The Struggle For Love

Chapter 1.5

*Alex's POV*
        I can’t believe I did that to Stacie. You’re so stupid, Alex. You know better than that. You know never to ignore a girl, and now Stacie is upset with you. Just listen to her. “Wait, it’s due in a month?! I don’t think I can work with Alex and his silence for a month!” You can tell how mad you made her when she raced out that door. Tomorrow, you have to apologize to her. She’s a good person. You don’t like being ignored, so why the hell would you ignore her? So stupid. You’re going to have to get over that crush you have and talk to her.
        “Hey, Alex. How’d it go with Stacie?” She was only a couple of feet in front of us. Nick knows I like Stacie, and I know that he likes Marissa.
        “Shhhh!” Stacie turned around at that point. She gave me a dirty look and whispered something to Marissa. Marissa nodded, and Stacie quickly swam away. Marissa gave us a dirty look, and then swam away, too. I know Stacie’s was directed at me, but I’m pretty sure Marissa’s was for the both of us. “Great,” I sigh. Stacie was making me feel even worse.
        “What? Did I miss something?”
        “I ignored Stacie the whole class, and now she’s pissed at me.”
        “That’s a bad move to make, bro. If you want to date her, you should never ignore her. Never. You got to listen to her and speak to her back. Chicks love that.”
        “I really don’t think you should be giving me relationship advice. You’ve liked Marissa since you were like five, and you still haven’t dated her. But you’ve managed to date the rest of the school. I’m pretty sure girls don’t like that.”
        “Yeah, but Marissa’s a tough one to crack. Stacie isn’t. It’s finally your chance to make a move. Don’t screw it up like I’ve done.”
~
*Stacie's POV*
        “Hey, Alex. How’d it go with Stacie?”  I freeze. Did I just hear Nick talking about me? And did he just say Alex? “Shhhh!” I slowly turn around only to see I am correct. There stands Nick… and Alex.
        “Marissa, I have to go. I’m going to start swimming towards my next class. I’ll see you later,” I whisper to Marissa. She nods, and I swim away.
~
        The day goes by quickly. I don’t have much homework which is good. The only bad things are when I heard Alex and Nick talking about me and when I swam into a wall. I didn’t mean to bump into it, it just happened. I was looking at Marissa when I did. My head started hurting badly after that, but I refuse to go to the nurse. She’s very mean. Not just normal mean, I mean very mean. She once screamed at a deaf merman for not doing what she asked. Poor guy. He obviously didn’t hear her. She screamed at him for not hearing her, and he’s deaf. It’s so stupid. She’s so mean. The boy swam home crying. He couldn’t hear her, but he could tell she was mad at him when she started using hand gestures and when her face got all red. Therefore, it’s a good idea to avoid her.
~
        My mom is cooking dinner when I get home. We can’t afford much, so it is only a piece of cooked seaweed each. I feel bad for her. My father left when I was four, right after my sister was born. My other sister has a different dad and he left before she was even born. My brother’s dad left not long ago. He stayed until my brother was about two and a half. Therefore, I feel bad for her. I know she gets upset. Having to take care of herself, a son, and three daughters is a lot of work especially by yourself. I try to help my mom out when I can, but I can’t help her with everything.
        My mom could’ve had so much going for her, but she had me when she was seventeen, so she had to put all her dreams on hold. She was the star athlete in high school and was a straight A honor roll student. She’s so pretty, too, even though she doesn’t see it. She colors her hair a lot, but her natural hair color is brown. Her eyes are a grayish-blue. I look a lot like my mom except for the fact that she’s Caucasian and I’m mixed. Our noses and our body types are also different. Her body type is pear-shaped while mine is in between pear-shaped and hourglass-shaped. Her tail is pink.
        I’m the oldest of four. My sisters are twelve and seven, and my brother is three. I guess you could say my siblings are cute. At least, my little brother is. My sisters are average looking. One tries too hard to fit in, and the other couldn’t care less what she looks like. They could look so much better if one didn’t try so hard and if the other would try a little more. I mean all they have to do is look natural and take care of themselves. I think true beauty means to be yourself. You shouldn’t have to change yourself to be beautiful. They aren’t home, yet. I swim to their schools to pick them up everyday after school ends.
