Her Name Was Mallory

Storms

On an early Monday morning, I found myself walking down the hallway of my old and small elementary school. My light up shoes were shining even brighter today for the clouds had wrapped Seattle in a blanket of darkness. Before entering class, I remember looking at the bulletin board right outside the classroom. This week, the meaning of our names would be posted, along with a picture of us from the first day of school. I focused mainly on my picture, I was not that bad looking. Elijah, a classmate of mine stood next to me while he giggled non stop. I asked him what was so funny, I wanted to join in laughter as well. His words still remain clear inside my head.

"You're so ugly!" he said, with arms wrapped around his arms trying to stop the pain in his stomach from so much laughter.

"I am not!" I responded, my little hands turning into fists as I frowned at him before glancing at my picture once again. I had never noticed how big my nose was, or how uneven my bangs had been cut. The flaws that I had never seen before started to appear and it felt as if they were not mounted on my back, dragging me down as they would be for the next few years.

"That's not the worst part, you're name means sadness! Mallory, you are so ugly and you make everyone else sad. I don't think anyone will love you like that. Freak!" he continued laughing as he made his way into class. With sadness in my eyes I looked at the name meaning next to my picture.

"Mallory: unfortunate, sadness"

Tears rolled down my rosy cheeks, and I made my way to class. I sat in my desk, and watched how Seattle began to flood with rain, the way my head was flooding with sadness.

But that was four years ago. Today, I had just turned fourteen. Ever since, Elijah had become a nightmare. His hobbies included reminding me how misfortunate I was. Elijah's teasing got worse each year. New insults were created by him, and I must admit he had become really creative. While I had been hating myself ever since that day where he called me ugly for the first time. Every morning, I went up to the mirror to see if any of my flaws such as my acne had gone away miraculously overnight. Every month, I tried to come up with a new diet plan to lose that weight I had always been teased about. I was good at dieting, so far I had lost about twenty pounds. I now weighed ninety pounds, and well though the doctor was concerned, I could only think of how much being skinny benefited me. At least I would not be called fat. Every year on my birthday I would grab my laptop and search my name and its meaning, to remind myself what I was defined by. I reminded myself that somehow I would always just bring sadness and misery into people's lives. And so, I lived every second of my life revolving around the idea that I would never be good enough. Telling myself that became a little rewarding actually. Everyone on this planet has a purpose, mine was just to show people how sad and ugly life can really be. That was my sole purpose and I had learned to live with it.

I made my way downstairs where I found my mother smearing frosting across the cake she had baked for my birthday. I always appreciated her efforts to make my life better. But in the end they were just efforts, and nothing could really change my life back to the way it was.

"Here is your chocolate cake, just how you like it honey! Happy birthday Mallory, I can't believe you're already fourteen! I love you so much, you'll always be my little girl" Mom said with tears in her eyes.

"Thanks mom, I love you too" I responded, she was the only one that actually loved me.

"Romina is coming over in a bit, I want you girls to have a fun time. Maybe you girls can go out and catch a movie or something, yeah?"

"Yeah that'll be cool" I knew mom was really trying for me to socialize and have as much fun as possible. I did not want to make her sad, not her. She was too good to go through pain. Mom had already been devastated when I was diagnosed with depression, the least I could do was try to seem happy. Fake it till I make it. Though that was often easier said than done.

"Happy Birthday Mallory! Here I brought you this" Romina handed me a wooden box, as I opened it I realized it contained my favorite book.

"Twilight, thanks Romina I love it!" I gave her a hug and proceeded to put the book down. After getting ready we decided to go to our local coffee shop.

"I don't know Mallory, Elijah seems too involved in sports this year to even try to bother you"

"Yeah I suppose with basketball he forgot about me, and I could not be more happy. Although I know there's nothing I can do to regain my self esteem and my life back"

"Don't say that, someday all the bullying he's done to you will fade away"

"Yeah I'd hope so," I responded and directed my eyes to the entrance of the coffee shop. "oh crap" I said.

"What?" Romina's face was full of confusion until she turned around to see the one and only Elijah looking at us with fire in his eyes.

"Mallory!" he said, his voice faking excitement and a friendly tone.

"Hello Elijah" I tried to keep my voice monotone and act as if his presence did not bother me at all.

"Don't you dare think that I forgot your birthday! Such an unfortunate day is hard to forget. You know Mallory, I think I should say some meaningful words on such a special day"

"No, no please Elijah don't" I begged but by then he had already gone up on stage and taken the microphone.

"I'd like to say a few words to my dearest friend Mallory, first of all I wish a very sad birthday. I say sad because as we know all you bring is sadness, misery, disgust among a few other feelings. That's all I wanted to say, well that and I wanted to remind you that you were a mistake and you should not have been born, but oh well. Now that I refreshed your memory, and you know how much we all despise you, goodbye. You bore me to death" and with that, he walked out.

Few people around me were shocked and gave me compassionate looks while, those who went to school with us only laughed. Tears filled up my eyes and nothing was left to say. I walked out of the cafe, and ran back home. I felt bad for leaving Romina behind but she would understand. I used the rain that was pouring on me to wash my face, that way mother would never know I had been crying.

Once I got home, I entered my bedroom and saw a couple balloons and chocolates with a note on them. I took the note in my hands and opened it revealing its message.

"Next destination: Denver Colorado"

Confused, I walked around the house looking for my mother. It wasn't after thirty minutes that she walked in with a bunch of suitcases, boxes among cleaning supplies.

"Mom, what's going on? What's with the note and the boxes and suitcases"

"Oh well we're going to Colorado!" she squealed with excitement.

"You never told me about going on a vacation" I responded, as I helped her bring the suitcase upstairs to our rooms.

"No, not a vacation. We're moving there" she said.

The moment those words came out of her mouth, I could swear I felt the earth shake beneath my feet. My head was spinning and it was hard to breathe. This would only be the beginning of another storm. I knew it.