since we were at a red light my dad looks at her with a are you serious face then says "Geez woman you ain't gotta go that far." My father starts laughing at my mother's angry face and my mom pretends to be offended as she looks at her car window. But, soon starts laughing with my dad. I turn to see Larry and Darry rolling their eyes at my parents. But I've always admired my parents relationship because it makes me...excited for when I get married someday. So I'll have that special someone to laugh with but no guy has ever looked at my direction.

           " I love you Claire." My father stops laughing  and looks at my mother. "I love you too hun." My mom replies with a gentle smile and they kiss. "EWWWWW!" My siblings and I say in a union. "Oh shut it." My mom says with a little blush rising on her cheeks. Awww. I thought. My mom looks back at the road and yells "MIKE ITS A GREEN LIGHT GO!"

                There are so many books that got my attention but theirs one that stood out to me the most. It is called The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson, as I'm reading what it's about on the back of the book, I see my older sister Darry approaching me. I look at her with a confused facial expression and say " What are you doing here?" She looks at me with a confused and angry look. "Is there a problem Kayla?" She responds. "No...but you always go to Hollister or something like that, when we are in they mall." I say a little intimidated by my older sister. All she said was a simple "Oh", then she goes with Mary in the little kids section.

            After I got my new book and walked the mall. My family and I went to a buffet near us. As I was serving myself I bumped into someone and apologize without looking up to them.

            I never really look at anybody I don't know in the eye in pubic because I kind of have social anxiety. I don't really know why but I know that it has to do with the fact that I am the most insecure person in the planet. Or so I think.  I used to be good at talking with mostly anything and anytime. Until, I was about eleven and realized that not everyone seems me as normal. Also, because when I was eleven I started my first year of middle school, which is when all the bullying started.

"Oh hey, it's Karla right?" This guy said to me while I was grabbing some tater totes.

I look up to see Nathan Lanzey. Oh my gosh. I went to Elementary school and Middle school with him. Oh and he is my next door neighbor since before I can walk I think. I look straight into his green eyes, black curly hair, black glasses, the dimple on his left cheek, and he may be a bit plus sized but he is super tall. Did I forget to mention that he plays football! He's so hot I can't-

"Karla? Karla? Are you okay?" Nathan interrupts my thoughts and snaps me to reality.

"Oh yeah sorry, and no my name is actually Kayla." I say to him looking down to the floor and blushing. Geez we have been next to each other basically our whole lives and he still doesn't know my name.

"Oh my bad... Kayla." Nathan says and smiles at me. I chuckle awkwardly and say "Yup Kayla not Karla."

He chuckles a bit and starts getting some tater totes as well. "Guess we have the same taste in food huh?" Nathan says to me as he notices that our plates are very similar. I give an awkward laugh in responds.

"NATHAN COME AND GREET THE SWAMPS NOW!"

I give Nathan a confused facial expression and I turn around to see who was yelling in a public restaurant. Other people getting food were also looking. I then realized what name the lady said. I turn to Nathan and he starts laughing at me.

"It took you that long to realize it was my mom yelling at me." He says still laughing and smiling at me. I can't help but to blush and shrug my shoulders shyly.

Once we were done filling our plates we headed to our families. "Did our families seriously combine our tables together to form one?" Nathan says and I respond with "Looks like it."

"Oh Nathan, I see you and Karla have already greeted each other." Mrs. Lanzey says while smiling at us. "It's actually Kayla mom not Karla." Nathan says with a 'can you believe it?' look. Mrs. Lanzey looks at me and says "Oops sorry dear." I just simple nod and smile at her. I was embarrassed so I look at Nathan, asking for help and he just chuckles at me. He then greets my family and I greet his. There was no more seats, so me an Nathan had to sit next to each other.

Once we were seated together our siblings give us looks. We are both pretty squished since we are both plus sized. I start feeling nervous around him and insecure to eat my food. Until I see him eating up so I start eating but slowly than I usually do. Our families were talking and we were just eating in silence. Occasionally we would share glances. I would feel someone's eyes on me, so, I would look and he was staring at me. Which made me feel insecure so I stopped eating and just drank my Sprite.

"So...Nathan, as you going to South Portland High School?" My mother asks Nathan. He looks at her and says "Yes Mrs. Swamp, I will be." My mother smiles and says "Oh that's great, Kayla is going there too." My mom'a statement causes Nathan to look at me and smiles. "Cool." Nathan says.

What is going on? He has never been so friendly to me and I don't understand. We have always been separate even though we live right next to each other. He has always been part of the "popular" kids, which also happen to be some of the people who have bullied me. Nathan has never bullied me before but when his friends did, he would just watch and not react.

            Nathan and I went silent again. I caught myself looking at my parents from time to time and I would notice something different about them. My mom's laugh at Mrs. Lanzey's jokes, sounded weird.

            We were all saying goodbye to each other and once it was my turn to say bye to Nathan. He walked up to be slowly and smiling and showing off his dimple on his left cheek.

"So...see you soon? Nathan asked. I respond with, "Sure", while looking at the floor. It was quite for what felt like hours. I finally look up to him and now it was his turn to look at the floor.
"Look..." He starts saying but never finishes. He tilted his head back up and looking at me sadly. I raise my eyebrows at him, encouraging him to continue his sentence. He just shakes his head in response as in saying, never mind.

"NATHAN HURRY UP! YOU KNOW YOUR FATHER HAS AN IMPORTANT MEETING TO ATTEND TO!" I hear Mrs. Lanzey yell at Nathan. I look at her and see our families are already near the exit. Did we stay that long? Or are our parents eager to leave? I thought.

Nathan gives me a soft smile and I politely give one in return. We walk to our families and go our separate ways.

On the car ride home, I couldn't help but to wonder. Why was he being to nice to me? Why were my parents acting so weird around the Lanzey's? What was Nathan going to say? Why didn't he finish his sentence? Why did he look sad for a moment? Did I hurt his feelings in any way? Did I do something wrong? Am I the problem? Will he still hang out with my...I hope former bullies?

HEYYYY, this chapter was fun to make but also a little sad because it's a little based on true events but I switched it up a bit, to make it fiction. 😭😭 GOD BLESS YOU! <3

3-19-22