        “Stacie!” my little brother screams while swimming to hug me. I love the way he says my name. It is super cute. Any girl would be lucky to have him, as long as I approved of them that is. He has a yellow tail and light brown hair. His hair is curly at the ends, but straight everywhere else. His face is in the shape of a circle, and he has the longest eyelashes that go great with his dark brown eyes. I adore my brother. He’s the only person in my family that I can actually stand. I love my brother and wouldn’t want
anything to happen to him. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters, too, but I can’t stand them. It’s as if their life goals are to get on my nerves. They’re pretty good at it, too.
        “Avery!” I say as I hug him back. He starts to giggle which only makes me giggle, too. My brother has one of those laughs that make other people laugh for no reason. It’s not one of those laughs that you would want to hide. It’s one of those cute laughs.
        I play with Avery for half an hour until it is almost time for me to leave. We mostly play tag. It’s his favorite game. He loves to swim and chase me. He would rather be the chaser then the swimmer which is fine with me considering I don’t have to swim as fast and get all tired. Then, I help my mom clean up for the remaining ten minutes.
        “Bye, Stacie!” my brother yells as I swim away.
        “Bye, Avery!” I yell back.
        “Wuv you!” I can’t help, but laugh when he says this. He always tells me he loves me. He can’t talk well, though. Neither could I when I was younger. My mom says that I used to have my own little language, and the reason I can understand my brother better than everyone else is because of it.
        “Love you, too!”
~
        As I wait for my twelve year old sister, I see this couple about my age that look so cute together. They are hugging each other. I quickly wish for a boyfriend to be mine, to hold me just like they are holding each other. I would love to have a boyfriend. I came close to having one a couple years back, but I made a horrible mistake. His friend asked me if I liked him and I lied and said I didn’t. I regret it terribly. He had a great personality, and he was super cute. Best of all, he liked me, too. Everybody said we would make a good couple, but I don’t know. I should have said yes. The only problem was that he was fifteen almost sixteen, and I was about thirteen and a half. That doesn’t really matter to me, though. I wanted him to be mine, and now it’s too late.
        I see my sister swimming towards me. She is with some of her friends, so I know she will act snobby when she gets to me. She always does. An older boy is checking either her or one of her friends out. I guess you can say she’s a little bit cute. I almost want to embarrass her, but I remember that I wouldn’t like it if she did that to me. I would have called him a pervert, and my sister probably would have been angry with me for several weeks.
        My sister is the total opposite of me. She’s girly and has wavy hair, but she straightens it almost everyday. I like her hair when it’s natural. It looks better. I like girly things, too, but I’m mostly a tomboy. She has light brown hair and is tall while I’m short. My sister hates going on adventures while I love them. Her tail is blue and mine is purple. She’s also very bossy and mean. I can be bossy and I can be mean but only when I need to be. My sister also lives for boys. If you were to look up the word “boy-crazy”, you’d find her picture. I think my sister is also fake. She’s a whole other person around her friends. They don’t know the real her.
        “Hello, loser.” Here we go. Some of her friends start laughing. I don’t know why, but fine I can play this game, too.
        “Hi, can we leave these prostitutes now?” They start looking at me as if I just killed somebody, but they don’t deny it. Their faces are priceless.
        “Later, Brittany,” her friends all say.
        “Later.” She waits until they are far enough away they can’t here us. “Why would you do that?” she says angrily.
        “Do what? I did nothing wrong. You’re the one who started it.”
        “Whatever.”
        “Why do you act like that?”
        “Like what?” She still has an attitude.
        “Like you run the world. You’re a nice girl, but every time you’re around one of your buddies, you act like a snob. Now, I know your not a snob. Why do you act like a completely different person around them? Your friends? They don’t know the real you. They’re not your true friends if they don’t know the real you.”
        “I don’t act like a different person. Have you ever just thought that maybe that’s the real me? My friends do know the real me. They are my true friends.”
        “I know that’s not true, and so do you.”
        “It is the truth.” I don’t want to argue, so I leave it at that.
