Chapter I
It wasn't my decision to move schools, it sort of just came. Right now, I'm walking down my rode to my cousin's house. See, most of the family on my mom's side decided to all stay on this one tiny rode in rural South Carolina; Mullins South Carolina. It's another boring, lousy place in another boring, lousy town but yeah. So, I'm walking to her house to talk. You know that feeling where you gotta just talk to somebody or you feel like you're gonna explode? Yep, that's the feeling. "Hey, girl!" I hear her say. As always, Cierra is waiting for me on her front porch most likely checking her PopJam status. "Hey." I mumble. My brain might be ready to talk, but my mouth ain't and I can already see some slurred words and idiotic rambling in the very near future. "What's up, homie?" She layed her phone on the table near the ash tray and walked over to me. Even though it's a little cool, that doesn't seem to affect the gnats that keep flying into either my eyes or my ears. Mullins SC weather for 'ya! You could go out in your swimsuit any day in February and then head over to the pond 'cause you're about to hit heat stroke level ten. So, you can figure today that we both have on blue jean shorts and some old tee shirts. "Nothin' " I reply. "How'd you like school today?" she askes again. "Good." I say back. So, I gotta catch ya'll fam up on this. I left my school of nine years and went to another school... homeschool. Homeschool is a living nightmare and there's no wakin' up from this one. It's lonely sittin' around all day waitin' for class to start so my mom talked to Cierra's principal at her school and said that I was more than welcome to attend their school and do my homeschool there. Beats being alone all the time. I had actually began to have some imaginary friends like the Avengers. I'm a huge Marvel fan, BTW and there's no fixin' it. "Come on in! Mom made brownies." Now that, America, is why I went in. If you've ever tasted Cousin Lori's brownies, you'd go inside, too. "Here, grab some off this plate. They ain't gonna eat them selves." We sit at the bar in her kitchen and apparently she knows somethins' up because she just has that look in her eyes. "You look depressed." She says quietly. Then that's where I feel the tears I've held in so long, like from this summer long, well up in my eyes but I can't cry. It'll do me no good. It only makes people feel sorry for me and I don't want that. See, my papa had a stroke this past summer. A bad one to. Me and him were besties. We did practically everything together. He was my first best friend and will always be. But since that day, my life has changed a lot. My heart got harder and my mind grew weaker just because I didn't want to lose him to a stupid stroke. I spent the majority of my summer in Charleston waiting for him to be able to go home. I sometimes missed girl's days with my friends and when school started back, mom was all the way at the other end of the state when I needed her the most. The day he had the stroke was really the worst day of my life and I say I have 'worst days' all the time but that was the day I lost my best friend. Sometimes he can't even remember where he lives or our names. It's really depressing. "Is it about your grandpa?" She asked. I felt a hot tear roll down my cheek. "Maybe..." I whispered. I shoved a brownie in my mouth and thought about something funny at school today before another tear had a chance to slip by. "Remember today at school when John got his pants caught in the lunch room chair?" Cierra's face lit up like the lights on main street. Then, she started to laugh and I laughed along, too. Anything to get my mind off of my life. We laughed until our faces were as red as a ketchup bottle and then walked to her room. I sat on the edge of her bed while she popped a Nick Jonas CD into the radio and before you could say 'Amen brother Ben', music was pouring loudly out of the speakers. We both sat on the floor to play 'Truth or Dare'. I'm gonna say for the record that 'Truth or Dare' isn't my least favorite game but it's definitely not my favorite. It starts out at an okay level with questions like 'I dare you to eat two tubs of ice cream' or 'Who's your favorite popstar', but then things get really personal like 'I dare you to steal some bubblegum from the convenience store' or 'Who's your crush'. You know, just for example. I don't really have a crush at this point, though. Weird. Kellen always has a crush. Okay so I lied. I have a crush on Chris Evans, the dude that plays Captain America, but like I have a chance, yeah, whatever. I also like the guy that plays Spiderman. But like I said, unless I look like Kim Kardashian and 24, I'm outta luck, kids! And I'm nothing like any Kardashian. If it weren't for my makeup, I'd look like the grumpy ol' troll from Dora. "Okay, chose truth or dare." Cierra smiled mischievously as I skimmed the two piles. I decided to just choose from the truth pile. What could be the worst. After I chose the first one, I handed it to her. "What was the worst secret you've ever kept from someone." She said. Whoop, there it is! One of those really personal ones I was trying to avoid.
