chapter 65

I have always been referred to as the " school's smartest kid" ,shy girl  or most recently, the tomboy, only my best friend Rachel and the rest of my family call me Tori . I used to be so much more than just a nerd but since dad died I just sort of morphed into someone else. 

My mom constantly complains of how boyish I have become but I really can't help it,  I just want to be myself. My sisters don't really make things easy at all, they're just every bit as annoying and womanly as my mom. 

Tiana the eldest is a total hottie, she's had a string of boyfriends all her life and was the one who broke up with them first. This year, her most recent boyfriend, Matt broke up with her and she went crazy. I don't even know how she's gonna survive school without a boyfriend, I just know that I love that she doesn't have one - this is the perfect thing to use in tormenting her!

Toni, my younger sister is just the most annoying of them all. Always waking me up everyday with her extremely horrible and loud music! I've told her several times that there are several ways she could wake me up but she just says " whatever" and launches into some obviously rehearsed speech that she thinks will magically make me girly like them. Her latest tool for annoying me is the fact that she now has a boyfriend , LIKE I CARE....

My mom, has always been the  Queen. I mean, it's literally in her blood! All her sisters had been crowned prom Queen and she wasn't any different. Well, she was because she was the only one who was also crowned Miss America in 1995. She's the one Tiana is trying so desperately to emulate in everything. 

As for me, like I said I'm known as the tomboy who's really shy. Even though I talk really good when I'm home, at school or some other public place , I'm really quiet and careful not to say too much. What people don't understand is that there's a very thin line between being shy and reserved and the latter totally describes me! 

People don't understand the travails of a reserved person who's constantly described as shy. It hurts because I can talk really loud, laugh and hang out with people at parties , keep a hundred persons in my contact list if I want to but  I just don't freaking want to!  That doesn't mean that I'm shy! But no one ever believes that, everybody see what they want to see and I can't blame them. You'd have to really know me before you can tell that I'm all sorts of fun - my family knows this. 

I'll admit that my family doesn't know me a hundred percent but someone came close to say... ninety percent and that was my dad and he's now resting in heaven. He used to be my best friend, there wasn't a thing about me that he didn't know and there wasn't a thing about him that I didn't know. Things have been hard since he died but we are all trying to be okay, trying to go back to being a family - only this time we have to do it without him. 

Anyway, today is my first day of school as a sophomore and I'm not thrilled at all. I had already studied ahead for this semester's work, so classes will be boring. I don't have any special extracurricular activities so... I'll just head home and binge watch movies on Netflix with Rachel or whatever. I prefer talking to her and the movie characters in my laptop screen than ' hanging out' or going to party with those teenagers. I'm too grown up for that.

I'm awake but still lazy to get up. I hear Toni leave her room and I know what is coming next.

" Good morning, sleepy head!" She yells as she enters my room and starts playing a really bad rock and roll song that immediately gives me a headache. 

As I sit up and watch her, her smile fades.

" You were already awake... What a miracle"

" Too bad... You didn't get your chance to torture me this morning with your terrible taste in music" I say as I get up from my bed. 

" You've had your bath?? Oh my goodness, Tiana! Mom! You have to see this"

" Shut up already, you don't have to shout " I say rolling my eyes.

"Oh I must, this has never happened before and I need to -"

" What what happened? Did she try the heels yet?" My mom says running into my room followed by Tiana. 

" What are you.... What heels?"

" Nothing!" They all say smiling in a manner that is incredibly suspicious to me. When my mom and Tiana realize that I was dressed already, they both try to process the situation in their brains.  It really isn't their fault, I have a terrible habit of sleeping late, waking up late, bathing late and then spending " eternity" before I pick something to wear.

" How is this even possible? " Tiana says.

" Yeah Tori, how is it possible that you got ready so early that you decided to catch up on sleep right after" Toni asks with her arms folded and they all stare at me expectantly. 

" It's a simple thing, I wake up late because I sleep late but....last night, I slept early which automatically caused me to  wake up early this morning. " 

" She even has less clothes scattered on the floor. There's hope!" My mom says smiling at Tiana and Tori who are smiling back at her.

" Yeah right.... I'm starting to morph back into a girly girl" I say with an obvious hint of sarcasm.

" You ARE a girly girl Tori and as far as tomboys go, you're not even close to Heather Banner's level so... you're not a tomboy - you're just trying so hard to be one" my mom says with a dry expression. The poor woman is getting tired of having to tell me things like this. 

"You're trying So hard" Tiana repeats, before my mom suddenly claps her hands and says; "Okay ladies! Let's go to the sitting room and say our goals!"

" Ugh! we don't have to do this anymore" Toni says when our mom leaves my room and then she stands up to follow her.

" Toni" I say, pulling her back so I could talk to her in private.

" What?"

" Look I know you don't care about this tradition but it's really important that you take it seriously. This is something dad would've wanted us to keep doing, besides it reminds mom of dad"

" Oh so I'm the one who doesn't know all that?" She asks a little annoyed. 

"No, I just want us to do this happily and enthusiastically so that mom - AND DAD  will be happy wherever he is" 

" Dad's Happy in heaven and as for mom Remembering dad, that's not a problem because all she needs to do is look at you " she says , smiling at me before she leaves  while I just stand there trying to understand why she would say that. Though I'm not like my sisters who are the spitting image of my mom, I equally resemble both my mom and dad so where did that come from? 

" Why would you say that?"

" Doesn't matter, let's go to the sitting room to say our goals" 

" Okay" I say smiling.

" Saying your goals" was a family tradition my father started on our first day of school when we were little. We would all sit down and list what we wanted to achieve that year and he would encourage us , telling us we could be whatever we wanted. Back then, my sisters and I had goals like wanting to be best in class, or wanting to be great inventors and things like that but when we got to our teens, it just got really stupid - especially for my sisters and that's exactly what is going to happen this morning. In as much as I don't want to listen to the nonsense my sisters will say this morning, I have to do it - because of dad because that's what he would've wanted.