Beautiful- Chapter 8

I ran to the door, irritated as ever. I mean, you'd swear the kid got a hint, but calling me and then on top of it,  following me to my house?; I was livid! I angrily opened the door, ready to argue once again, but then I saw who it was; my dad.

"Hey kiddo. What's wrong with you?" My dad leaned against the door frame with a suspicious look on his face. I took a deep breath and tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for the mood that I was in besides telling him, "Yeah, I snuck out with this ex- druggie after school and we went to the park and I almost kissed him and then his girlfriend called and I spazzed out and then I stomped home and he called me and so I'm pissed." So I put on a more innocent face and said, "Oh, you know how those animal abuse ads get me. I'm just so angry at the... ill-treatment of that poor cat named... named uh, oh! Sally."My dad chuckled and shook his head. "Well, hun, get some sleep. Did you have dinner?" 
"No, but I kinda lost my appetite, so if anything, I'll make some toast." I smiled at my dad and he did his little "If you need anything, call me" speech before he got back into his cop car and sped down the road.

I locked back the door, ironed my clothes, took a long shower and went straight into my bed. Granted I lay there for a good hour before I actually fell asleep, thinking about what I was going to do tomorrow. I finally decided that he and I started too fast and that maybe we need to abolish those feeling that we created that night and just continue being friends, just like how we said we were going to be on the play set. Friends. Yep, that's just what we were going to be. The reality hurt, but in the end, I fell asleep and dreamed of us, holding hands the way we were and staring into a star dotted sky. It was obvious to me that "friendship" was going to be a little harder to acknowledge.

***

The next day Van came to my house early, waking me up actually. My mom wasn't there, so she either had a really long night or she left home early as well. I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door. There was Van, but this time she dragged in a mutt; Tony.

"What the heck, Van. You had to bring this loser to my house?" I grumbled. Tony walked in and gave me a cup of Starbucks coffee.

"Well, good morning to you, too. Van told me that you liked Starbucks, so on my way over to her house this morning, I stopped in and got everyone a cup." Then he winked at me and dropped his arrogant behind into one of our leather couches. I was honestly too tired to care.

"Okay, Kat. Come with me; I've gotta tell you something!" I then noticed that Van seemed a little brighter that morning. Instead of black eye shadow, she had a really nice green that complemented her green eyes. Then instead of her black studded combat boots, she was wearing a pair of blue converse. She was also wearing a pair of green skinny jeans and a white t-shirt with black writing that said "I <3 my BF :)." It was so disgusting how cute she looked. Before I could ask her why she was so... different this morning, she screamed "TONY ASKED ME OUT TO THE SCHOOL DANCE. AHHHHHH!!!!!" I stood there and cringed because hearing a teenage girl scream at the top of her lungs when you're half asleep is like getting teeth pulled without pain blockers; not cool. She started to go on and on about how he took her here and there and then gave her this and said that and then she said yes and blah. Blah. Blah. In the time that it took her to finish telling me this story, I had already put on my clothes, brushed my teeth and packed my bag for school. My phone beeped, so I took a quick glance and it read "9 messages from: Brey." I sighed, but took a look at the last one he sent which said, "Katrina, please at least meet me on the Grannel Street by the big Oak tree. I bought you something." I stared at it for a while and then replied with one word; "Fine." 

I had hardly remembered that Van was right behind me, talking about something, until she asked, "Isn't that great, Kat!" She gave me a big hug. "Oh, yeah, sure. Fantastic." Then she put on her usual big grin and held my hand like we were little second graders. Tony was now in my kitchen eating poptarts. "Okay, so are the girls ready?" I ignored him and pulled my backpack over my left shoulder and started putting on my purple and white zebra converse. Van opened the door and that's when I saw her outfit again.

"Van; is there any reason why you're dressed like a daffodil today? I mean, what happened?" She laughed and looked down at her outfit. Tony wrapped his arm around her waist and took a bite out of his Poptart.
"She's hot, uh?" He nearly choked on his crumbs as he said it. Van pat him on the back and walked up to me as I got up. She whispered in my ear, saying "Well, I wanted to look extra pretty for Tony today, so I said 'What The Heck!' let's try a new look Vanessa."

I was just turning around to lock the door and I almost dropped the keys. Within a matter of seconds, I grabbed Van, opened the door, dragged her in and rand behind her and locked Tony out. She looked at me like I was crazy. "What did you just call yourself?" I was so confused. I mean, was Tony drugging her or something, trying to now change her into a... a monster?
"Vanessa..." She sat down on the couch chair arm. I heard Tony bang on the door, upset that we were leaving him out.
"Van, what's gotten into you. I mean, in a matter of days you've changed. To be honest, I miss you the way you were before Tony." She got up, looking offended. Then she smirked and got close to me.
"I think you're jealous that you don't have Tony. Maybe he was right all along." I was confused.
"Right about what?" She shook her head.
"Tony tells me that you were madly in love with him and that you were always slipping love notes into his locker and trying to get with him, but when he chose me over you, you flipped out." I laughed, astonished at how big of a lie that was.
"Get out, 'Vanessa.'" I opened the door. She smirked.
"Yep he was right. I can't believe you. I thought you were my best fri-"
"Van, I rejected him, okay? He was obsessed with me and when I finally put him down he ran after you out of spite, so just leave it alone." I ran out the door and that's when I got the flashback...

***

I was back in the school gym and there was this eerie feeling that I wasn't alone. Just then I saw a figure sitting on one of the school bleachers, fiddling through their backpack after a basketball practice. As I got closer, I made out a girl; Katrina. I gasped and stood as still as ever. I walked a little closer, when the gymnasium door opened and Tony, about a year younger than he was now, ran in and sat down right next to me. Not the me that was watching all of this, but the other one. I sat quietly and listened in on their conversation;

"Hey Kitty-Kat Trina" Tony laughed at put his arm around my neck.

"What do you want, Tony. I'm getting ready to go home." He looked at me and kissed me, right there without asking questions or anything. I got up and wiped my mouth. My eyes started to fill with hot tears, tears of anger. 

"Why, Tony!" I got up and ran out of the gym. Myself now, I got up from my hiding spot and looked hard at Tony. He yelled my name, but then threw himself down on the bleachers and sat there, rubbing the back of his head, obviously disappointed in himself, but I didn't really care. I ran at him and slapped him as hard as I could, but then he disappeared and I was back on my street, my hand stinging and hot with pain.

***

Van ran off with Tony back to her house to go ice his face since I apparently slapped him extremely hard. She started crying and screaming at me, telling me that we were done being best friends and that I was a horrible person. I felt really bad, surprisingly. Usually I feel like justice was finally served and that I was on top, but this time it cost me my best friend and I didn't know what to do. 

I didn't realize how long I was just there, standing outside my house, staring down the road that Van and Tony went down. I didn't realize until I saw Brey walking up the same road.



STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!


Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 7

"Pistachio is so disgusting. I don't even get why someone would even think of creating it far less eating it." I looked at Brey with disgust as he took a big lick of his Strawberry-Pistachio ice cream combination. "It tastes amazing, by the way. It's not my fault your so simple; Chocolate and Vanilla. So exciting!" He waved his hands sarcastically and his ice cream nearly fell off the cone. "Woah, that would have been depressing..."

