Not Your Average Nerd

Chapter One

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            If you really think about it every school seems to be the same. The only things that differ are the classes and the teachers. Every school has their jocks, preps, creeps, dweebs, band members, and the other typical cliques that are depicted in cliché high school drama movies. There’s even that one person who everyone seems to avoid. You know who I’m talking about, right? That one person you passed every day in the hallway who, even though you never actually spoken to her (or him) you still despised them. Just because of the fact that they’re them.

Nobody wants to be “that guy” or “that girl”, right? I mean, who wants to be known as ‘that freak with no friends’ or the loner who haunts the halls looking for anyone willing to speak to them. Let me tell you from first-hand experience that being “that girl” is no fun at all. Hi, my name is Ileana Stoica and ever since my family and I moved to America (to the small town of Astoria, Oregon to be exact) I’ve been the biggest outcast to walk through the town’s sidewalks.

Allow me to clear some things up for you: no, I was never that kid who used to sit in the corner eating her boogers while the rest of the class pointed and stared. Nor was I that girl who used to talk to her imaginary friends more than her actual friends. For one, I never really had any friends. And two, I thought imaginary friends were absurd. I never understood the concept of creating my own friend that only I could see and talk to. I’ve always seemed to be either one step ahead of everyone or one step behind, depending on what we were dealing with. If it had anything to do with academics or learning I was safe. Hell, I was reading at a high school senior’s level by the time I entered fifth grade. However, if making friends was being asked of me, I was light years away. Every time I tried to open my mouth to speak someone it was like my tongue decided to knot up inside of my mouth and leave me babbling like some sort of baboon.

As I said before, my name is Ileana Stoica and I was the biggest loner freak that ever roamed the halls of Astoria High School. I excelled in anything and everything that had to do with school. Unlike many of the other girls who strutted around the school, I was far from being physically attractive. I had wavy dark brown hair that just passed my shoulders, shit-brown eyes, pale skin, and zero curves. Compared to some of the other girls from my class, I was a boring walking stick. Actually, I’m pretty sure there are some sticks that could have looked nicer than I did. I always wished I had long platinum blonde hair with crystal blue eyes and curves that could kill, but like I said, I was as plain as it could get. My ears weren’t even pierces.

There were times that I wished I could trade my brains for looks. What’s the point of having a brilliant mind if I couldn’t share anything with anyone else? No body wanted to be friends with me. But to be perfectly honest, my looks weren’t the main reason why people avoided me like a leper. I mean, there were kids who were considered ugly yet they had people to talk to. The main reason as to why I was forever a loner throughout my time spent in the AstoriaSchool District was because I stood out on my first day of school like a swollen sore thumb in the middle of a hand model convention.

While every other second grader arrived to school sporting their new Sketchers shoes that lit up with each step or the coolest new Scooby Doo lunchbox with the matching Mystery Machine backpack, I arrived in a Romanian dress that my mother made and my lunch wrapped in a flowered-cloth. Every other little girl had their hair done in cute little pony tails while my hair was braded down my back with red ribbon intertwined throughout it.

“It’s not Halloween, you know.” A little boy by the name of Royce Matthews told me as I took the empty seat beside his.

“What’s that?” I asked, completely unaware of what this ‘Halloween’ he spoke of was. Royce’s jaw dropped, shocked that there was a kid out there who didn’t know what the magical holiday of Halloween was. I sat in my desk with my eyes wide as he explained this event to me. Children dressed in costumes, knocking on the doors of their neighbor to beg for candy? What place did my parents move us to?

By the end of the day I was already called out for having a thick accent. To be honest, I never picked up on my accent. I mean, everyone in Bran sounded the same. We pronounced our words alike, similar sounds came from our mouths… I was never aware that I had a different way of speaking until we moved to Astoria. I actually thought that everyone else had a funny accent. But, apparently I was wrong, and half of my second grade class made it quite apparent.

As soon as I received my diploma, I knew I had to get the hell out of Oregon as fast as I could. No, not just out of Astoria… but as far away from the whole state. My older brother Adrian suggested that I should move back to Romania. Spend thousands of dollars to move back to our small village to sell cabbage or give tours of Bran castle. As tempting as it seemed, I decided to move somewhere else. Somewhere totally and completely different from the state of Oregon… a place where anyone could show up and be accepted. With a university awaiting me and my bags packed, once the summer after graduation rolled around I left for the brightest and biggest place located at the bottom of the country: San Antonio, Texas.

Most people decide to stay close to home once they get out of high school, or at least choose to remain in state. It’s usually seen as crazy or even stupid to leave everything and everyone you know at such a young age to move somewhere that’s completely unknown and foreign. Did it stop me? Your damn right it didn’t.

My story beings with me at the age of 24, a law student at St. Mary University in San Antonio, Texas while also trying to hold down a job as a sale associate at Frieda’s, local boutique. Nothing special has changed about me really except for the fact that my hair grew a couple of inches. I was still a tall un-curvy nerdy Romanian vegetarian finding a way to make it in the crazy world. At least law school wasn’t nearly as insane as high school was. I even managed to find people who were just as socially unacceptable as I was. Of course I still wasn’t voted the most popular of SMU, but anything was better than being at the lowest spot on the social food chain. At least in San Antonio I had friends. Well, two friends and some acquaintances. But in the end, they’re pretty much all the same, right?

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Alright so, I'm hoping that was okay? :o

Thanks for reading. :]