        We swim to my other sister’s school. They’re not allowed to leave the building without an adult, so we walk inside.
        “Hi. I’m here to pick up Blythe Withers.”
        “Okay, dear. Have a seat and she’ll be right down.” We do as we are told and wait for her. She finally comes down after about ten, maybe fifteen minutes.
        Blythe looks a lot like me, but our personalities are different. She’s mean to all her friends and never listens to anybody. She’s smart, but acts like she’s stupid most of the time. Blythe is also very disrespectful. The only other difference is our tails. Her tail is red.
        I can’t stand either of my sisters. They both don’t listen to me. Blythe looks like she has had a rough day, so I ask her how it was. I know she will probably say “okay” or something along those lines.
        “How was your day, Blythe?”
        “Fine,” she says with an attitude.
        “It’s obviously not fine. What happened?”
        “I said it was fine, so it’s fine!”
        “Come on, Blythe. What happened?”
        “Fine, I’ll tell you. Ms. Swanson yelled at me because I was telling my friend the directions since she didn’t hear them and in gym class, some boys were throwing things at me.”
        “I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe we’ll do something fun when we get home?”
        “Okay, but it better be fun.”
        “It will be. Do you want me to talk to Ms. Swanson and your gym teacher? Maybe Ms. Swanson will apologize, and maybe those boys will get in trouble. Would you like me to? We’re still at the school. All I have to do is walk inside.”
        “No! Then I’ll be embarrassed tomorrow because of you! Those boys will make fun of me and call me a tattle tail! I’ll be so mad at you if you do that to me!”
        “Okay, fine. I won’t talk to your teachers.”
        “You better not.”
        “I won’t. Now let’s head home. Mom’s making us dinner, and I’m sure Avery misses you guys.”
~
        When we get home, I play a couple of board games with Blythe and Avery. Brittany doesn’t want to. She never wants to. She thinks games are for babies. Brittany’s trying to grow up and be an adult. I don’t know why. It’s not very fun. If I could make a wish, I’d wish to be a kid again. I’d have much more fun than I do now. After we play, I help Blythe and Brittany with their homework.
        After that, we eat dinner and I help Blythe and Avery go to bed while my mom finishes cleaning up. I would have cleaned up, but I don’t know how to do the things she needs done. So, she told me to tuck them into bed. Blythe and Avery share a room and I share a room with Brittany. I
would have liked to share a room with Avery, but that didn’t happen. After I put them to bed, I do my homework. I only have homework from my math class and my class that teaches you how to speak to whales. Then, I go to my room to try and fall asleep. Brittany isn’t asleep, yet. She’s talking on her shell to one of her friends, loudly.
        “Ugh. My sister just walked in the room. No, we can still talk. It’s not as if she can force me to get off.” She laughs. Ugh, she makes me so mad. I hope she knows that I can play that game, too. She wants to have an attitude? Fine. I will, too.
        I’m not going to fall asleep anytime soon, so I decide to study for one of my tests. Even though math comes easily to me, I decide to study for that test. I hate English class. I always struggle with it. That and science, anyways. I can’t really study, though. Alex keeps popping in my head and I keep getting so mad at him. The whole period of history keeps racing through my mind. Then, the situation when I heard Nick talking about me starts popping in my mind. Brittany keeps looking at me as if I’m crazy. I can’t take it anymore, so I put my books away and try to fall asleep. It’s no use, though. My mind won’t shut off.  
        After I forget about Alex, I start to think about that guy who almost became my boyfriend. How his hair always stayed in one place. His voice after he just woke up. How he was great with little kids. His hazel eyes, or where they light brown? I don’t remember. I do remember the way he looked at me, though. As if I was the apple of his eye. I start dreaming about what could have been. I don’t want to, but no matter how hard I try, I do. I imagine me saying yes to his friend and him asking me out. I imagine him taking me to a restaurant and then, to a nearby park for our first date. He takes me home to kiss me on the cheek, but doesn’t need a kiss on the lips because he already thinks the night has been great. I know nothing will ever happen like this, but I’m allowed to dream, aren’t I? I finally fall asleep thinking about him and a great date.