Normal | Teen Ink

Normal

January 23, 2009
By Kristen Ice BRONZE, Darien, Illinois
Kristen Ice BRONZE, Darien, Illinois
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

E☺N
Eva rushed into the plain and boring hospital doors, pushing people out of her way as she went along. The walls held nothing of interest as she rushed down the hall way toward the delivery ward. She had waited for this day for weeks, months and finally it was here. When Eva had received the phone call that the baby, her baby, was being born right now she had ran out of the house without telling anyone what was happening.
Now as she watched the doctors test her baby, to make sure everything was fine, she could see that she was not only getting a child over own, but was helping a unwilling mother and a helpless baby. She had always wanted a child of her own, but could not have one. So she had settled for adopting one, so she could love and cherish it forever more. But as she watched she knew something was wrong. The doctors were no longer cool and collected, instead they seemed frazzled. Eva watched as doctors pulled her new baby out of the ultra-violet light, so they and Eva could see her better. Instead of her daughters wonderfully light skin, all Eva could see was a red rash and blue lips.
She ran up to one of the doctors to ask him what was wrong, but he just pushed her aside saying “Not right now Ms. Night. Just wait here and some one will be right with you.” Eva could not believe how rude he had been, after all that was her new daughter they were talking about. But before she could say anything all the doctors had left, with her daughter. As she sat down she could feel the tears in her eyes, before they could spill over she thought about what to name her new daughter.
The distraction worked perfectly the tears were gone, for now. As she sat there wondering what would be a good name for her baby, the women on the bed groaned. As Eva turned she could see that the child’s really mother wanted to tell her some thing. She walked over and knelt beside her bed. “What is it, Carlotta?” She could tell that the woman was immensely tired, but wanted to say some thing before she went to sleep. And ever so softly, as quietly as a breeze passing through grass, Eva heard “Aly… after my mother. Please.” Eva considered it for a moment, really the right to name the baby was hers, since she would be the legal guardian, but she just couldn’t bring herself to say no. And besides she liked the name Aly, it sounded perfect. She just managed to nod her head before the woman fell into to a deep, much needed sleep.
She turned around just as a nurse was walking in. The nurse came up to her and pulled her slightly aside. “Ms. Night, there is a slight problem with the baby. Were as most babies are born with a strong immune system, yours was born with a weak and sensitive one. In such cases as this we encourage you to take current precautions before the baby goes home with you.” I stared at her lost very words. Before I could say anything she continued, “Of course if you would rather adopt another child and not have to deal with the price and stress of this we would all very much understand.” Eva immediately snapped back, “After waiting for so long to have a daughter, I wouldn’t care if she had one eye and six arms. I would love her just the same if not more then if she was normal.” The nurse smiled and said, “Sorry, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who wouldn’t want a child if there was something horribly wrong with them.” Eva, now smiling brightly, said “I will never be able to understand that. But what will I have to do to make sure Aly, That’s what I’ve decided to name her, can come home with me?” As they continued to talk about what Eva would need to buy to make sure that Aly would be safe and comfortable, a doctor walked in and took them into a cool dark room. Eva had to wait for her eyes to adjust before she could look down at her now perfect looking daughter.
A☻N
I woke up to my mother shaking me awake. “What time is it mom. It feels like I just went to sleep.” My voice was horse and tired sounding. That’s what I get for staying up so late. “Sorry you can go right back to sleep, but first I wanted to tell you that the doctors found a kind of medicine that can allow you to go out into the sun with out getting all your normal symptoms. All that would happen to you is that you might get a little sun burnt.” I stared at her, at a loss for words. “Of course if you didn’t want to take them you wouldn’t have to. But I just thought about how you always wanted to go to school with normal kids that this would be the perfect chance for you.” I wanted to scream but I suppressed it. Seventeen year olds didn’t scream, they stayed cool and collective. Instead I said, “Oh my god that would be so cool. When can I get them and start school? Of course I won’t really know anyone, but I’m sure I’ll make friends. Besides, High School and College are the best times of your lie, right mom? I mean I always knew I could go to college but now I can go to both and in the day time.” My mom stared to laugh at me as I blabbered on getting more and more excited about the chance to go to a really school with normal kids, instead of being home schooled for the rest of my life. (Or at least till college, but to a teen that is like the rest of your life. Once you’re out of college you start to realize that your getting old, till then your all young and every thing.) She continued as I pondered the possibilities of school. “Okay, now that I’ve told you, you can go back to getting your beauty sleep.” I grabbed her arm before she could go, “Wait you haven’t answered two of my most important questions.” She stared blankly at me and said, “Two? Two? It was more like two thousand,” She shook her head. “Okay which two, Aly?” “When can I get them and when can I start going to school?” “I told the doctor I would prefer if he could send them to, since the hospital is usually closed at night. And its still summer for everyone else, you don’t start school till the fall. Which is two weeks from now and I still haven’t decide if I want you to go to school.” Before I could protest she raised her hand and said, “I know that you want to go, but it isn’t completely up to you. You might think that these are the best times of your life. But when you’re living them they’re the worst, it’s not until your older that you think that. You’re going to have to trust me on that. And I want you to earn the right to go to school, if you can show me that you disserve it and can handle it, I’ll let you go. But remember that means helping me as much as you can, outside when you get your pills, and not having to be reminded to take them, stuff like that.” She smiled at me and got up to leave.