We made our way to the park swings and sat down, swaying like five year olds. We were the only people at the park so late and the ice cream trolley had left right after his last customers; us. We sat there quietly at first, eating our desert and looking up into the sky. "Did you see the big dipper tonight. It's right there, see?" Brey was pointing up into the sky at a cluster of stars. "Don't even try to explain those things to me; I can never see them." He laughed and resumed eating his "Disgrace on a Cone" as I like to call it. We sat on the swings until the ice cream started to melt and make our fingers sticky. We promptly threw them away and watched our hands in the water faucet. On our way back to the swings, Brey ran and sat on top of the shaded play structure.

"What are you doing?" I called.
" What are you doing? Come up here with me!" I hesitated, but ran up anyways. "It's getting kinda late so-"
"Just 15 more minutes is cool?" I thought about it and eventually gave in. We sat down, crossing our legs and resting our backs on the play structure walls. "So I told you quite a lot about me; tell me about you."
"Well, where do I start? My dad's a cop, my mom runs her own spa company called "Lowell's Luxury Spa." I  gave the name a little spark when I said it to make it seem more special than it actually was. Brey looked deep into my eyes.
"But tell me about Katrina, herself. For instance, whose your best friend?"
"Van; she hates when you call her Vanessa, so don't. Anyhow, yep I love her and I hate her boyfriend. He's just a jerk and I feel he's really shady, you know. It can't be a coincidence that after I turned him down, he runs after my best friend, don't you think?"
Brey thought about it; "Does Van know?" I shook my head.
"I didn't have the heart to tell her, I mean, he seems as though he likes her, so maybe I'm just paranoid or something..." I shrugged and looked into Brey's eyes, noticing again how brilliantly dark brown they were. As if thinking the same thing, Brey said "I love your eyes, by the way. They're really pretty." I smiled;
"Thanks, yours to."

So after that awkward moment, Brey starts talking about sports and all sorts of things, but I zoned out. At this point I realized how much I liked him, and it was terrible. Usually I don't leap at guys so suddenly, but something about him. Was it his eyes, his talent, his honesty? Whatever it was, it was attacking my "hard core" heart more than anything. I zoned back into the conversation when he said, "You know, you're pretty cool, Kat. I can tell we'll be really good friends out here." I smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear, trying to not look disappointed at his "friends" comment. Unfortunately I guess it shined through anyway.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just the ice cream working its magic in my lactose intolerant stomach." I chuckled making it seem casual. Just then, Brey got up and held out his hand. I looked up at him as he gave me a semi-shy smile. "Come on. Let me try and show you a couple more constellations before you have to get home." I grabbed his hand and lifted myself up. To my surprise he didn't let go; we walked hand in hand to the middle of the park field where we stood, looking into the star-dotted sky.

"You see that one there, that one's a bear, and that's this Greek dude's belt, they say. Oh, and the big dipper is still there. You see? The North star and then if you follow that-"
"How do you know so much about these things?" He dropped his gaze down from the sky and cleared his throat.
"Well, my dad used to take me somewhere out into the wilderness every Saturday night. We'd set up camp, roast marshmallows, make hot dogs on sticks, you know; the traditional american father-son duo activities. I remember when I was about four or five him just spending hours showing me the stars and telling their stories 'til I fell asleep. It's the only thing I truly hold close about my dad; the only thing I don't hate." Then he smiled at me and I smiled back, feeling safe in the night's cool air, with my hands nestled into his. The next thing I knew, he was bending down, his face getting closer to mine. I didn't quite know what to expect, so I just went with the flow, closing my eyes until he finally did kiss me, but he didn't. Instead, the sound of the Mario Brothers theme song sounded in the dark, quiet night; Brey's ring tone. I opened my eyes as he cursed under his breath. Then he held his head, uttering to himself, "ugh, it's Danielle." Just then, I remembered that Brey had a girlfriend back up in Michigan. I felt so bad; a mixture of guilt, misfortune, and, quite frankly, a little hurt. Brey trailed off a little, rubbing the back of his head. I felt the hot tears of the overwhelming situation fill my eyes as I stood there.

"Yeah, hey babe. It's cool, yeah... Yeah, I miss you too... I don't know when I'm coming back down, hopefully soon... yeah, hey listen, my mom's calling me to do the dishes, but I'll call you back right after. Okay, no prob... Love you too." Brey clicked off the phone and turned back to me. By then my fists were balled and my anger started to swell up in me; a feeling I knew too well. Brey saw it and came towards me.
"Hey, look, I'm really sor-"
"Oh, so you're sorry? Okay, so that makes everything okay? You can't just come up here and play with my feelings, Brey. I honestly don't even know why I came up here with you; after all, it seems like I don't even know you." I started off, but Brey followed me, turning me around."
" Katrina, look, I really like you. I just, you know, my girl and I are sorta... dysfunctional and then you came along and- and I don't know. You made me feel..."
"Important?" I cut him off mid sentence, swiping his hand off of my shoulder. "Cared about? Accepted? Well so did I but one thing that I demand more than all of that is respect, Brey." I stormed off, wiping away the tears that had poured down my face. How could I have been so stupid?
"Katrina, can I at least walk you home?" I turned around for the last time.
"No Brey, I'm quite capable of making it home BY MYSELF. In fact, I don't even think you and I should continue being friends. Maybe that'll be good for me, you and Danielle."

***

As I got down to my home stretch, I felt beaten up and tired, and to top it off, neither my mom's nor my dad's car was in the driveway, meaning no cooked food, no ironed clothes, no nothing. Back to manual work, and on all nights, this one. Terrific. 

My cell phone ringed and I saw that it was Van. I picked up, expecting to hear something about Tony or someone stupid like that. 

"Hello Van. How can I help you?" I answered in a grumbled tone.

"You were supposed to come over tonight, but instead I heard you trailed off to the park with lover boy."

"Lover boy? Not at all Van..."

"Oh, really? Hahaha, come on.You're in love with this kid. And it's sorta obvious he cant keep his eyes off of you, either."

"One would think," I replied, remembering the events of that night. Just then I got another call, this time from Brey. I didn't remember giving him my phone number, but then again, I didn't remember a lot of things about the night. "Hey Van, I'll talk to you tomorrow." I quickly answered my other call on the line. "What do you want?"

"I wan't to apologize to you, Kat. I really hurt you tonight and I hate myself for it." I laughed within myself. 

"Good; you should feel bad. And anyways, I don't care, let's just drop it. Now, unfortunately, I will see you tomorrow, Kay?"

"Katrina, wait. I want to see you tonight, tell you in person how sorry I am." I looked around the room, uncertain of what to say. "Brey, talk to me tomorrow. I don't really feel like seeing anyone tonight."

"Too late..." Just then the line went silent and the doorbell rang.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

OMG, BREY!

Okay, now I know that a lot of you have read "Beautiful- Chapter 6" that was finally posted yesterday. I also know that the confession made by Brey is a very surprising one, but don't be alarmed.

Look, while I would love to explain this to you now, I can't; I'm holding it off for a mass character/author "interview" post that will come up at the end of the story, but what I can tell you is that this story is not... it's not fully in it's right mind.

I had Writer's Block for quite a while before getting around to writing this, so many parts of this chapter were spur of the moment thoughts and whatnot. However, everything that had to do with Brey and his situation were not; they were very well thought out and placed in this chapter at that given time...for a reason of which I can't explain until later.

