If All Else Fails

The day started out as any other ordinary day for Annie, nothing special and nothing new. As usual, she woke up at exactly six in the morning and hastily got ready for school, doing her early morning routine with a tired expression, blank mind and aching body.
Being a hardworking student, Annie got a scholarship into one of the most prestigious private schools in the state, Milton Academy. The school mostly contained wealthy and socialite students whose parents were widely known throughout the high class industry, in any case, the exact opposite of Annie’s lifestyle. This was everything that Annie was lacking of and to her, it felt like she was failing such an important test since this will determine her social status in the school and among her fellow students.
Even from the start, Annie immediately became the social outcast among her peers due to the reason of growing up poor. She was instantly the center of discrimination and everybody just loved to insult her about everything and anything they could think of.
This would have been easy to get through if she had someone to help her and comfort her with this tough situation but Annie only has herself to depend on and it hurt a lot worse than being treated like trash.
Everywhere Annie turned, someone was either pulling a horrible prank on her or saying nasty things about her. She ignored it however and always reminded herself that it would soon stop and everyone will grow tired of her but unfortunately, this seemed to turn out to be an addiction to them. Not even her teachers were nice to her and Annie could only guess that the students circulated malicious rumors about her or might even bribe them.
Annie was different and she didn’t belong to a school such as Milton Academy, everyone knew that. They were like pieces of clean white paper before Annie arrived and now that a low-class pauper has entered their school, they were all stained.

To them, Annie was the black smudge that should be removed by any means. Everything that everybody told her in school was painted in her mind and it caused Annie to think so little of herself and not even once did she feel good about herself. After a few months, she just got used to it and accepted the fact that she was a nobody that no one would ever like and it made everyone in school feel good about themselves.

Something happened though, that changed everything but it quickly passed by just as it was happening.
Annie wasn’t sure what’s worse, the school or the gloomy apartment where she and her mom live in.
Ever since she was twelve years old, her life has never been the same.

It was completely different and nothing seems to be too complicated for her.
Shocking as it is, she used to be such a happy kid.
Everyone admired how she acts positively in every experience that comes her way. Annie was like a little ball of energy that could make any person smile with her cheerful presence. Everyone wanted to be her friend since they thought of Annie as the nicest and coolest kid in their school.
She loved to laugh and loved to live her life to the fullest.
Annie was happy.
Annie was young.
And Annie was free

It was almost impossible for Annie’s high spirits to break and everyone knew that.

But not everyone knew what the unexpected has to bring.

When Annie turned twelve, her dad left them for another woman who was pregnant with his child. For the first time in her life, Annie felt her heart breaking and it always grew worse when she sees her mother’s torn face day after day.
It was hard for Annie since she grew so close to her dad. Sometimes when she would hear a deep masculine voice in the living room, she would jump up from her bed and run down the stairs thinking it was her dad but it always turns out to be just an imagination.
Every day and night, she prayed and begged for her dad to return. Somewhere in her heart, she still had hope that maybe someday…

Someday they were going to be a family again.

It never happened, though. And Annie’s hope begins to diminish slowly but surely until the feeling slowly fed on her soul like a life-sucking leech.
The old Annie Sparks was gone.
Her once cheerful aura disappeared into a place far away from her.
Sometimes she would think that maybe it left with her father.
Never coming back and will never be the same again.
Her bright personality was replaced with a lifeless one. She was now known as the quiet girl who stays in the background, she always sits alone by herself and she doesn’t speak to anyone.

She accepted the cold hard truth…

Everything was going to change whether she likes it or not.
After a year had passed, they sold their house and moved into an apartment. Annie never knew why but after her father’s sudden departure, her mother never treated her the same again. Her mom would always drink and cry. She barely talked to Annie let alone acknowledged her presence. This made Annie feel like she’s a carrier of a contagious disease. The one person that felt the same way as Annie acted like she never even existed.
The hurt doubled over Annie but she couldn’t do anything to stop it from digging deeper into her broken soul. As the years grew pass, she learned to how to do things all by herself and no one else. She was used to being alone until something unexpected brought her back to being a normal human being and yet, it left her to be even worse. Though she didn’t want to talk about her past, she felt like confiding in someone in hopes of lightening the heavy feelings stuck in her chest but her problem was, she didn’t have someone.

