Young Writers Society

I looked at my cereal, then pushed it away. I wasn’t in the mood to eat, let alone go to school, but luckily it was the end of the week, and only two more weeks of school left. I got up from the table and put on my jacket to leave for school. “Rosalyn May Randall, take care of your dish,” my mom said over the water that was running in the sink. My mom has blonde hair like my little sister, Lilly, and my older brother, Andrew. I have brown hair like my dad before he started losing his. I have blue eyes like my mom and Andrew, and the others have hazel. My mom is one of those weird clean freaks. One speck of dust hitting the surface must be cleaned immediately.
“Rosie got yelled at,” Lilly said laughing and pointing her finger at me. She just woke up and was wearing her rainbow pajamas. My mom gave her a quick glare and then turned to me.
“For the last time, it’s Rosalyn, not Rosie,” I said trying to be serious, then turned to my mom. “If I clean my bowl now I’ll miss my bus and I’ll be late for school.” I turned and picked up my book bag and purse.
“I don’t care,” my mom said after calling Andrew. “Andrew will drive you to school. Now get over here and clean it,” she said with a “stop arguing with me” face. Andrew went to the same school as me, but refuses to take me to school. I’m saving up my money now to buy a car so I don’t have to ride the bus anymore.
Andrew slowly walked down the stairs while stretching. My mom told him the whole scenario and that he was to take me to school. “Why am I getting punished for something that Rosalyn forgot to do,” he asked with a whiney voice.
“Because I said so,” my mom said handing me the sponge. I cleaned my bowl and then dried it and put it away. While I was picking up my bags, Andrew walked quickly passed me and took my purse and ran.
I walked outside put my bags in his car and waited until he gave it back. It didn’t take him long to do that when he found out I wasn’t in that mood today. It was warm outside so I took off my jacket before getting into the car.
Andrew was a fast driver so before I was even buckled we were on the road. It was quiet so I tried turning on the radio, but he slapped my hand. “Why do you want the music on,” he asked with a confused face. He was so not a normal eighteen year old boy.
“I don’t like it being quiet, but you know the engine has a pretty good beat, don’t you think,” I said sarcastically.
He chuckled. “Are all seventeen girls like you? ‘Cause that would be bad,” he said laughing at his lame joke. He needed to get out more. “You know I’m not driving you any other day, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” I said looking out of the window. I saw a young couple laughing while holding hands. That reminded me, I was supposed to call Rylie last night. Rylie is my boyfriend I have been dating for about a month now. He has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes that makes you smile when you look at them. I’m hoping that we make it through the whole summer that’s coming up soon. I can see us laughing at the beach together. I smiled to myself and then looked out of the window again.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t to make you sad or mad at me,” Andrew said looking at me then at the road over and over again.
“I’m not sad or mad at you, I just remembered that I was supposed to call Rylie last night.” Andrew and Rylie used to be best friends from kindergarten up until last year. They got into a fist fight because Andrew had enough of Rylie breaking every girl’s heart that he met. Rylie promised me though that what we had was real and that we were meant to be together.
“I don’t know what you see in him,” he said as we pulled into the school’s parking lot. “I’m telling you he’s the one who breaks every girl’s heart. I don’t want you to be one of those girls.” He pulled into an open spot, and I quickly got out. I hate it when he says things like that. He can save the hatred for someone who will actually care.
School wasn’t opened when we got there, so I went to go sit on one of the benches while I waited. When I was putting my bags next to the bench I looked up and saw Rylie. He was leaning against the door with another girl standing in front of him. She had the same shade of hair as him, but I couldn’t see what she looked like since her back was to me. I was more than sure that she was just a cousin or something like that to him. I nodded to myself and started to walk over to them.
I looked behind me and saw Andrew watching Rylie and the girl while he was walking across the parking lot. He was probably thinking that something bad was about to happen with the two of them, but he usually isn’t right when it comes to things like this.
I looked back at Rylie right as he was kissing her! Andrew was right. Andrew and everyone else was right. I froze and stopped walking and looked down. I tried to hold back the tears, but I couldn’t. It felt like my heart shattered into a million pieces. I was sure now that everyone was going to laugh at me and say “I told you so.” They could say all that since they all were right.