Well I just hopped on the computer and wrote this out because I saw how many of you had read the post and I just wanted to make what might have seemed like a blur slightly clearer; but yeah, don't be concerned. Just stay tuned :)

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 6

"Why would you get yourself in trouble like that" I said to Brey, laughing.
"Just to make my life a little more interesting, I guess."
We were now in the Admin. Office waiting for Margret to finish talking with Jenny's crew. My hair was dripping wet since I had to shower in the locker room to get all the different lunch items out of my hair and other nooks and crannies it got into. There was a full on food fight in the cafeteria. Brey and I threw noodles, sandwiches, juice, crackers, cookies, you name it. If you ask me, we defeated all of them. Now, Jenny was crying because she broke a few nails and I had made sure that I destroyed her bleached and permed hair with some grape juice and mustard. Her boyfriend and Brey had a fight of their own, of which Brey incurred some of the "war wounds", if you will. He, also had to shower. I don't know, but in the midst of that fight, when we were covered in chocolate and mystery meat, we looked into each others eyes and I felt something. But who am I kidding; I'm a bad girl, and we NEVER get the guy in these sort of stories. Anyhow, Jenny's crew started to lead out of the office and Margret came to the door with a look worse than anything I've ever seen before. She was so upset that she just ushered us in with a stiff pull of her index finger; we got up and ran in.
"Hey Maggie. What's up?" I said in as casual a tone as I could manage. She closed back the door and walked around the desk to her chair, scraping her red-painted fingernail on the desk on the way there. When she finally sat down, she gave us both a stern look. That's when I remembered about Brey. How bad would that be for him to get detention on his first day?
"Margret, before we start, I want you to know that Brey had nothing to do with it." He looked over at me, shrugging in silence. I just shook my head to let him know that it was okay, that I was gonna handle it myself.
Margret, on the other hand, was just sitting there, no emotion on her face. Then she slowly brought out a dry erase board from her desk. She erased the remainder of what was on it and started to jot something down. Then she turned it around and showed us. It said "explain." I opened my mouth to start, but then Brey started talking.
"Yeah, Mrs., umm, I started it, actually. Well, not really. After Jenny and her Boyfriend threw food on Katrina, I got up and threw water on him. Katrina only joined in because I told her to, but it definitely wasn't her fault."
Margret got up from the behind her desk and opened the door.
"Since I don't know exactly who did what, you guys will be cleaning the cafeteria after school. Now leave my office."
"But-" I started.
"Katrina; I hope to see you at six."
"But school ends at 4," Brey said, looking at his watch.
"Yeah, but I don't think that these two groups can responsibly clean at the same time. Jenny's side will go first and then you guys." We walked out of the office and while I didn't really get in that much trouble, I was really bummed. Besides that, I was going to have to be in a lunchroom for two hours. By myself. With Brey. So many things could go wrong with him spending that much time with me. In fact, I could guarantee that after today, he would never talk to me again. I guess my thoughts were showing on my face because as we walked outside for our open period, he stopped me.
"You okay? I mean, I didn't mean to get you involved like that." He put down his bag on the school steps and we sat down.
"No, trust me, if it wasn't this, I would have done some other type of foolishness today to get myself in trouble, so don't sweat it." We laughed, but then Van started to walk towards me. Just then, I remembered that I had been so involved with the food fight that I never went out to hang with her. She will definitely be suspicious now.
"Hey, Brey. I'll catch you after school, okay?" When I got up to join Van, it was too late. She was right next to me, giving me that look like "So this is Brey..." She glanced over at him and said "hi" in an uneasy tone. I slapped her in her shoulder so she knew to stop it. He waved and after that moment of awkward silence, Van and I walked away. "Katrina... is there something I should kn-"
"No there isn't. I don't even know the guy."
"Yeah? Well you've already gotten in trouble with him. That used to be me up in the office with you, but today it's Brey?" She gave me a funny look. I brushed it off and switched the topic.
"So how's your trouble; oops, I mean Tony. It's all in the same, really," I said, laughing. She shot me a nasty look.
"Katrina, stop. You don't even know him and you're always being negative; just...don't." She seemed really frustrated all of a sudden.
"Now is there something I should know?" She, then, started to cry.
"I think Tony's gonna break up with me." I didn't know what to say, so I just hugged her and told her a bunch of lies, like that he was a great guy and stuff, to console her. Speak about an altogether weird afternoon...

***

After school, Brey came back up behind me when I was in my locker. "Hey, I'm gonna stay here and play some basketball 'til six. You?"
"Nah; I've gotta walk home with Van, but I should be back soon after. So we'll meet up in the gym?" He smiled. "Yupperoo." I gave him a look like "you are so goofy, dude." He ran off around the corner and I walked outside to meet Van who was in the grasps of Tony. Great. While keeping my distance in the interim of Van and Tony's P.D.A, Lucas came up to me. "Hey Kat." He was once again looking uneasy, so I decided to try talking to him again. "Lucas, is there something bothering you?" He seemed uncomfortable, so I  left it alone. "I just came to make sure you weren't walking home alone."
"Why would I be walking alo-" When I turned around to find Van, I saw her heading out of the gates hand in hand with Tony. Boy that guy rubs me the wrong way, but he sure does love her, I've got to say. I just don't get why she feels that he would ever leave her, though. Anyhow, Lucas was still there, but I guess I would have to end up staying until Margret was ready for us, so I let him know and he went on his way. I went into the gym and sat in the bleachers, watching the scrimmage going on between the guys. Brey, surprisingly, was really good; he was dunking and making half-court shots and everything. He saw me watching him and gave me a quick thumbs up. I shot some thumbs up right back to him. Just then, my phone rang. When I answered, I saw that it was Tony. "How did you get my phone number?"
"Vanessa. Anyhow, we need to talk." I was extremely confused but peeved at the same time.
"Look, I don't want anything to do with you, so you've got two seconds to explain. Go."
"I, uh, wan't to ask Van out to the dance, but I don't know how to do it or where to do it, so I wanted us to get together and figure it out."
"Tony. First of all, you two have been together for two months now; you don't need to ask her to ANYTHING; she is permanently your date to things, and besides that, it's your job as her boyfriend to figure this out by yourself. Goodbye now." I hung up on him before he could respond. Why were those two acting so weird, and why was Tony calling me over nothing. Very suspicious, those guys. Anyhow, the scrimmage had ended and the boys had all left for home. Brey came up the bleachers and sat down next to me. I moved my bag from by my feet so that he could put down his basketball.
"You're really good. You should join." He shrugged.
"I've gotta choose between this, soccer, and football for next term."
"You play all of that; wow." He laughed. "Yeah. I'm sorta a huge sports dude." I smiled. There's something about this guy...

***

Six came around a lot quicker than I thought it would. I never thought I'd ever see Jenny doing any manual labor, but she was there, her hair up in a tight pony tail, some baggy sweatpants, a dark blue Victoria Secret tank top, and some yellow gloves. Brey and I had changed, too. I was wearing some jean shorts and a white tank top with a long sleeve, grey plaid shirt jack on top; looking very tom-boyish. Brey was wearing some b-ball shorts and a Lakers t-shirt. Margret lead them out of the cafeteria after what seemed like another lecture. We walked in, picked up sponges and mops and started cleaning. Margret came by our side of the room. "Katrina, you should know better than to get into these sorts of things; and Brey, we both know about what happened at your old school. Let's work on not making that happen again, okay?" I looked over at Brey. Something happened at his old school? That Margret knows about? That's interesting. We scrubbed in silence for about half hour when I decided to go help Brey out with the walls. I brought over my bucket and hand towel and started working. He then, playfully, started blocking my strokes; we chuckled. Then I remembered something. "Hey, I meant to say thanks earlier today for covering me in the office. You know you didn't have to." 