As Annie finished buttoning her blouse while miraculously eating a piece of toast, she grabbed her backpack and left the apartment.
She walked to school for a total of ten minutes and finally arrived earlier than she expected. She desperately wanted to stay in her room and never go back to school but graduation is about to come up for a few weeks and it’ll be such a disappointment if she just suddenly went missing when she would feel like it.
Annie took the backpack off of her shoulders as she stood in front of her rusty locker. She took some notebooks and books and neatly arranged it inside of her locker. As she attempted to balance her back pack and the notebooks in her hands, her black leather-bound diary accidentally fell on the floor with a soft thud and opened to a certain page. As Annie closed her locker, an all too familiar masculine voice suddenly perked her ears up, but not in a good way.
“Hmm… what do we have here?”
Annie turned her head quickly and drew out a huge gasp when she realized that Drew Crawford was holding her diary with a big mischievous smile on his face.
“Hey! Give that back!” Annie cried desperately. Annie outstretched her arms and reached out to retrieve her diary but due to Drew’s tallness, she was left unsuccessful.
Drew shoved Annie into the lockers forcefully and snickered in delight. Annie winced in pain since her back hit the locker handle hard.
Drew didn’t seem to notice this since he was too busy calling out everyone’s attention.
“Look what I’ve got, it’s Sparks’ diary!” shouted Drew with smugness stretched in his face.
A crowd of seniors started forming around him with intrigued looks on their faces. Annie ignored her pain and pushed Drew roughly with an angry expression. Everyone, including Drew, stared at her in shock since she was known not to fight back.
“Ooooohhh!” chorused the students mockingly at Annie. Drew gave Annie a glare but didn’t do anything instead, his best friend Jeffrey grabbed Annie’s hands tightly and held her back from interrupting. Annie squirmed and tried to break free but Jeff was a really strong guy, she lowered her head and closed her eyes tightly in dread.

Annie didn’t know what to feel.

Her whole life was written within those pages and she was supposed to be the only one who should know about it. She didn’t want anyone else to know how really miserable she was inside and outside of the school walls. Her secrets, thoughts, dreams, fears and pain were poured throughout every single line and as simple as that, it’s going to be the fresh new gossip within the campus. Her diary is her only best friend and now it’s going to turn into an evil possession of her evil classmates that would make her heart ache more than it ever did. Annie wanted nothing more than to run away and hide in a dark secluded corner but unfortunately for her, nothing could ever go the way she wanted it to be.

Everything, just everything, always ends up being a huge disappointment to her.

Drew looked at Annie with a satisfied expression as he proceeded to clear his throat noisily.
“September 13, 2007…” Drew read out loud.
Annie felt her heart jump nervously as she remembered what she wrote on that day. She could already see what would happen after Drew finishes reading the entry.
“Dear Diary…

I can’t take it anymore!
My classmates are absolutely horrible and cruel!
They make demons look good! I could practically see their horns and tails eagerly waiting to come out at night, I’m pretty sure they’re going to rot in hell!
I have one classmate named Kristy Davis who’s probably the most dreadful girl on the planet. Sure, she’s beautiful on the outside but if looks are based on the inside, she’d be really ugly. She thinks she’s all that but she’s really not. She always says rude things to me but if I could have it my way, I’d tell her to get over herself and find a life since she’s just making herself look desperate…”

Annie took a huge risk and glanced at the crowd in search of Kristy’s reaction. Sure enough, she found Kristy getting really red from being so furious and insulted. An icy glare was etched clearly on her face as if she was ready to murder someone with her bare hands. Everyone else was giving Annie dirty looks and whispering to each other as though Annie committed a scene of crime.
Annie sighed hopelessly as Drew continued reading…

“Then there are a couple of guys named Craig, Eric, Jason, Jeffrey and Ethan who’re such obnoxious jerks. They think everything they do is hilarious but it’s far from making me laugh. They’re really annoying. The world would be a lot better if they didn’t exist. They’re just there to be heartless devils that’ll lure good people to the evil side…”

Annie glanced at the four boys that were mentioned and noticed that they were scowling and sneering at her in a vicious manner as if they were about to eat her alive. Jeffrey’s grip on her started to tighten and hurt. She looked away distressfully and continued to bow her head in shame as Drew read on....

“Who could ever forget Kristy’s posse…Jenny, Brianna, Laurie and Cassie. I hate how they follow and worship everything that Amanda says therefore adding to the list of people who turns my life into a living nightmare. They just try too hard to be popular like it’s the most important thing in the world but it’s such a stupid thing. Just like Kristy, they should really get their own life…”

Annie heard simultaneous gasps of shock from the four girls and all of them gave Annie nasty looks in unison.
Annie wanted nothing more than the floor to swallow her. Before Drew could continue reading the rest of the entry which contained the remaining names of her other classmates, the bell rang loudly signaling for the start of classes.
Drew glanced at Annie haughtily and closed her diary with a smirk. Annie clenched her fist in frustration as he walked away to class without giving her diary back.
Everyone else started to follow him with looks of disgust and hatred at Annie.
Drew’s friend Jeffrey let her go and before he went to class, he whispered threateningly in her ear.

“Get ready to be brought down in flames, Sparks. It’s ten times worse than hell.”
And with that, he left her standing all by herself in the middle of the hall.