August 3rd, 1925
I wake up in the early morning to the sounds of loud claps coming from the doorway of the family room. I am startled awake and look at where the sound is coming from. They were coming from my father, who was standing adamantly in the doorway. He was already dressed in a dark blue suit and he had his dark black hair combed back. His usually full and wild beard was also trimmed so I assume he has something important going on today. He glared at me like I dared to look him in the eye, but that’s an everyday thing. He's not exactly the kindest man ever, but he's got priorities I guess.
“ Get up. Get dressed. School starts in an hour and I am in no mood to deal with your shenanigans this morning.” My father says coldly
Good morning to you too I guess.
“Also, River, no more sleeping in here, you have a bed for a reason.” He continues
I sleepily give him a thumbs up in response. He rolls his eyes and walks away to wake up my sisters.
I throw my blanket off myself and start to stand. I am quickly overcome by a sharp headache and faintness. I rest myself on the edge of the arm of the loveseat. I am used to these headaches, they only last a few seconds, and it’s only when I stand up too fast or when I stretch, then I feel like I could pass out. I gather myself and make my way out of the family room. I saw my father make his way towards my little sister’s room. I walk down the hall and to my room. I expected to see my sister still on my bed, but she seems to be gone. I look around making sure she isn’t there and start getting ready for school.
-
After getting ready I grab my bag and make sure everything is in there. I count all 5 notebooks I needed as well as a textbook. I only need 4 notebooks, but for some reason 5 seems like a more appropriate number of notebooks to have. I open my bedroom door to leave my room, only to be met with the wretched face that is my older sister’s, Gabriella. She has a mischievous look on her face.
“ What?” I say.
“ Nothing, just making sure you’re still ugly. You are.”
“ I appreciate it.” I say sarcastically, pushing my way past her.
Both I and her make our way down the stairs, her being slightly faster than me, trying to start a race. I ignore this, not wanting to give her that satisfaction. We meet our dad at the bottom of the stairs. He has my little sister, Carmen, by the hand. Her face is covered in tears and a pouty lip. She doesn’t like school, or waking up, or people, or paper, and school has all those things. She’s about 5 so I assume this is just a phase she’ll get over soon.
“ Alright, got everything you two?” My father asks.
“ Yep.” We both say in unison.
“ Then let’s go, I have to be at work early today for a company meeting.” He states, opening the front door.
He then exits the door, with my little sister being basically dragged out of the house as she whines. Me and Gabriella follow behind, me closing the door behind us. Gabriella is following right by my side. This is weird, she never does this unless she insists on talking to me.
“ I’ll race ya to the car.” She says before sprinting down the driveway.
I follow closely behind, wanting to win this time. As we make it to the end of the driveway Gabriella takes it upon herself to push me into the bushes. She then races to the passenger seat and sticks her tongue out at me.
“ Get off the ground, River!” My father scolds me.
“ She pushed me!” I argue back, wiping dirt off my uniform as I stand up.
“ Don’t get bullied by your sister next time.” He continues, getting into the front seat and turning on the car.
Offended, but I need to get to school. I get into the rear passenger side and set my bag on the floor of the car. I lean forward and whisper in my sister’s ear:
“Every day that you don’t get immensely sick and die in your sleep is a bad day to me.”
She turns around in her seat.
“ I am disappointed every time I come into your room and don't find you hanging lifelessly from a ceiling fan.” She snaps back.
“ ENOUGH! Both of you!” My father yells from the driver's seat. "JESUS."
“ I don’t want to hear anything from either of you for the rest of the car ride. Also! The next time I hear either one of you say something mean to another, you are getting grounded in your room for two weeks.” He threatens.
“ Are we clear?”
I slump into my seat shamefully.
“ Yes sir.” I say in response.
My father stares my sister down. “Well?” He says towards her.
“ You said not to say anything.”
My father glared at my sister. She slumps into her seat, staying quiet for the time being. I snicker at this and just look out at the window as we make our way to school.
