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Chapter 2
Beginning of October.
"Oh, May, what would I do without you!" Brady cried with glee as the girls looked over her finished chemistry worksheet. May had managed to help her with it, even though she herself was only in physics. They were in May's bedroom on that rainy sunday afternoon, after Brady had called May frustrated and ready to give up on her homework. These past weeks hadn't gotten easier for her at school. Her attention continued to waver, and her focus continued to fail. She managed to keep up with her homework, but barely. She would fall a little behind every week, but the last couple of weekends she had managed to inch through her work. Finally on this sunday when she had put it off until now, May, that sweetheart, had offered to help. And she was rather good at it. She had much more patience than Brady and was just as stubborn. Even with Brady's calculus, which she couldn't hope to understand, she helped with. Coaxing Brady's attention patiently and snapping down on her when her focus faltered. Encouraging her when she seemed to give up on a problem with promises of going out to lunch when they were done. While Brady had worked, May has idly sketched in a notebook on her bed. Brady packed up her things into her binder and crammed everything in the backpack she had brought over. "Ready to head out?" May asked, sitting up and stretching, cracking cramped fingers as Brady did the same. They grabbed her car keys and left through the kitchen door, calling goodbyes to May's mom as they left. After debating over where to go, for mexican food or chinese, they ended up compromising on a family diner nearby. Sitting down across from each other in a booth by the window overlooking the gloomy day and passing cars, they talked about everyday things as they looked over the menus. When the waitress arrived to take their orders, May ordered a chicken salad. Brady furrowed her brow, now actually beginning to read the menu. She hadn't been paying attention to it, her focus on their idle conversation. Quickly she ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup and handed over her menu. Gazing at her watch she frowned. It was 2:30 in the afternoon, she had a soccer game at 4, rain or shine.
"Whats the matter with you?" asked may when Brady groaned over the oncoming activity. "Usually you get all amped when you got a game. I thought you liked soccer?" "Yeah well, not today I guess." Replied Brady breezily, looking out the window. May quirked a brow but said nothing. At that moment Brady's cell buzzed in her pocket, pulling it out, she smiled giddily. "What, who is it?" asked May curiously, peering over the counter at the phone. "It's Shaun Conners!" Replied Brady, grinning as she named a boy at school she had deemed "Hot, cute, sweet, hunky," all of the above. Clearing her throat, she flipped open the cell and called a casual hello as May smiled and quietly giggled. Any curiosity about Brady's lack of interest in soccer, which she usually enjoyed, evaporated.
Monday didn't get any better for Brady. True, her grades she had managed to maintain, however she found she still could not focus like she usually did. On top of things, her team had lost their game the day before against the opposing team, putting her in a foul mood. It was at lunch, though that her mood darkened as if a raincloud hovered over her head pouring rain into her thoughts. Grasping a tray from a stack before the lunchline she waited for the line to proceed. She stacked the lunch of the day onto her tray and grabbed a small carton of milk before paying from her account and then left the line. She paused, looking over the multiple lines of lunchtables stacked full of students ranging from freshman to senior. A wave of uneasiness washed over her. She felt awkward. She could have sworn that students she didn't even know kept looking in her direction. She felt as if she was the center of attention. People were talking about her. Why? What had she done? Was there something on her face? Was her fly unzipped? A girl at a nearby table giggled with her friends. They were laughing at her. She knew it. Why? Brady slowly, nervously walked forwards. The usually confident and boisterous young teen looked timid and unsure. She sat quickly between two of her friends and hunched over her food, hiding her face as she ate. May furrowed her brows at her friend along with Tila, a close friend of the two. Exchanging glances about Brady's odd look, the girls breifly considered asking Brady what was the matter. However, they both knew that their friend had lost her soccer game the day before. She probobly just wasn't having a good day. But Brady spoke first. Looking up from her mashed potatoes, half eaten, she swallowed her food and looked around her shoulder quickly, as if someone was watching her or something. Then she looked to her friends. "Who's that girl over there?" She asked, frowning. "Her and her friends are laughing at me, I swear. And those guys, those guys over there.." She looked over her shoulder again, her eyes indicating the group she was talking about. "They're talking about me. They keep looking at me." May and Tila exchanged odd glances at their friend's behavior, and looked to the groups Brady was indicating to. Tila, who was a firm stem of the gossip tree and knew, and knew of most of the people at their highschool, voiced her opinion. "Brady those people don't even know you. Why would they talk about you?" May voiced her agreement to the other girl's reasoning. Brady opened her mouth to reply, looked behind her again, and shook her head. "You're right. Nevermind." She laughed softly at her own foolishness. "I donno what I was thinkin." And with that, she began to shovel food into her mouth again with the plastic sporks they issued at the buffet table.
