Soooo Not Normal

T E S S A

I wake up screaming, drenched in sweat. I scan my room, breathing hard. Wow, that sucked. I think as I slip out of bed. I walk over to my closet and pull out some leggings and a large sweater. I braid my hair and settle in front of the mirror for my thirty-minute makeup session. I pull up my relaxation playlist and start on my makeup. When I'm done, I grab my phone, my bag, and my wallet. I run downstairs. Maria, the housekeeper, is making breakfast.

"Good morning Ms. Miller." She says politely, handing me a small bag with toast and juice inside. Tempting, but no. I think as I walk out of the room and toss it into the trash. I open the door and walk down the street, plugging in my earbuds. I hum along to the song as I pass Forest Hills. Hey, this is where Peter lives. I think. I walk past the coffee shop next to the neighborhood, singing quietly. We have rehearsal after school today, and Emma and Cicily are coming to watch. I really want to impress them.

"Oooh, I do, I do, I do, I do-" I crash into someone leaving the shop. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" I'm pretty sure my face is bright red. I look up and see that the person I ran into was Peter.

"It's f-fine. I didn't drop anything, so I'm good. Are-are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" I realize that the song is still playing. I fumble with my phone, shutting it off.

"Sorry. And yeah, I'm fine." We stand there, awkwardly. "Umm, are you heading to school?" Seriously? Of course, he's going to school, idiot! I cannot believe I just said that out loud.

"Umm, yeah. Senior year is coming up and all that, so I have to keep going." I can't tell if he's making fun of me, or if this is just how he usually acts. I think it's the latter, but I'm not sure.

"Uh, do you want to walk with me?" Why would you say that? You have a boyfriend! Who, according to Emma, is an untrustworthy piece of trash. But he's still yours!

My rational side tries to reason with me. That might be true, but that doesn't mean you can't have friends who happen to be guys, right? Right?

"Sure. I-I mean, as long as it's not weird. It's not weird, r-right?"

"No, it's fine. I mean, as long as you're fine with it. You're fine with it, right?" I am so awkward.

"To-totally fine with it."

"Ok." We stand there in silence for a minute. "We should probably get going."

"Y-Yeah, we should." We start to walk down the street towards the school.

"So, how's the project going? Is Emma being a pain?"

"No, no! Emma's fine, and the project is going g-good." He touches his collar, playing with it a bit. It's kind of cute.

I shake my head a little. You have a boyfriend. I remind myself.

"Oh good. Umm, did you finish a lot of it yesterday?"

"Um-well, not exactly..." I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn't say anything.

"Oookay, so what happened?" Silence. Huh, nice to know. Guess I'll get it out of Emma. "Umm, ok." We walk in silence until we reach the front gates.

"Tessa!" I hear footsteps coming up behind me. Shoot. I turn around.

"Hey, Jack!" I say, looking up at him. He looks pretty angry.

"Was this guy bothering you?" I roll my eyes. That is such a jock stereotype.

"No, he's not." Jack wraps an arm around me and pulls me closer. I stiffen. There's no need to pretend, Jack. I look over to Peter. "Thanks for walking with me. I needed the company." I smirk as Jack glares. Sometimes it's fun when he's mad.

"Let's go, Tessa."

"Jack, I'm meeting up with Emma, remember? I get a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card since you practiced during lunch yesterday." He lets go of me.

"Fine. Have fun."

"I will," I say sweetly as he walks away. I turn to Peter. "Sorry about him. He and Emma are both pretty protective." Poor guy. He looks pretty shaken up.

"It-it's okay. I get it." He says, walking into the campus. "Well, um, bye."

"Oh, bye. See you in 3rd!" He turns and waves, then walks into school right as Emma runs up to me.

"What did you do to that poor boy? He looks traumatized." I say as she glares in his direction.

"I'm the one who should be traumatized after what he did."

"What'd he do?!" If he hurt her, I would hurt him.

"He was, umm, uh, late." I look at her.

"That's it? I thought he, like, attacked you or something!"

"What? No!"

"You need to be more specific."

"About what?!"

"Everything! You're so confusing!" I roll my eyes and Emma laughs

"Thank you, I try." She bows. As we walk into school, my mind goes back to my dream.

"Emma, I had another dream." She looks at me worriedly.

"What happened?"

Word Count //855 Words\\