Angela Curtis

9

(!!TW- STARVATION!!)

I woke up and took in my surroundings. I always do this. Every morning is the same, I wake up and look around my room like a kid in a new classroom. My room always feels so different. The light but not too light blue walls, fairy lights going from my ceiling to the floor behind my bed, my closet across from bed, and a bookshelf. My bed doesn't stick out into the room it's against a wall. It's cozy in my opinion. Nobody really ever comes in here. Darry only comes in here to wake me up and make sure I'm getting ready for school. It gets really lonely in here but that's ok because I only spend nights and mornings in here. 
After a while I got out of bed and got a book. School starts tomorrow and I've been really stressed about it. I know that any normal kid wouldn't be reading the day before school but I have nothing else to do. I could go downstairs to see the gang but I don't really want to. I feel bad for last night. 
After I read for a bit I decided to play some music. I looked through some records I have and I found a Lesley Gore record and started to play it. I soon found out that reading and playing really good songs wouldn't work so I stopped reading and just listened to the music. I got up and walked over to where I keep my nail polish and then sat back down infront of my record player which was the last gift I got from my parents and I started painting my nails and humming to the tune of " It's My Party". By this time I can hear the whole gang downstairs doing whatever they're doing.
Right after I finish painting my nails I hear something lightly drop beside me. I look and I see a cockroach. The biggest roach I've ever seen in my entire 13 years of living. I'm terrified of roaches, so reasonably I scream. I scream really loudly and then got up and raced downstairs. When I got downstairs all eyes were on me. Darry got up quickly," What's wrong!?" He asked concerningly. "There's a huge roach in my room" I took a deep breath," It's like this big!" I said while showing him how long it was with my fingers.
Everyone seemed relieved and calmed down while I was struggling to breathe. I have anxiety and I was having an anxiety attack. I had also just run down the stairs so fast I basically flew down them which wasn't helping either. Darry had gone upstairs to kill the roach while I sat down sort of away from the gang. I didn't want them to see me having an attack because it would stress me out more and I also feel like an attention seeker having one, even thought I'm not. 
I sat away from everyone on the floor shaking my hand to get rid of some of the stress. Darry came back downstairs," It's dead." He said while smiling. "Thank you" I said back a little less stressed. 
After a while of me hyperventilating and shaking my hand as quietly as I could my anxiety attack calmed down and I started watching tv and scooted over closer to the gang. I was taking in today because tomorrow I have to go back to school and face everyone. I wish that I was smart enough like Pony to skip a few grades and be in high school. That way I would sort of have a new start. But luckily this was the last week before summer. 
That night Darry had made lasagna for dinner and that was the only think I ate. I was really hungry but I kept thinking to myself that it would get easier to do this. And while thinking that I went to sleep. 
I woke up and then got ready for school. I walked there with Pony, Johnny, and Two-Bit. The high school is just past the middle school so we walked to school together everyday. They dropped me off at the front of the school and when I walked in I was horrified by what I saw. There were pictures of my face all over the school with the words "fat", "pig", and "ugly" written on them. I was suddenly dreading the last 2 1/2 days of school. 
I started walking to my locker with my head down. When I got there I started to get surrounded by people with the pictures. They were holding them up to my face and laughing at me. Some socs were pushing me around and hitting me. My hair got messed with and pulled. I was getting overwhelmed to I tried to get away but I kept getting pulled back into the middle of the huddle. 
Finally a teacher came and told us that we were late for class which made everyone around me quickly scatter to their classes. I slowly walked to the bathroom to hopefully make myself look presentable while also debating if I was going to stay in the bathroom all day or try to leave school early. 
I got myself looking presentable and then went to class. If I didn't go then Darry would find out and be mad. He has a lot of things to worry about and I shouldn't be one of them. Well I worry him but I shouldn't be more of a worry then I already am. I got a detention for being late to class of course but what else could I do?
After school I went to the room that detention is in and I sat down and waited for it to be over. There were a few other people there but nothing much. I was occasionally thinking about my excuse for why I was late. I was going to say that I went to detention but because some socs locked me in the bathroom. I'm hoping that that's a good enough lie.
When detention was over I quickly went outside thinking nobody would be there but Johnny, Pony, and Two-Bit were there with a worried look on their faces. I walked over to them, "Hey..." I said. Their worried looks disappeared. "There you are! I was about to go in and look for you!" Pony said. "I'm sorry" I said. With that we started walking home. 
"So why were you out late?" Two-Bit asked. "I got detention for being late to class because some socs locked me in the bathroom." He gave me a slight nod. I ended up behind them while they were all talking and having a good time. When I walk with the gang I always end up behind them somehow. It might be because I get lost in thought easily. 
We got back to the house and when we got there Steve and Soda were already there along with Dally. When we walked in we got asked why we were late and Pony explained. With that everyone went to do whatever they were going to do while I went to my room. I sat at my desk and put my head down. I know that the next 1 1/2 days of school are going to be the same as today and I really don't want to go but I can't tell Darry about what's happening. 
I started to get annoying and I lifted my head and let it drop on my small desk. I took off my shoes and then started to detangle my hair from when everyone at school messed it up. I tried to detangle it for about 30 minutes with no luck. It was so tangled and I was getting stressed and angry. I threw my hairbrush towards my bedroom door- which was closed. When I threw my hairbrush Soda just happened to open the door and walk in my room. He barely dodged the brush. 
"Hey- woah. Why're you throwing you hairbrush?"
"My hair is really tangled and I can't fix it." I said embarrassed for throwing my brush.
He nodded and picked up my brush before walking over to my bed and taking a seat on it. He waved me to come over to him and sit in front of him so I did. With that he started to brush my hair. We started having a conversation about colored food, wearing shoes, and anything else we could think of. 
A few hours later Soda had finished brushing all of the tangles out of my hair. I thanked him and gave him a big hug while he hugged me back and patted my head which was really tender. He then left my room to do whatever and soon after I fell asleep for the night.

Words: 1,580

(A/N: I didn't know what to title this chapter so I just put the number, I hope that's ok :). I just wanna say that you for everyone who has and is reading this. I just wanted this book to be a little vent and maybe something that people could relate to but with possibly some of your favorite characters! I never thought that I would get 211 reads!! So thank you so much for that! Also I just wanna say sorry if this feels rushed especially with the lack of dialogue I kinda didn't feel like writing any. Anyways don't forget to eat plenty and stay hydrated!)