Leela - More than a Half-Blood

Leela

     BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

      The merciless loop of my alarm clock demanded my attention. Grunting, I yanked its plug and moped out of bed.

     "Oh how I love Finals," I growled under my breath.

     It was the last day of school. I grimaced at the thought of becoming a Junior next year. Muttering under my breath, I trudged to the bathroom smack some life into my face. Looking in the mirror, I was pleasantly (note heavy sarcasm) greeted by extreme bed head, sleep deprived eyes and a significant  drool stain.

" Charming as can get," I sarcastically grinned at the mirror.

     The grin eventually turned into a laugh as the realized how ridiculous I must've sounded. Reaching for the toothpaste, I started squeezing it out when I realized that I had left the cap off overnight. The goop held fast and didn't budge. Frustrated, I squeezed the tube a tad too hard and it splattered all over the bathroom floor. Bowser, having heard my struggle, trots on over and starts licking up the green-blue mess.

"Bowser, No!" I hollered. "You dingus, shoo!"

As I shooed him off, I grabbed the mop to clean up the mess.

"Yup, I sure do love Finals!" I murmured under my breath.

      Shoving my glasses onto my face, I ran through my mental checklist. Clothes? Check!  Breakfast? Sort of!  Backpack? Check! Glasses?  Check!  I was just about to step out the door when Bowser barked from the kitchen.  He did that every morning, it was sort of religious by now. He would always bark and I would always remember one thing or another that I would've forgotten. Hey, what's a girl to do? 

     "Oops, thanks bud!" I scratched his ears."What would I do without you Bowser?" He licked my face smugly and barked as if to say, You'd be doomed without me Leela. I picked up my forgotten lunch and tramped out the door. 

     Although my bus stop was only a block away, I started walking a good hour before the bus arrived. I liked to take the long way around, through the Iron Horse Trail. The trees were beautiful this time of year, the laves would always be in full clumps and the pollen concentration wasn't as irritating. It was these mornings that gave me the rare chance to slow down and just , well, think. 

     Tucking some of my black hair behind my glasses,  I looked at my reflection in a rain puddle. My messy hair reached my biceps, tangles slightly visible. I barely remembered to brush my hair that morning. My impish face was twisted in a way that lead teachers  suspect I was always up to something. My pecan colored skin stood out as a contrast to my mint green t-shirt. I looked much too young to be a sophomore , which, I was. My 15th birthday wasn't until 2 weeks. Age wise, I was always left in the dust.  While all the sophomores went off celebrating their sweet sixteens, I was in the background like: YO,  I'M GONNA LIVE LONGER! EMBRACE DA 15th BIRTHDAY !

     How did this age gap come to be? Well being originally from India, I was raised there for the first 6 years of my life. I had started school and everything, but then we moved to sunny California. I still continued going to school, and ended up in my current situation.  

     Over the years, my GPA had never stooped below a 4.0, but that got SIGNIFICANTLY  harder when I hit freshman year. I was around 13 when words would start swooping off pages of my textbooks. My notes would never make any sense. Anything on the whiteboard turned to gibberish. My mind would never focus on one thing. For example, i'd work on a calculus problem for two minutes, and then i'd stare out the window thinking , I swear those cow's eyes were just glowing.(How'd cow get there? i dunno.) Shortly after, I was diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia.

      My track record had been clear until sophomore year, after that, my luck ran out and it became riddled with detentions. Half the time, I never knew why I was in trouble. I was lucky the school still hadn't  given me an suspension. Frustrated,  I kicked my reflection.(cuz that TOTALLY helps, you should try it sometime) Great going Leela! 

    As the water dappled my glasses(arghh), I glanced up. WELL WADDYA KNOW? A PEGASUS EATING A DONUT- LEELA, YOU'RE OFFICIALLY DRUNK. My mind was always playing tricks on me. I always saw the weirdest things; trees turning into women, centaurs eating hot dogs  and old hags knitting  mittens. Every time I walked home, I kid you not, a pair of eyeballs floated around me. 

     Coming back to earth, I glanced at my watch, 7:57 AM. Darn. Great going Leela, you have 3 minutes till the bus comes around.

 Ending my self-critique session, I high-tailed it to my bus stop . As I skidded to a halt, I waved over the bus.

     "Just in time." I sighed to myself. I wiped my rain boots and boarded the bus.  I waddled over to my usual seating vicinity; towards the back, next to a window. 

     Leaning my head against the window, I wiped my glasses and thought back to the previous night. It was 6:00, my mom and dad had just gotten home from work. I was in my room trying to read and e-mail that my mom sent me. She came into my room and looked at my screen.

     "What are you doing." She demanded, looking frustrated.

     "Umm, trying to read the ema-" 

      "What  do you mean trying?" She cut me off , bitterly stressing her last word.  

     "Well it's hard for me to make out the words..." I replied, quieter than normal. It really irked me how my mother, of all people, found some way to make me feel guilty of my Dyslexia. She squinted at my screen. I could practically see the steam coming from her ears.

     "It looks simple to me." She spat. My mom grabbed my computer screen and smacked it closed.

     " No dinner for you until you read that whole email and recite it for your Father and I." She slammed the door and stormed into the hall.  I swallowed the lump in my throat and gingerly opened my computer screen, the words still flew off the screen. 

     "Useless." I muttered to myself, "Utterly useless." Slowly, I closed my screen and sulked into bed. The lump in my chest found its way up my throat and escaped as a sob. Browser whimpered and curled up next to me.  Where would I be without him? Holding the big dog close,  I broke down and cried myself to sleep.

     "Hey kid,  wake up!" I snapped back to reality when the bus driver shook me awake.

     "Sorry mam," - my voice faltered-"I didn't get enough sleep last night." She muttered something about getting sleep and lumbered away.  I felt something cold on my face - tears. Quickly,  before anyone could see,  I wiped them off.

     "Finals,  here I come." I marched off the bus and into the time bomb people called highschool.