Group Therapy

One

Marissa

"No Arden, I'm not going to, it's not a good idea. Every time I think about the subject I freak out or break something," I tell my best friend for the tenth time.

Arden is trying to get me to join the school therapy group. A couple weeks ago, I got a letter in the mail saying that I got put in the group because of my anger issues. Which is really stupid because I'm pretty tame at school. Tomorrow school starts again and I'm starting junior year.

Barbara comes in and tells me dinner is ready. I guess I should be calling her mom, but I don't feel comfortable saying it even after eleven years. She gets it though.

"Look Arden, come over and spend the night. I need the company. You know thinking about it gets me stressed out. Call Morgan and Brenda too. We can have our last sleepover of the summer and we can plan our outfits for tomorrow. I got to go."

At dinner, Laren is the first to speak. "So Marissa are you going to the group therapy thing at school tomorrow?" Laren is fourteen and still doesn't understand I don't like talking about what happened to me.

"No Laren," I say, stabbing my lasagna.

Barbara looks at me concerned. "Honey, I honestly think it would be a good idea. You need to talk to somebody about it."

"I already did."

"I don't think uncle Duncan is actually qualified," says Jason.

"Yeah I mean, he told you to just break stuff to release your anger but you do that anyways," says Amanda, Jason's twin. Jason and Amanda are eighteen and are starting senior year.

"Well if you ask me I think you shouldn't go. It's obvious that nothing is going to help you out," says Kalser. I like Kalser. He gets me. He is a smart kid for a twelve year old.

"I think you should do whatever you want," says Cherry, the youngest of all of us. She is six. We are all adopted. Barbara and Harold couldn't have kids so they adopted. We're all pretty close in age range. Two years between all of us. Except with Cherry. She's six years younger than Kalser. Everyone's parents gave them up because they couldn't take care of them for whatever reason. But they all have a monthly day where their parents drop by and spend time with them. But not me. Every second Saturday of the month I spend the night at Arden's. Barbara doesn't want me watching them all have their parents here while my father would never show up. I haven't seen my father in almost twelve years and I plan on never seeing him again.

I hear a knock on the door and jump up. Barbara gives me a look and then I remember I forgot to tell her the girls were spending the night. "Oh yeah. Arden, Morgan, and Brenda are spending the night," I say, getting up from the dining room table.

"Why hello there my best friends, how are you today?" I say in my best waitress voice. We all go to my room and put on our pajamas since it was already pretty late.

"So are you guys ready for the first day of school tomorrow?" asks Brenda, painting her nails.

"Oh my gosh yes. I haven't seen Tommy's fine self since June," says Morgan.

"Maybe you would have if you guys would just date already," says Arden.

"Well I'm not the dating kind of girl and he isn't the dating type of guy." Morgan's more of the hooking up type of girl. She just hooks up. With a lot of guys actually. But she claims her favorite guy will always be Tommy.

"How about you Marissa? Excited seeing Logan?" I nod. Logan has been my boyfriend since April. He has the bad boy image I love. He left after school let out for summer camp.

"Guys we need to do something. One last summer activity," says Arden.

"I have an idea," says Morgan, twirling her blonde hair around with her finger. "Let's sneak out and go down to the meadow."

"Are you crazy? If Barbara and Harold find out they'll ground me for two months," I say.

"C'mon Marissa. Aren't you the rebellious type? I thought we were going to make are high school years worth remembering," says Arden.

"Ugh fine."

We walk down to the meadow in silence. The meadow is this big waterfall surrounded by rocks and flowers. Me and Arden discovered it once when were playing hide and seek when we were seven. We told Brenda and Morgan about it and now its our secret hiding place. Not one person knows about it except for us. It is deep out in the forest near my house.

We reach the meadow and sit down for awhile, listening to the water crash down on the rocks.

"Hey, who is that?" Morgan is pointing to a small figure at the other side of the water. The figure is tall. We were close enough to see that it's a boy.

"Wait, isn't that Dallen Davidson?" asks Brenda.

"Oh my gosh he is so cute. Do you think he can see us?" asks Arden, immediately fixing her hair.

"Hey Dallen!" yells Morgan. He turns around and I see that it is in fact Dallen. I have never talked to him. I saw him in the halls a lot last year but that's about it.

Dallen sees us and then runs away. "Well that wasn't very nice," says Brenda.

"Guys I think we should head home. It's almost midnight." The girls nod and we start walking back.

"Let's make a toast," says Arden suddenly.

"We don't have any wine glasses," I say.

"So what?"

"Ok fine then. Let's make a toast to.."

"To junior year," says Brenda.

"Ok to junior year."

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PIC ON THE SIDE IS OF MARISSA MINT