Something grabbed my shoulder and scared me out of my frozen position and for a second I forgot what was happening. I turned around and it was Andrew. He looked really sad, but you could see that he was happy in a way since he was right. “I’ll take care of it. I promise,” he said wiping my tears with his sleeve. I was speechless from what just happened, so I could only nod. Andrew was always true to his word so I knew he would actually take care of it for me.
Andrew ran over to Rylie and that girl. Rylie and the girl were laughing, but stopped when Andrew was there. Rylie saw me and looked scared and confused, even more confused than I was right now. He turned his attention to Andrew and opened his mouth to say something, but Andrew punched him before he could.
Soon before I knew it Rylie was punching Andrew and it went on and on. I didn’t know what I should do, what could I do. Those two were really strong and I was as weak as a mouse.
While this was going on the other girl just walked away and started putting on her lip gloss. If there was one thing I hated in girls, it was what she was doing and what she did.
My math teacher, Mr. Nickels, walked out of the building. He is mostly bald on his head, but has hair everywhere else. He wears really big glasses that cover up most of his face. And he tends to talk to himself all of the time.
Mr. Nickels got his keys from inside his pocket and almost missed the fight that was going on. He started walking over to Rylie and Andrew. “Will you to knock it off. I’m tired of all the fighting going on around here. You two come with me, now,” he yelled while fixing his glasses.
They stopped fighting and followed him inside. Andrew looked at me and smiled and Rylie looked at me apologetically. I looked around to see if any of my friends were here now, but no one except me and that girl were outside. She seemed to notice that to and walked over to me. She had brown eyes and freckles covering most of her face. She was wearing a tube top and super short shorts. She had on flip flops, and tons of jewelry and makeup.
She looked at me from my feet to my head then made a face in disgust. “Why are you crying,” she asked buffing her nails. I looked at her in confusion and didn’t answer. “My goodness, you need a makeover is that why you’re crying? I would hate to be you. I would never get a guy if I looked like you do,” she said smirking.
I had it with her. “Umm, excuse me, but I prefer not to dress like a whore, thanks,” I said and turned away from her.
“Well, if you just didn’t notice, but I know have a new boyfriend with this outfit, okay,” she said walking around me until she was in my view again.
“Yeah, your new boyfriend was just mine this morning until I saw you two together,” I said walking towards the bench where my stuff was and sat down on it. I put my face in my hands and thought about what happened.
Before I even thought about it I looked up and there were people all over the place. “Rosalyn,” I heard someone call and I looked around and saw my best friend Sara walking over to me. “Hi. I just got a text from Andrew. He told me to tell you that he was sorry about what happened. Why isn’t your phone on? It’s always on. What exactly is he sorry about too?” she asked sitting down next to me.
I totally forgot about my phone. “I guess I forgot to turn on my phone, and,” just then the bell rang for school to start.
She stood up. “I’ll meet you at your locker and you can tell me then. You know what, I have to talk to Bell real quick, so I can’t walk with you inside,” she said smiling apologetically.
“It’s fine, you can go. It’ll take me a while anyways to pack up all of my things,” I said getting up and grabbing my bags.
Sara jogged over to where Bell was and they started gossiping. That was one thing that me and Sara didn’t do that well together. We would always hear different sides of a story and we’d get into fights. So we stopped doing that. Actually, we stopped doing a lot of things ever since she started dating Ryan.
I followed everyone into school and slowly walked to my locker. My eyes burned from crying earlier, so it took me three tries to open my locker. I threw in my bags and grabbed some books.
I turned to go to class when Sara poked me. “Let’s go into the bathroom where it’s quieter so you can tell me the whole story, okay,” she said not letting me answer and rushing me holding my hand to the girls’ bathroom. The bathroom smelled really bad. Didn’t they wash it last night?
Sara turned to me in a disgusted face from the smell, “God it smells in here. Anyway ignore the smell and tell me before I lose it.”
In a way I didn’t want to tell her, but I did since she’s my best friend. So I decided to tell her. “This morning Andrew took me to school, and…”
“Why did he drive you to school? He never does that,” she interrupted me.
“My mom told him to so I could wash my bowl.”
She looked confused, “Okay, go on.”
