“I don’t know but looking at the stars helps me calm down when I’m really overwhelmed by something,” Jaila said.
I was on my bed with bloodshot eyes crying and crying about what my parents had done to me: ruining my memory of my favorite place. I walked to the bathroom to clean myself up. I looked in the mirror and thought, “Why? Just why?”
I went to sleep with that thought. When I woke up the next morning, that’s all I could think about too. I felt like I was stuck in a place where it felt like no one was willing to help me, but one thing could help me not to think like this. So I decided to get to work. I called my friends, packed my favorite clothes, got in the car, and was on my way to the lake house. But first I had a quick lunch break, which happened to be Chick-fil-A (Yum!) Then, I hit the road again, while playing “Hit the Road Jack,” a great song by the way.
When I arrived, I unpacked my things and went to the pond to just take in the scenery. A bug flew onto my leg and I slapped it off. It went to another group of bugs and they also flew away. This gave me the idea that if my friends tried to leave me, I would fall into a hole and it would take me a bit to get out. A few minutes later, my friends finally came to join me. Then the fun finally began. We went to the pool, played volleyball, made cookies doing the blind, deaf, and mute challenge, and watched the Darkest Minds to end our day.
At 4:34 AM, I heard something coming from outside so I put on my slippers and walked downstairs as quietly as I could to go and figure out what it was. I stepped outside and was surprised to see one of my friends, Jaila, sitting on a bench, quietly looking at the stars.
“Hey, whatcha you doing out here? Especially right at the crack of dawn?” I asked.
“I don’t know but looking at the stars helps me calm down when I’m really overwhelmed by something,” Jaila said.
“But wait, why would you need to calm down? Did we do something wrong? Because I know I definitely didn’t do anything,” I said.
“Why didn’t you tell your parents? They’re really great people and all you show them is what a bad person you are,” Jaila said.
“I’m not a bad person, what makes you think that anyway?” I asked.
“We snuck to the countryside and you forced me and Ella into it! Can’t you see? Maya, you really need to step up and start thinking of others rather than yourself and just bringing them along for your company just because you want them to be there.”
She walked away. It really hit me hard that my friend was able to tell me that I basically tell her what to do. But I sat and looked at the stars and thought about the bug I saw earlier and how I turned it away when it had tried to get my attention.
“Why? Why am I like this?”
