#1

I, Artemis Winter, have never done drugs, drank alcohol - unless condoned at Church, or done anything inappropriate. I don't curse, I don't "fantasize" about other people unless they are in a book. I am a plain Jane, I'm nothing special nor anything pretty; though I will have to say the only things I like about my appearance are my brown - greenish eyes and long dark brown hair. 

I want to change, but at the same time I don't. In books I have read, the shy protagonist is usually happy about content with being the nerd, the person who no one knows the name of. It may be better than being bullied everyday, but I want excitement in my life. I don't want to be sixty and regretting my entire high school career.

I want to be able to grow old with a man I love. I want to be able to tell my kids fun stories about my teenage years, stories about me getting in trouble, having fun, living my life to the fullest; books only give you so much happiness before it ends. I want to have a life like a book, a life with a plot, a meaning. 

Today is my first day of senior year, and I am making a vow to myself that this will year I will do something fun, something out of my comfort zone and just let me be, me. I dress how I would normally dress for school, myself in a casual outfit for today, I don't plan on becoming a new person over night, it's virtually unrealistic in this day of age without being made fun of it first. So I put on black skinny jeans, a white tank top, a black and white stripped open cardigan, and my black vans. I kept my glasses on because I don't feel like wasting time to put in contacts that will only cause my eyes to become dry and irritable during the course of the day.

Some legends are told, some turn to dust or to gold, but you will remember me for centuries!

My phone goes off with my special set ringtone letting me know that Charlie was here to pick me up. She and I have been friends since elementary school, we met in first grade. She had transferred from Croatia to America due to some in-country problems, her and her family left before it got bad. Charlie didn't know much english so she wasn't exactly great at befriending people, but the fact that she spoke fluent in another language intrigued me even at such a young age. I ended up helping her with her english while she taught me Croatian, now we are both fluent in english and in Croatian.

I walked down stairs to see some lady only wearing a t-shirt, cooking. She looked to be around early thirties with her light flowing blonde hair that reached to the middle of her back. As if sensing my presence the lady turns around with a shocked expression displayed on her face.

"Um, who are you?" She asked me cautiously as if I was a wild animal about to attack her.

"I'm Artemis Winter," I told her in a bland tone. This was happens sometimes, my dad will go to the bar and bring some random girl home, he won't tell them he has a daughter either. Sometimes I see them new flavor of the night the next day because they think if they show my dad that they can cook, like a good little house wife, that they will have a second chance with him to win his heart, a heart that hasn't been used in a while. which is very unlikely. Some are annoying, some are nice, and some are just, well let's just say you want to hit them with a stick, a big stick.

"I didn't know Elliot had a daughter," She said confused.

"Yeah, not many people do, but just saying if you are cooking just so you can have a second chance with win my dad's heart, you are out of luck. My dad doesn't do seconds. isn't looking for a wife, or girlfriend." I say leaving the kitchen to see my dad walking down the stairs looking frazzled, most likely from all the alcohol he consumed last night. "Your lady flavor of the night is in the kitchen. I'm off to school!" I yell walking out the front door to be greeted by Charlie and ((name the car)), her car that she got last summer for her birthday. It was a small black convertible Buick. It was cute and suited her I think, weird, but true.

"What took you so long?" Charlie complains, she is she's a very sweet, loud girl, but she has the patience of a wild wolf. 

"You know the casual usual, a woman cooking in the kitchen hoping to catch my dad's attention for a second time to become his new wife," I say exasperated. She already knew about my family, she knew about my mom's death, my brother's coma and my dad's sleeping around because his life is too hard. Oh sorry Dad, didn't see yah there over all the stress your recklessness has caused me, yeah, but sorry not all of us get to slide through life. 

"Do you think he will ever stop?" She asks quietly, she knew it hurt me that my dad did this type of stuff, leaving me to take up most of the adult responsibility on to my shoulders. I had to prepare diner, clean the dishes, do the food shopping, clean house, do both of our laundry, and I had to sort through like three quarters of the taxes. I have gotten used to it over the years, so it doesn't take up that much time any more, it helps that before everything fell apart we were well off. My dad worked under a CEO of Rose Inc., which is one of the most exclusive companies in the country now a days; and my mother owned a small diner at the edge of town near the forest. My mother also came from a very rich family, and being an only child allowed her not to worry about money for the future. So Ergo, when my grandparents died they handed the money down to my mom inherited the Waston family fortune, who when she died handed the money down to me and my brother through her will. My father was not included because he made so much money with his own job that my mother wanted to make sure we'd have money when we were older.

"Eh, maybe, the number of girls seems to be decreasing slowly," I tell her, which is true. He used to sleep with someone every night, now it's like two or three a week.

"Are you excited for this year? It's Senior year! Ah! Finally!" Charlie exclaimed excitedly, casually changing the subject which I was thankful for. I was't too fond of talking about my dad and what he does in his free time.

"Oh my nuggets! I know right! I can't wait!" I yell giggling. This was senior year, I was a quiet nobody determined to do something fun with her life before she got too old.

