It rained

At first

Be kind.
Be nice.
Be pretty.
Be average, they said.
We don't won't to be "that family" they said.
We are the Marbaylys, they said.
Nothing more, nothing less.
*****************
Someone screamed. My mind flashed back.
But it was just Em yelling at the tv because a bad call was on the packers.
They don't know; they can't know.
Lindsey takes a call, Kylee practices her dance for the upcoming competition, Emily screams at the tv, and I sit in my bubble and act like I'm not going crazy. And I'm not.
I've been here for a year now and I've adjusted to life. It's pretty much great I just can't tell anyone. My best friends are just that, my best friends. They are the best thing that's happened to me in a long time, and the exact definition of angels that picked me up and carried me away at just the right time.
The boys are great too. They're like the brother I used to have. Always caring, always joking, always there.
My friends make me feel included, and I guess I am. But they don't just make me feel included in our friend group or the popular crowd, they make me feel included in the world.
They make me do stuff I wouldn't do after, things I'm afraid will break me into a thousand pieces but don't. They make me face my fears and defeat them. They're my family.
I can tell them everything, but I can't.
I have an image to uphold.
I'm a Marbayly.
***************
"I was freaking out because my Mom wouldn't buy them for me. I mean omg they were the newest ones I needed them."
People in Haiti need food and water. People in Iraq need a safe place to sleep.
I don't say these things though, because "what will people think if you stand out like that".
Famous words from uncle Lewis #1
I want to tell all these sophisticated, think they're all that, Kylie Jenner wanna bees to stuff it, but I can't because "if you do that people will start asking questions, and what kind of reputation would that put on the family?"
Famous words from Uncle Lewis #2
You could practically make a book full of Uncle Lewis quotes. You could make bumper stickers with his most famous one plastered all over them.
"We are the Marbaylys"
Don't get me wrong Uncle Lewis is an insanely nice dude and he's done more for me than most people would.
Ever since the rest of my distant family abandoned me and Uncle Lewis took me into his fancy Southern California villa and enrolled me in his fancy Southern California prestigious school life has been good.
Don't miss understand when I said his boarding school. He owns the school.
Which meant that when I walked in the front hall 8 months ago people did 1 of 2 things.
1. Stare at me and smile.
2.Glare at me and whisper.
I don't blame them; I would've done it too.
The high master's (yes that's his official title) long lost neice walks into a school where the kids have been together since birth and you think 1 of 2 things.
1. I have to be nice to her.
2. Ew what is she, I'm not going near her.
If we're being honest here on the first day of school in August I didn't have any of my new clothes yet, just the ones I brought from Florida. Which had been sitting in my suitcase for 4 days, since I refused to do anything but weep on my bed and eat peanut butter off a spoon until school started.
I would've chose the second option.
I walked in and the majority of the kids looked like they favored my choice too, but there at the end of the hallway I saw them.
My friends, my sanctuary. Almost.
They didn't talk to me at first and I understand that, I looked like I just crawled out of a gutter. Which I did 5 days before.
I was standing at my locker that first day of my junior year, acting like I was looking for something in my backpack when he approached.
He was the first person to talk to me at Bachmond High and one of the best people I'd ever met.
He was wearing a navy blue button up shirt rolled to the forearms and his brushed back strawberry blond hair, green eyes, and perfect muscles complimented it so well.
I nearly fainted at the site of him.
He smiled and dang it caught me off guard how gorgeous his smile was because I stumbled. Actually stumbled and almost fell.
He reached out and caught me.
"Woah you okay?" He said in a rusty voice.
"Yeah I'm fine. Guess the first day just makes everyone a little jittery."
"Yeah. I'm Elijah, but everyone calls me Eli."
"Hi Eli."
He gave me a strange look, but kept smiling.
Oh no I've already ruined my only shot at having a social life here. I just completely embarrassed myself in front of a model. Eli, his names Eli. Oh no I've already ruined everything.
I kept repeating these thoughts in my head as I stood there looking up at his face.
I'd been so tranced by his gorgeous features that I hadn't even noticed other people had arrived around us.
I finally turned to face them
"This is Lyndsey, Kylee, Emily, Tyler, Nate, and Rex," Eli said.
"Is your name really Rex?" I asked.
"Nope. But my real name is too embarrassing to ever be spoken aloud in front of living people, so I go by Rex."
"Oh I would've opted more for pterodactyls, but okay."
Everyone laughed, I smiled.
My future group of friends had already made me feel included within five minutes.
But it was true, Rex was shorter and thinner than everyone. Rex really didn't fit him well.
"Hardy, har, har. Okay new girl what's your name?"
"Ansley. Ansley Marbayly."