Trying to live #Wattys2024

Chapter 3 (Edited)

Summer Before Junior Year

Dear Diary,

I quite enjoy writing in you. Uh, that sounds like something an older person would say. Anyway, I'm sitting on my bed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Can you believe that? Me, the reigning queen of Lakewood Prep, wearing sweatpants the whole week? Of course, I wear sweatpants at home, but please, I wear designer ones that even people with lower incomes can afford—Nike, Adidas, and other brands.

But the ones I'm wearing right now are nowhere near that. Look, I'm not trying to brag, even though I sound like it, but if I can afford designer clothes, then I'm going to get them. I'm not a materialistic idiot who is only focused on having things. But, as I mentioned before, if I can afford them, I buy them. And I'm not taking or buying everything, but I do accept everything my dad gets me.

That's the least he can do for me—shower me with expensive gifts—to erase his guilt of leaving me alone and living with his new family. At least his new wife has fashion sense.

Anyway, I actually wanted to write that I won't be able to write every day: 1) because I have to participate in those round tables here, although I don't say anything except my first name, and 2) because I'm either too lazy or my hand hurts from all the writing, or I just don't feel like it.

Bye!

The Beginning of Junior Year

I'm still writing. I thought I would stop writing after everything that happened, but I think this... this is what makes it okay for me—to say I'm okay, I'm fine, and whatever happened, happened. Don't worry, I'm not getting emotional.

I wrote something about designer clothes and so on, but now I can say that I'm earning my own money. I'm fine, at least money-wise. I have a job at a cafe, and even if I have to work and see my classmates every day (because they are too dumb to go anywhere else), I like the feeling of being able to do something everyone does.

I know I'm rich, I don't have to work, and I get a monthly allowance from my mom, but earning money by myself feels like I'm a step closer to adulthood. Of course, I'm still accepting the gifts from my dad. At least he's trying to get in my good graces by buying me materialistic things. I know it's not the same, but I can pretend that this is his way to say he loves me.

Ugh, I'm at the point where I'm going to get emotional. I think I'll stop writing.

Bye!

********************

As I walked towards the library, I decided to make a stop at my locker. Since the library was in the opposite direction of my locker, I had to turn around and walk back the way I came. While I was walking like a koala, extremely slowly, I realized that someone was coming from the opposite direction.

"Scotland Yard!" I called out, smirking. I waved and ran towards him.

I stopped right in front of him. We were so different—while I had my dad's dark brown hair and brown eyes, he had mom's gray eyes and light brown hair. We were siblings, but we didn't even look alike, though that didn't mean we didn't have anything in common. I was really grateful to have him. Even if my mother and I didn't have a relationship, I had him as my family. My brother was a very sweet and caring person; he always cared for me. I still loved him, even if he let me down for his friends.

His friends were my friends too. Well, my former friends. In the middle of this get-together and in front of me was the boy I stared at before. They called him the Reigning King, though he just prefers King. With his emerald green eyes and his curly black hair, he absolutely looked gorgeous. What made the situation even more absurd was that he even had the perfect trained body.