Just Another High School Story!

-- The First Day After Summer Vacation--

Leah was driving a car, her car, Linda and Leah had both gotten a car after saving up, their parents used to give them pocket money, and Leah had earned some money by writing, her story was famous on a site called, "Read to Breathe", it was an internet website where she could upload her story, and earn money for it, it was free to the readers obviously, but it is a fair world, she was earning pretty decent money, at least for her, it seemed too much, she couldn't be more grateful, her story seemed to be attractive to people, she was gaining fame on social media too, there were people writing good things about her, this way her college life was set, she didn't know that hard work paid off, but now that she'd put in the work, more than the people who were praising her, she really felt great, because she was praising herself, hard work isn't bad when you enjoy the work, she liked working out now, she'd been doing it since forever, but results were showing right after she'd dropped her mindset of 'workout to lose weight, lose fat, lose something' and developed the mindset of 'do it because you love it'. She had stopped looking in the mirror to see whether she looked slimmer than she did yesterday, she didn't care anymore, it was too taxing to think so much about something that wasn't happening, and just as she stopped caring and shook her body to the beat because she loved the feeling, magic started happening, she fit into her jeans better, and the greatest thing about it was that she was receiving results for all her efforts, she'd come for in just three months but the battle wasn't over yet, who says that she was going to have it easy now, but that's exactly the point, life isn't perfect, its imperfection is what makes it beautiful, what gives it substance, everyone has heard the saying, "You won't learn if you don't make mistakes", and there are two kinds of people, some who totally diss this and say they'll never make a mistake and some who have realised that the case is otherwise, after being part of the first group of people. You don't just know something, trust me, no one ever just knows something, they come to know through experiences and exhaustion, through repetition, imperfection is perfection, because neither can exist without the other, it's impossible to know what something is without knowing something contrary to it, that's a principle I've observed and so did Leah, she realised that he could not help herself, if she had not needed it, if she was living unmindfully, and subconsciously, she would never have put in effort to find out who she was, and so she did, she found herself, but the journey wasn't without tears, without the urge to run away, to leave everything as it was, and hide in the darkness, she'd grown comfortable to, she found herself and it was sweet but now without the sour.

She'd cut her hair, she had had long hair, the length of hair could almost be measured with a metre scale but she cut it, she wanted change and she had been unhappy because of her hair, it always got in the way of her workouts and, everything and so she didn't shave shave it off, though god knows she wanted to, sometimes, really, really wanted to, but she just cut it short, she cut it until it touched her shoulders, and that was it, just like that, hair that she'd grown without knowing why was left in a trash can, and because of how well the hairstyle had turned out, she'd tipped the girl who'd done her hair extra, the girl was all compliments and now Leah could receive them with pride, with respect for herself and the person giving her the compliment, because she finally knew and believed she could speak well, something she had been able to do but never felt confident enough to, she had never felt confident in what she did, but now she was sure of herself, she was now really a 'queen', and that was what mattered, the mist around her true self had cleared, and who 'Leah' really was, was now crystal clear to herself. The three months, at least at that time she had thought that those three months had made her who she was, they didn't go by easily though, and you'll know how they went slowly, but first let's talk about what was happening at school. When Leah stepped out, she was almost head-butted to the ground, her old crowd was back with her, her soccer boys, and she had made a really great friend, Mia, the girl that worked at the cafe near her house, surprisingly she was someone who could totally relate to what Leah felt, Mia was kinda gothic and she liked horror stuff, and curls, and whatnot, but that wasn't the point, they both felt like misfits, perfect for each other, she'd thought she'd never find a friend who could accept her quirkiness, and add flavour to her own palette and enrich her mind with her experiences, in short, they were happy about their new friendship, both of them deserved something brilliant, and through conversations while Leah wrote her story in the cafe, late at night, they became the best of friends. All that she'd ever wanted was happening and Leah couldn't be less grateful, but she wasn't completely happy with things. Even amidst all the glamour, she missed E. The prince who wasn't hers anymore, now that she was a proper princess.

After their impromptu, wordless, a break up that wasn't even made official, everyone just kind of knew, no one had said anything about it, the weirdest break up because neither of the involved parties had actually said it out loud, Ethan had not contacted her even once, during the summer she'd ran into him once while looking around for clothes, she was shopping in the men's section because her style had changed, she was a fashionista, her own, at least, her style, her hair, body, mindset, life, everything was different, better, maybe she was the best she had ever been, but yet she had a regret, she had not done right by Ethan, she wanted him to see her happy, with food, all healed, the wounds he had given were healed, the words he'd said while he was in pain too, she'd forget, she'd forgiven, she knew she wanted him back, yet she couldn't face him, whenever he saw her, he ran away now, even when everyone was welcoming her, bumping fists, giving compliments, making small talk, and catching up, she'd not once seen Ethan look at her, not even a sideway glance, he was treating her as if she didn't exist, this was already a pain but what was going to happen was going to refresh buried wounds, it would feel as if she'd travelled to the past, she would become the queen with too many enemies, and she'd have to stand up this time, last time she had not once faced her fears, instead she'd been pitied by the heavens and Ethan had been sent away, but this time she'd have to face her problem, make it go away somehow, either way, this time, she had to face what she'd run away from, would she stand up for herself, or act like she used to, withdraw and fall back into old patterns, old routines, become the old her, the one she wanted to forget, did her newfound courage really exist or had she made it all up in her head?

Time would prove everything, as you will see!