Jolie Laide (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 1.

Chapter 1.

They say that an apple a day keeps the doctors away. That is if you threw hard enough. I thought distastefully as I gathered up all of my messed up paperwork. The thing about me is that I hate going to the doctors, not because of the smell or because of the needles but because it was a painful reminder of what my condition is. While most girls can tan and go out in the sun without worry of getting a huge f-ing burn on their skin, I on the other hand have to steer clear away from the sun as best as I possibly can. My skin is ten times more sensitive to the sun than any other common person, that and along with my eye sight as well. The reason for it? Albinism. It sucks and I have been dealing with it ever since I first took my breath into this world.

"Madison are you ready?" My mother shouted somewhere in the house.

"Yeah, Almost!" I shouted back at her. Picking up the last medical records and stuffing them into my school bag I headed out of my room and made my way downstairs where my mother was waiting. My mother is a bit of a workaholic which means that she works day in and day out almost every week at the law attorney office of affairs. She is hardly at home when she does this but at least it gives us a lot of income so money was never the issue with our family. With that said, she is normally in the office taking care of some sort of legal stuff but since both my sister and I are fifteen, we don't have a drivers license therefore no other car but my mothers so she had no choice but to miss out on work today. Much to her annoyance that is. Once I reached the last landing of the step, my mother emerged from the side of the bottom staircase and looked at me with her arms crossed against her chest. One look at her and already I knew that she didn't like being kept out of her little cubby desk back at work or whatever she does over there.

She turned on her heel and headed towards the garage door which wasn't that far from here and I followed close behind her.

"Got your paper work all sorted out?" She asked.

"Yeah." I answered back.

"Good, saves us a trip back then."

Whatever you say mom. We both got into the big expensive SUV car that we had and waited for the garage door to open. The silence between us thickened a bit more with each passing minute as we finally backed away off our garage and off into the streets. Our house was one of the big ones that was stationed in the "fancier" part of the town in North Dakota verses anyone else in the city and in Scarlet Private School that both my sister and I go to.

"Can we go to Coffee Seed before my appointment?" I asked. Coffee Seed is not that far from Scarlet Private School to the point where it was good walking distance which turned out to be a great place for me to work as well. Coffee Seed was also one of North Dakota's best coffee brewers in the state for having the richest most taste compared to any other coffee as of yet in the state. Besides me, my mother sighed.

"No you can't. Do you have any idea what caffiene does to you? Just last week someone in my office was telling me that their daughter had a huge caffeine addiction which caused her heart rate to increase so much so that she had a heart attack! Thank god you quit that job though when I asked you to otherwise you would be in that same state and we are already dealing with your condition as is." My mother rattled. I, on the other hand was too busy blocking her on going rant and continued to stare outside of the windows, watching the scenery pass on by. Truth be told, I was still working there. Not because I needed the money but because it gave me a better excuse of not hanging around my sister. Yeah, I know it sounds harsh when I said it but Addilyn's friends are not what I would call 'friendly' to people like me. I remember the first time she brought home one of her then-but-now-boyfriend over and he litterally freaked the hell out once I stepped out into the living room to get something. Ever since then, I made sure not to meet any of her friends after that.

"Honestly, Madison are you even listening to a word that I am saying to you?" My mothers voice ranged out in the mist of the bog that I wrapped my brain into.

"Yeah, I was listening." I lied to her while still staring into the window.

I heard a slight snort coming from my side and then: "Well if you're going to keep on staring out the window like that, atleast put on your sun glasses." I rolled my eyes at my mothers demanding request, on any normal day it would have hurt my eyes to just peer outside but lately today it looked to be a bit cloudy so there was no need for me to put them on.

My mother on the other hand seemed to have read my thoughts.

"Put them on now."

I huffed at her tone but I did as I was told and place the blasted things on my face. I hated wearing sunglasses because it made everything that I see tinted and depressing to look at not making me see the vibrant colors all around me at all. Not only that but I made me feel a bit of a wedge between my family members and I.

My mother cooled her jets when she saw them on my face and began her focus on getting to the doctors office. Unfortunately for me, I had to go there every 3 months so that they could check how my eyesight and skin were doing and to see if they could find any other medication that might help make things easier for me. Keyword: Might. Despite their best efforts of trying to figure things out, I would always be met with the same miserable outcome of it not working while wasting valuable peoples time and money in one sitting. Especially my mothers time. At first her agitations of them not finding any workable medicines for me bugged me a bit but I later on dismissed it, it's certainly not my fault that I was born like this.

After a few more moments of driving in silence, I saw the big hulking hospital building in the distance and then finally a parking spot that was unfortunately filled with cranky, impatient drivers that try to run us over or honk at us when we had the right away of crossing in the building.

"Neanderthals." My mother muttered underneath her breath. I pushed the door open and held it out for her to pass through before making our way to the small desk in the lobby. The nurse behind the counter barely looked up at us when she spoke. "Name?" She asked, her face still glued to the computer screen.

"My name is Susan Anderson requesting an appointment for my daughter with Dr. Skull." my mother said while I fiddled with my pale blond hair. Yes my doctors name is Skull. Weird, I know but I learned to deal with it.

The nurse tapped her well manicured fingernails on top of the keyboard.

"She will be in with you shortly." The nurse said.

Without looking to see if my mother was following suite or not, I walked towards the small lobby chairs and sat on one of them not saying a word while I waited. After a few minutes of waiting, I began to tap my foot impatiently against the tiled floor with rhythm. The sound must have bugged my mother because after a few minutes of doing it, she sighed irritably and told me to 'knock it off' by which I continued to do so. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother but right now I was NOT happy with her for forcing me to be in this stupid hospital right now. I am not so sure she almost felt the same way about me though.

An hour went by and we were finally out of that hell hole of a fucking place that they call a hospital. Like usual they didn't have any solutions to my problems and just did the regular check ups that Dr. Skull would always have me do before signing my papers while my mother waited impatiently outside of the room.

"Did you get all of your papers signed?" she asked, opening the car door.

"Yeah."

"You better make sure, because if you don't-" my mothers ranty tone of voice started up.

"I will be kicked out of school. I GOT it." I stiffled a sigh. My high school threatened to expel me if I didn't get legit medical documents during these visits because I am missing out on my education much more then anyone in the school. Right, because the government really cares about our education.

"Don't give me that tone of voice. I don't want any hiccups is all. The last thing I need is the school calling me up and hassling me about not having your medical documents." my mother snapped at me. It was a good thing that I had my sun glasses on because I did a dramatic eye roll at her snappy comment. Jeez why don't you just bite my head already.

If my mother could, she would have.