21st July

That moment in your life when you realise discrimination was a thing.

Gasp!

Well hello there! Welcome welcome to my very own show! Hi, I'm gonna be your guide for today, so let's bring us around this story I've concocted, alright?

So one day, one fine day, one very fine day, a child lost her father.

'Where's the setup?'

'Boo! What kind of story starts at the end?'

Shush now, I know what I'm doing. I think.

So it all started when the father told the daughter, "Hey, I'm gonna get some milk."

Not actually those words, but the point is that he left the house and called for a cab. Meanwhile, the daughter and wife of the guy decided to surprise him when he got home. They were going to make his favourite dish. Egg and Bacon sandwich.

They were happily waiting for him to return.

Tick, tick.

Tick, tick.

Ring, ring.

"Maybe it's daddy," The mother said to her daughter, who was starting to feel down.

The mother picked up the phone, the daughter hanging around nearby, her eyes gleaming with excitement for news of her father's return. But before her mother could even say a word, she told her daughter, "Could you go arrange the plate for a while?"

The daughter was young. She was too excited for her father to reach home. So oblivious to the fact that her mother was speaking in a hushed tone, intentionally making sure none of what she said reached the young child's ear.

"Eggie and Bacon~" The child sang a small song as she placed plates on the table.

"Stay home for a bit," Her mother told her. "Mommy will be going out. Make sure you don't let anyone in, okay?"

"What about Daddy?" The child asked.

"Daddy won't be coming home just yet."

While her mother was gone, she remained in a small apartment building by herself. In the background, a clock ticked obnoxiously.

Tick. Tick.

She fell asleep.

The child was shaken awake by her mother, who immediately hugged her child. Her mother was crying and shivering. Turns out, when the father left and took a cab, they were hit by a drunk driver. Two pedestrians, the father and the drunk driver were killed. The cab driver was so injured that he would be on life support for years.

Just like that, lives were lost.

I remember this story very well. Don't bother to ask why, I just remember these kinds of things. Anyone ever just randomly remembers specific stories really well? I remember the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rather well.

Okay, why don't we just start out with what everyone does in the morning?

I woke up.

What did you expect? Well, I guess not everyone wakes up in the morning, so that's understandable.

I sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes. Damn, imagine still being tired after just waking up. Couldn't be me.

I staggered my way over to the bathroom, not feeling great at all. Finished up with my routine and got out of the bathroom. However, I did not immediately leave my room, instead, just sat on my bed, staring at the ground for a few moments.

When I was done doing whatever the fuck I was doing, I got onto my feet, a smile on my face.

"Good morning!" I greeted my family when I left my room.

"Good morning," My Mom greeted me back. "I'll be returning home later today, so sort out your own dinner, okay?"

"Oh, what's the occasion?" I inquired.

"Going out for dinner with a few friends," She replied.

I nodded while making my way toward the dining table. Fable was still in his room. At least, I'm guessing he's still in his room.

There was a box of cereal and a jug of milk on the dining table.

I got a bowl from the kitchen along with a spoon. After I sat down, my Mom patted my head, telling me, "Got word that you've been breaking fewer school rules lately."

"They literally changed the school rules because of me," I responded. "I don't think those counts. Besides, what other rules are there to break?"

"Just don't get yourself expelled, okay?"

"I mean, I'll try?"

Dad was sitting at the dining table too, sitting directly to my right. He was reading the paper, so I asked him, "Anything interesting going on?"

"Around these parts? Not much," He told me. "The Governor recently announced the construction of a theatre."

"Oh, okay," I shrugged.

"Not the movie theatre kind, a performance theatre," He elaborated. "Where people can act or play music with an audience."

I sat up. "Oh, that is interesting."

Strong emphasise on 'is'.

"Yeah, maybe one day you'll find a place to perform instead of telling us you want to be an actress all the time," My Mom joked.

Dad seemed to get reminded of something while I was shovelling a bunch of cinnamon toast crunch breakfast cereal into my mouth. He pulled his phone out and showed me an advertisement he had screenshotted. It was an advertisement for auditions for an upcoming film role for those between the ages of 16 and 20.

"I saw this while scrolling through Facebook," Dad explained.

"Of course you did."

"I thought that you might be interested," He added. "Who knows? If you make it in, you'll be famous in no time."

I stared at the advertisement for a few more seconds before nodding and looking away from the phone.

"When is it?" My Mom asked.

"This Saturday," He said, his voice dying as he talked.

"Yep, the registration deadline was weeks ago," I informed. "Wouldn't apply to me even if I wanted to go."

"Oh," Dad said softly, obviously disappointed.

