The Glass Child

A day being May

It's 5:30 am in the morning on a random Friday, which means: School. May's mother goes up to her room to wake her up.

"May... baby, it's time to get up~ it's the last day of school before the weekend sweetie... After today, you can do whatever you want really, for 2 days."

May covers herself with her blanket. She didn't want to get up... no one wanted to get up. After all, it was a winter morning, and in Thailand, it's the perfect temperature for sleeping.

"Mommy... I don't wanna wake up... or go to school..." May softly declared. "Well if you're not getting up, we'll all be late. Come on, May... chop chop..." May's mother then drags her out of bed and takes her hand, leading her to the bathroom, where she finally starts getting ready.

After she got ready, she went downstairs, and not surprisingly, she sees the same breakfast she's had for almost a week straight now; congee.

Congee again? I'm sick of it, mommy...

"Yes May..." her dad says, a bit annoyed at her saying she's sick of it

"We've eaten congee for almost a week straight, we can at least relate to our daughter..." Said May's mother, who tried her hardest to remind her husband that their daughter is different, and that he needs to speak more gently with her.

"Mommy... I'm tired of forcing myself to down this congee... I don't like the texture... it reminds me of gross things..." said May. Her mom and dad weren't thrilled with her saying food is gross, but they also kept reminding themselves that just because it isn't gross to them, doesn't mean everyone thinks the same way.

It was finally time for school. With a few hugs, and a kiss on the cheek from her mother, May got onto the school bus with her older siblings to go to school.

The school bus was a double decker, and required high schoolers and middle schoolers to sit on the 2nd floor, and elementary schoolers on the 1st floor, which means, May technically doesn't ride with her siblings.

The bus was loud. Quite loud for a neurotypical child, and even louder to May. She can't bring her headphones, as she may get bullied for wearing them without music, and she can't stand the feeling of earplugs in her ears.

May covered her ears, and after what felt like an eternity, she arrives at school.

The school was even louder, but it was fine, as she had a decent friend group and chatting with them helped with distracting herself from noise.

"Uhh May?" Said one of the girls in her friend group. "What is it?" May asked, not expecting what her friend was about to say. "You might wanna look at the lockers... specifically yours..." Said her friend, who looked both shocked and annoyed.

May turned around and looked at the lockers. The class bully had put up messages saying things like, "May is a weirdo", "May is a cry baby", etc. May doesn't really care about things like this, as she isn't sensitive in this way, but what the bully did really made her blood BOIL.

She went over to the lockers and ripped all the messages off, cut them up with some scissors, and threw them in the trash. Just as she was about to get back into the classroom, she hears the bully, Noey (เนย) say from behind her, "Well well well... Did the weirdo find my posters?"

May could really punch Noey in the face right there. But she's scared of getting in trouble, and she's a bit too nice, so she stopped herself. Instead she said "อีเนยบ้า..." (Translation: Psycho Noey...) and walked into the classroom.

She studied and studied, just like any other school day. Then when school ended, her mother came to pick her up.

"How was school today, baby? Did it go well today?" Her mother asked with a soft smile.

May shook her head and said to her mom, "It was just like any other day... except Noey decided to be an idiot again..."

"I'm going to talk to the teacher about this. I'm tired of you being bullied... it wastes your time and to be honest, I know you're probably tired of talking about it..." said her mom.

They drove home, chatting about a few things, then when they got home, May went up to her room to do the thing she does everyday; practicing singing while writing in her journal/diary.

She turned on a playlist of karaokes in her I-Pad, which she's bought herself with the money she's won from singing competitions. "Alright, let's... start..." May said to herself.

"Friday, November 29 2019" she started. *Note: this story's takes place starting in 2019* "Today was another day where I feel like people were just put on this earth to suffer and rot and eventually turn into dirt." She wrote.

"How can someone possibly be so miserable that they think putting messages on my locker is fun and will make them happy? Well... obviously that idiot, Noey..."

She kept writing for a while, singing her heart out. Then, after about 2 pages of writing, her mom calls her down for dinner.

"So May..." her dad said calmly but casually. "I've been thinking about something recently. Our business has been doing well lately, as you already know... I mean, I bought Mac a new phone for his birthday recently, and I gave Min money to hang out with her friends. How would you feel if we put you in dance classes?"

May didn't fully process the fact he said that, so she asked him, "Why?"

"Well... you're obviously good at singing, May. Singers who are also dancers can go FAR. Like, really far." Her dad said, really just hoping she says yes so that there's a higher chance of her going far in the future.

"What do you think, baby?" May's mom asked.
"Tell you what, we'll give you time to think about it. Now, let's eat dinner, shall we?"

Everyone started eating dinner, and May wasn't putting much thought into the fact her dad offered to put her in dance just yet. All she was focused on was the food in front of her.

After dinner, May put her plate in the sink, and went back up to her room. She finally started thinking to herself, *Will I like dance?* *Can this add to my singing somehow?* *Mommy and daddy would want the best for me... Maybe I should give it a go...*

She wanted to learn more about all this dancing stuff, so she went on her I-Pad and looked at choreographies on YouTube. She saw that most of them were K-Pop, J-Pop, T-Pop, and many more Asian countries' girl groups and boy bands.

"Woah... these people are really cool!" she said to herself.

Eventually, it was getting late. So she washed up and got ready for bed.

She went to bed at around 10pm, and while she was laying there, not asleep yet, she kept thinking about what her parents said about dance, and how it could add to the qualities she already has.