"And let you get in trouble after being so nice to me? No way. Besides, I was in the wrong, so I deserved some of the punishment, too."

"What happened in Michigan?" I just had to know. The smile on his face sort of disappeared. I didn't talk anymore, just in case that was a sore spot of his. After a few minutes, he responded. "Yeah, um. I got myself into a lot of trouble over there for a lot of things. That's why I moved here. In fact... I nearly died because of my actions." I looked up at him. "What happened." We walked towards a clean table and sat down. "My dad left my mom and I three years ago. It broke her up pretty bad, but it didn't hurt anyone as much as it hurt me. I mean, he was my best friend." I looked up at him. His eyes were focused on his water bottle that he was twisting in his hand. "I... I chose to hang out with a really bad crowd that introduced me into drugs and a lot of bad things." I couldn't believe what he was telling me. "...and those bad decisions lead me to nearly overdosing a couple months back."

"You're okay now, right?" He looked up at me and smiled.

"Yeah, my mom helped me out a lot, getting me into some sports like basketball, and taking me to group sessions. I feel a lot better about things now, but I just wanted to start over, ya know." I nodded, but I was really disturbed by what he had told me. How could someone like him do all of that? But it goes to show because I hadn't even known him for an entire day yet. Somehow, in what he told me, I felt like I could trust him. It's not every day that people are willing to open up to me like that, so maybe he had put his trust in me also. Anyhow, we got up and finished off the cafeteria a little later than expected. The janitor came, inspected, and closed up after us. I hung my backpack over my shoulder and prepared to walk home when Brey stopped me. "You going home?" 

"Yeah. Why?"

" I was thinking that maybe we could go to that park down the street. I know they sell some late night ice cream." I thought about it. I mean, nobody was home, anyways, and I definitely didn't want to walk home alone. 

"Come on. It'll be my treat." I reluctantly walked over by the gate and placed my bag on the ground. "Let's go."

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell

Lost at Sea

So I originally was going to write that chapter story for my teacher, but after I saw how amazing this story was, I've decided to post this instead. I just wrote this story called "Lost at Sea", like two seconds ago and I love it. It is a similar concept to hat I was going to write, but this one is just extremely intense, I guess. Anyhow, before I start rambling, here is Lost at Sea...

As I opened my eyes, everything was a blur; the only thing that I could clearly sense was the siren that was blaring. I rubbed my eyes and found myself in a small room on a bunk of some sort. There were other girls frantically running, one of which pulled on my hand, urging me to follow everyone. 


I was in such a deep state of confusion, but I allowed myself to imagine that all of this that was occurring was real, so I leapt down from the bunk and walked into the hallway. There were so many people in such tight quarters that I started to get claustrophobic. “Where am I?” I asked myself. Pushing through the crowd and confusion, I stopped at a diagram on one of the walls. It said:

The Marine Youth Ship

The Marine Youth Ship (MYS) is our brand new ship for the Oxmond Secondary School’s science program. This voyage will last two months out at sea, where students get hands on experience out here on the deep blue.

            
This was definitely not making sense. What was the “Oxmond Secondary School”, and why was I here on a ship. My thoughts were disturbed by a loud voice. When I listened closer, I noticed that there was someone talking on an intercom. “Hello students; we are experiencing some technical difficulties here at the MYS command centre. All of our forms of navigation have been compromised, and therefore, we seem to be lost at sea. 


Lost at sea. That seemed to be the worst thing that I could ever hear at a time like this, and I wasn’t the only one. Everyone responded in their own way; some started pacing, while others started to cry. Some of them even got angry, starting random fights throughout the crowd. I just knew that I had to get to the bottom of this, and quickly. 


Looking around the hallway, I noticed that there was no way that I was going to be able to get any farther than back to the room that I had come from. I hustled through the people, and when I got back to the room, there was this girl sitting on the floor, writing something. I slowly approached her. Bending down, I asked, “What are you doing?” She looked up at me; “You heard what they said. We’re lost at sea, and they don’t have any way of getting back on track. So, I’m writing a letter to my parents, just in case this all goes downhill. At least they’ll have a few of my last thoughts.” I looked into her eyes. “But don’t you have any hope at all that we’re going to get out of this thing?”
“This isn’t a dream. You can’t just pinch yourself and this just go ‘poof’ and it all disappear.”
“Maybe not,” I replied, “but what I do know is that we can at least see if we can help. I’m Katrina. You are…”
“Lydia.”


I smiled at her, hoping that she’d agree to come help me out. Now, at this point I didn’t have any plan whatsoever, but I was willing to do anything to find out what was going on. She then took me to a map. 


“This is a diagram of the boat. Its command centre is just on the deck below us. If we squeeze our way through, we can get there.” I rolled up the map and we headed out. Things had gotten a little louder since the last time I had made it out there. Everyone seemed anxious to know what progress was made. We even saw some other groups of girls headed in the same direction, probably wanting some answers, too. After about five minutes of pushing and shoving, we got to a stairway. At the very bottom was an iron door, which Lydia had told me was the door to the control centre. There was a green button to the left of the door; when I pressed it, a buzzer sounded and someone came to it. They slid open a little hatch and all that I could see was their eyes. By the look of them, they were as worried as we were.


“Um, hello. I’m Katrina, and this is Lydia. We were wondering if we could help out.” The latch clicked closed and we thought that they had rejected us. Just then, the big wheel on the door started to turn.


“We can use all the help that we could get.” A tall, light skinned man ushered us in and closed back the door. There was a long, oval shaped table in the centre of the room where about 15 people were seated at. It was littered with books, laptops, papers, pens; you name it. It was obvious to me that this problem was bigger than they described it on the intercom.
“So what exactly is happening?” Lydia asked, leaning on the edge of the table.
“Well, we are a little more than lost. We are all in a lot of danger and if we don’t get off this ship now, we way all die.”
“What happened?” My heart started to flutter in my chest to where I felt like it was going to fly away.
“Our engine fuel has leaked and we are afraid that it’s going to burst into flames.”
“So what can you do?”
“Nothing.”


I glanced around the room, not believing what I was hearing. This ship was just minutes away from exploding into flames and they didn’t have any way of saving us? I felt like I was going crazy. Why was I here, and of at times, right before something as fatal as this? My heart dropped, but then I saw the countdown. On a big screen on the far end of the room was a clock that was running backward. When I noticed it, it was at one minute. I looked over at Lydia, who had also seen it.
“So we’ve got one minute left?” Lydia held her head in disbelief. Everyone else in the room started to hold hands.
“No, no, no! This isn’t happening right now.” I couldn’t believe that they were just willing to give up like that.
“There is nothing we can do, Katrina. There’s nothing… nothing at all,” and with that Lydia got on her knees and started to bawl. I glanced over at the clock again. This time, it read 20 seconds; I got down to Lydia’s level. She then shoved a piece of paper in my hands.
“What’s this?” I inquired.
“Go, Katrina. Before it’s too late!”
“Wait, where am I going?” Before I could hear her response, we saw a fiery, orange cloud and in that split second, Lydia pinched me. When I opened my eyes, I was in my bed at home. I had beads of sweat dripping off my brow, and I was clutching the bed sheets. Once I gathered myself, I took a deep breath.