My Mom patted him on the back. "Don't worry. I'm sure there's another opportunity for her out there."

"There's an audition happening right before Christmas," I added. "It's to play a role in a stage performance happening end of next year."

Before my Mom or Dad could ask another question, I told them, "Oh, I signed up for it ages ago."

"And you never told us about it?" My Mom asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't?"

There were a few seconds where we just kinda looked at each other. Not too sure if it was my memory capability or my Mom's memory capability at fault here. She eventually shrugged and said, "Alright, we'll get to that when it gets closer, yeah?"

"It's months away," I agreed.

"What kind of role is it?" Dad questioned.

I put my spoon down to think about it. "Well, it's a stage performance, so that's exciting. I much prefer plays to films. I think it's to act out some folktale? They wanted actors between the ages of 18 and 25, so I just signed up."

"Are you serious about seeking acting as your future career?" My Mom asked a genuine question.

"I don't know."

"Cause we can send you to acting school if you really want to."

I paused before shaking my head, telling her, "Yeah, no point in doing that right now."

Fast forward a little and I am on my way to school. It was earlier than usual, so I didn't see Fable wake up. My bet is that he's gonna be late for school.

Well, I checked the weather forecast on the bus just to know if I was gonna need my umbrella. Turns out, a twenty percent chance of rain in the evening.

Great. A 20% chance of rain when I'm making my way home.

That's pretty good odds.

Walking into class, it felt like I had been doing the exact same thing for the longest time. I greeted everyone who was in class, "Good morning!"

Standing at the front of the class, I put my fingers together when I saw a cute girl beside a classmate. It was the crazy girl that threatened to do all sorts of things to me if I tried to steal her boyfriend. Remember her?

She was busy chatting with her guy, so I snuck up on them.

"Yeah, I'll be free on Saturday," The guy told her.

"Great!" She said excitedly, turning around to type something on her phone.

The moment she turned around, I could see the regret flash over her eyes. She frowned when she saw me. Without acknowledging me, she turned back to face her boyfriend.

"Good morning," Her boyfriend greeted.

"What y'all talking about this early in the morning?" I asked.

The girl muttered something too soft for me to hear, but her boyfriend definitely heard her. He told me, "Chatting."

I glanced one last time at the girl, who was giving her all to just straight up ignore my existence. Well, whatever, not that I care about it anyway.

At my seat, I just looked around, not talking to anyone. Just kinda in my own space.

I was just trying to list out as many fast-food restaurants as I possibly could in my head. Spoiler alert, not in the triple digits. So, when you see a female classmate sitting at her seat trying to think about why the heck fast food places decided to have fries, what do you do? If your answer is to walk up to her and start talking, what's up with you?

Also, sup'?

I looked up when someone walked into my line of sight. I put on a wide smile. Most of the other students turned to face me and the girl who walked up to me. Even the couple in the background glanced at us.

"Good morning," Candace said to me.

A flash of hesitance crossed her eyes, her smile was shaking slightly before stabilising. Something about Candace looked different today. As I stared at her, she raised an eyebrow at me, asking, "Aren't you gonna say it back?"

I chuckled lightly. After adjusting my seating position, I leaned forward, put my arms on the desk and rested my upper body over my arms. "Good morning~"

I pointed up at her in my surprisingly flexible position. "By the way… When did you stop applying makeup?"

"A couple of days ago, I think?" She replied, making direct eye contact.

She was being rather… intimidating with her gaze.

"Do I…" I could already see the regret forming on her face as she started talking. "Look better this way?"

Oh you, what a cheeky girl~

"Hm…" I tilted my head. "Still pretty."

Sail your ships boys and girls, it has officially begun. My Dear Candace has finally decided to play along with this little rumour of mine.

Before any more flirting could continue, her two remaining friends swept her up. Huh, I guess they're still friends?

Gotta love it.

Ding Dong Bing Bong, lessons are starting.

When the bell rang, the girlfriend of that guy with curly hair immediately ran out of the classroom. She coincidentally ran by Mr Dohl, who was just entering the classroom at the time. He turned to watch her run off, slightly confused.

He pointed his thumb behind him, asking, "She's not from this class, right?"

Oh wow.

During class, I was minding my own business as per the usual when the teacher brought up a really interesting topic. He randomly brought up the fact that his wife baked Mac N Cheese. I like Mac N Cheese and all, but honestly, a little too much cheese for my liking. I know, I know, it's literally in the name of the dish.

So so so, break time!

I did my usual thing, which meant that I sat around in class as I waited for most of my classmates to leave. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Candace being engaged in a heated discussion with her pals.

Wish I could read lips or something, that would be cool.

"You're serious?" One of her pals exclaimed.