"Oo turn this song up! I love it!" She yells at me, as she presses the button on the roof that makes the roof retract, and allows her bleach blonde hair, and my dark brown hair to flow in the wind like some cheesy commercial. I do as told and blast Victorious by Panic! At the Disco and we start singing, screaming, and laughing the lyrics, until we reach the school. 

Charlie fixes the roof so that it now covers us again, and turns the music off as to not draw too much attention towards us. We both get out of the car to see people staring at it, yet paying no attention to us. We grab our bags from the back seat, Charlie locks the car to prevent anyone who wants to try and steal it, again. We walk in to the school and go to our new lockers, which we received this summer, along with our schedule of our classes. I had my core classes, math, english, spanish, science, and history; then for my extracurricular classes I took creative writing and criminal law.

I walk to my locker which is coincidentally next to Charlie's, when I arrive I take my lock out of my backpack and put it on my locker, so no one will try to steal anything from with in it. I open it so I can put my books away and get to class. 

I walk in to my first period class, math. Math is my favorite core class because I understand it the easiest, there are different equations with a way to solve it, and there's always an answer. I sit in the middle, but off to the side towards the windows because I love to look outside and enjoy the weather, it's always to beautiful. Some people were already here, the kiss-butts were sitting in the first row, the nerds right behind them, some jocks in the back row and the tarts in front of them trying to gain their attention. [tarts /tärts/ : people who crave attention from others, since they are so miserable with their own life] The tarts are actually cheerleaders, they were wearing clothes that can be easily mistaken for a bandana and underwear. 

The jocks at our school are stereotypical, they play either football or soccer, and they treat anyone they think to be unworthy of them horribly. I am, thank God, not treated badly, actually I'm not treated at all. They ignore me, like I'm invisible, if I knock in to someone they glare at me but brush it off, I'm not hit, I'm not verbally abused by them; the reason as to why, is unclear to me, but I'm not complaining.

The tarts are another story, they abuse anyone and everyone, me included this time. They can't do much to me because I'm trained to fight. No, I'm not some undercover MMA fighter, or a masked vigilante; I took karate for ten years because my dad had a love for it so he shared that love with me. I actually never liked it, in fact I hated it, it always made me uncomfortable due to there being another guy there my age. When the tarts try to hit me I block it, I don't retaliate because I have no desire for them to get the jocks to put me on their hit list. They usually get really mad at me and just start to verbally attack me because I can't really make them be quiet without touching them, so I just walk away ignoring them. Very rarely do they hit a nerve, and when they do they are completely unaware due to the lack of emotion in my face, or my body giving away any secrets.

Usually the football players sit in the back row, and the soccer players more towards the center, and the tarts right in-between. I'd have to say I've always loved soccer, though every time I try, I fail, miserably; I just it's funny for an over looker to see, but for me it's actually very painful. I've always wanted to be good at something nonacademic, like a sport or something physical; I guess in away I'm good at karate, I've done it since I was seven and I just recently stopped over the summer because I wanted a release, and karate was not it. So now to relax when I'm stressed, is run, and I don't mean run like those people who do mini marathons to calm down; I mean run to feel the wind blowing on your face, to feel the leaves crunch under your feet as you enter the forest, the smear of colors that just fly past you. Until you find a perfect tree to climb and sit there, smelling the fresh scent, observing the way animals interact without humans present, the way the water falls from the waterfall in to the perfectly nice looking lake; the serenity unlike another place.

As I sit there observing the class, watching the cheerleaders try to seduce the football and soccer players, the jocks pretending they were interested, the nerds organizing their desk so everything sits properly on top of it, and the kiss-butts sitting up straight with their hands folded on top the desk with a smile graced on their faces waiting for the teacher to show up. 

"Hello class, today is your first day of your last year of high school! Congrats on surviving so far, but you still got another year so you're almost there." Our math teacher greets us while walking through the door. 

The rest of the period went by uneventfully as Mr. Cloks, the teacher, went over the synopsis for the year and did nothing more. The same happened in english with Mrs. Mally, spanish with Señor Vega, science with Mrs. Callie, history with Mr. Halk, creative writing with Mrs. Mally (again), and criminal law with Mr. Vila. Lunch was my only class where the teacher did speak excessively about something only they themselves cared about. 

I had lunch with Charlie, thank God, if I did not I would have had to skip lunch and go straight to the library, as I have a fear of sitting by myself, thinking everyone's staring at me. I went on the lunch line to get my lunch because I never have time in the morning to make anything, so at school I just get a salad and bag of peanut M&M's. I walk to the table in which I see Charlie sitting with her bagged lunch talking to another nice girl, Ryan. We were all friends, over the years of Ryan being our friend she can understand Croatian, but she can not speak it fluently just yet, however she can speak enough for all of us to have a normal conversation. Once in a while Ryan messes up words or asks us what a word is, but nevertheless we all speak it so no one can eavesdrop on us; and sometimes Ryan will speak spanish because that's her fluent language, both me and Charlie understand some, but we struggle talking in it. So usually we will speak Croatian and every once in a while we speak spanish because, why not?

"Kako je vaša jutarnja nastava [how was your morning classes]," Charlie asks us as I sit down.