“It was all a dream.” I laughed to myself, at how naïve I was to think that any such events could ever occur. As I got up from my bed, a crumpled piece of paper dropped at my feet. My heart stopped. I stood there, starring at the note. When I finally bent down to get it, I saw a red heart drawn in the corner. Once I fully unraveled it, sure enough underneath the heart was the name Lydia.                                                         


Love Always <3, 
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 5: part three

~Chapter 5~

part three-
Outside Margret's office seemed to be a riot that nobody could explain. There was nearly every student in the office, screaming and chanting. I didn't really get to hear what they were saying, but I'm sure that it wasn't anything nice. I soon saw my mom and dad arrive, and they were... shocked, to say the least. I don't know what my mom expects sometimes. She wants to be this, "Oh, lets get together and work things out in a calm sort of way" type of person when I know that that's not what's going to happen. In fact, since that morning when I saw everyone acting like idiots over Jenny, I knew that something like this was going to happen. Why? Because I'm just logical like that. Anyhow, luckily, my dad's a cop, and therefore INSISTS on walking around in his uniform, so when everyone saw him with his badge and all that, they calmed down and the true chickens ran for their classes. My mom found her way to the office where she gave me a hug and that look that says "this is why you shouldn't be getting yourself in trouble." I rolled my eyes a little, and by the time Margret, my mom, and I got settled into some chairs, the whole issue had blown over. "Well..." I chuckled. I, personally, don't like the fact that my dad's a cop because I know how bad I can be. He knows it, too, so he's always exposing me to this and that and telling stories that always end in, "... so you see why you need to behave, Trina?" But, for whatever reason, at that moment I felt proud that my dad was a cop; whether it's that he cleared the crowd or that he was there to cover my butt when I needed him to. So then, he came in and took a seat while the "Jenny crew," as I like to call them, sat outside until Margret called them in, but I guess Margret wanted to do some discussing or whatever. "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Lowell; I'm glad to see that you guys were able to make it here, craziness and all." She seemed a little riled up by the whole situation, and therefore, started her tapping of the pen. Great.
"Well, yeah, we just want to make sure that Katrina starts learning from her mistakes and taking responsibility for her actions." My dad looked over at me with that serious face that he gives people while he's writing them a ticket or something. "I heard her side of the story last night, and it was very upsetting to me because I didn't know...well, I didn't know how to deal with it, correction wise." I looked over at my mom; were we really having this conversation right now?
"Katrina, what do you think your mom means by this?" I sat there for a while, trying to find the best words to use, when Mr. Leng came in with his notepad and pen. He acknowledged everyone and pulled up a chair. Margret filled him in and then motioned for me to continue. "Well, Um, I was bullied VERY badly when I was younger, and so from a really young age, I didn't feel like I could do anything about it, and so I had a lot of pent-up anger." At that point, Mr. Leng looked over at my parents who were whispering something to each other; "I think that after one incident of 'blowing up,' I haven't recovered. You know, these things still feel like open sores that have never healed, no matter how much I want them to." Margret motioned for me to stop. "Do you remember the incident when you feel like you first broke down?"
"Well yeah, sort of." Mr. Leng then spoke for the first time during the meeting. "Now Mr. and Mrs. Lowell, I think that I've heard enough from Katrina to where I am able to somehow understand why she acts the way that she does. I think that your daughter is having trouble moving on from this painful part of her life. Therefore, now that she's older, these things that are happening to her now remind her of things that happened then, so she seems to be reacting in a protective sort of way, as if protecting that little girl that she was who was being ill-treated." I know that everyone continued to discuss different things during the meeting, but I just felt so removed after what he had just said. I never understood why I was such a rebel sometimes, but I then noticed that I only become this "tough" figure in situations where I'm reminded of the way that I was treated when I was smaller. It just made so much more sense to me, but then the lunch bell rang. Apparently, the meeting with Jenny's crew was postponed until  the next day since the whole drama with everyone in the office took away too much time to fit them in. So, I walked out into the main hallway, on my way to my locker, when Van came up to me. "Jeez, those losers were all up in there like a swarm of bees! What ended up happening?"
"Well, you know, 'Officer Dad' came in with his baton and started beating people with it." We both started laughing. "So, Kat, I'm gonna head to lunch. Want me to save you a seat?" I was trying to avoid telling her about Brey, but I guess I had no choice. "I'm actually going to sit with this new kid today. Seems pretty cool, so-"
"Wait, you're actually being nice to someone. Wow, that's interesting." I nudged her playfully. "Just shout me when you're done eating so we could hang, kay."
"Coolio. See ya later." So I ran up to my locker and started packing up my stuff. Then I got a tap on my shoulder. Thinking it was Van again, I swiped it off and turned around, not expecting to see Brey there.
"Woah, you gonna break off my hand or something?" He was smirking sarcastically. "I just might, so be careful."
"Ohhh, here comes the scary Kat monster!"
"Whatever, dude. I'm hungry..." As I started walking towards the cafeteria, he run up in front of me."Hey, you never told me if you were gonna hang with me for lunch." He said that with a look on his face like me meant that statement to be more of a question. "Okay, sure. I've gotta go buy lunch, so just find us a table and I'll be there in a sec."
"Okay, cool." He walked away, looking around for an empty table while I had just lost my appetite. I don't know why I was suddenly so nervous, but my stomach started to flutter. As I went through the lunchline, I was just thinking about what to say, and what not to say. Sure, I could be over thinking this, but you never know. So after I had picked up all of my food and paid, I walked around, looking for him. I found him sitting at this one table, coincidentally RIGHT NEXT to Jenny's table. I stopped in my tracks, but then he started ushering me over, so reluctantly, I went. I sat down and looked over Brey's shoulder to make sure that Jenny didn't see me. "So..." Brey said, trying to start a conversation.
"You told me that you're from Michigan, right?" I said, trying to act casual.
"Yeah, moved here last week, actually."
"Cool; so how do you like it here?" He started to laugh, and he, once again, confuses me.
"I'm sorry, but I've just got to know what that whole thing was about this morning." I rolled my eyes.
"You sure you wanna know?" Just then, one of Jenny's friends, Hayley, turned around and saw me. Then I saw her whispering to all of the other girls at the table, and then, finally, Jenny got up. "Oh my god."
"What?" I pointed behind him and then he saw her, neck brace off (how surprising) and in a short (and I mean short) skirt and a lime green tank top with knee high converse. She started to walk up to our table, Jock boyfriend in hand. I looked over to Brey. "Okay, so she REALLY hates me, and I don't think this is gonna go well, so you'd better go."
"No, I'm not going anywhere. It's cool." Jenny was now right next to the table.
"What do you want, Jenny?" She smiled.
"Oh, I don't know Kitty Kat, some revenge." I laughed. "Really, and how to you plan on doing that?"
"Maybe with a little bit of mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, chicken, and some help from my friends." Just as I was about to question her, she took her hand from behind her back and dumped a full cup of mashed potatoes on my head. Then her boyfriend followed with milk and gravy.
"Oops... sorry." I sat there, in complete shock as the milk started to run down my face. To my surprise, Brey got up from his seat and approached Jenny's Boyfriend. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Uh, is it any of your business? You aren't her boyfriend, right?" When Jenny's Boyfriend turned around to leave, Brey picked up his bottle of water and poured it all over him. He turned all red and ran over to go get some more of his football friends while Brey came over to me. "Come on, Katrina. Let's do this."
"Do what?" I asked. Then he gave me a bottle of Orange Juice. "Make it rain."

