@ Dandy Darling;
Hazel flung her slender body down at a desk in the back of the room. There were lots of doodles on the desk, and she traced her favorite designs with her finger, hardly paying attention to anyone who filed into the class. Mr. Brown was late, as usual, but he was a really cool teacher who loved to joke around with the kids. He strode into the class about 5 minutes after the final bell had rung and pulled out a movie; Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "Who's down to watch this for the day? I forgot to grade all of your papers, so I need a bit of a filler." The class cheered their approval, and Hazel sat back, pulling out the little black notebook she kept on her at all times. It was basically just a list of her plans for her life, the things she wanted to do and see. The first page was filled in her Freshman year of high school, and it said "CORNELL UNIVERSITY" in huge letters across the page, with little doodles of dogs, cats, and other various animals around it. Hazel considered framing the page, but she decided it was much more worth it to leave it where it belonged. Everything else in the notebook was just a list of things she wanted -- to turn 18 and leave the shit hole town she grew up in, to travel the world someday, to find a magic lamp and have a genie grant her 3 wishes, things like that. She knew some of them were never going to be attainable, but dreaming about things like that was what kept Hazel sane throughout high school.
Her father wanted her to stay. "The center of Boston is only about a 30 minute drive from here, Pumpkin," he had said to her when he saw the acceptance letter. "You could live here and help your old man support himself." Hazel had never been so sure in that moment that she wanted to leave. The ghost of her mother filled the rooms and flooded her memories. She had been willing to let go, but her father was stuck holding onto something he would never have. It was time for him to let go, but he refused. It was that kind of childish behavior that a grown man exhibited that made her so vehemently angry. No, Hazel was going to leave, and there would be no force in the whole world that could stop her.
She noticed a pretty blonde girl had decided to sit next to her for the class. She recognized her as Elizabeth Lansen, they shared more than half their classes this school year. Elizabeth was the only other person who seemed to work hard enough to get into a good school, but Hazel recognized almost immediately that they did it for completely different reasons. Elizabeth did good work because she was taught to, Hazel did good work because if she didn't, she wouldn't have the life she desperately needed. However, despite being in almost all the same classes together, and the fact that Elizabeth and Hazel were the valedictorian and the salutatorian respectively, they had never really talked before. Hazel took this stupid movie as an opportunity to meet the girl who beat her out of the lead. Granted, Hazel had a 4.2 GPA, she just barely took extra credit work, and she agreed to volunteer for a charity event exactly once, but Elizabeth seemed to live for that kind of thing. She didn't understand the girl's generosity; what did she owe to the world to be so okay with just giving freely to it? By that Hazel didn't literally mean the world -- she was a hard core nature activist, a vegan, and believed strongly in the fact that she owed the Earth her life, but she was referring to the people in it. All most people wanted was to better their lives for themselves, and saw no point in helping others. Hazel leaned over to Elizabeth, and whispered, "a bit of a stupid movie, don't you agree?"
November 7th, 2015 at 11:43pm