“And when I got there Rylie was by the front door with another girl, and at first…”
She was beginning to make me very upset. “O-M-G,” she spelled out. She put her hand over her mouth, “They kissed didn’t they. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m actually happy that it happened. I wouldn’t let myself believe that he would do that and he did,” I sighed. “I knew it would happen too,” I said looking down.
“You have to remember though, we all did warn you.”
“I know and I’m thankful for that,” I said smiling.
“But I still feel sorry for you,” she said hugging me. It felt good to not have her laughing in my face like I thought everyone would. “Now go over to the sink and splash your face with water. It will help make it look like you weren’t crying.”
Did I actually look like I was crying? I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself. My eyes were blood shot, and my nose was red. I had dried up tear streaks on my also red cheeks. I laughed at how stupid I looked. I was crying over something that I knew would happen.
“Why on earth are you laughing now? Hurry up with the splashing of the face. The bell will ring any second now and we’ll be late for class,” she said looking serious. We have almost every class together, but I’m usually a third wheel since Ryan is in most of them too.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said turning to the sink and splashing my face with the water. Sara handed me a paper towel to wipe my face with.
I turned to the mirror and looked at myself again. It worked. It looked like I haven’t even shed a tear. “Thanks so much. It actually works,” I said smiling.
“No problem. It’s a tip that I picked up from a magazine. Now let’s go or we’ll be late,” she said turning to the door. I picked up my books and we walked to history together.

The day seemed to go by fast. It was like I sat down then got back up to go to next class, which is a good thing since I just want to go home and take a nap. Before I even thought of it, it was time for lunch.
I went to my locker and got my paper bag for lunch. I looked around the hall and almost everyone was gone. Was I really going that slow? I walked by myself to the cafeteria and to my table with all of my friends.
There’s my friend, Leah, who has brown hair like me, but has brown eyes. She’s the shortest and the most timid one out of our bunch. Then there’s Jake, who has black hair and blue eyes. He has a few freckles on his cheeks and nose. Ryan sits next to him and has blonde hair and blue eyes. We all pick on him because of his funny shaped nose, and he wears chick glasses, which doesn’t make Sara too happy that we laugh at him. Sara sits next to him and she has the same blonde hair and blue eyes as him. She is the one who has the most freckles in the group. Ashley sits by her, and she has red hair and blue eyes. Her and I never ever got along so we just sort of ignore each other now. Luke is the last one and he has brown hair and blue eyes with freckles. He’s the smart, nerdy one with the glasses.
I took my seat between Jake and Ryan, and opened my bag and took out my ham sandwich. Everyone was staring at me with sad eyes. They all told me they were sorry and I told all of them not to be and that I’m fine. Jake was the only one that ever really talked to me during lunch. He asked me out a few times and I rejected all of them. It would feel weird dating your best guy friend.
He turned to me with his mouth full of pizza. “I asked my mom to let me buy lunch today and she said I could. Now I am never going to eat this food again. It’s gross. I don’t like it,” he said laughing. I laughed with him.
The last to lines he said was an inside joke that we have had since the eighth grade. The history teacher, Mr. Lowie, one time was talking about Ellis Island. He was telling us about how the people in charge of the lines would check the immigrants eyes with a hook. “Sometimes, kids, they would yank to hard and the corner of their eyelids would rip,” he said sitting down at his desk in the front of the class. “It’s gross. I don’t like it.” The whole class cracked up and we ended up getting a class detention because we weren’t listening.

After I finished my sandwich, I drank my apple juice. “Are you almost ready to go up,” Jake asked me grabbing his full tray.
“Yeah, just let me finish my juice,” I said trying to drink as fast as I could. I finished quickly and we both stood up and started to head for the garbage cans.
“Wait for me, guys!” We turned to see who it was. Ashley was quickly grabbing her things and walking over to us. Ashley has had a crush on Jake since sixth grade. He already told her a bunch of times that he didn’t feel the same way. Maybe that’s why she never liked me. “Okay, we can go now,” she said out of breath. I looked to Jake and he was chuckling. It didn’t take much work to walk over to us. Ashley is chubby though, so that may be why.
We headed back to our seats after we threw our trash into the garbage cans. Ashley asked Leah to move to her seat so she was facing Jake. She pushed her hair to behind her shoulders. “So what’s up, Jake,” she asked giving me a glare.
