Double Trouble [Watty Awards 2011]

Chapter 8

          I'm late, yes yes. Blame writer's block ; ^ ; I won;t be this late again, I promise!

 “Hey.” Cassie simply said as she met me by my locker.

            “Hey. How was your weekend?”

            She knew that I didn’t mean what she did.

            “Good, good. My parents were gone, so yeah.”

            “Mine sucked. My parents took me to the doctor.” I paused and rolled my eyes. “Everybody’s so sure that I’m going to die. Whatever.”

            “Your parents care.”

            “I’m my own person. I can make my own choices, and I don’t need their criticism while doing it.”

            She was quiet, and bit at her cuticle.

            “You’re lucky. You can just do what you want to.”

            “Only because they can’t bother to care.”

            We remained quiet then, the everyday school noise being the conversation instead. A quick goodbye was muttered before we parted to our classes. I sat alone nowadays, fiddling with my hair and making ugly drawings in my notebook.

            “Alice, can I talk to you after class?” The teacher asked.

            “Yeah, sure.” I mumbled.

            I wasn’t the greatest student even if I tried, and I wasn’t doing anything in class. My grades were allowing me to barely pass, much to my parents’ chagrin. The teacher would probably ask why my grades had dropped, and bla bla bla. Like I cared. They could kiss my ass. I was going to college anyway, they could hardly retract their acceptance. At least, I hoped so.

            As the bell rang, I made my way up to the teacher and got ready to sigh and roll my eyes.

            “I’ve noticed the drop in your academics.” He said, sounding disappointed. Great, I could add him to the list of “People Alice Has Disappointed”. Turning out to be a pretty long list, actually.

            “Yeah…” I mumbled.

            “Are you sure you’re feeling well? You’ve also lost quite a substantial amount weight.”

            How sweet, he actually seemed worried.

            “Oh no, I’m fine.” I said. “The weight just seems to fall off these days.”

            “I haven’t seen you buy anything at all in the cafeteria. Do you bring lunch from home?”

            Stop prying already! I can eat whenever I want, how much I want! What the hell is wrong with you people? Get off of my damn case!

            “I eat, if that’s what you’re asking. Look, I appreciate the concern, but I’ll get my grades up again, OK?”

            “I’m not only worried about your grades, Alice.”

            “Yeah, yeah.” I dismissively said, making my way out.

            I was eating; I just wasn’t a complete pig like everybody else. Ugh, this was really getting annoying. Slamming my locker closed after getting my books, I angrily stomped to the library.