That night, a very frustrated Brady struggled through most of her homework before she gave up, dropping her face to her hands. It seemed it was only getting more difficult for her. What was going on, she didn't know. She had never had problems like this before. Soon enough her grades would start to slip. And what about soccer. She wasn't even interested in doing it anymore. Increasingly so. At that moment, the cell phone in her jeans pocket began to shudder and vibrate. Answering it, she heard the cheery voice of May on the other end. "Want to go out to eat? I can pick you up. The mother bear said I didn't have to sit the cubs tonight after all." Brady sat up and put her pencil to her work again, as if May would actually be watching. "Oh.. Sorry, May, I have homework to do.. Not tonight." She lied, for she had no intention of doing any more of this calculus. "Oh, okay then I'll just see you tomorrow." Brady closed her phone and set it on the desk, sitting back in her char and looking at it. She had just lied to get out of hanging with her best friend. Part of her felt odd about it, but then, she just wanted to be alone after all. That's all. It's not that big of a deal, she told herself as she sat on her bed and flipped on the small television in her room. She watched it late into the night and even into the early morning until she drifted off, still wearing the clothes she had put on that morning.
As one would have expected, the next morning her mother, now six months into her pregnancy, had to put quite an effort into pulling her teenage daughter out of bed. Brady moaned and rolled back into her bed sheets at least three times before she stumbled out of bed and hobbled to the bathroom. "No more TV after 11!" Her mom yelled to her irritably as she made her way down the stairs back into the kitchen. Brady wrestled with her tangled hair and dressed, and then went down to the kitchen to join her family and a nice suprise. Jaythen sat with her other three brothers and her father at the large table. He looked up as she entered and smiled, a smile which Brady returned. She had always hung out with Jaythen before he left for college. True he used to tease her relentlessly, as Callum did now, but he unlike his younger brothe;r had grown out of it. Now he was the brother she went to for advice or a good pep talk. He always seemed to know what to do. "I have this week off" He explained. Brady was glad to hear it. "I'll drive you to school today how about?" "Hell yeah." Brady accepted enthusiastically, eyeing her father who didn't look up from his morning paper and black coffee. She felt wide awake now.
During the ride to school Brady poured over chemistry notes busily, almost desperatly. Jaythen didn't miss a thing. "Didn't study last night, huh?" Brady frowned and shook her head. After a long moment in which she attempted to sort through formulas she had jotted down during class, she closed her folder and looked up. She didn't keep anything from her brother. Breifly she described to him the problems she was having at school. People she beleived talked about her behind her back, problems focusing, not being interested in soccer, not having interest in going out with friends. She didnt even feel like her normal self anymore. Her brother listened intently and offered his full hearted input. "Your probobly just going through one of those awkward teen angst things. I went through em, when I was like sixteen or seventeen." He shrugged. "Don't worry about it, B, you'll live."
As Brady sat at lunch that day, playing with her food but not eating it, she was already thinking otherwise. She looked around her uneasily, feeling like a zebra at a waterhole teeming with lions. Every laugh, every snicker, every smile, was one that was secretly taunting her. Out of the corners of her eyes, people stared her down, looking at her as if she were some sort of swamp monster. Tears welled up in Brady's green eyes as she abandoned her tray and her friends and booked it out of the cafeteria. Out of the school, in fact. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, she wasn't the ditching type, but she had to get out of there. Everyone knew her. Everyone was talking about her. Taunting her, laughing at her. All eyes were on Brady. Her friends were left behind, baffled. May had gone to look for her, only to find her nowhere. Her calls to Brady's cell phone went unanswered. She chewed on her lip, a worried expression on her face.
