Just Give Me A Reason

Chapter 1 Perfectly Perfect

I am Monika Amanda Salvato, and I am a artist, singer, dancer, debater, athlete, mathlete, academic scholar, actress, and writer. I'm perfect. At least that's what I'm expected to be. My parents are movie stars.
Ashley Ashton and Brady Salvato, they're smart, perfect, pretty, and everything I strive to be. As their only child I am expected to be perfect.

I have piano lessons after school on Mondays, French and Spanish lessons are after that, painting and sculpting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, track is everyday at 3:30, Wednesdays are debate or mathletes club depending on the week, Thursdays are also ballet, Fridays are Drama club, Chess and etiquette lessons, Saturdays are ballet, Calligraphy lessons, and ballroom dancing.

Sundays are my break, I just sit and write poems. Poems only I can see, poems that Express all the inner turmoil and pains I feel, the feeling of never having a moment to breathe. A moment to just be Monika.

I relish those days, those Sundays I wish they'd last forever and all eternity.

For awhile there I dated a boy...Franklin Leopold Reginald the fifth, and he would occupy my Sundays, but after awhile I just...well... the guy was so darn stiff and stuffy I just couldn't stand to be with him anymore.

He always was like those nitpicky people who don't outright insult you but you just know what they really mean when they say something like
"That's a bold choice " or "That dress looks a little uncomfortable doesn't it?"

Like just say you hate my dress or you think I'm fat, stop beating around the bush. Honestly I couldn't stand another minute of it, it was driving me crazy. Sure I heard an ear full from my parents about letting a "good egg" go, but I just wasn't happy.

Plus who wants to get salmonella from being with such a "good egg"

Why can't I ever catch a break? I really wish I knew, I'm always so tired and yanked around like a tug of war rope.

I sighed as I sat through debate club feeling like I'd rather be literally anywhere else. The longer they droned on the more I wanted to jump out the window I was sitting next to.

"Windmills are an effective source of energy, not only is it affective with gaining -" I closed my eyes resting my forehead against the desk I was sitting in.

Who cares about windmills!?
Who cares if I know piano and ballet and painting?

Who cares about any of this?

"Monika what are your thoughts?" Slowly I raised my head looking at Braxton, who was my vice president of the debate club.
"Windmills provide-" yeah my parents care, that's why I do this, that's why I bullshit my way through another day, another club, or lesson, because it matters to them how perfect I am, and I care too much about their opinion to ever disobey them, no matter how much I dream of my freedom.
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I trudge towards my car, I'm exhausted both mentally and physically. Ugh curse these tedious practices I participate in. But I don't just participate, I have to literally be the best in everything I do. I have to be perfect. I have to be the best...I can't just sit in the shadows and blend in, I have to be heard, I have to be known. I just want my parents to be proud of me.

I look out the glass doors ahead of me, it's almost dark outside now. I glance at my phone, seven PM.

"I'm sorry!" A voice exclaims when I accidentally bump into someone, my phone skitters across the floor, as I drop it after our small collision.
"No, I'm sorry" I express, realizing I had knocked into a girl. Said girl turns I get a good look at her, she has peach almost salmon colored hair and bright blue eyes that sparkle with innocence and kindness.

"No, I shouldn't have been walking so slow, silly dumb me, anyways, I have to go...sorry again for bumping into you Monika. " she smiles then turns back around scampering down the hallway. I blink, wait she knew me, but who was she? I frown kneeling down to pick up my phone from against the lockers. Thankfully it wasn't cracked or broken.

I turned around to look for the girl, but the hallways are empty and I'm all alone. No surprise there. I stuff my phone in my pocket and shuffle down the stairs and out the big glass doors.

It's raining slightly and I look to the sky sadly, letting it drizzle across my face. I just stood there letting the rain drench me, lightening flashed across the darkened sky and I just stood there perfectly still.

To Be Continued....