FEARLESS [ malcolm in the middle ]

14. goodbye kitty

❛ Put your arms around me
What you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful ❜
- Slide, The Goo Goo Dolls

REESE

I try to fix my hair in the bathroom before school, it's so damn frustrating. I can hear everyone getting ready to leave outside and my Dad yells for me, "Reese, what is taking you so long?" I figured it was time to get rid of the frosted tips because of how hard it was to maintain the color, but I need the perfect spikes or else there's no hope for me. I throw the tub of pomade across the bathroom and storm out in defeat.

"Why don't you just admit it, nobody in this house cares about my hair but me!" I yell. I try to ignore the fact that Malcolm has been rolling around in a wheelchair the whole day. I'm not even gonna ask what kind of weird shit he's up to.

"Let's go, come on," my Dad says as I grab my backpack and walk out the door. What a great way to start the day.

During lunch, I sit on the empty table Tess and I usually meet at. I place my bag on it to take out my lunch, before I could consider eating or waiting for her, something in my bag catches my eye. Hm, it's usually empty except for my lunchbag. It's a book; and it has big letters on it that read 'my diary'. The first two thoughts that pop into my head are, 'Who's is this?' and 'Jackpot!' It's obviously some girl's, but how could it get in my bag? Unless... it's Tessa's. She's always writing in something, what could it be other than a diary? It's always been something that piqued my interest, and the angels listened by somehow getting this in my bag. What other girl gets close enough to me for her stuff to end up in my bag?

I gulp as I open it, but just as I'm going to start reading it, she makes her way to the table, setting her bag with a thud and sitting in front of me. I scramble to hide the book in my bag. "Hi, Reese, sorry I'm late." She smiles at me and I quickly return it. I try not to look at her since I've always had a habit of spilling my guts to people as soon as they lay eyes on me, I'd like to keep this a secret for a while. "So, how was your day?" she asks as she takes out a bottle of juice from her bag, it seems like she already ate her sandwich—interesting. I wonder where she was before coming here.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Mrs. Browne kicked me out of class again today," I tell her, looking down at my food and avoiding eye contact.

She snorts at what I said, "what'd you do this time?"

"That's the thing, I didn't do anything!" Well, I did trip that one annoying kid, but he kept bugging me."

"Yeah, sure," she takes a few sips of her juice and I consider asking her what's on my mind.

"Hey, how come you already ate your sandwich?" She looks at me in confusion when I say that.

"I just did before I came over here," she says, and I squint at her.

"Who were you with?" I ask innocently.

"Uh, just a friend," she lets out a nervous laugh. Ha! She's definitely hiding something.

When the bell rings and we go our separate ways, I actually go to class for once. Not to study though, it's to read the diary I have. I was not prepared for what I was about to learn. It's strange enough that she has friends other than my brothers and I, but she also talks about her schoolwork and teachers—it's something I rarely get out of her. It's like I've opened up a whole new world that she lives in.