“I guess I’m good. You?”
“Oh, I’m fine. Thanks for asking. You know what? I felt like crap this morning. I almost didn’t want to go to school. Once I saw you, all the signs of sickness went away. Isn’t that marvelous,” she said reaching out to touch Jake’s hand. He quickly pulled it away.
He looked at me kind of scared and annoyed. He has to go through this at least once a month. “Ashley, I told you before. I’m not interested in you. I don’t feel the same way. You should try this on someone else, okay?”
She looked at me hatefully. Did she think this was all my fault? My fault for him not feeling the same way? “Well you told me that before. But I can’t help it. I get lost in your dreamy blue eyes, the way you talk, and how your black hair shines. Why can’t you feel the same way?”
You could tell in Jake’s eyes that this time she really did go too far. He never really liked it when people talk about him like that. “Because I don’t. You always, always ask me this, and I’m tired of it. I don’t feel the same way. Don’t ask me again. I’m sorry.” He got up and left, leaving me and her alone.
She had tears in her eyes, and she slowly wiped them away. “I’m sorry, Ashley,” I said hoping that would make her feel better.
She looked at me confused and that quickly turned to anger. “What are you saying? What is there for you to be sorry about? Oh yeah, everything about this is what you should be sorry about. Well if you’re truly sorry, you will talk Jake into going out with me.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t make him love you. I’m sorry if that upsets you, but he doesn’t feel the same way as you do,” I said in my most calm voice.
She stood up. “He does to love me. He’s just afraid to say so because you are always there. I see you smiling at him all the time when I ask. He sees you and thinks this is all some sort of joke. I’m so sick of you, Randall. All you do is cause people pain. Why don’t you just leave and never come back,” she said all of that so loud the whole cafeteria was quiet. That turned into a burst of murmurs, and Ashley looked embarrassed.
A lunch monitor walked over to us. “Is there a problem to why you shouted everything, Banks?”
“Nothing that you would understand. You’re way too old to know what all of that was about,” she said sitting down looking very fond of herself.
“Really? Then you might want to tell Principal Charles the problem. Since you know he’ll understand the problem since he’s not that old” He really isn‘t. He might be in his early or mid thirties. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He always smiled and talked to everyone in the halls.
“Fine,” Ashley said standing up. “Maybe he will.” She followed the teacher out the door and to the office.
Everyone at the table turned to me. “What in the world made her freak like that,” Ryan asked after no one else would. Jake walked back over to our table and sat across from me instead of next to me. A few other people outside of our group came over to listen in.
I told everyone what happened and Jake added in a few details. After they all heard the new gossip going around we all got up and started heading to next class.
Jake walked with me to my locker. “I’m sorry about the blaming you went through,” he said with his back against the locker next to mine.
“It’s alright. I’m sure she’ll get over it eventually,” I said grabbing some books.
“Not in a million years,” he said laughing. I couldn’t help but laugh with him since it’s probably true. “I have a question for you.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“Now since you’re single and everything again. I was wondering if you would want to go out with me?”
I lost my smile. I didn’t want to. He knew that, but why was he asking? “Jake,” I said closing my locker. “You know what my answer is going to be. Why are you asking?”
“I guess I was just hoping that you changed your mind. I will see you later then,” he said leaving and not even giving me a glance. I always felt so bad when he asked and I answered. It’s actually funny if you think about it. He’s acts the same exact way with me that Ashley does with him.
I walked to my last class of the day. The class was the longest one of the day. I couldn’t get Rylie out of my head. I didn’t even hear Mr. Lesley, the French teacher, when he asked me a question.
Soon enough though, the bell rang for school to be over. I grabbed my things out of my locker and left the school.
Andrew was there outside of the school’s doors. “Do you want me to take you home? It will be quicker than taking the bus,” he said looking down.
I did want to know what happened to him after he was taken inside by the teacher. “Sure, I just want to get home to take a nap,” I said pulling my bags up more on my shoulder. He nodded and we walked to his little red car and got in.
He pulled out of the school’s parking lot even before I got buckled up. “I’m sorry about what happened. He’s such a jerk. It makes me so angry that he does this to every living girl,” he said pushing down on the gas pedal so we went fast.
