My Story: Part Deux

Hey guys. Well, really, hey no one, 'cause no one seems to have wanted to read about me. That's fine, whatever, I don't care. I'm just spilling my feelings to random people.

So I finished Grade 6. Surprisingly, for a girl who really never payed attention much, I got average grades. A few C-'s, a couple C's and a B, but I could have cared less. At least I passed, right?

So in July of that year, the little baby was born to Aunt and Uncle. I was very angered by it; since our big fight, Christine and Lionel (I refused to call them Aunt and Uncle after Franky was born. They no longer felt like family members to me) had basically left me to depend on myself. They made meals for three people every night, but they never told me what time dinner was, and they never asked me what I would like to eat.

The night Franky was born, I was asleep when they left. I woke up to an empty house with a note posted to the microwave, saying: "Went to hospital Baby being born Pop-tarts in pantry -Love Lionel and Christine"

So over the next three days, I stayed at home and basically watched a lot of T.V., read a few books, and went on Lionel's computer in his office. I played Rollercoaster Tycoon and named all the people Lionel, Christine, Kimmy, Penny, Summer, and Matt. Then I drowned them in the lake.

The rest of the summer was no different from when I was home alone, because Christine and Lionel spent so much time fussing over Franky. He got the flu in the beginning of August, and I remember Christine sobbing that she would lose her only baby. That night, I named all the people in my amusement park Christine, and drowned them.

At the end of August, Franky was finally better, so Lionel decided to go on a family roadtrip. And no, it wasn't like in Home Alone when Kevin's stupid parents leave him when they go away to France. I actually went on the trip, and had a decent time. We drove from Nowheresville to Oregon. On the way, we saw the Grand Canyon, the Alamo, San Diego Zoo, and Yosemite. We even drove through Hollywood, but I was too busy re-reading 'The Magician's Nephew' to notice. Besides, Hollywood reminded me of Summer's dream to become wealthy by marrying Patrick Dempsey. And also of Matt's dream to DJ parties in Beverley Hills.
My hair had grown into a weird, shoulder length version of my homemade haircut by then. Christine surprised me by taking me into a really ritzy hair salon in Portland to get it fixed. It cost about $300 and all the hairdresser did was shampoo, snip, and style. Lionel said it was a rip-off, but Christine said it was worth it, because she thought I looked super. After that, we all went out for ice cream at this huge ice cream place in Oregon, and I got the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" smoothie, which I can remember distinctly: it was all sorbet, with raspberry on the bottom, then strawberry, then mango, then lemon. It came in a silver plastic goblet, which I left back in Oregon. The straw was lightning bolt shaped, but I lost that, too. The whole smoothie, including the cup and straw, was $16, but Christine and Lionel didn't care.

The end of the trip and Grade 7 came too soon. I had tried to convince Lionel and Christine to let me switch schools, but they wouldn't let me. Not because they were being mean or anything, but because the only other middle school was 45 minutes from our house, and had 825 students in Grade 7 alone. I figured that I had switched schools enough, anyways, so I stayed at Washington Middle School.

Grade 7 actually started out pretty well. A new school year meant new Grade 6s, which meant that Kimmy, Penny and Summer had new girls to pick on. And Matt had moved to South Dakota, apparently, so there was no more teasing from him. In November, a nice family moved in next door to our house. The mom worked with Christine, and they had a 6 month old baby. Best of all, they had a girl in Grade 7 and a son in grade 8. Both of the older kids were really friendly.

So Mekayla and I became best friends at school. She had come from a really big school where there were about 30 girls like Kimmy, Summer and Penny, so she was unfazed by their teasing. One thing Mekayla couldn't stand, however, was Summer's endless flirting with Mekayla's older brother, Logan. Mekayla and Logan were very close, and Mekayla felt very protective of her big brother. She saw how Summer would treat the Grade sixes daily, and didn't want Logan's heart to get broken by Summer.
Luckily for both of them, I guess, Logan never seemed interested in Summer. He saw them as lowly, which stunned a lot of the guys, who worshiped the three girls. So Logan really had no guy friends, and decided to join the school's drama club with me and Mekayla.

