Strange Connection

Chapter Two

Cheryl was mortified, to say the least. She rushed out of Gym class after the final bell rang and went straight to her car. She couldn't have Toni making jokes about Cheryl being a lesbian much less genuinely thinking it! Does she know? How would she know? She decided to get her phone out and play another one of her favorite songs to calm down and forget about what happened. She was probably just overthinking the insult. The song was a remake of Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". She heard the first few notes of the familiar piano part and started to relax for the drive home.

As she listened to the lyrics of the song, she started to imagine herself as the singer. In her fantasy, she was singing about Toni. She silently cursed herself when she realized what she had been daydreaming about for almost half the song. This obsession needed to stop, it was crazy. Cheryl brushed her imagination aside and pressed the skip button to prevent her brain from wandering again.

...

She punched a code into the keypad and the gates that read "BLOSSOMS" slowly opened forward, allowing Cheryl to enter. The driveway to the garage was long and perfectly paved. Cheryl slowed her car to a stop and then went to open the door to her house. She peered inside the quiet, dark house that she lived in. It looked as if no one had lived there for a hundred years, but was still cleaned weekly. Normal.

She climbed the stairs while hauling her humongous backpack with her. She was about to do homework in her own room but instead got distracted by a different room. She dropped her stuff in the hall and slowly turned the knob to the old door. She wasn't sure why she was scared, but she hadn't been in here for a while and she really wanted to be with him after the day she just had. She tippy-toed into the room and sat on the edge of the bed while she picked up a picture frame. It was of the two of them: Cheryl and Jason.

A tear slid down her cheek at the thought of her beloved twin brother. He was one of the nicest people to ever exist and she was sure of it. Everyone loved him, he was probably the most popular person around his entire life. Everyone was nice when he was alive. Nobody bullied Cheryl, either because they followed Jason, or because they were scared of what Jason might do to them if he found out. But everything changed when Jason got sick and died in the summer after their 9th-grade year. Cheryl's heart broke just thinking about it again. When Cheryl had to go back to school the next year, people were angry about the death of their favorite Blossom. They started saying terrible things to her about Jason, and it soon became routine to bully her. Cheryl clung to the picture and held it close as she wept.

"What are you doing in here?!" Penelope screamed at Cheryl making her jump.

"I was just thinking about JJ, mother." She replied quietly as she wiped under her eyes. She wasn't allowed to wear makeup, so she didn't have to be concerned about ruining it by crying.

"You could have broken something important! Why don't you ever think? Just get out." Cheryl's mother said as she pointed towards the door and sighed in disappointment. Cheryl kissed Jason's photo and put it back carefully. She sulked and walked out of the room, leaving her mother in it to check for any "damage".

Her mother and father used to be the average parents before Jason died. They weren't super happy, but they were never as bad as they are now. Just like the rest of the town, they took all their grief for Jason out on their daughter. Whenever they are actually around, Cheryl wishes they were gone. They make it clear they would rather have her dead and Jason alive.

Cheryl flopped onto her bed and cried for an hour. She was upset and worried that this year would be even worse than the last one. Like some crappy movie version of a book. Maybe daydreaming about Toni more wouldn't be so bad. It could give her something good on a bad day, even if it was fake.