A Roller Coaster Life: Road to the Stanley Cup

"AHH GUESS WHAT'S ON TONIGHT?!"

"Ronny, please just shut up. Today's Monday. Nothing could possibly be on tonight," my sister Sophie said. She obviously was not in a good mood. It was after school, why wouldn't she be happy?

Well, my sister has fallen victim to a bully at her new school. I never wanted her to have to go through the emotional pain that comes with that, but she has. I found her sometimes crying to herself in the room she shares with our little sister Caylee. It hurts hearing her so down like that. Yet there is something that makes it so much worse.

The bully is actually a cousin to our cousins Tyler and Laura (his little sister), so the bully is a family member.

What kind of a family member torments a member of their family, especially when they were so close?

That irritates me beyond belief, and I find myself wanting to confront the little rat girl myself in a not so kind way.

I say to her from across the hallway, "I'm sorry she's so mean to you. I would go and beat her up for you if I could. Tyler's already asked when he could do the same, too. And he's a year younger than both of you."

She nodded softly, whispering, "Dancing with the Stars."

"What?"

"You asked what was on tonight. Dancing with the Stars is on."

She walked into the room, closing the door. After closing my own door, I grabbed my backpack from its spot near the door and brought it with me. I turned on the computer, signing in to my AIM account. I wanted to talk to one of my best friends, Brianni Fredrecks, before I started my homework. Sure, I knew homework was important, but she was never able to talk to me after six. Strict fathers, what can you do with them?

Just as I thought, she was on, waiting to talk to me. We started our usual excited greeting routine, consisting of just typing at each other with everything it capitals and smiley faces. Then we talked about our day. She told me how every one of my friends at my old school missed me while I told her about my day. Then we got off on several tangents, telling each other jokes.

I usually got anyone to laugh at my jokes. Today though....Something was different. It was strange. It was like she wasn't completely there. I didn't understand it.

RonnieDreamer74: what's wrong, annikins? you've been real off today....
lightsoarer39: nothing's wrong, why do you ask?
RonnieDreamer74: you haven't even posted an "LMFAO" all day, and i usually have you crying from laughing so hard
lightsoarer39: listen, i have to leave now, so i'll get back to you soon...bye

Before I could even react, Brianni signed off. I didn't understand it; she never acted like this. What could have happened?

I shook my head, typing out a response that she could read when she got back from whatever she needed to do. I grabbed the books I needed out of my backpack, starting my homework early. I still had about half an hour before Dancing with the Starts started.

It was my first time watching the show since the third season. I began with a deep interest in the show, wanting to even dance like the professionals did. I liked the celebrities on the first three seasons, but then the show eventually got really boring. I never recognized the celebrities on the seasons following up until this season, Season 10. I knew just about every one of the celebrities, especially the one I supported.

To be specific, I supported Evan Lysacek with his partner Anna Trebunskaya. Evan was a figure skater from Naperville, Illinois, the same state I came from. He became famous after winning gold in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Men's Figure Skating. The first time I heard about him, I genuinely hoped he would win gold. When I heard he faced another experienced skater, I was worried for him. Plushenko was no pushover; I had seen him perform.

Long story short, when it was time for Evan to perform, I wished him all the best of luck for not only representing the US against Russia, but Illinois. The very moment his score was calculated, I jumped out of the computer chair I sat in and screamed loudly. Most likely scaring everyone in my family. He had won the gold, and I was so proud of him. Especially after winning it by a slim margin. He deserved the win, and I was on the verge of tears.

Currently though, Evan and Anna got my votes. I hoped it would be enough to get them to the finals and, eventually, on to win the Mirror Ball Trophy. After my wait was long over, I blankly stared at my TV screen, noticing how Evan was really tall.

'Man, it looks like he has super long legs,' I thought to myself. After a few moments of observing, I realized that his legs reminded me of a certain character I loved: Jack Skellington. I said to myself, "PERFECT! I'll draw him in a Jack Skellington costume! It'll be such an awesome picture!" So I whipped out my sketchbook, some pencils, and a picture of Evan Lysacek, courtesy of the Internet, and got ready to draw him.

About two and a half hours later, I was able to finish drawing him and adding details to the suit. Who knew so many lines could take so long to add in? Not to mention a lot of sharpening my black colored pencil for it....

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The next day I decided to post the picture to Facebook to show my friends. They would love it, I concluded, since they loved seeing my drawings. I had a lot of problems with the lighting on my digital camera, so it took a little longer to get the perfect picture for Facebook.

...The scanner didn't work, duh. That's why I needed my camera.

Then I had to take the memory card out of the camera, put it into an adapter so it could go into my computer, and look for it in the camera. Which all took some more time.

By the time I had it published on Facebook, I noticed that two of my friends had disappeared from my friends list. I scanned it over, and I realized that two of my best friends, Brianni and Katelynn, had disappeared. Katelynn Jacobwitz. Diana Sonria was the other part to our group of best friends. The four of us had been really tight, even through our separation from grade school. Of course, Diana had stopped talking to Brianni and Katelynn in our freshman year, only talking to me. Then it was just a trio with Brianni, Katelynn, and I, but I still talked to Diana.

I raised an eyebrow at the situation, wondering what could have happened. Facebook had glitches all the time, so maybe I got deleted off their lists by accident? I immediately requested them again, and then logged off Facebook.

Still, at the back of my mind...A doubt remained permanently on repeat in my head.

What if they really did delete me?

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It was late, really late at night. Maybe sometime past midnight, but I couldn't be sure.

Not only was I tired, but my eyes itched. They burned from crying so much. A little over a week had gone by, but my life had changed for the worse.

....What could have possibly gone on in a week that's brought me to tears?

Well, after I had requested both of them, they each had deleted me off their friends list. Katelynn had even gone as far as blocking me. What really delivered a hard blow to me, when it really shouldn't have, was how Brianni had gotten herself a boyfriend.

The ironic part? Oh man, this is just TOO GOOD.

This guy she's dating, against her father's wishes I might add, was the exact same guy who she HATED with a passion. She had claimed he was creepy and she would never date someone like that. It was ridiculous.

So basically I was blocked from ever talking to one of my best friends, while being completely ignored by another and being replaced with her boyfriend.

'Almost like Bella Swan in the Twilight saga', I noted to myself, sniffling all the same. I felt betrayed and abandoned by them.

I sighed, a quite shaky sigh, if you ask me. I muttered to myself, "At least I still have Diana to talk to, and she's all that matters anymore..."

My best friend of nearly eleven years. She was all I needed, I tried to convince myself. Still, I couldn't avoid the heartbreak I had at losing them. And with those thoughts, I let my eyes slide closed, the cool and bitter tears slowly falling along the paths the previous tears left behind.