Status: Active. (Based on the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson.)
Twisted
Fourteen
My plan for the first day of school was to roll out of bed, roll into my clothes, roll down the stairs, and roll out the door to the bus stop. One day riding the bus wasn't going to kill me. I had promised Aaron.
He started pounding on my door a full eleven minutes before my alarm went off.
"Elise Kathleen McCready! You get out of that bed right now! Mom said!"
It sounded like he was going to punch through the door. All those middle-school sports had made my little brother a lot stronger than he looked.
"Get up!" Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump. "Mom said! I don't want to miss the bus!"
It was going to take a week for him to figure out that high school was school, plus seven levels of social hell (especially for freshmen), with too much homework and rules dreamed up by psychopaths.
Then we'd see who was eager to get out the door.
---
I pulled on a shirt, briefs, and shorts- all clean in honor of the first day- and trudged downstairs hoping Mom had remembered to go to the store.
Aaron took one look at me and let out a bloodcurdling scream. "You can't go to school like that!"
"Morning to you, too. Any milk, mom?"
Mom shook a nearly empty milk jug. "You might get half a bowl. I'll go the the grocery store after work, I promise."
Aaron grabbed my wrist in a death grip. "No food until you change. You are not going to school like that."
I wanted to blow him off, but he was halfway to a meltdown. I let him drag me back upstairs, where he handed me a slim-fitting band shirt and skinny Tripp pants and shoved me into the bathroom to change.
He opened the door as I was buttoning the Tripps.
"Do you mind?" I asked.
"I don't want to be late." He sat on the edge of the sink. "Turn around. And let the pants hang a bit, otherwise it looks like you're a try-hard."
"You think?"
"You're going to be late!" Mom called from downstairs.
I pulled the rim of the Tripps down to my lower waist. Aaron fixed the wrinkles in my shirt.
"Better," he said. He then handed me a sleeveless leather vest that had outgrown him- one with spikes on the shoulders. "Much better. Now one more thing." He grabbed the hair straightener from the sink drawer and turned it on and made me bend over so he could straighten my hair. When he was done, he stepped back.
"Take a look," he said.
The mirror showed some girl- an actually somewhat sexy girl- I'd never seen before: tall, sun-kissed skin, toned biceps, feathery, straight hair, and maybe a little danger in the eyes. I squinted to make me look more dangerous, but it made me look nearsighted.
"See? You are now officially a reborn Metalhead." Aaron stood on his toes to rest his head on my shoulder as he hugged me and smiled. "Thanks, Lise. Now hurry up or I'll miss everything."
---
He started pounding on my door a full eleven minutes before my alarm went off.
"Elise Kathleen McCready! You get out of that bed right now! Mom said!"
It sounded like he was going to punch through the door. All those middle-school sports had made my little brother a lot stronger than he looked.
"Get up!" Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump. "Mom said! I don't want to miss the bus!"
It was going to take a week for him to figure out that high school was school, plus seven levels of social hell (especially for freshmen), with too much homework and rules dreamed up by psychopaths.
Then we'd see who was eager to get out the door.
---
I pulled on a shirt, briefs, and shorts- all clean in honor of the first day- and trudged downstairs hoping Mom had remembered to go to the store.
Aaron took one look at me and let out a bloodcurdling scream. "You can't go to school like that!"
"Morning to you, too. Any milk, mom?"
Mom shook a nearly empty milk jug. "You might get half a bowl. I'll go the the grocery store after work, I promise."
Aaron grabbed my wrist in a death grip. "No food until you change. You are not going to school like that."
I wanted to blow him off, but he was halfway to a meltdown. I let him drag me back upstairs, where he handed me a slim-fitting band shirt and skinny Tripp pants and shoved me into the bathroom to change.
He opened the door as I was buttoning the Tripps.
"Do you mind?" I asked.
"I don't want to be late." He sat on the edge of the sink. "Turn around. And let the pants hang a bit, otherwise it looks like you're a try-hard."
"You think?"
"You're going to be late!" Mom called from downstairs.
I pulled the rim of the Tripps down to my lower waist. Aaron fixed the wrinkles in my shirt.
"Better," he said. He then handed me a sleeveless leather vest that had outgrown him- one with spikes on the shoulders. "Much better. Now one more thing." He grabbed the hair straightener from the sink drawer and turned it on and made me bend over so he could straighten my hair. When he was done, he stepped back.
"Take a look," he said.
The mirror showed some girl- an actually somewhat sexy girl- I'd never seen before: tall, sun-kissed skin, toned biceps, feathery, straight hair, and maybe a little danger in the eyes. I squinted to make me look more dangerous, but it made me look nearsighted.
"See? You are now officially a reborn Metalhead." Aaron stood on his toes to rest his head on my shoulder as he hugged me and smiled. "Thanks, Lise. Now hurry up or I'll miss everything."
---
♠ ♠ ♠
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