Colona

Introducing You To My Life At Colona

"Hi Dalainee!" Tanner exclaims as he sits in the seat beside me. Just like every morning, I mumble a soft hello and wave before continuing to read the novel in my hands. Everyone in the room was around me was either talking to their neighbor or secretly on their phone, texting someone else throughout the school. I quickly got lost in my novel, tuning out the avid noise around me. But every once in a while when my eyes would hurt from staring at the worn out pages of my novel, I'd pull my gaze away from the words on the page and look around the room.

In Colona, everybody knows your name. Since it's such a small town, your next door neighbor could easily be in all your afternoon classes. Though everyone in school knows your mother and the name of the woman your Uncle's having an affair with, that doesn't necessarily, make them your friend; and whether you want them to or not, someone will end up saying something to you during the day (we're a talkative bunch). If you're anything like me: shy, quiet, and barely talk to anyone; they won't say more than a four second fragment of a sentence or a mumbled hello before walking away to talk with someone else (I have bad social skills).

I normally have someone, most-likely an old friend, ask why I'm so quiet; with which I reply with a shrug and an "I don't know", or receive an over exaggerated greeting from one of the Tanners. Other than that, I only talk to a long-time friend of mine before math, in the locker room, and while we jog in gym. If we are on the same team during our thirty something minutes of fitness, we lightly converse during that. But with the exception of my soft replies and silly antics wile we run, participate, or sit in our desks; I barely speak to anyone else my age during the day.

Sometimes I think my fellow classmates pity me, only speaking to me because thy think I'm sad, lonely; something along those lines. Or maybe they feel like I'm a snobby bitch who couldn't bother talking to them because I'm too good for the small town of Colona; but neither of them is true. I talk because I choose not to. It's not that I'm sad (though I am), or that I'm a bitch (though I can be); I just don't belong here. I know it sounds rather stuck-up of me to say so, but it's the sad and twisted truth.

When I first moved to Colona, I tried to fit in and make friends. In grey success, I had a rather large group of friends that I could relate and and talk to. But as we grew older and our first year of Junior High flew by, I began to feel like I didn't belong in Colona anymore.

Sure, I was living the normal teenage life; I had friends, lots of homework. My life was full of gossip, rumors, banter, and the talk of cute boys (we had just discovered how attractive males can be); I had a best friend I could rely on. But it all began to fade away. It was like I suddenly had dementia; all of the fun I had and friends I'd made began to fade away like the setting sun.

I became distant. Separating myself staring off into space, daydreaming about metal and darkness. It was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and an even heavier one was dropped on my head. The sudden drop of intense, metaphorical weight made my head spin and I couldn't see clearly anymore. It's like I was looking through a foggy window. The world around you is still moving, but everything is foggy. Even when you wipe the perspiration off the glass, you still can't see everything and the figures outside are fuzzy.

After a while, I got used to being silent and having no one to talk to but a distant friend, a cousin who's rather bitchy, and a friend of my cousins who's violent, moody, and demanding. Though as much fun as that is, I still have a dream of not being an outcast and having someone to rely on. It sounds like heaven when your life is like hell.

The ringing bell pulled me away from my thoughts, surprising me to say the least. It was then that I realized I hadn't been listening to whatever Mrs. Toone was saying, but I shrugged it off and grabbed my stuff. The hallways were crowded with students transitioning to a different class, making it difficult to squeeze through the large group so I wasn't late for class myself. Once I'm out of the hallway where most Junior High classes are held, I feel a lot less claustrophobic but I still need to find a way to walk past the group of boys taking up the entire hallway.