Another excerpt from "Forgotten

*okay, so this excerpt is from chapter 2, and takes place about a year after the latest scene from this book. enjoy :)*

Annie

High school. I don’t think I had ever been more excited for something. I was fourteen and getting ready for my first day at a new school with new people. What was there to not love about it? And Jessie would be with me, so I was confident of being perfectly content.

I opened a few messy drawers before finding my favorite shirt and tugged it out of the other balled up clothes, then ripped a pair of jeans off a hangar in the closet and threw them both on. I took a deep breath, then turned to my chair by the mirror and prepared to apply my make-up. I had only just started to use eyeliner and lip gloss, so I felt adventurous, daring, and like a new person. I smiled at my appearance in the mirror and felt satisfied with myself.

Glancing at the clock, I realized I was going to be late for the bus if I didn’t hurry. I skipped breakfast, quickly brushed my teeth, grabbed my book bag and then ran down the stairs. I paused in the hallway for a moment and looked around me. Both of my parents had already left for work, and the house felt empty and lonely. My mom had gone back to work about five years ago, and whatever little time she had devoted to me previously had decreased drastically. I had grown accustomed to leaving the house empty and coming back to it empty, but there was always that twinge of sadness and isolation. I allowed myself one quick sigh, and then rushed out the door to wait for the bus, feeling my spirits rise considerably. I couldn’t wait to see Jessie and ask what she thought of my outfit. I knew she would just say I looked nice whether she thought so or not.

As the bus pulled up, I dashed in, grabbed a window seat, and tossed my bag next to me to save a seat for Jess. I smiled brightly at the groggy students around me, who all merely stared sleepily back at me. I tapped my feet and hummed a song as I waited for the bus to reach Jessie’s block and see her timid face peer through the yellow doors.

Jessie

High school. Nothing in the world scared me more. New people all around me, new surroundings to grow accustomed to, and more explaining to do when people asked about my mom. I was not looking forward to the next four years. The only good thing was that I would have Annie. But I could see the writing on the wall already. Annie would become wildly popular, and I would be the quiet friend who would be whispered about, and everyone would wonder why Annie liked me. No one would be mean, but the only friendliness I would encounter would be from those who pitied me because of my lack of a mother, or from those who were nice so as to get on Annie’s good side. Of course, I would make a few friends. But they would be the acquaintance type of friends who forget about you after a year or so.

I sighed as I meticulously peered through my tidy drawers for an outfit to wear. After finding a satisfactory shirt, sweater, and jeans, I made sure to close all of my drawers and replace the hangars back in the closet. I applied some chapstick, shook my head at my appearance, then ate my oatmeal, brushed my teeth, and checked my bag for everything I needed. I always made sure I had a spare pencil, pen, notebook, etc., because I knew Annie was likely to forget one of them. I walked into my dad’s home office to kiss him goodbye and wish him luck with work.

“Do you need a ride, Jessica?” he asked out of habit, not even looking up from his computer.

“No, I’m gonna ride the bus with Annie,” I replied, staring at my feet and fingering the dark wood of his desk. My dad nodded absentmindedly. I looked up at him and noticed for the millionth time since my mom had left how tired, lonely, and sad he looked. Multiple gray hairs streaked his naturally brown head, and his face looked aged and worn; he still wore his wedding ring. I glanced around me at the numerous pictures that lined the walls of my dad and my mom, my dad and me, my mom and me, all three of us together; in all of them we were smiling and happy. My throat tightened as I imagined what my dad would have been like if my mom was still here. For one thing, he would smile. For another, the pictures on his walls wouldn’t stop when I reached three. My dad and I sighed simultaneously as if we were thinking about the same thing. I knew it was the only thing my dad ever thought about. I swallowed hard, kissed my dad goodbye, and then walked out the door with a few minutes to spare before the bus came.

Closing my eyes, I recited a few lines of my favorite poem, “Wreck of the Hesperus”: “Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,/Her cheeks like the dawn of day,/And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,/That ope in the month of May.” Whenever asked why such a sad poem was my favorite, I always said that I liked to imagine myself as the skipper’s unfortunate daughter who was killed in the Wreck, as twisted and strange as that may sound. In fact, I even convinced myself that the blue of my eyes were as blue as “fairy-flax.” But I think the real reason was that my life, however sad it is, could never be as sad as the result of that poem and I found comfort in that.

Before long, the big, yellow bus came rolling along, and I climbed in. Annie was sitting there with a deliriously happy grin on her face, and patted the seat next to her. I sat there, and told her that she looked nice before she even asked.

She laughed and said, “Jess, you are a crazy kid.”