Chapter 1- Welcome to my life...

8:30. A shrill buzz awakes me, orders me out of the warm cosy place I fall into late each night.

8:32 and a bright red light reads out into my still dark room. Groggy and still sleep deprived, my mind starts to focus, understand, stress. 8:30? That can’t be the right time. Did the clocks go back? Confused and angry, I struggle out of bed and into the hallway. My dad is still snoring in his room; that’s not right either. Halfway down the stairs, I can see my brother seated at the dining room table, on the computer. Questioningly, I look at him, but his back is turned to me.

“Alex?” I ask. “Why aren’t we at school?”

He turns around and looks at me as if I were the younger, stupid one.

“It’s a snow day...?” He answers as if obvious.

I mutter and grumble an excuse and then head back into my room. 8:36 and I’m no longer tired. I crawl into my bed anyways, hoping sleep will overcome me.

 

11:03. Yawning, I open my eyes and recall what happened a few hours ago. It’s a snow day right? Smiling, I get up and go downstairs. Within seconds, all I can think is: food. My body is four hours deprived and needs its fix. I look in the cupboard; multigrain cheerio’s will have to do. My parents are very ‘nutritional’. Junk food, pop, chips or candy? Forget about it. If I decide to have people over, how about some multigrain Pringles for a change? Sighing, I sit down to eat. Today is Wednesday, too bad I didn’t really have any school crap due! I think about what was assigned for homework yesterday, and then remember I was supposed to rewrite and submit my English essay. The entire reason I was up so late the night before... I decided I would just email it to the teacher; Mr. Tims was easygoing like that!

 

My mom’s school laptop is on the table. She said it has a virus, looking up pictures for something... There are two notes on it, one for me and one for my brother. Lists of things to do since we have the day off. Thank goodness we didn’t have to go to school again. This was the third snow day all year, but I missed the first one because I had it off for exams anyways. The second time I didn’t want to go, but had too. Plus my friend Shelby, who walks to school, desperately wanted me too, so as not to be alone all day. As it turned out, she decided to walk home with Wayne at lunch. I only became friends with Shelby when everyone came to Prince Arthur Middle School for grade seven and eight from like, 6 different elementary schools. No one knew anyone; I made so many new friends! But anyway, I was basically ditched. Luckily Ming was at school that day too; thank god I have so many walker friends! I met Ming in grade seven too, but we didn’t become friends until Christmas...? Or maybe even grade eight? But around Christmastime! When I was allowed to get facebook! I walked home with her and stayed at her house all afternoon. It’s just a good thing Suzie and Julia weren’t at school that day, not like they’d ever come on snow days! Suzie is my...best friend, really. I’ve know her forever, since preschool, she lives right up the street from me. A good word to describe Julia is... the complication. Don’t get me wrong, we’re good friends, and I’ve had great times with her, but things have just gotten so different. Glancing down at the note again, I read off my chores. Shovel the driveway, clean room, walk the dog with Alex, practice PLU codes (I just got a job as a cashier, there’s a code for every single produce item)... Not too much to do, but it’s already 11:30. I hear Alex calling my name from the basement.

“What?” I yell down.

“Come play with me!”

“What?”

“PS3!”

I pause. We got the PS3 a couple of Christmases ago, for both of us. That turned quickly into ‘for Alex’, but I didn’t really mind. I had my iPod touch and phone; he had this and a couple other things.

“Fine!” I answered, happy to get more relaxing time before starting on the list.

We’re playing a new game, ‘Digger’, where you dig through dirt to get the jewels and money bags while evil insects come after you. Sounds kind of babyish but it was hard! We were on two player mode and got the hang of it after a while. I kept getting interrupted by texts and my mom. Eventually we left to go walk the dog.

 

Looking outside, you wouldn’t believe the roads had been completely dry the day before. It was pretty regular for a Barrie, Ontario winter, even though it was the first day of spring. The snow was probably a good 2 feet high, and my brother was contemplating wearing boots or a coat. I was smarter than that when I was 12 wasn’t I? I convinced him to put boots on, and when we went outside, he immediately returned for a hat, winter coat and gloves. The snow shot at our faces like bullets like frosty ice pellets on a mission to give us instant frostbite. I felt real sorry for people from Florida or California that came to Canada in the winter...

We decided to walk Kyna longer, partly because I ‘needed to get out of the house’ and just because we felt like it. Up the alley, through an old subdivision back along conservation, up Jones Lane and through the park, down to Crooked Lake Boulevard and into our driveway, an hour later, with snow now 2 and a half feet deep.

 

We decided to relax for about an hour and resumed videogames and snacking. My mom said she wanted the driveway shovelled by the time she pulled in so we stated at about 3:30. My dad said he’d be out in 5 minutes, which turned into 20. I was half done by the time he got out, and it still took us another hour!

 

I was so tired by the time we got back in, I think I collapsed on the couch.

4:45, around the usual time I’d actually start doing something useful after a dreadfully busy school day. Karate happens every night except for Sunday, music lessons are on Tuesdays, and I got my job at No Frills during the March break. Between all that, I’ve got my extra-curricular activities and homework, not to mention a social life, so I’m pretty busy. Which I guess was the start to the huge issue.

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[Calypso]

She reminds me of when I had depression.