Chapter Four

When I look back on how fearful I was when I first came here, how certain I was that I wouldn't fit in, wouldn't make friends, wouldn't make the grade, I can only be grateful for the way things are turning out. Maybe I have a guardian angel. Maybe it's Grams.

As my high school career progressed, I actually found myself becoming fairly popular. That's a thing I never thought I'd be. The boys began taking notice of me in a way that makes me feel a little fluttery inside.

 I'm never at a loss for something to do after school these days. If I'm not invited to go home with a friend after school, then I bring somebody home with me. We always make sure we do our homework, so we never get the parental lecture about prioritizing, and how too much TV will rot our brains. Of course, at my house there's no parent to give a lecture.

Mortimer Goth shares my love of horror movies, and one weekend we found a Final Destination marathon on TV. He's one of the cutest boys in school, and there was more than one jealous look directed at me on the bus. We rotted our brains away quite happily, with a side order of popcorn and gore. Mortimer favors the clothesline in the bathtub death scene, but I'm torn between the one in the dentist's office with the kamikaze pigeon and rubber sushi, and the one in the hardware store.


The boy who makes me flutter the most is Demarko Myrick. The way he smiles at me, it feels like somebody pulled all the bones right out of my legs. I don't think his mother likes me, though. She hates art and, by extension, artists.

Don't get the idea I'm the perfect fairy tale princess, though. I've done some stupid things. I went to a Llamas home game with Lisa, Davy, and a couple of kids I didn't know very well. It was a night game and went way past curfew. They ran us out of the stadium, and the police escorted me home and gave me a warning. It was pretty embarrassing, and not a little scary. 














The next morning I could hardly wake up, and I hadn't even finished my homework. I guess I'm not always as grown up and self reliant as I think.








Overall, I've done well. As graduation day looms closer, I have some soul searching to do. Most of my friends are going to go out and get jobs, or turn the part time jobs they already have into a real career. Through living frugally, I still have a lot of my inheritance, meager though it is by other people's standards. But I have no income.

The school counselors would have me believe that if I don't want to be a total failure, I'll go out and get a job like everybody else. But everytime I think about taking that path, I feel my throat close up.

All I've ever wanted is to be a real artist. Make my living from it, even have a gallery of my very own some day. I ask myself what Grams would advise me. I think she'd want me to be smart, so I wouldn't end up begging on the streets. But when I hear her voice in my head, I hear her telling me to believe in myself and follow my dreams. Well, that sounds like a contradiction to me. Which advice should I follow? How do I know what's the best thing to do? Oh, Grams, how I wish you could come to me now, and tell me what to do.

author's note: Avi gave me fits on this chapter. For one thing, it was harder than it should have been to get the screenshots I wanted. The first pic I posted was the last one I took, and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to get all those kids together and doing what I wanted them to do. To make matters worse, it was a weekday, and it all had to be done after school, before their jobs, and before it got dark. I had her throw a party thinking that would be the most expedient way to get them all there, but nobody even showed up for the first hour and a half. I felt so sorry for the poor girl.

Then she had to go and get caught by the cops. Not falling in with my plans for her. I only let her go to the game becuase she rolled a wish to do so. I guess it's my fault, then. :) 

The last thing I had her do before going home to bed was to collect some rocks that had materialized right across the street from her house. At practically the same instant that I clicked for her to go home, the cops showed up again and picked her up for another curfew violation. Good thing they're not keeping count. Remember, they were right in front of her house the whole time. They put her in the police car, made a U-turn in the street, and made her get out again. LOL. (One of the rocks was a diamond! It will show up in the next chapter.)

Oh, yeah ... and her orange and white outfit is on the exchange if anybody wants it. It's not cc, just a recolor with a modified pattern.