60 Days With Ben

Chapter 1

There are more disadvantages than vantages to be the daughter of the English teacher of your class: one of the disadvantage is that she, being an executioner, half of the school will hate you. I live with this weight since I started elementary school. Besides, my bottle bottom glasses help me to get ninety percent school bullying.

In my room, I have a small mirror that only allows me to look at my face, I never cared much about my appearance, I never knew which clothes were in fashion, so I never made a point of having a large mirror in my room. The little mirror fulfills its purpose; I tie my hair in an old, traditional ponytail, put on my glasses, and my black eyes stare at me in the mirror, some evident freckles frame my pale, thin face, like splattered ink on paper. Cannot my body gain at least a few extra pounds?

"Good morning, mom!" I said, sitting at the table.

It is not always that my mother replies to my good morning, it was as if she always had to keep her guard, even for her daughter. "Daddy" abandoned her when I was a newborn, so with a young daughter to look after, she had to do three shifts of teaching for years. I spent almost sixteen years with my grandmother; she passed away a month ago, and now I spend half of my day at school and the other half locked up in my room between books and some TV shows.

My mother always drives me to school. It's torture when I get out of the car and half the school students look at me. Have not they got tired of it yet? Look at me. Giggles. Whispers. I slam the door hard as I get out of the car.

"Hey young lady, is that what I taught you?" My mother shouted from the car, and some students laugh at my expense.

"Sorry, mom," I said, leaving as soon as possible.

Head down, I enter the school. I press my books against my body and keep walking, always with my head down, when in fact, is the other students who should walk like this, head down, ashamed of their evil deeds.

The first torture I had already faced, now I had to go through the second: the sea of people standing on the stairs. This is one of the worst, there is nowhere to run, no other way to get away from them. I look up and pause for some seconds at the bottom of the stairs, step with my All Star on the first step, and then they begin.

Listening to people making fun of your appearance, laughing behind your back, let's say that this is not pleasant at all. I quicken my steps and soon I am away from them, enter my classroom and sit in my usual place: the first chair in the second row on the right side of the room. Teacher's daughter = Intelligent student = Disciplined student. And because it was also the closest to the door.

No one was in the room yet. For sure, they had a lot of catching up on to do, so why rush into the classroom? Unless you are one of the school freaks and you have to find somewhere to hide. This was mine. It was not the most perfect, but it was what I had.

After a few minutes there, concentrated the reading on one of Agatha Christie's book, Carla came in, my only salvation in this school. Carla is the only one I can call a friend, we have known each other forever, we are inseparable, except for the fact that we are not classmates this year. My mom could have gotten me or Carla to switch rooms, but she refused to do that, it was my mom being my mom.

"Hey, creature that I love, hiding from the world again?" Carla said, taking off my glasses.

"Give me back, you know I can't see without them," I said, taking the glasses and putting them back, pushing them to the tip of the nose.

"Let's go outside, Elle!" Carla looked down and then at me through her long dark lashes, thanks to the mascara she had put on, once she didn't like how bright they were.