We were actually going so fast that the police pulled us over. At first, I didn’t know if Andrew would even pull over, but he did.
He was mumbling to himself as he rolled down the window. It took the policeman a while to walk over to us. He had a black mustache with spots of white. He wore round glasses and his nose was in need of a trim.
It took Andrew awhile to put on a decent face. “Hello, Officer, I know I was speeding, but it was an accident. Could you give me a break?”
The Officer lowered himself so he could see through the window. “No, I don’t think I should do that. You should know by now that speeding is against the law. You should also know the consequences that occur if you do speed. So I think you should pay the consequences,” he said standing up, pulling up his pants, then lowering himself again.
Andrew was getting madder and madder at the second. “Listen, Officer, my sister here is very sick at the moment,” he said pointing at me. “I need to get her home immediately. Can you please let us go?” I never knew Andrew would lie like that, especially to a policeman.
The Officer sighed, “All right. I’ll let you off with a warning, but next time don’t expect me to be so easy on you.” Did I really look that bad? I don’t remember crying after I had this morning. Oh well, as long as it worked.
Andrew looked relieved. “Thank you so much, Officer, and I don’t think there’ll be a next time,” he said chuckling.
The officer was chuckling to. “All right, take care,” he said patting the top of the car. He slowly walked to his car, got in, and drove off as Andrew was rolling up his car window.
I all of a sudden needed some answers from Andrew. “What happened to you this morning after the teacher took you inside? Are you mad at me because of…,” I said, but he cut me off before I could finish all of my questions.
“I’m not mad at you. Are you insane? It’s not like you set the whole thing up with Rylie. I got one weeks suspension for punching him. He got nothing because his family’s good friends with Mr. Nickel’s family. Mom told me to pick you up and then grab dad’s pills,” he said starting up the car and drove on with the rest of the traffic. My dad has some sort of bladder disease so he has to take these real nasty looking pills. “When I told mom about everything she wasn’t even mad at me, she was actually kind of proud of me,” he said looking full of himself. He always thinks that everyone is always proud him, even when he screws up big time.
It was a good thing that he wasn’t mad at me. “I’m still sorry though that you got suspension when you didn’t need it. That stupid, retarded thing they call Rylie should suck a stinking egg,” I said smashing my fist on the dashboard.
Andrew was laughing. I think he saw my mad mixed with confused face as why he was laughing at me. “I think it’s funny that you can get so pissed off and not swear like normal people around your age do.”
It was always one of my biggest things. I hate when people swear. It doesn’t help anything. “Yeah, I know. You remind me that I do all of the time,” I emphasized the all because in every conversation it comes up.
We pulled into Rite-Aid. “I’ll be right back I need to pick up dad’s pills,” he said getting out and closing the car door before I could even respond.
I sat there for about five minutes then Andrew came back. He put the bag on the floor, buckled up and drove off.
We sat in silence all the way home. It was awkward, but there was nothing to talk about. It didn’t take us that long to get home.
When we pulled into the driveway, Andrew grabbed my book bag and dad’s pills. I took my purse, jacket and other bag.
I walked slowly to the house because I knew my mother was waiting for me in there. It didn’t take as long as I hoped it would for me to get to the door. I walked in and my mom was making apple pie and my dad was making our chicken dinner.
They both turned and stared at me while I hung up my jacket and bags. My mom wiped her hands on her apron after I was done and walked over to me and gave me a hug. “Andrew told us about what happened to you. My poor baby, I’m so sorry.”
The last thing that I wanted from my parents was for them to be sorry for me. “It’s fine and I’m fine, mom, really,” I said trying to pull out of her hug. She noticed me trying so she let go of me and went back to the apple pie.
Andrew walked by me and gave my dad his pills. I wanted to go up to my room to take a nap. I walked past my dad and he smiled at me and I smiled at him. He knows when not to say things and when to say things. At that moment he was right about not saying anything.
I walked up to my room and closed and locked my door after I got in. I sat down on my bed and looked at the door. It felt like I was waiting for someone to come in even though I locked it.
I fell back on my pillow and took a nap. I woke up about an hour later. I pulled out my laptop from underneath my bed and went online and surfed the web for about another hour.
