Imperfect Together

Part 1

PART I

Raspberry

I was always abused as a child. 'Abused' is a word that I don't like to use but in my situation it was certainly the right one. It was mainly verbal but sometimes it was a bit physical I had a few small bruises, but the worst injury I got was when dad kept putting jalapenos (a food that I am allergic to) on my dinner my throat was swollen and it was hard to breath for almost a month! And only one friend would support me, her name was Lexie. But not even she could be with me all the time. I grew up with 12 siblings, four sisters, and eight brothers. With me being the oldest it means I was meant to be the most, 'responsible one.' But instead of doing homework I went to parties, and alternatively, instead of going to school, I was at the beach all day.

As I was not very productive, and my grades obviously suffered making things worse with my parents. I tried to reason with them to just make them understand the pressure I felt... it was like climbing up stairs but every time you reach the top there's just more and the ball and chain on your legs get tighter, it was suffocating.

Every time I saw them in a room, whether they talked to me or not it just made all the progress of reaching the top of those stairs pointless, but I was strong like a soldier I charged through it no matter how many bullets hit my stomach until I finally collapsed.

So at the age of seventeen, I ran away from home, but I did take my best friend and practically sister, Lexie. Lexie never liked her family because they loved sports, and she loved math. It was like being a sheep surrounded by wolves. So we ran away (and, I did take the family dog, her name was Taco). So we went to New Sydney, U.S.A (United States of Australia), by train. Trust me when I say, two-and-a-half hours on a train does something to a person.

I was happy for the first time because I actually made my own decision. Lexie had an aunt who owned a hotel. Her name was Liz. Liz didn't have a very close relationship with Lexie's mum, so she wasn't very concerned when her niece came from the suburbs of Newcastle to the big and bustling city of New Sydney. When she let us stay in the hotel, she would pay for the first couple of weeks and then we had to get a job and pay it ourselves.

To be honest that was a pretty good deal and school wasn't that big of a deal either all we had to do is get a job, then quit it and go to New Sydney. We had to get a job cause Lexie wanted to go to Uni (New Aussie college). I had always wanted to get a job in modelling as it has been my dream since I was 6 or 7 so for a few days I looked at some advertisements which so far, had only led to failure until I saw a bright crimson coloured logo that said "Shimmer Modelling Agency: To transform normal people into shining stars"

With pictures of past people who have used it, it looked truly amazing. So I contacted the woman who ran it and it turns out she'd been doing it for 50 years! She was witty and had a great sense of fashion and she seemed quite eager to hire me, all the stars were in my favor.

***

As I burst through our hotel room door in anticipation, I shouted "Lexie! Lexie! Look what I have!" Waving a piece of paper with a very official logo on it.

She replied: "Raspberry I left home for you, yet you didn't text me about this?! I'm your best friend! Are you feeling ill?"

"The lady was so kind she was an ex Calvin Klein model!" I yelled out excitedly.

'Well, all day I've been trying to get into any university or TAFE with an opening". Suddenly Lexie's phone rang.

"Who is it?" I said,

"SHHHHHH!" was her 'informative' reply.

About what felt like an eternity until Lexie hung up and said: "OMG! RASPBERRY! TACO! THAT WAS THE UNIVERSITY OF N.S CALLING ME!!!" I was confused why she was talking to the dog.

But then I realized that it was every nerd's dream - uni. so we both freaked out.

"How do you have the credentials for that?" Was my first and only question.

"Well firstly I didn't know you knew words like that, and secondly do you remember how I got that big award for being smart? You know, way back when? Anyway now I am officially the smartest kid in The Hunter!"

"Wow," I said.

"Look, today has been the best day ever. " Lexie cheerfully said

"For the both of us" I finished.