The Morning of the 1st Day of High
School
Cassandra
turned on her bedside lamp, jumped out of bed before her alarm went off, and
stretched her arms above her head. She spent the night watching her digital
clock. Sleep evaded her from the excitement and the worry of starting a new
school. A Southern Baptist one. She wasn’t sure what to expect since she and
Ronald would be the only ones attending from her Lutheran school. They had left
behind a group of kids they had known since kindergarten. They were like
sisters and brothers.
She
went to her closet and pulled out a white blouse, and a red and blue plaid
skirt. It was the uniform for her new school. She never had to wear one before.
At the Lutheran one, girls could wear pants, skirts, and dresses, but no shorts
and no low cut shirts. Her only problem with her new apparel was how it would
fit on her chunky body. Some of the neighborhood kids referred to as ‘the fatty’.
She liked clothing that hid her pot belly, her large jiggly thighs and bottom.
A tent would’ve been perfect to hide her flaws. But today she’d have to smooth
out her flabby parts to fit into her new outfit.
Someone
gently knocked on her bedroom door and cracked it open. Her dad popped in his
dark, silver streaked head. “Just checking to see if you’re up.”
She
nodded as she hung the ensemble on the closet door’s knob.
“Excited?”
He said before bringing a white mug of steaming liquid to his thin lips.
“Nervous.”
She stepped onto a scale next to her closet, and peered over her belly. The
meter stopped at a hundred and eighty. Sixty more pounds to go.
“Ronnie
will be with you so you’ll be okay.” Her dad’s voice was gentle and reassuring.
Cassandra
felt thankful for that. But she worried what the other kids would think of her
size. All one-hundred-eighty pounds of it.
Shelly Arkon © 2015
Hope everyone is well!
Hugs and chocolate, all!
Shelly
I'm curious, Shelly...does doing it this way help you to pace yourself in any way?
ReplyDeleteYes. It keeps me from getting lost.
DeleteKeep it coming. I couldn't do it in spurts. I have to keep writing until my fingers bleed or my wife threatens to divorce or kill me.
ReplyDeleteYes. I do everything in chunks.
DeleteIt's certainly a different way to bring a story across. I like this installment.
ReplyDeleteSad. School is hard enough as it is. Kids are so badly behaved. But I feel sorry for anyone who really stands out through physical appearance or something divisive like religion or ethnicity. That makes it so much harder to get through unscathed.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. I never like high school because of the bullies.
DeleteThe struggle. But only because the world is mean to those they see "different". I wish we could get rid of that in our world.
ReplyDeleteI am liking your installments.
ReplyDeleteSince I am so late I am working backwards.
cheers, parsnip