Brady trudged down block after block, scowling at her feet as she went. She had forgotten the distance from her school to her house. Only a few miles, but to her it was a few miles too long. She wanted the comfort of her own room, the comfort of her bed and her blankets and the security they brought her. As she turned down the block to her house, she quickened her pace. Salvation was only a few yards away. But as she entered through the kitchen door she was immediately met by her mother. Dana didn't look pleased. She frowned at her daughter, hands on her hips, wearing a flour-dusted apron to gaurd her from the dangers of baking. "Brady-Lee Adair, you're fifth hour teacher called and said you aren't showing up to class. And that your grades are slipping! What's going on with you?" Brady almost flinched at the scalding motherly tone Dana took with her. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the floor, not saying anything to her mother. This was painful, she had to admit, but she would rather be here than at school, where she was the object of everyones amusment. Her mother had nothing more to say, and freed Brady to go to her room, informing her that she would be staying in this weekend. Brady, though unhappy and moody, didn't mind her mild punishment. She was only gratefull that her mother had granted her one day off, and did not forc her to go back to school. She didn't really feel up to going out that weekend anyways, so being grounded didn't faze her. When she got to her room, she flipped off her flip flops and fell right into bed, cocooning herself into the blankets. She didn't drift off, but only layed and basked in the very dim light of her room, staring off at nowhere.
The next morning her mother had to work hard to get Brady out of bed. Brady woke up just fine but merely did not want to go back to school. Not today, not tomorrow, not the next week. She hadn't done any homework that night. Within the month she gave up homework almost entirely. Eventually, with her mother looming in her doorway weilding a spachula, she got out of bed. She waged a half asses war on her tangles, only to give up with still slightly ratty locks. She stumbled through her room, moody and groggy, and drug herself into fresh clothes. She had no backpack to grab, as hers she had left behind when she had abandoned school. She didn't talk to her father as he silently drove her to school, but this was pretty often. She got out of the car rather reluctantly to walk up the steps to her prizon for the day, a pouty expression on her face. Her day was dreary and dull. She drifted through classes, shying away from peers, only gandering to talk to her friends. May didn't ask her why she had gone, but Brady saw the concern in her eyes. She didn't look up or around her as she ate lunch, managing to look bored, not uneasy, not paranoid. She swore she heard her name whispered between strangers more than once. She kept it to herself as she munched on her food. Her brother picked her up on this day, and she avoided his questions about the day before. He got the message, cheering her up with a few games of mortal combat in which he whooped her a** before returning back to college.
The month progressed the same as this, Brady only seeming to dislike shool more and more. She mentioned her suspicions of the school taunting her and her alone to May, who did her best to comfort her friend. She was concerned to Brady, she was acting so strangely since the beginning of the schoolyear. Was it just pressures, a.d.d, maybe? Her attempts to help Brady with her homework eventually failed, and Brady gave up on homework completely, letting her grades free fall. Her parents only put more pressure on their star daughter, her mother critical and her father a complete nag. She rarely went out with friends, and found a hard time in having a good time when she did. As her homework mounted in her locker and on her desk, she lay in bed increasingly more during the day, not sleeping but thinking about everything and nothing at all. Halloween came and went. It was a considerably nice october day. Blue skies in the day, and a shining blanket of stars at night when trick or treaters went out. Brady was assigned to take her little brother Bevan out trick or treating. She did so reluctantly, waiting for her brother at the end of the house walkways and casting suspicious glances at the many masked passerbys on the sidewalk. Once Bevan was home with his pillowcase full of candies and sweets, Brady was free to do as she pleased. She went out with May of course, her friend driving them to one hgihschool party or another. Brady had a considerably good time, considering her foul moods as of late. And with that, October was wasted away.
The Nowhere Girl · Tue Jun 06, 2006 @ 12:36am · 0 Comments |
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