Stalked

story about how my older brother Ezra Graves starts working at the school I go to. No one at the school knows we are related. One of the students, however, is green with envy at the special attention

I awoke one fair, yet chilly March Day. After getting dressed and eating breakfast, I finished getting ready for school. Little did I know that this particular day would be like any other.

I was a junior in high school and attended a private, all-girls school called Valley Ridge Student Center. It was located in Jamaica, Vermont.  Before that, I had been a student at a mainstream high school, Fall Mountain Regional High School, to be exact. But my school years there were complete hell for me. All the other students made fun of me and I had no friends. I felt like everyone was out to get me and I started having terrible nightmares. So after seeing a psychologist, I was pulled from Fall Mountain immediately. I was relieved to be escaping my nightmare experience- and so were my parents. When I started going to Valley Ridge, I was so much happier. I had friends for the first time and the teachers were really nice.

Things were finally looking up for me and now I looked forward to school. It was a complete difference- and that made me happy.

My ride picked me up to take me to school at 8:00 every morning. It was an hour long drive, so I brought my iPod to listen to music during the car ride. It made the ride more pleasant.

When we pulled into the school, a greenish-blueish truck with Vermont plates caught my eye. It was identical to my brother’s vehicle. Could it be? No.... surely I was mistaken. Then, a man with dark hair came out and stood by the door. There was no mistaking it: it was Ezra Graves, my older brother!!

“Ezra!” I called as I ran over to him.

Ezra caught me in his arms.

“Hey kiddo,” he said, using the pet name he had used on me since I was little.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, still shocked and surprised.

“Working.” he said. “I’m going to be a behavioral interventionist.”

“Really?” “That’s awesome!” I exclaimed.

I took Ezra’s hand and we went inside together.

 

 

When Ezra and I went out into the dining room, the other girls were already there. Kellie was the youngest. She was 13 and had psoriasis over 90% of her body. I didn’t know what her disability was, but she had claimed that a year ago, her stepdad had raped her. The principal, Ms. Anne had taken Kellie to the hospital- where I later discovered that a rape test kit was negative- even though Kellie had insisted that she was raped. She put on quite a display: crying and shaking so badly a couple of our teachers had to physically help her out of the bathroom. She had even stated that she wanted to kill herself because "her mom didn't believe that her stepdad raped her." If she REALLY wanted to kill herself, she would have done it already. Because of Kellie's issues, I didn't go out of my way to be nice to her-especially after she had lied about being raped! That alone proved to me that she was messed up in the head- even though she was in such obvious denial about it. She wished she could be normal like me and my best friend Taylor who went to the same school.

The other girls were Kayla, Megan, and Kiaya. Kayla was a b***h because she had stolen my iPod and had kept it hidden in her room for over a week. Luckily for me, the place she was living at did random room checks, so after a week of suffering awful withdrawal symptoms from not being able to listen to my music, I was FINALLY reunited with my beloved iPod.

Megan was a short, obese, plain-looking, ugly girl who was rude and obnoxious. The previous summer, she had gotten into a fist fight with my best friend Taylor- and Taylor won the fight- with me cheering her on in the background while the teachers scrambled to break up the fight.

Kiaya was a very smart math wiz who could figure out math problems in her head faster then I could on a calculator! Kiaya, Taylor, and I were the only normal students at the school. Kellie, Megan, and Kayla had mental issues- and I was quick to tell my brother this and bring him up to speed so he knew what he was getting into. Ezra and I also decided that no one at the school could know that we were siblings. He wanted to keep his personal life safe in case the other students acted up and stalked him. Little did we know that a student would stalk us and make our lives a living hell!

After Ezra was introduced to the other students and teachers, we gathered for morning meeting- which included reading our horoscopes and trivia games. Then, it was time to start our classes which included: math, English, science, social studies, and music. Ezra had taught himself how to play guitar and I have the fondest, sweetest memories of him playing and singing Rocky Raccoon by The Beatles when I was little.

 

 

 

As the weeks passed, no one suspected a thing about me and Ezra. Which was a good thing, because Ezra seemed to always try to give me special attention weather it was playing guitar for me and singing or giving me candy and other special treats like snack cakes or fudge. Everyone knew that Ezra was engaged to his girlfriend Aubrie LaCroix, but no one knew that the wedding would take place in Hawaii during spring break! Except me of course! Aubrie had a son from a previous relationship named Treigh Robert Knapp. He called Ezra "EA" and me "Auntie Tee."

Ezra treated Treigh like he was his own son. He was a terrific dad-figure and when we got back to school from spring break and Ezra let it slip that he'd eloped in Hawaii, everyone wanted to see photos!