Confessions

“Wow! Great job honey!” Mom exclaimed, patting my head as she went to got put my latest report card up on the fridge. I had gotten straight A’s…again…
I sighed and went up to my room to work on my homework before dinner. As I went up the stairs, I looked at my family pictures hanging up on the wall. We’re such a perfect and ideal family. My dad was a big CEO for some company, my mom was a stay at home; I was the absolute perfect child. I took piano lessons, was a gymnast, a straight-A student, and so on. My life is so dull and boring, with little change, but I’m too afraid to do anything about it. That’s why I’m so jealous of my brother. He is the only disruption in my perfect, little family. His name is Charles Isaac Finley Von Baron Burgess, but he absolutely despises his name, so he has everyone call him Casanova,(which suits him- he is a bit of a ladies man, not that he would never push a girl to do something the wouldn’t want to do…). The only people that call him by his first or first two names are my parents and the grandparents on my father’s side (who are very, very old-fashioned).
Casa (as I call him) does his own thing because our parents don’t have high expectations for him like they do for me. For as long as he goes to college, and only has one ear piercing instead of being covered in them and tattoos, they stay off his case. My brother is a free-spirit, independent, and does what ever he pleases. If you look at our rooms, you can see the differences; his room is a black abyss while mine is as neat as a pin. By the way, Casa and I are twins. We look alike and all, except for our hair (he dyes his frequently).
Finally, I made my way to my room, after spending time looking at family pictures. Once in my room, I close the door and lean against it, sliding down to the floor as another sigh escapes my lips.
I looked around my room… my all too perfect room. The walls were a sweet mint green, the furniture a nice white color. I looked over at the wall in front of me. In between the two windows was my desk with my laptop set up on it. I grinned and went over to the desk, sat in my swivel chair, and moved my mouse. My laptop screen came to life. I was still grinning as I clicked on the Internet button. I then went to my favorite place in the world: an online video game.
I grabbed my special helmet, and tuned into the game.

“Hey everyone!” a girl with electric green hair, vibrant green eyes said. She was dressed in a skin tight black strapless belly shirt and deep blue cargo pants, with a utility belt strapped around her waist; on her feet were boots.
“Heyyy Queenie! Where have you been, girl?” A girl with black hair, a tan complexion exclaimed, giving Queenie a quick hug. She wore an orange top like Queenie’s, green-camo short shorts, and high top converse shoes.
“Hey Tabs! Are you ready to kick some creeper beast butt? ” Queenie smirked, knowingly.
“You bet!” Tabs replied “Now let’s go find the others and go!”
Tabs and Queenie high-5ed each other and ran off towards where they set to meet their friends.

As Tabs and Queenie reached their destination, they looked around questioningly- the area was more crowded than usual.
“What’s going on here?” Queenie asked to no one in particular.
“That my dear, would be the Team Day festivities- a once a year day full of activities so that you can learn more about your team members!” A boy with spiky red hair, red eyes said.
“Hey Jake!” the two girls greeted their friend, each giving him a hug.
“So, what are we supposed to do today, for this ‘Team Day’?” Tabs inquired.
“Well, there are different activities, and Fling and Tank have already chose our first activity for us, so follow me” Jake informed the 2 girls before leading over to a building.
Jake stepped inside, followed by Queenie then Tabs, and led the girls into a room where their friends were sitting, along with an Area Leader.
“Hello Tabs and Queenie! Take a seat, my name is A.L. Lynnah!” the A.L. said as the team sat around a table low to the ground. “In this session, to begin, we shall share one thing with your team that they do not know.”
The team looked at each other, all wondering who they heck came up with this activity.
“So, who would like to go first?” Lynnah asked, looking around the table at the 5 teammates.
“I guess I’ll go first…” Fling offered. “Hmmm…some thing you don’t know about me… well, I love to paint…” Fling shrugged.
A few minutes later, Queenie was the only person left; her teammates had all already gone.
“Well, this is going to be hard seeing as I pretty much tell you guys everything….” Queenie trailed off, knowing that there was only thing that her team doesn’t know about her- her secret.
Queenie took a deep breath and spoke “Okay, well, you know how we all go to the same school, but you guys never see me around?” The team all nodded and mumbled some faint “yeah…”s.
Queenie glanced around the table band continued “Well, the reason is that, well… I am Bertha Rio Acacia Von Baron Burgess, the top student of our school!” With that, Queenie ran out of the room and left.

Bertha’s whole body was shaking as she removed her helmet and logged off the game. Tears were threatening to flood down her cheeks, but she fought.
Suddenly, Bertha grabbed her stomach and ran from her room to her bathroom- closing the door, kneeled in front of the toilet and vomited into it.
After the first wave emptied itself from her stomach, Bertha leaned back away from the toilet and pulled her hair away from her face, tying it in a low ponytail.
Suddenly, Bertha threw her face to the toilet once again as a second wave hit.
When it was over, she stood up, flushed, and went to the sink. She brushed her teeth, washed her hands, and finally examined her appearance. She fixed her hair, dabbed her eyes with a damp wash cloth, and took a shaky breath.
She determined that she should avoid her ‘teammates’- her phobia would other wise claim her with a panic attack.
Bertha thought back to when she realized what she was, why she was. She knew she had atychiphobia, the fear of failure. That’s why she was the perfect child and excelled in everything she did.
Bertha took one last glance at her reflection and went down to dinner, hearing her mother call her down.

At dinner, she acted like everything was fine… she had to, she needed to.
After dinner, she went back to her room and sat her desk. She didn’t have anything to do for she had finished her homework before she even came home.
Sighing, Bertha went online and checked her email. She was surprised to find her inbox full of messages…all from the team.
She forced herself to read them, and clicked on the first one.

To: Queenie8214
From: TabsTheFab
Subject: Are you alright?

Queenie? Or should I call you Bertha? Anyways, are you alright? You left in a rush, after you fessed, and we all got worried about you. Please log back in, we want to talk to you. We don’t care who you ‘really’ are- we know the real you, I know the true you.
Please?
Tabs

Bertha knew she wouldn’t have to read the other emails, they would all be the same thing. Sighing for the umpteenth time, she logged on, set her coordinates to the desert region, and put her helmet on.

“AAARRRGG!” Queenie screeched, finishing off the DesertSlither monster in front of her.
That was the 16th monster she had fought, and she was getting a tad weary, but she was feeling better.
Turning around, she came face to face Tank. She screamed in shock and fell on her butt.
“Finally found you! You really are a hard girl to track down. You know that Queenie?” Tank grinned, helping her up.
“Yeah, yeah, I had to burn off some steam before I went to find you guys….” She stated.
“Well, come on my dear,” Tank threw an orb onto the ground which expanded into a platform. He stepped on to it, followed by Queenie, and they were transported to the Main Area.
An hour later, Queenie had finished telling her team her story, and that she had atychiphobia.
She was shocked to find that they still accepted her. She realized that maybe, just maybe, she doesn’t have to be so perfect all the time and that people may just actually accept her.
She was still atychiphobic, but she knew with her friends, it wouldn’t be so bad.