Grade 7 was great. Our school's drama presentation, by the way, was "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown"; it might seem kind of kiddish, but I actually really kind of liked it. I originally wanted the part of Linus, the little kid with the blanket who's always got something smart to say, but I got to be in the Chorus. Luckily, so was Mekayla, so at least I had a friend with me. Logan, however, got the role of Linus, which I was so happy he did: until Penny, fashion designer-veterinarian-ballerina-nurse-stay at home mom-actress wannabe, wound the drama teacher around her finger and landed Linus' part, only so that I'd confront her about it and stick up for Logan. But, she got the flu the week before the performance, so Logan got his role back. He did a great job, but I would have to say the best performance was by Phillip. He played Schroeder so well that it was like watching the comic strips. It was because of his portrayal that I started my obsession with Schroeder from Peanuts.

Then, on the closing night, Lionel and Christine decided to announce at my celebratory dinner at Red Robin, that Franky was going to have a sister. At first, I was like: "Yeah, I'm right here.", until Christine announced she was expecting another baby. I got really confused and felt hurt.

Mekayla and Logan helped me get out of my state of confusion. I spent a lot of time at their house for the next two months. I stayed in Mekayla's room a lot, just talking and stuff. I don't remember much arguing or anything, but one afternoon, Mekayla and I were sprawled around her room, talking about Grade 8, when Logan burst into her room. He told Mekayla to stay in her room, and me to go home. I was confused, but did as I was told.

Mekayla's mom and dad split up that night. Logan went with his mother, who changed her job from accountant to travel agent, and now travels around the world. Mekayla stayed with her Dad, who moved to Ontario, in Canada. I keep in touch with both of them on a regular basis: Mekayla goes to a Christian High School in Ontario, because they're free there, and Logan is homeschooled. He's in Russia right now, and he sent me a nesting doll at the beginning of October.

Anyways, after Mekayla and Logan moved away, I was really angry with my life. I couldn't escape to the Oak Street Theaters again: all they were playing was Transformers 2, which was Logan's favorite movie, and I couldn't bear to see it without thinking of him or his sister. Christine and Lionel were in talks of moving to Idaho, where Christine's parents (who weren't even related to me) lived. One night in late August, we held a meeting.

"We've decided to move to Idaho with Franky. Would you like to come with us?" Lionel had asked. I asked him if I could think it over. He said of course I could.

Now, I had learned a few weeks before that from my school guidance counselor that the best way for me to handle tough decisions was to solve it. She suggested using a Pro\ Cons list, so that's what I did about the move to Idaho.

-PROS-
*Live with Grandparent figures.
*Maybe make new friends

-CONS-
*Feel awkward all the time, being stuck between the grown ups and the babies.
*Be forced to babysit all the time.
*Feel lonely and like a burden, depending on people who I am not related to.

As you can see by the list, I am not a cheerful person when I am sad. I get very moody.

So eventually, I decided that I would not like to move to Idaho. Somehow, through one of Christine's cousin's neighbour's sister's niece's friend's mother's, who lived in Pennsylvania, Christine heard of this house where there were all girls my age: like a boarding house, only less strict, you could say.

So she phoned up Miss J, and she said that they would be delighted for me to come. They had just had one of their boarders move away, so my space would be much appreciated.

So we took a roadtrip again. There were no tourist stops, just straight from Nowheresville to Pleasantville. It took 11 hours, and Franky was crying when we got there. Lionel stayed with Franky in the car to calm him down, while Christine took me into the house. We met Miss J, and some of the girls (the others were asleep). It seemed like a better place to live than Nowheresville. So Christine hugged me good-bye, and told me she was only a state away if I needed her.

So that is really how I got here.

Oh, one of the younger girls (Muffy, or Molly, I can't remember her name) has asked me if I want to come to their meeting of "The Bunch". I don't know what that is, but I guess I'll find out!

-Delilah Bailey

Book I'm Reading: Still Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. (Chapter 13: The Very Secret Diary. LOL at Ginny's Valentine. I hate her in the books after this one, but she's super funny in this one! :) )

Song I'm Listening Too: None right now, but Miss J wants me to get off o she can watch A Very Potter Musical. I don't like the film versions of Harry Potter very much, and if the musical is based on any of those, I know I won't like it. I would rather listen to the radio with the three littler girls.