The two weeks between school and me passed by without an incident. I was the perfect daughter, always helping, but never complaining. The only time I had to be reminded to take my new pills was on the first and second day I had them, it was new for me and I hadn’t gotten used to taking them yet. But other then that it was all perfect. The only thing now to worry about was whether or not my mother would let me go. I wanted to ask her out right if I would be allowed to go to school, but thought better of it. My mother hated nagging and that would be just what could make her change her mind and say no. Instead I waited for her to bring it up; I had all but given up hope on the day before school started. But just as I had decided to confront her about it she called me into the study. “Aly, we need to talk about this school thing. You have proven to me that you want this really bad. I really wish that you would reconsider this whole school thing, but since you did everything I asked you to it wouldn’t be very fair if I told you no. Before you say you want to go, because I know you do, think about all those books you read with the different cliques and everything. It’s not just some thing that an author made up to enhance their story. They got that from real life experiences, from real people who did those kinds of things to people. Do you really want to go through all that just so you can go outside everyday and go to school with other kids your age?” I knew right away that my answer was yes, but if I just burst out and said that my mother would be very disappointed. Besides that she did have a point, I had thought that all those authors had just made that part up to make their story more interesting. I nodded my head to show her that I would think about she said and tell her my answer later.
I went straight up to my room and grabbed some paper. So I could write down the pros and cons of going to a public school for the first time.
In the end the pros won over and I walked down stairs to tell my mom. “I did think about it like I told you I would I even did a pro vs. con sheet. I listed all the reasons for both sides and weighed them against each other. And I decided that the pros were better the cons. So I’ve decided that I want to start school now so I can be in the swing of things, and all that junk.” I smiled brightly and encouragingly at my mom. She responded with a smile, but it looked like it was forced and you could tell she didn’t like it. I tried to explain it to her but she just waved me off, mumbling something about work and me having to get ready for tomorrow.
Instead of going to my bedroom I headed to the bathroom so I could look at my self in the mirror. My mom had always said I was pretty but if I was going to a new school I wanted to play it up a little bit. And to do so I needed to take a good look at my self. My Strawberry blonde hair had just the right amount of curls and was easy enough to straiten out; my eyes were large and very round, meaning I would need to be careful about eye make-up to much and I would look like a s*** but too little and I would look like a freak; I could see what my mom meant when she said I was pretty but I thought I was normal, if not plain, the only thing different about me was that my hair color was uncommon. After seeing all the models in magazines I had my mom buy me, I could understand what would enhance my features. I would have to loss some weight. The only thing that I could fix right now was my eyebrows. Major plucking was ahead, I had put it off for so long it looked like I had a unabrowe. I laughed at the thought of having to walk around looking like that.
When I had finished in the bathroom I went over to my room to pick out an outfit. If mom was right and there were girls like that in books I would have to look my very best if I wanted to impress them. In the corner of my mind it must have registered that every girl who tried to join them ended up losing themselves, but really I had nothing to lose. I had no friends, since I was new; I didn’t really know who or what I was, yet; and this would be the perfect way to make sure that I enjoyed High School.
E☺N

I sighed as I realized that Aly would and had already chosen that she wanted to go to High School. Trying to convince her other wise was useless. She knew she never should have told her, it would have been so much easier if Aly had never known. That way she would always be safe from all the torment she had received when she was younger. Why…oh…why did she even tell her? Sure this kind of stuff would be helpful for her when she got older and had to experience it out in the real world, were no one has to get along. It may be a jungle in High School, but in the real world it was much, much worse. And Eva Knew that Aly would need to have all the experience she could before she went out there. Her dark brown hair fell into her face as she was looking down at the interkitte pattern on the floor of the study. She pushed it angrily out of her face and laughed at her self. She was vexed and she was taking it out on her hair, how pathetic could she get? She groaned as she got up, her muscles were sore from being in the same place for hours. She still had to cook dinner and call the school to tell them that they would be receiving a new student tomorrow. She had told them about Aly, but had also made sure that they knew she still may not be allowed to go.

