1 1

 "Nessa honey, wake up. Come outside now." Mom's voice came from the otherside of the door, her voice overlapping her soft knocks. Even though her soft knocks were waking me, I didn't move a muscle. Hearing mom's tired sigh, I could already tell her next move. She was coming inside and I will not budge.

The door swung open. Yep I was correct. Burying my head into my soft pillow, I close my eyes trying to fall back asleep. Feeling the bed dip on the left side, I snuggled myself deeper into the covers. Mom's hand was on my shoulder gently rubbing it, "Nessa, come on I know you're awake. It's time for school sweetie."

Ignoring her, I hide my face under my covers. The bed suddenly felt less heavy, I heard mom's foot tap on the ground, "Hmm, since Nessa is asleep I guess this is the chance I get to read that diary that she's always holding onto." Mom mumbles, her feet shuffling.

My eyes shoot open, she wouldn't. Would she? Scared that she might actually open it, I sit up on my bed and pretend to yawn. After rubbing my eyes, I see that mom is sitting down on my couch, a smug smile on her face. She tricked me. God, I should've never fallen for that. Standing up, I walk over to her and take a seat right beside her.

"Do I really need to go to school?" Were the first words that came out of my mouth.

 Mom chuckled, running her hand through my hair, "No good morning?"

 Rolling my eyes, I say back, "Good morning."

"Good morning to you too. And yes you need to go to school Nessa." Mom smiles, her pearly whites shining right at me.

"Why do I need to go Mom?" I whine, crossing my arms on my chest, acting as if I was a 10 year old, but in reality I'm a 17 year old.

Mom chuckled, her hand still raking through my brown messy hair, "We already had this conversation Nessa."

Groaning, I rub my eyes, "I still don't understand why I need to go. I've been homeschooled literally my whole life and I don't get why all of a sudden you guys planned for me to go to highschool for my Senior Year. Why can't' I just be homeschooled now?"

Mom stands up and walks to the door, right before she was about to go out she stops and faces me, "That is exactly why we decided for you not to be homeschooled anymore. It's your Senior Year. You shouldn't miss it. Now you're going to get up and ready. You're going to school and that's final."

Before I could protest some more, Mom left. Annoyed, I stand up and go into the bathroom to take a quick cold shower. After that, I went into my closet and picked out an outfit I would never wear in the bane of my existence, but if I wanted to blend in then I had to wear this.  Jeans and an old red jacket, a red jacket I've never worn due to how ugly it was. Okay I may be acting a bit too much, but I just never dress this way. I'm more of the skirt, shorts, crop tops, and tight fitting clothes. The only reason I'm wearing this is like I said, I didn't want to be noticed. I just wanted my senior year to go by with no drama at all. 

Looking at myself in the mirror, a laugh bubbled up in my chest. For sure nobody would think I was new, I think I would just blend in the crowd perfectly. My once chestnut brown hair that was either curled or straightened flawlessly, was now tied up into a tight bun. Usually when I go out, I wear contact lenses instead of my big square rimmed glasses, but now my big square rimmed glasses are occupying my face. 

Happy with my appearance, I sling my bag onto my shoulder, pull my phone out of it's charger and make my way to the kitchen downstairs. Entering the kitchen my mom's  back was facing me, she was whistling while flipping her delicious pancakes. My 19 year old brother, Alex,  was busily typing away on his cellphone and my twin brother, Vance  was stuffing his face with bacon and pancake.

Hitting him on the back of his head, I tell him, "God, slow down. You're making it seem as if you haven't eaten anything in a week."

"Don't touch me," his sentence stopped once he saw my appearance, "the hell? Why do you look like that?"

About to say something, Mom beats me to it, her back still facing me, "Vance, don't be so rude to your sister. It's her first day of school. You should be boosting up her confidence, not bringing it down."

"No but mom-", Vance said, but a voice that belonged to Alex cut him off, "What the hell are you wearing Ness?" 

If you guys think that I was offended, I was the opposite. It was hard for me to hold in my laugh, see I told you dressing this way is very unlikely for me. Even my brother's are shocked. I heard my mom sigh, "Boys stop being mean to your-", as soon as she turned around her eyes widened, "Nessa are you wearing that to school?"

This was amusing, wanting to see more of their reactions I nod slowly and take a seat at the breakfast stool, "Yes. Why is there something wrong?"

Mom sets down a plate of pancakes and bacon infront of me, as I'm about to take a bite, a cold hand makes its way to my forehead. I slap the hand away from my head, "What are you doing? Don't put your oily hand on my forehead."

Vance huffs, then crosses his hands over his chest, "I was just checking if you were feeling okay."

Raising one eyebrow up I ask him, "And why wouldn't I be feeling okay?"

"Um have you seen yourself in the mirror?" Alex snorted, answering for Vance.

