Life of A High School Student

Chapter 15: Small Steps and Big Steps

14th Week of School

Thursday....

After the first few days of school I spent most of my time in the library alone.
I wasn't in the best position to talk to a lot of people, so I sometimes avoided them when I felt uncomfortable.

Dante had been the only one not to reach out to me, in music he didn't try starting a conversation with me probably knowing that I'm not ready to talk yet. I still got headaches and I can't bring myself to go back to the cafeteria yet.

While I was zoning out the bell rings and the students start piling out of the classroom.

I pause, take a deep breathe and bring myself to the next class.

Lunch comes by fairly quickly and I decided to go to the park nearby and sit quietly on one of the swings.

It's getting colder and snow is softly falling on to the ground, but not caring about it, I don't move to put my hoodie on.

I see someone through the snow coming towards me and I slowly turn around to see who it was.

A familiar face greets me and I stare at him. "Hey, it's been a while. Do you mind if I stay here with you?" He asked.

"Not at all." I gesture towards the swing set beside me and Andrew happily sits down.

"You've been pretty distance towards everyone, I just wanted to reach out to tell you to maybe reconsider, reaching out to us. We're here if you need us."

I smile softly and look down, "Maybe, I just need some alone time, I'm a long way from being okay. I just want to move on."

I avoid making eye contact as I continue to stare at the floor, I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I had no idea how to act like in the aftermath of a head injury and mental scar. Maybe I was overreacting, if so then this would make me pathetic.

"Thanks for the offer, Andrew. I promise I'll think about."

He grins. The five minute bell rings and once we bid each other I head to my gym class.

We were studying drugs right now, so I was able to sit down and quietly listen while class and on.

I heard whispers and murmurs about me as usual, nothing bad but always bothersome. I never wanted to be the centre of attention. Ruby had tried to distract my as best as I could, and although I appreciated her efforts it didn't help a lot.

As soon as Class ends I rush to leave before I could hear anymore. The school started to feel suffocating, unfamiliar and I've made little to no progress since I've gone back. I should've taken more time to recover.

I start walking home as I see a car pull up in the road beside me. I turn around and I see Jake , I walk towards the car and sit in the passenger seat.

Jake for some reason passes by my house, confused on why he has a habit of taking me places that I have no idea where it is.

"I thought we could hang out for the day, just for fun. Maria and the others are going to meet us there, you've been avoiding us this whole time Kiara, I thought it would be good to get you out."

I nod and stay quiet, I look out the window to see any sign of where we're headed. In shock, I see tents set up an an opened area from the far distance and my heart starts beating faster.

"We're going to a Fair?" I smile nervously but partly get excited. I always loved going there, and it's relaxing in a way. It takes your worries away while you're focusing  on winning.

He nods relieved I'm excited and we continue to drive there, once we arrive I see Maria, Irene, Andrew and Dante there waiting for us to arrive. Smiling I approach them and they happily greet me with a group hug.

We start by going on the Mine Buster Haunted House and we do Rock Paper Scissors to decide who we pair up with and it ended as;

Maria and Jake

Irene and Andrew

Dante and I

First thing we decided to do was to go inside a haunted house. I'm taking deep breathes Dante surprisingly looks more scared than I do. I start giggling softly at his panicked state and offer him a hand to hold as we went inside.

We're pushed inside in a rush and Dante looks more panicked.

"Okay okay, is it too late to change my mind?!? I don't want to die!"

Jump scares and surprises start coming out, The screams of excitement and fear are heard throughout the house.

"WOOHHH"

"AAHHHH"

"THIS. IS SO. FUN!"

"I REGRET GOING INSIDE! THIS IS RUINING MY PRIDE!"

I continue to laugh at Dante and once the ride is over, he scrambles out of the coaster as I softly giggle and slowly exit too following him.

We decided to split up and meet at around 7:30 pm and go explore the Seasonal Fair more. I decided to go easy on Dante so we decided to go to an arcade to play some games.

We made a bet on who could get more tickets, but I had a trick up my sleeve. I realized with the "spin-the-wheel" game when you can press stop and the spinner will land on a certain amount of tickets, the spinner will speed up slightly which is why most kids don't do well.

I managed to get 530 tickets from that game alone and I ended up winning.

At the end of the day we decided to go on the Ferris wheel and peacefully end the day on great terms.

"Today was good, wasn't it?"

"The best I've had in weeks, thanks for being patient with me Dante, all of you were able to wait. And give me some time."

"Of course we were...we all care about you."

I slowly bring myself to have the courage to look into his eyes, unexplained feeling as my heart starts to beat faster.

I continue to smile and feel happier than I've ever been. Yawning softly I lean on his shoulders as we continue to ride the Ferris wheel. Today wasn't so bad, and I feel a glimmer of hope that it's slowly getting better.

We meet back with the others at the exit and decide to head home, having these types of trips always helps in a way. Although I was isolating myself, there was a part of me that missed my friends.