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 5: part two

~Chapter 5~

part two-
When I finally got to Mrs. Wiry's class, she was in the middle of dissecting a sheep's eye; what a great way to start the day off, right? So, anyway, she had the sheep eye in her hand and a scalpel in the next, and as I walked in, she turned and looked at  me, giving me that nasty look that she gives to all students that come in late. Luckily for Van, she had a COMPLETELY different schedule than mine, so we only had lunch, P.E., and detention together, so she was exempt from the drama. She walked over to me, sheep eye and everything, and looked me over. "What's your excuse, Ms. Lowell?" I shrugged, but it was obvious that that was the wrong answer. "You must have been doing something; choking someone, stealing someone's lunch money, cussing someone out; I mean, that IS what you young punks do nowadays, right?" I think that you could see the steam coming out of my ears, not only because I didn't like how she was treating me today, but because she reminded me of an old teacher that I once had.

***

At that moment I remembered Mrs. Zelda (Z for short). She hated me, but I don't know why; I mean, I wasn't bad YET. In fact, I was a pretty decent little girl. At any rate, she used to yell at me, insult me, and just completely disrespect me in front of the entire class almost daily. I felt like I was right there in the classroom, watching this abuse unfold, with the nasty things she would say swirling around in the air, and the images of her bending down and pointing her finger in my face, reprimanding me for needing to use the restroom, or getting something wrong; belittlement. All of a sudden, this rush of anger took over me because while I saw all of these things happening, there was nothing, NOTHING, that I could do to stop it...

***

Because this was a normal thing for Mrs. Wiry to do, I let it go and started to head for my seat, but she stopped me with her hand. "Ms. Lowell; I asked you a question. As a student, you are obligated to answer."

"Actually, Mrs. Wiry, not be be rude or anything, but that's where you're wrong. I don't HAVE to do anything. In fact, I don't even HAVE to stay here and talk to you right now, right? I mean, after all I am, as you said it, a punk." She seemed stunned by my response, but I found it only necessary for the behavior that she was exhibiting herself. Despite what I had just said, she stopped me once again. Her attitude was so noticeable, that even that even everyone else in the room started to get uncomfortable. At this point, my patience had been worn thin and could break at any given moment. I knew this, and so I set my backpack down, just in case, so that when I knock her out, my stuff doesn't end up all over the place. She, too, put down the eyeball and scalpel, then returned to staring me down. I stood there, fists balled and ready for a fight, when she finally spoke. " I'm going to ask you ONE MORE TIME, Katrina. What were you doing that caused you to be so late today?" 

"Well, Janice, I was taking a new 11th grader to his class. He approached me while I was at my locker and gave me a piece of paper with his class number on it and I took him there, just trying to be helpful. In fact, I'm even having lunch with him today just so that he won't be alone. But, since I knew that you are so biased that you wouldn't believe me when I tell you that I was late helping someone out, I didn't even try. Can I sit down now?" She gave me a hard stare and then stepped a little closer to me; as did I. "Katrina, I know your type."

"And what is that?"

"The 'bad girl wannabes,' but I'm going to let you know RIGHT NOW that none of that is tolerated in my classroom, do you understand me?"

"No, Mrs. Wiry, do you understand ME because I just told you why I was late and you don't want to take that, but that's fine and all because I've got a meeting that I've gotta attend anyhow, so I'll just tell you with this one thing and then leave. I don't know what's wrong with you upstairs, and I don't really care, but all I'm gonna let you know is that I will not be 'tolerating' any of your disrespect anymore. This means all of your little remarks that you make throughout the class period, because at the end of the day, I don't deserve it since I don't even have to do something wrong for you to get all up in my face like you have today. I'm no little girl; I am a grown girl that can handle herself, so don't treat me otherwise. At the end of the day, I'm bigger now and can do you MUCH harm, and we both know this. In fact, I am struggling to keep my fist from going down your throat, so, to save both you and me the trouble, keep your little issues to yourself, hmkay? Alrighty Janice, you have a great day." As I walked out I saw her face get red with anger and then, as I got further down the hall, I heard a loud scream. I was actually really proud of myself, I mean, I didn't put my hands on her or anything, so I was good, right? I found out soon enough because when I got to Margret's office, she was on the phone, calming down someone and I had the feeling that I knew who. I walked in, even though she was putting her finger up at me, telling me to wait, and sat down in one of her chairs. "Yes, Janice, I know. She's here with me right now and we'll talk about it, but you need to calm down. Okay, yeah, why don't you talk to Mr. Leng?" Mr. Leng was our guidance counselor. He's cool, I guess, but I'm not one to go and pour my feeling out to someone, so it's very rare that we meet, and when we do, it's pretty much that I was forced to go there, and we usually just end up playing Monopoly or something instead of talking. Anyhow, I think that Margret's suggestion didn't sit very well with Mrs. Wiry because Margret started cringing. "Okay, yeah, that's a lot of anger that you've just displayed, I think that you should just go home. Don't worry, I've got a sub who'd love to come and do the dissection for you. In fact, take the whole week off, you sound like you need a break. Okay? Alright, Janice. I'm so sorry." When she finally got off  the phone, Margret took a deep sigh and ran out the office without even paying me any mind. After about 10 minutes, she came back and sat down at her desk with a cup of coffee. "Katrina, Katrina, Katrina..."
"Yes, Margret, Margret, Margret?" Apparently she didn't find that funny because she started the pen tapping business again.
"Why are you here? Our meeting isn't until an hour or so from now."
"Yeah, I know, but I was about ready to tear Mrs. Wiry's hair out, so I decided to come down and hang with you instead." I added a little grin for emphasis.
"Uh hu, okay. She told me that you were late. Why's that?"
"Oh, yeah, I was taking this new kid to class. 'Tis all."
"Oh really..." she seemed to become interested because she stopped tapping her pen for a sec, but soon resumed. "And what is this new kid's name?"
"Something weird like... oh yeah, Brey"
"You mean Breyson Bradey? Yeah, I met with him a couple days ago. Wow, so you actually did take him, eh?"
"Yeah, no biggy really." I smiled, and she smiled back. On the inside, I really don't think that Margret's all that bad. I can see that she believes in me sometimes, that she knows that I can be better than I act.
"That was pretty nice of you, Katrina, but before I can let you off the hook, I need you to promise me that you'll never put me in another bad situation wit Mrs. Wiry again, okay? She can be a little scary sometimes." We laughed and sat there talking for the rest of the hour, but then I remembered that this wasn't all fun and games because here came Jenny with her neck brace, parents, lawyers (yes, plural, as in more than one), and a bunch of her worthless friends. Last time I checked, they weren't invited, but then I saw Van who rushed into the office with Margret and I. "What the heck is going on?" She actually seemed genuinely concerned.
"I don't know but all I know is that it's not going to be pretty..."

Want to see what happens next?

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!


Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 5: part one

~CHAPTER 5~

part one-
As I took my first steps through the school gates, I felt the stares of haters burning through my sk- okay, maybe it wasn't that bad; just a little discomfort, but seriously. Van started giving everyone that threatening look that we "bad girls" have. I hastily made my way inside, where I felt a flush of relief; I wasn't scared or anything, I mean I could take them down one by one (as B.o.B says, "rack 'em up, knock 'em down; dominoes."). When I turned around to talk to Van, though, I found her in a heated fight with one of Jenny's close friends. Just as I was about to run out and separate her from the situation, Tony came to the rescue and she immediately calmed down. Maybe that's the only thing that keeps him from being completely worthless; the fact that he keeps Van tame when she needs to be. They started to head down the Sophmore's hall where Tony's locker was when I got tapped on my shoulder. I turned around and there stood this rather tall, awkward, but cute looking, guy. He startled the heck out of me, but I just laughed it away. "Hey, my name's Breyson, but everyone calls me Brey. I'm new and I can't find my class. Can you help me?" He grinned at me and ushered a crumpled piece of paper at me. Just then I noticed how brown his eyes were, but then I caught myself. "Oh, uh, yeah. It's Mrs. Norell's class; she's a 11th grade teacher, so your a Junior?"
"Yup. Why; you aren't?" I tried to work around this question because I'm a freshman and we get a bad rep around here, but eventually I had to tell him. I was really surprised at his response; "Really? Cool, my girlfriend back in Michigan's a Freshman." I didn't know what to say... It was just an odd moment. Thank goodness we arrived at his class and I didn't have to respond to that. "Well, here you are, room 301." I smiled and pointed at the door. "Thanks for your help. I never caught your name though..."
" Katrina... Kat, actually"
"Not the Katrina?" He seamed so surprised, but I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Um, by that you mean-"
"The one with the 'fan club' outside?"
"Oh, yeah. That's me..." He gave me an odd look, but then got distracted by the school bell.
"Nice to meet you, Kat. Maybe you'd like to sit with me for lunch?" I was flattered, but didn't want to seem all mushy and stuff.
"Maybe." He seemed a little disappointed, but he nodded and waved goodbye. As he headed into his class, Van ran up to me, showing me that it was time to head to my class.
"What are you doing all the way up in the Junior's hall? We're like five minutes late for class." She grabbed my arm and started running, but I didn't even care; I was finally gonna have something besides mystery meat and beans with lunch today.

Want to find out what happens next?


STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!


Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 4

~CHAPTER 4~

The next morning, my mom didn't speak to me. In fact, as soon as I came into the kitchen for my breakfast, she was already out the door. All that was left was a note on the fridge. As I read it, my mouth dropped in disbelief;

Dear Kat,

We have a meeting today at your school at 11. Your dad and I will be there, as well as your counselor, the principal, Jenny, and her parents. I've set this meeting up for you to get an opportunity to apologize for your actions yesterday, so think about what you're going to say, write a letter, etc; whatever you need to do, get it done BEFORE you go to school.

-Mom

Was she seriously doing this? Like did I not just spill out my guts last night? I completely lost my appetite, and just ran into the shower and tried to get my clothes on as fast as I could. When I finally got a chance to sit on the couch in our living room, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down:

Dear Jenny,

I know that you should avoid the color red when writing letters, but I really didn't care at this point. I just sat there, thinking about yesterday and what I was supposed to say, when I heard the doorbell. My thoughts were completely shattered. Annoyed, I opened the door. "What could you possibly wa-" I then saw that it was Van. In the midst of everything, I forgot that we were walking to school together like we did every day. she gave me an odd look. "Woah, I see someone has woken up on the wrong side of the bed today." She gave me a hug and walked in. When she saw the letter that I began to write she shook her head. "No way..."

"Yup, my mom's making me write her a letter or something to apologize."

"You're kidding.."

"And that's not all. I've got to be there with Jenny, her parents, my parents, and what sounds like the entire school staff." I started to lace up my shoes when the doorbell rang again. "Okay, now I seriously don't know who that could be."

"I'll get it." Van got up and looked through the door hole. "What the- it's Lucas." Lucas was one of our friends, I guess. It was very rare that we saw Lucas; I mean, he was a geek. Our friendship was very unexpected, too, because Van and I were very different from his perfect, straight A's, sweater-vest ways. "Let him in," I said as I picked up my backpack. There he stood, looking all dork-ish, with this nervous grin on his face. Van and I just stood there for a while, staring at him. Then finally, Van acknowledged him. "Sup Lucas. What goes on?"

"Oh, hi girls. I was just wondering if you guys wanted to walk to school with me." He smiled at me. I looked at Van with a confused look on my face. "Okay, sure" I said reluctantly. We walked out and I turned around to lock the door. As we headed to school, Lucas began to loosen up. then I remembered how nervous he was when he was by my house. He typically wasn't that way at all, so I decided to ask him. "Hey Lucas, is everything okay?" He looked over at me, and I noticed that his eyes were darting back and forth. Van noticed it too. "Lucas, you know you can tell us anything, right?" Then he snapped out of it, grinned, and hiked up his backpack. "Nope, hehe, nothing's wrong. Just a little tired, I guess. Well, I'll see you guys later." He ran up to the school gates and went inside. "Something's wrong, Van." The situation made me very uneasy, but then I noticed that Van was looking behind me. "Looks like you're in for a problem, too." I turned around and saw what she was seeing. Jenny and her parents rolled up in their fancy Rolls Royce, and when I looked over at the drop- off zone, there were a bunch or her friends (of which there were like 400) with teddy bears, cards, balloons, and even signs. I read one which said:

WE LOVE YOU JENNY!

WE'RE SORRY THAT KRAZY KATRINA HURT YOU!

SHE'S A MONSTER!

Ah, just what I needed; a "Katrina Hate Club". Where do I sign up?

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 3

~CHAPTER 3~

"Once again, Mrs. Brittington, I am so sorry for my daughter's behavior. We are going to have a long talk tonight." As my mom said that last bit, she clenched her teeth and shot me a devil's glare. I smiled and mouthed the words "I love you", trying to smooth things over. I guess it didn't work because as she got off the phone, she lunged at me. "Katrina Dawn Lowell, I'm gonna THROTTLE YOU!" I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in. "Katrina, open this door, NOW, or else you're REALLY gonna get in trouble." I hesitated, but slowly opened the door. My mom looked furious, with her arms folded and her foot tapping. "What happened today?" I looked away from her and tried to avoid the question, but she knew better than that. "NOW."
"I tried to choke Jenny, OK? Happy now?"
"Of course I'm not happy. Why on earth would you do that to her?"
"You know Jenny. She hates me..."
"So you choke her? Like, tell me what in your head tells you that wrapping your hands around her neck is going to stop her from hating you?" I looked away again. I didn't want to have to explain to her what happens because she just wouldn't get it, but she wouldn't take silence as an answer. "When she told me that- that I was a 'waste of air', I just get this feeling inside, like deja vu, and then I black out. The last thing that I remember was her coughing and Coach Hubbert dragging me to the principals office." My mom took a second to let everything register. "So what you're saying is that you feel like you've been there before, getting called a certain name, and hen you sorta 'go crazy'? What exactly did you remember."
"Well, I guess when she told me that, I got transported to another world sort of."