Mom then hits Alex's shoulder with the palm of her hand, "Hey, don't be so mean to your sister." Then she glances at my outfit, "But, he does have a point Nessa. Knowing you, you'd never go out of the house with that outfit and your glasses. Is there something wrong?"

I didn't want them to be worried for me, that's why I decided to tell them the truth, "Guys, I'm fine. I know this outfit is something I'd never wear in a million years, but I'm doing this because I don't want anybody to notice me. I'm just trying to blend in with the crowd."

Mom's eyes soften, "I understand, although are you sure you wanna do that? You shouldn't have to act like somebody you're not."

"Yes I know that, I'm not going to change. I just wanna blend in with the crowd." I assure mom, smiling at her.

My brother's looked like they wanted to say something, making a warning face at them, they both darted their eyes away and not a single word left their mouths. 

While we were having breakfast, I asked Vance if I could catch a ride with him to school and he agreed. Right now Vance and I were sitting down on the soft black leather seats of his precious car, him on the driver's seat and me on the passenger's seat. As we left the driveway, a nervous pit of butterflies rested on my stomach. This was it, I was going to school. The whole17 years of my life, I have never been to a real school and going there today scares me a lot. It may not seem like I'm scared, but trust me I am, I'm just trying not to think about it too much. 

Tapping his hands on the steering wheel, Vance speaks up, "You nervous?"

"Yes, actually I am." I admit, there was no point in trying to lie to Vance, he'd always be able to catch it.

He nods his head understandingly, "That's understandable. I mean it is your first day of high school and that shit would always be nerve-wracking."

"Let's just hope I have a good day." 

With a word of agreement, Vance continues driving with the crappy mainstream pop song playing in the background. The rest of the car ride wasn't too long, after passing a few trees I saw the school in the distance. Suddenly a thought pops up into my mind.

"Stop the car!" I ordered Vance a little bit too loudly. Vance hits the break rather hardly and I lurch forward. If it wasn't for Vance's protective arm around me I would've bumped my head on the glass.

"Jesus Christ Vanessa, what's going on?" He exclaims, his voice rather panicked.

Grabbing my bag from the backseat, I apologise, " Sorry for being so sudden and worrying you. I'll walk the rest of the way to school."

A car honked, Vance confused pulled up to the side of the road, "What? Why?"

Scratching my head and giving him a sheepish smile, I quietly said, "Well, I know you're like the popular kid in school and based on all the books I've read if you show up with a popular person you may notice you."

"Are you serious? Don't you think you're overreacting." He inquisitively looks at me, almost as if he was trying to figure me out.

"Come on can you at least do this one for me? I mean you guys already forced me into going to school, this is the least you could do for me." I plead, clasping my hands together in a dramatic fashion.

Vance rolls his eyes and lets out a deep breath, "Fine."

I pecked his cheek, "Thank you." Opening the car door, I remember one last thing, "Also, please don't tell people you know me, pretend you don't know a thing about me. It's not that I'm ashamed of you or anything like that. It will just make my plan easier."

He was about to talk, but I cut him off with a sweet toned please. Without waiting for him to continue talking, I shut the car door and began walking my way to school. Vance drove off with the wave of goodbye.

Beginning to walk, I regret the idea of me not bringing my car. The roads were all rocky and muddy due to the rain last night. As I was walking, I started to think about what school would be like. Is it like in the movies? I have no idea.

The school was in front of me and I was just about ready to steal Vance's car keys and go back home. This school was huge, the walls on the outside were made of red bricks, there were white pillars at the front, there were trees on either side of the building, and a big wooden door. To my right was a parking lot, there were already a bunch of cars parked. Some students were even hanging out there. My eyes scanned the area, in the very first row was my brother's car along with some other expensive looking cars. Vance's car was surrounded by people my age and Vance himself included. His eyes caught mine, he was about to wave, but I think he remembered what I told him because instead of waving he nodded and shot me a supportive smile.

Thinking that it was best to get my schedule now, I take a deep breath and push open the big wooden door.  Going inside, everybody was just leaning in their lockers talking to their group of friends or strolling down the hallway.

I smiled to myself when I figured that nobody saw me, that meant my plan was working. Now all I had to do was find the office, which I'm hoping shouldn't be too hard. 10 minutes had passed and I still couldn't find the office. This school was hella big.

Aimlessly trudging around the school, I start to lose luck in finding the office all by myself. The warning bell rang, as I heard it my heart started racing. I can't be late to my first class on my first day of school. I couldn't find it by myself, forget it I'll just ask some random person. Looking around the halls, I see a shy looking boy with short blonde hair that's curly, he was cute. He seemed kind, that's why I picked him out of all the other students that were milling around the hallway. 

"Hi!" I greet him, trying to sound cheerful.

His eyes meet mine and he smiles, dimples showing which looked adorable, "Hey!"

avataravatar