"To je u redu, moji učitelji upravo razgovarali o tome što ćemo raditi ove godine, nije puno ostalo [It was okay, my teachers just talked about what we will be doing this year, not much else]," Ryan told us, she was the nerd of our group she would help us if we didn't understand something. She was bullied by both the jocks and cheerleaders, the jocks push her around a bit, but they didn't raise a hand to hit her, they do not hit or kick girls but they do push, trip, and slap books out of hands. The cheerleaders are another story, they hit, slap, kick and everything in-between, they hold no mercy towards anything but the jocks and their own kind. I would stand up for anyone if I saw something happening, but because the people I help don't know my name they just walk away with their head down not even bothering to mumble a 'Thank you' or something.

"Moj dan je bio isti [My day was the same]," I reply in a tone matching my attitude, bored. 

The cafeteria quieted down to watch the jocks and tarts walk in together, people have done this since freshman year and every year the jocks and tarts bask in the attention they receive. Today is the first day, so today they are really going to make an entrance. The cheerleaders come in running doing flips and cartwheels, the football players come in first acting like they own the place, and the soccer players come last, some holding a soccer ball, some dribbling it. 

"Allll right! Today is the day, the day you won't forget, the day you get to ask your sweet heart, to the ball dance!" The cheerleaders began to cheer in the middle of the cafe as the jocks hand out a flyer, well not exactly "hand out" more like throwing a handful of papers in a general area of people making the paper fly everywhere. A paper landed near Ryan and she got up to go receive it, when she brought it back she had a huge smile spread across her face.

"Sveti Nuggets! To je masquerade loptu, a ja sam prisiljavajući vas oboje da ide sa mnom, čak i ako moram povući ste udaranje i vrištanje, *cough cough* Artemis *cough cough* [Holy nuggets! It's a masquerade ball, and I'm forcing both of you to go with me even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming, *cough cough* Artemis *cough cough*]" Ryan exclaims to us from across the table, she loves mystery it's her favorite, well I guess - I mean it's mine too, but she likes art of mystery, the essence of not knowing; I like mystery in the sense of figuring it out, I love the details and little things that help you solve the mystery. I look around to see what other people's reactions were to this idea; every year we have a "New [school] Year Dance", and every year everybody goes, it's almost like a tradition. Everybody else was excited, jumping, texting, and calling people up on the phone; probably already ordering a dress they've set aside since last year's dance. 

"Tko je rekao da ćeš me morati povući? Volim masquerade lopte, ali ja ću vam pomoći povući Little Miss touch-me-li-umrijeti za nju kupiti, joj-umrijeti-za princeza prerušiti ona je uvijek htjela. [Who said you'd have to drag me? I love masquerade balls, but I will help you drag little miss touch-me-you-die to buy her, her to-die-for princess dress she's always wanted.]" Charlie says smirking at me knowing that I've always wanted to wear a princess dress, and that this ball was my perfect chance. I accept my defeat with my head hanging low, I do not like to shop, I do not hate it because I actually love online shopping but I do hate going to malls for anything more than getting food.

"Ako sam se nositi haljinu princeza, neću se žaliti! Dokle god je to pastelne boje ne zanima me, ali ja želim podići svoju masku van. [If I get to wear a princess dress, I won't complain! As long as it's a pastel color I don't care, but I want to pick my mask out.]" I state, but I only wanted to pick out my mask because as long as they stick to a pastel colored dress I already have found the perfect mask, like two weeks ago; because I got side tracked on Pinterest and ended up looking at masquerade masks and fell in love with this white one that had some glitter and two or three large fluffy feathers. 

"Kada je lopta? [When is the ball?]" Charlie asks with curiosity clearly etched on her face.

"Pa danas je Srijeda, zašto godine krenuti u školu u sredini tjedna; to je tako nevjerojatno slučajna, ali to je osim točke. Ples je u petak, ali imamo i pol dana u petak, jer je to prvi tjedan! [Well today is Wednesday, why does the school year start in the middle of the week; that's so incredibly random, but that's besides the point. The dance is on Friday, but we also have a half day on Friday since it's the first week!]" Ryan exclaims attracting the attention from a few surrounding tables, they just looked at her like she escaped from an asylum. Not many people at this school can speak Croatian, besides the three of us, there's Charlie's brother, Carson. He's a sophomore, not horrible looking, I mean he has floppy brown hair, and piercing green eyes, just like his sister's. As for the other people who speak Croatian, there's Hunter, he's a soccer jock; Gabe, another soccer jock; Davina, a quiet girl who is also fluent in like ten other languages; and Ryder, who is a football jock, but also on the honor roll, so kudos to him.

"I'll talk to you guys later, we will go shopping after school!" I exclaim, while walking out of the cafeteria seeing as lunch as almost over and I had to continue my afternoon classes.

Author's Note

i have crossed out some stuff that i originally typed and then re typed a new sentence in a new color. please feel free to make comments about anything on the page, that’s why i put everything there; and just to tell you in case you were wondering the red is the first time i read it and edited it, the purple is the edits i made the second time i went over that