When she had called the office at the school the wasn't anyone there to answer so she had to leave a message. When she was done she called Aly down for dinner. Since tomorrow was a big day for her, she had made her, her favorite meal. When they both had sat down, there was an awkward silence because of the fact that they both had a disagreement. After a while I decided to break the silence, but as soon as we started to talk I could tell that we were both being extra polite and careful of what we said, so I let the conversation come to an end.

A☻N

The next morning when I woke up I jumped out of bed too excited to do anything else. I glanced over at my alarm clock and laughed with surprise. It was only four in the morning. I sighed; since I was up I decided that I might as well get ready to go to school. So I headed over to the bathroom I shared with my mom. I got into the shower and only got out when I started to prune. I got out dried off and headed back to my room to get dressed, it was my first day and I was pretty nervous so I could feel the butterflies in my stomach.

As the time went flying by I could feel my stomach get more and more sick. I wanted to skip, but if I did I’d just have to do everything all again tomorrow. Besides this had been what I wanted and my idea. Before I went down stairs to grab my breakfast I jumped online to send an E-mail to my sun buddy. When I was at the hospital I had met another girl who had the same problem as me, we had bonded right away. We chatted everyday and got together at least once a week. When I told her that I was going to school she couldn’t believe it. I knew that she was shy but not this shy. I tried to explain it to her, but I couldn’t.
E☺N

Eva woke up feeling horrible and nervous. Today Aly would be growing up, big time, and going off to High School. Aly and she had never been away from each other for very long. It had always felt that even though Aly was 17 that she was still her little baby girl, now her baby would be leaving the ‘nest’ for the first time and I just couldn’t accept that. I dragged myself down stairs so I could say good bye to Aly before she left. As I walked down the stairs I could hear her in the kitchen cleaning up. “You have to get going soon sweetie. If you don’t you’ll be late.” I called down to her. She said something to herself that I couldn’t make out.

When I got down the stairs and walked into the kitchen I almost started yelling. My daughter was dressed like a, well a popular girl might dress. So that was why she wasn’t too worried, she was planning on fitting in with the mean ones. I wanted to wish her luck it wouldn’t be easy. “Hey, since it is your first day at school can I take your picture and everything?” She sighed and shook her head in fake embarrassment. I ignored her and went to grab my camera.

When she was all set to go and I had filled up the memory on my camera, I waved good bye as she rounded the corner of the street. As I walked back into my house I wanted to cry, she was no longer my little girl. “Come on pull yourself together old girl. You had to let her go sometime, this way it will be easier.” I mumbled. I had to stop babying Aly and move on, she was a big girl. That really had been the only reason I didn’t want her to go. I had wanted to stop her from having a semi normal life just so she would never have to leave me. I had to accept that she couldn’t always stay with me. She had to go off on her own, so she could survive when I was gone.
A☻N

When I walked into the school it was like the hospital all over again. There was a faint odor of launch from the preveace year. And if the food was anything like how it smelled I would have to avoid it at all costs. Besides that the air tasted dry, you could almost feel the stress and overwhelming classes on the students. I walked over to the office to get my new schedule, the one that every one had gotten the day before at the open house they had every year so that you could get and find everything before the year actually started.

I took my pills earlier today so I didn’t have to worry about taking them again until launch, and then one before I went home, just in case. MY whole life I had tried to find a way to get into a real school, with normal kids and now that I was here. Well it just wasn’t all I had thought it would be. It’s funny you want everything that you can’t have, but as soon as you got it it wasn’t that great. I would have to deal with the chose I had made. Maybe I could change it later, but for now I would deal. I had always believed what ever I read in a book. I was gullible and easy to fool. That just proved how immature I really was, never had learned after being at home all the time, how could I? I would just have to work on that and learn what I could from this.



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This article has 5 comments.


Sparty said...
on Mar. 2 2009 at 2:56 am
Fun and easy reading.Moving betweeen characters kept my interest. Reminded me of John Grisham`s style! Good job.

on Mar. 1 2009 at 10:10 pm
great story caitlyn! thanks for sharing. keep on writing, i want to read more!

aaron said...
on Feb. 28 2009 at 2:14 pm
This is a great short story. Your views on how the "grass seems greener on the other side" is always true. Great job on changing perspective between the two characters!

Mary Jo said...
on Feb. 28 2009 at 12:51 am
Very interesting idea...I would like

to read more of your work

Izzy said...
on Feb. 27 2009 at 10:22 pm
WOW! For your first shot, great job. I was kinda confused about somethings, but it was overall pretty good. You might want to work on your detailing though. Somethings were super long, and others were short. Nice job, Kristen!