-
August 3rd, 1925
8:03 am
We made our way to my and my older sister’s school. Me and her grab our bags and get out of the car. My father snaps his fingers to get my sister’s attention.
“ Gabi, I don’t want to hear about you getting in trouble anymore this year.” He says, sounding a bit pissed off, “ I already got three notes about your behavior, young lady, that is NOT acceptable.”
Gabriella looks shamefully at the ground.
“ Yeah yeah, sorry.” She says, pulling her bag onto her back. Me and her turn to enter the building as my father drives off. I bump her slightly and smile with glee. She notices, rolls her eyes, and walks hastily past me. Fine by me.
-
August 3rd, 1925
1:04 pm
Jeez, this day is exhausting. I’m just glad I got past gym class, that is by far the most humiliating part of my day. I can never seem to have enough energy to do all the exercises properly. Also, the gym outfits bring out how scrawny I look, not a huge fan of that. My next class starts in one minute so I should probably be quick. It’s home economics, and I've already been late to that twice, so I can’t be late again. Can’t say I’m excited for that class either. My sister shares that class with me and I think I already pissed her off this morning. I open my locker and pull a few books out and put them into my bag. I close my locker, zip up my bag, and make my way down the hall. I am close to the home ec room when I feel a sharp tug on my bag, making me lose my balance a bit. The bell rings as I twist around to see what or who grasped my bag.
Oh wow, I never would’ve guessed, it’s the guy who had a problem with me all year pulling on my bag. What a surprise.
“ Why?” I say to the disgruntled jock.
His name is Arthur, he’s got thick brown hair, and he’s much bigger than me, not that it’s hard to be. I am only kinda tall, but he beats me in that aspect too. He’s a stereotypical-looking bully, really.
“ ‘Cuz your scrawny ass is the reason that our team lost in capture the flag today.”
What an elementary thing to be upset about.
“ Oh boohoo, what are you, twelve?” I say back.
He doesn’t seem to like this response, so he pushes me into the wall harshly, making me slam my head against the hard brick wall.
“ Listen here, faggot, when the lead coach for the football team is watching me play, and I happen to be on your team, and you fumble THAT BADLY and make me look bad in front of the coach just by being on the same team as you, yeah, I’m going to be pissed.” He defended himself
“ Okay, well, what do you want me to do about it now?” I ask.
“ Dropping dead might be good.” He says, throwing me onto the ground. He snatches my bag and makes a run for it. I start after him. I need my notebook for my next class. I run through the halls but I lose sight of him pretty quickly. I try to look down all the adjacent hallways. Nothing. I look down the home ec hallway back where I started to see if he slunk back there. He nor my bag is there.
UGH. Fine.
I am already late and I can just borrow my sister's notebook anyway. I turn to just head back to my class without the bag. Before I could even fully turn around I was hit in the face by my bag when Arthur swung at me with it. It knocked me right onto the ground with a thud and made me dazed. My nose throbbed with pain, so I put pressure on it with my hand. I don’t know what hurt more, my head or my pride. I’m too weak compared to him, I can’t just get up and beat the guy.
“ I know you might think you are some hot shot,” Arthur begins to antagonize, “ but that’s only ‘cuz you wean off your daddy’s money. You are nothing without it. Don’t try to compensate with a smart mouth.” He finishes, tossing my bag at my head with a glare. I catch it but can't stop it from knocking some air out of me.
He turns to either go off to his class or just to finally leave me be. Thank god. The home EC room door opened as soon as Arthur turned to leave. I thought that a teacher heard the fight and came out to stop it. I look and see that I am really wrong. Instead and coincidentally, it was my sister, who was holding a hall pass in one hand, and a metal pan from the back of the home ec room in the other hand. She looks at me on the ground in disappointment, then at Arthur with an angered expression and murder on her mind.
I’m not going to assume this is going to end well for him.
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