***

I was back in Rockford Elementary School, and there were a bunch of kids running around, laughing, playing on the playground. And then there was a little girl on the top of the play structure who was crying, surrounded by other girls. When I listened closer, I heard what they were saying. "You shouldn't even be alive" and "You're so ugly that you're parents probably don't even want you." The girl was screaming out for help, but it was as if I was the only one that heard her. I started to run towards her, up the stairs of the play structure, and just as I reached the top, I heard one of them say "You're just a waste of air," and then the girls vanished. All that was left was the little girl who had turned away from me, crying. I touched her shoulder and asked if she was OK. She turned around and wiped away her tears, "Yeah, I'll be OK. Thanks for helping me, though." Then, as she managed a smile, she became very familiar. Then she reached out her hand and said, "I'm Katrina, Just like you."

***

"...and at that moment, I 'woke up' so to speak." My mom was pacing back and forth, and then she picked up her bag and car keys. "I've gotta go back to work, but you stay here," and then, she just glanced back at me and left. I went to my bedroom and dropped myself down onto my bed. So much for that...

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Chapter 2

~CHAPTER 2~

Once I got myself together, I decided to head on over to Van's house. Van was my best friend; we've known each other since preschool and she knew just how to cheer me up. She was a "trouble-maker" herself, so she knew exactly what I was going through. As I approached her porch, I rang the doorbell and waited for the Ruckers' nanny to get to the door. Van's mom and dad pretty much worked 24/7 and rarely spent time at home, so Trudy, their nanny, was always there. When she finally opened the door, she gave me a hug and ushered me into the house. "How are things going for you Kitty Kat?" I rolled my eyes at her because she was the only one who added "kitty" to my nickname. "It's going, I guess... got in trouble again today."

"Well that's a shocker," Trudy mumbled under her breath. "Thanks for the support, Trudy. Your such a great friend," I replied sarcastically. She came over and patted me on the shoulder, "I was kidding. Hey, lemme go get Van for you, You know she wont hear my calls from down here over her stereo." I chuckled and went over to the fridge for a Popsicle. By the time I got back to the living room, she was coming down the stairs in her typical goth attire. She didn't believe in all the emo Gothic beliefs and didn't hang with any of the other Gothic students; she just thought that the clothes were hot, I guess. "Hey Kat, what's up?"

"Nothing really. I stormed out of Margret's office today after she confronted me about the whole 'Jenny' situation." She cringed, "Ouch. Was it that bad? Well at least I have a detention buddy, that is if I don't just skip it like I usually do." Just then, the doorbell rang and Van ran over to the door. All of a sudden I heard, "Hey Tony-Roni!" Ugh! Tony was Van's boyfriend and I couldn't stand him. He was the "bad boy" of the school, and then suddenly, after like five years of ignoring Van, he asks her out and she's star struck. "Hey Van, just thought I'd come and visit my favorite girl." I started making gagging motions behind them. I think he saw me because just then he gave me an odd look. "Oh yeah, Katrina, that's what I wanted to ask you..." I gave him my "I don't understand what you mean, so spit it out" look. "Did you really choke Jenny today? That's pretty awesome..."

"No it's not, first of all and second of all, I don't want to talk about it, especially not with you." Van turned around and gave me a nasty glare. I couldn't help it, I hated him! Just then I remember that my mom would be getting home soon, so I started to put back on my shoes. "Where are you going, Kat? I thought that maybe we could have a study- sleepover tonight."

"Sorry, I gotta get home, but you two vampires have fun." Van laughed awkwardly, gave me a "don't embarrass me in front of Tony" look, and closed the door behind me. I walked down to Wilkinson Blvd, where my house was and notice that my mom was home early. "I'm toast...again." I took a deep breath and opened the door, and sure enough, there was my mom on the phone. By the look on her face, I knew that she was talking to Margret and was NOT very happy.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell 

Beautiful- Chapter 1

~CHAPTER 1~

"Good evening Ms. Lowell." I was back in the principal's office talking to Margret. I mean, I should call her "Mrs. Brittington," but I see her so often, I pretty much know her on a first name basis. "What have you done today?" She had this way of tapping her pen on her desk and leaning towards me, giving me that look, like she was very suspicious. I relaxed in my chair and  took a drink from a Styrofoam cup I had gotten back in the office. "Umm... I don't know. I took a shower, got ready for school, went to first period..." she rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just skip to the part where you attempted to choke out another student in gym today."
 "Oh, you mean Jenny Auburn? She offended me, told me I was a waste of air."
"So you decided to resolve that problem by squeezing all of the air out of her?" I shrugged. I mean, what was I supposed to say? Sure, some may say that I've got an anger problem, but so what? You mess with me, you reap the consequences. Margret sighed and took out a form. "What do you think you deserve this time; suspension or detention for the next two weeks?" I chuckled and took another sip of water. "Hmm, let me think on that one: some time off from this disgusting establishment or some extra time in Mrs. Turd- bling's class? I'll take the suspension." Mrs. Brittington looked at me disappointingly. "First of all, it's 'Mrs. Tumbling' to you, missy, and second of all, I don't think you understand how important this is, Katrina. Every time you show up in my office, I've gotta mark your permanent record. You need to stop this now, before it destroys you." I stood up from my chair and threw my backpack over my shoulder."You don't understand, Margret. All you guys do is judge me without just listening to anything I say, so you know what, give me whatever you see fit. I really don't care, just leave me alone, OK!" As I stormed out, I heard her yell out to me, but I ran, ran as fast as I could, out the building and down Julian St. on my way home. I got all the way down the block and then dropped down next to a tree and began to sob. Dear god, I really hope she didn't give me detention...

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,
Katrina Lowell

Beautiful- Interlude

Beautiful

By Katrina Lowell

~INTERLUDE~

Being a teenage girl in this generation, I have had my fair share of difficulties, be it friendships or tough teachers. That being said, it's really important to grow what some may call a "thick skin", or really high tolerance for getting your feelings hurt or not having things go the way you had intended them to be. I would consider myself to be a very strong person, but one thing that I can't seem to conquer is bullying. I've been bullied in school for nearly eight years, and it's not easy. Although some of those experiences happened so long ago, they seem so fresh in my memory. What I have recently discovered is that I don't necessarily hurt within myself, but I hurt for the little girl inside me. I can remember being left out of every game out on the play ground, being told that I shouldn't be alive, and just altogether being put down. I then decided to turn to reading. Reading puts me in a different world where nothing that I was experiencing ever existed. So, because I was often having trouble during the recess times, I would walk to the school library with a book in hand and read there until the bell rang. The only problem was that my classroom and the library were on opposite sides of the school, and the walk was painful. I had kids run up to me, calling me hurtful names or saying that I was ugly; all I would do is hold on to my book and try blocking it out, reminding myself that I was only a few paces from the library. One day, I noticed that nobody was following me and I started to relax and just make my way up to the door. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a bunch of footsteps in a flurry, almost as if the person was running and just as I turned to look over my shoulder, I was pushed down into the concrete. I was hit so hard that all I don't even remember hitting the ground. I only remember having the feeling of the air being knocked out of me and me looking at how scratched up my hands were. Then when I looked up, I saw that the group of boys had kicked away my book and took off running. that has to be the most memorable episode in my mind. I just hate that when that happened, nobody was around to help, nobody was there to stop it from happening. That's why I'm writing this story. I'ts a story about a girl who walks around, trying to protect the girl that needed protecting inside while trying to figure out who she was becoming on the outside. I hope that you are inspired by this story as much as I am.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE CHAPTERS BEING POSTED!

Love Always <3,

Katrina Lowell