First Day of My Life

Chapter 16 Back to school

"Good Morning honey," my mom says. I wake up to find breakfast in bed.

"Thanks Mother," I tell her.

"No problem honey. Once you're done get ready for school okay?" she tells me. I finish eating and shower. In the shower, I vision on the floor mud draining down the tub. I get scared because I have no mud on me at all. Suddenly a vision goes through my mind of Carlos hugging me and I am telling him to stop because he's filled with mud. I wake up from the vision. Whoever I was, I really seemed happy. I get ready for school and my mom tells me how I take the bus so I wait outside for it.

"Hello, Lisa. I am Mrs. Williams." I interrupt her. "Your Amber's mom and Mr. Williams's wife." She smiles. "Welcome back honey," she says.

"Not yet," I reassure her. "Almost."

I get off the bus and I see Carlos waiting for me.

"Hey, you," I tell him.

"Hi, Lisa." He hugs me.

We walk into the school and he leads me to the school's library.

"What are we doing here?" I ask him.

"You would always come here every morning and read a book. You enjoy reading about adventure."

He goes on how he would always come to pick me up here after morning football practice.

"You would always sit here." He points to a small, beige, couch. I sit down and close my eyes. I want to remember something, anything. I sigh. He notices that I fail to catch any memory.

"Come on, let's get to class." He reaches for my hand and I give it to him. That's when I see a vision of me running out from a room and I appear under the bleachers. I am crying. Then I hear someone coming to me so I wipe my tears. It's Carlos. He picks my head up and tells me my tiara is falling.

"Lisa are you okay?" Carlos is about to call for help when I hug him.

"I'm fine." He hugs me back.

We head to class and everyone is staring at me. Heads turn down the hallway and people whisper things to one another.

"What's going on?" I ask Carlos. I am pretty sure he noticed too.

"You're popular here." He laughs so I know he's joking.

"Um they just wonder where you've been, that's all," he replies. I spent my classes with the spotlight on me. Some kid told me hi that his name is Alex. I wish I could remember him. Carlos walks me to my locker and tells me what classes I have next.

"Hey, Carlos is people making fun of me or something?" I ask.

"They are just curious Lisa that's all. Oh, shoot I have practice, I totally forgot. You think you're going to be fine?" he asks.

"Yeah, physio next. Got it." I tell him.

He hugs me and that's when I get another memory. I am back home looking at myself in the mirror. I am wearing a long pink dress. Then I am dancing with Carlos. I ask him, "Why are people staring at me?" and he answers, "Because they can't stop realizing how beautiful you look." Afterward, he kisses me and I wake up from the vision. I stop hugging him.

"You kissed me," I tell him.

"What?" I hear another voice behind me say. It's from Michael.

"You what?" He goes closer to Carlos.

"No man I didn't." He looks at me all confused.

"Yes, you did. I was wearing a pink dress and you had a matching tuxedo!" I tell him.

"Lisa that was in our junior prom. That was long ago." Michael walks away.

"Look Lisa I got to go. But I can reassure you that we are just friends." He leaves too.

During lunch a couple of girls found me sitting alone in the cafeteria.

"Hi, Lisa." They all say.

"Hey." I say back.

"We heard what happened and we wanted to give you this."

They hand me cards that say get well soon and they also give me flowers.

"We're really sorry," they tell me.

"Why? This wasn't your guys' fault." I tell them because they seem worried.

"No Lisa we..." The girl trails off and bites her lip.

So another girl continues for her. "We weren't really kind to you."

Another girl jumps in. "We um mistreated you," she says and looks down as if she's ashamed.

"I don't understand. How did I know you guys?" I ask them.

"My name is Theresa and this is Elena, Emma, Mary, and Camila." I smile at each one of them.

"We were so mean to you Lisa," Theresa admits.

"You were so nice to all of us and we took advantage of you which led to mean things we would say to you," Elena confesses.

"And do to you," Camila mentions.

"We're really sorry if we can take it back we would," Emma says.

I look down, my mind wanders into a memory of several bullying I went through with everyone including these girls in front of me from freshman year to now. I look up at them again and ask, "You guys bullied me?" I gasp.

"Yes Lisa was so sorry please forgive us," Elena begs.

"I, I need some air," I tell them. I grab my tray of food, throw it away and go to town.

"I'm so confused. Who am I? If I have friends then why don't they help me? I mean I get bullied!" I think to myself.

I catch myself heading somewhere and I realize I stop by a bridge. I rest to catch my breath and I look down at the cars. A rapid wind hits me. I close my eyes and a memory kicks in. It's a little girl holding someone's hand. The little girl is winning how she wants to get in the teapot ride. The man holds her and kisses her on the cheek. I open my eyes and gasp.

"Father?" I say to myself. "What happened to you?" I begin to cry to the thought that my father is not here helping me recover as well. I sit down on the bridge and stay watching the cars pass by. "There's only one way I can get my father's help." I think to myself and as I am about to let go, someone pulls me off the bridge and back to the ground. I open my eyes and I am laying on Alex's lap.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He says.

"Hey, you!" I push myself off of him, I stand up and he does too.

"You bullied me too!" I scream at him.

"You're remembering now huh?" He laughs to himself. "Look, I'm sorry. I was a jerk to you. But don't worry, I didn't do anything anymore. Your boyfriend and your friend scared me off. Okay?" He starts walking away. "Stay on the ground, please." He says to me as he walks away.

"Alex?" I call him and he turns around.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." I smile at him, he grins back and walks back to me.

"I'm also poor going to a rich school. We got lots in common, Lisa. I tried letting go once too until I realized that I can just hide who I am." he confesses.

"You shouldn't hide who you really are. I know I'm not someone who should say this to you but you can't just be someone you're not. I like this guy better."
"And what guy is that?"

"You care."

He smiles, pauses for a moment, and rubs my arm. "I won't tell anyone." He walks away again.

I head back home. I can't believe this. Why didn't Carlos or Michael tell me? They made me think everyone was my friend when they were the opposite.