CRAZE

1

I ran as fast as I could to my house, struggling to wipe away all of the tears sliding down my cheeks. It was hard trying to keep my glasses on in the process. Dodging pedestrians and orange traffic cones, I held in my sobs until I was behind the safe confines of the front door. Then I let it all come out. I leaned my back against the wall beside the door, sliding down to the floor and ripped my backpack off of my shoulders.

I had never done anything to those guys. Why did they have to pick on me all the time?

I rested my forehead in one of my palms and took my bright yellow glasses off with the other hand. I put them on the floor in front of me. I wiped at my eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling. I had no such luck. I had no luck at all. I bet when my mom and dad got home that they'd walk through the door and continue walking because they'll be too busy talking on their phones to some client. They both worked at the same law firm company. I never payed much attention to that stuff, anyway, so I didn't know a lot of things about it. I was planning on being a psychiatrist.

There was the sound of the door handle, which startled the living daylights out of me, followed by a muffled voice. I quickly put my gasses back on. Then the noise of a key inside the lock. Then my sister bursting into the house, talking to her friend on her cell phone. I rolled my eyes as my sniffles began to stop, and my head was filled with annoyance rather than embarrassment. I didn't know why she thought the door was locked. Mom always left about five minutes before we came home from school and never really told us why, just that it was about work, but I never understood. She didn't usually work at home. Dad came home ten minutes after we did and always brought home Chinese, pizza or I make a large bowl of poutine for us to share. Nobody else ever helps me, claiming to not know how, but it was literally french fries, cheese curds and gravy.

I stayed on the floor and shut the door without Anastasia knowing and hugged my knees to my chest. From the front door, the rest of the space was open, with the small kitchen, large dining room and living room. My and my other sisters' rooms, along with my parents' were upstairs and Anastasia's was downstairs. She used to be with Veronica, but wanted privacy.

Anastasia sat down at a dining room chair. "Alright, Carrie, I get it," Anastasia sighed. "No, I don't care if you go out with Danny Curtis. Okay. Yeah, I've told you that I like Jayden Mitchell. No. Yes, I'll give you a recap, Cooper Coogan and his girlfriend Tanya Bryan to Kyle Cooper that Dylan Keegan saw Patrick Johns hit on Kyle's girlfriend, Denise Keller and she told Beatrice Lewis and then Beatrice slept with Patrick at Derrick Clayton's birthday party. Then, Denise never told Kyle until Cooper told him, then Kyle and Patrick got into a fight and Sebastian Snyder broke it up. Denise was so grateful that he did it, so then told her other friend Natalie O'Connor and Natalie got totally turned on and that's how she got to sleep with Sebastian," Anastasia said. I wasn't that surprised she didn't have to take a breath when she explained this. "I know, he is completely gorgeous," she continued. I had to agree with her there, no doubt. "No way! Come on, Carrie. Sebastian obviously just felt sorry for Natalie, seen as how she and Anthony Hanson broke up only days before. So it probably won't last. Anyway, I gotta go. See you tomorrow, bye."

Anastasia finally hung up and turned toward the door. She screamed when she saw me. "Kaleika! What are you--how long have you been sitting there?" I shrugged, wiping under my eye. "The whole time," I said, my voice still a bit shaky. "What's the matter?" She asked with a look. "Is it those guys again?" I nodded. "Just don't pay attention to them." That's what she always said. And so did everyone else. And it never worked.

The home phone rang and I got up to get it off of the table by the door and Anastasia went down to her room. "Hello?" I asked into the speaker. "Kaleika McCaul?" A raspy British voice asked. "Speaking," I confirmed. All of a sudden the line went dead. I shrugged and placed the phone back on the stand. Then Serena, my other sister walked in, giggling like an idiot and looking out the door. "Bye!" She yelled. Then her boyfriend, Sean Walker yelled, "I love you, baby!" Serena blew a loud kiss out the door. "I love you too!" She closed the door and jumped when she saw me. "Oh, hey," she said with a smile.