I remembered about my phone. I haven’t turned it on yet. I took it out of my jean pocket and turned it on. I had about thirty text messages. Most of them Rylie, so I ignored them. One though, was from Ryan.
It said to meet him and the others at the Mc Café. It’s a place where my friends and I go to hang out. We usually sit on the curb and goof around. The town I live in doesn’t have a lot of people in it, so everyone usually knows everyone.
I ran downstairs to go tell my mom I was leaving. “Mom,” I said practically screaming as I went down the stairs. I went into the kitchen where she was waiting to see what I wanted. “I just got a text from Ryan saying to meet him and the others at the café. I’ll be back later.”
My mom didn’t look happy. “I just finished dinner. You’re going to miss it then and you’ll have to eat it cold,” she said with her hands on her hips.
The best way to get things from my mom was to agree and answer to every single things she says. “I know. I’m sorry I won’t be here though, but I want to get out and talk with my friends. And I can just heat the food up when I get back home,” I said grabbing my gray sweater I had on the hook and put it on.
“Are you walking there,” she looked worried.
The café wasn’t that far from our house, and I always walked there. So why was she worried about me now? “Yeah, I’m walking.” I walked out the door.
I looked at the passing houses on the way to the café. Most of them were small and I could tell which person belongs in which house. The upcoming blue house is the McGuire’s house, the white one is the Brand’s house, the gray one is the Gramm’s house. I could literally go all day doing that. That was one thing I was good at, memorizing things.
It took about twenty minutes to get to the Mc Café. When I walked up to open the doors, they were leaving. “Oh, we didn’t think you were gonna come. We thought you were to scared to show your face in public after that big breakup you had with Rylie. Must have been hard to see him kissing that other girl, huh?” Ashley said looking at her nails. I ignored everything she said.
“Forget about her, I’m sorry, we waited for you for about ten minutes. Do you want a ride home?” Ryan asked. You could tell that Ashley was pissed off about Ryan saying to forget about her.
“Nope, I’m good. I’m going to get a coffee anyways before I leave,” I said opening the door to go inside.
“Wait, do you want me to stay with you?” Jake asked. I didn’t think he would talk to me ever again. He looked really sad and wouldn’t even give me a glance in history.
“No, I’m fine. I actually wanted some alone time to think about things,” I said opening the door again. Jake nodded and ran to catch up with the others who were already in the car.
I walked into the small, bright café. There was always a bunch of lights on, and the wallpaper was a light blue with coffee cups on it. The best thing about the café was that it always smelled of coffee, one of the best scents in the world.
I sat away from the window and went to a corner table against the wall. It wasn’t long after I sat down that a waiter came up to me. He looked just about my age. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had sort of a babyish face, but it was cute. I knew he wasn’t from around here because I haven’t seen him ever before. I immediately fell in love with his beautiful smile. “Would you like something?” he asked, still smiling.
I smiled back. “Umm…I’d like a coffee,” I said as he wrote it down in his notepad.
“Anything else?”
“No thank you.” I looked down at the table. I could feel my face turning red. I never before was so embarrassed about being around a boy.
He walked away. I grabbed one of the napkins in the holder at my table and started folding it into a heart.
Before I could finish folding it, he was back with my coffee. “Here you go,” he said with his beautiful smile returning.
My face turned red again. “Thanks.”
He walked away. I put sugar and cream in my coffee. I drank it with little sips at a time. It didn’t take me long to finish drinking it though.
A different person came to give me my bill. She was plump and had blonde hair with purple, blue, and green highlights. She also had blue eyes that she covered in dark makeup, just like the rest of her face. Every where you looked on her face she had a zit. It was disappointing to me that she came instead of him. “Your bill is two dollars. You can just give me the money now,” she said. When she talked you could see her yellow teeth.
I gave her the money and she grabbed my cup and walked away. I got up from the table and walked out the door to head home. The sun was going down. The town looked really pretty when it did. The sunset was always my favorite part of the day.
I started walking down the street, then I heard someone running behind me. Just ignore the person. Maybe then they’ll leave you alone. I thought.
“Hey wait up,” the voice said. I stopped and turned around, and it was him! I was excited to see him. I thought I’d never see him again. Thinking of how excited to see someone I only met made me feel bad. I mean I just broke up with someone today, shouldn’t I be at home crying now?