They glanced over at me, the two friends looking at me with a mix of shock and disbelief. Wait, is shock and disbelief the same thing? They're different, right? Yeah, should be different. No way they made different words have the same meaning.

I waved at them.

Candace made her way toward me, walking with the poise of your average schoolgirl. She walked like a normal human, basically. She slammed her hand on my desk and boy was I excited for whatever was gonna happen!

"Hello~," I said as seductively as I could.

"Let's eat together," She said in a rather assertive tone.

"Really? Have we done this before? I feel like we've done this before," I joked, glancing over to her friends to ask, "Have we done this before? Damn, I can't remember anything well, huh?"

Her two friends started whispering to each other as they left the classroom.

"Dear Candace," I started talking. "Oh how long I have waited for you to ask me out!"

I stood up from my seat, beaming. I then stood beside her as we walked, pressing my shoulder against her. As we walked, a couple of people stared at us. I held onto Candace's arm.

"You know, I liked us better before," I commented on our way to the cafeteria, whispering softly to Candace's ear. "What happened?"

Candace glanced around, noticing the stares of others. She gritted her teeth, replying, "Just thought it was unhealthy to continue down that path."

"Not all relationships have to be vanilla and wholesome, you know."

Candace turned to face me, our faces were really close to each other. She leaned away slightly while I leaned closer to her. She asked me, "What are you trying to do?"

"Get closer to you," I stated bluntly.

I glanced over to the side, Candace's gaze also following my eyes. The popular group of guys walked toward us, perhaps slipping under Candace's radar. Along with them, was Mr Popular himself. Behind them, the usual group of fangirls silently stalked them. I grinned, telling Candace, "Hey look, Mr Popular himself."

Her gaze lingered on him for a couple of seconds until he noticed us as well.

How did he notice us? Well, it's kinda hard to miss two girls standing really close to each other with green hair and blond hair respectively. I extended a hand to wave more as a joke than anything, but Candace pulled me aside.

"Woah," I randomly said as she pulled me.

Mr Popular let down his half-raised arm, continuing along his path and chatting with his pals. I did tell him not to interact with me in school, but oh what hilarity it would be if he approached us right now. But then again, he is actively avoiding Candace.

"Let's find seats quick," Candace told me.

"Why the rush? We've still got… hold on, let me check the time…"

I pulled out my phone to check the time. "Say, slightly more than thirty minutes. Damn, what was I doing most of this break?"

"Being weird, now let's hurry," She insisted, dragging me further away from the popular group.

I see~

Luckily enough, we found seats. How did we find them? Well, let me tell you a tale of great conquest! We just walked up and sat down, what did you expect?

We got some food and sat at the table we reserved by leaving it and hoping no one else wanted to sit there.

Yeah, no one wanted to sit there. Weird.

"Really love these noodles," I chatted with Candace on the way back to our seats. "You won't believe the type of spice they pack! I can't even handle spice!"

"You don't say…" Candace said, kinda sounding uninterested.

She had gotten a similar dish from the same stall. She glanced down at her food, commenting, "I don't think I've had these before."

Candace, Candace. Why do you sound so tired?

"Makes sense," I nodded. "People don't usually go to that stall. No clue why though. The food there is great!"

"By the way, are you good with spice?" I asked as we sat down.

"I like spice," She shrugged. "Can't handle the really spicy dishes though."

"What did you get?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You were standing next to me, how the f- ahem, I got the medium spice."

"Got mild."

Candace didn't look too happy as we ate. People who recognised us glanced over, probably confused by the sight. Candace lowered her head, not interacting much as we ate.

"So, Candace, what's your body count?" I asked randomly.

She looked up at me, looking slightly concerned. "You're going to make me lose my appetite."

"Just a genuine question," I insisted. "I mean, you had that older guy with you that called you 'Candy', right? Forgot his name though."

"Who? Lokesh?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "What about that bastard?"

"Huh?"

"You thought we were dating?" She asked.

I swear, by the tone she was using, it felt like she was going to start saying 'the blasphemy' any moment now.

"I met him one day through some friends I had, and agreed to hang out with him a couple of times," She started ranting. "Nothing happened between us and that misogynistic fuck thinks he owns my entire life!"

"Wow," I said before inhaling. "He doesn't sound friendly."

"What? Did he tell you something?" She inquired. "And no, I haven't slept with anyone. Why would you think that?"

Fair point.

I put my hands up. "Was just curious 'cause that older guy insisted you two were dating."

She looked away, scowling.

Guess they weren't on the best of terms, huh? This is getting spicy. Right now, I wanna talk to the guy in question and get his whole opinion on this. Unfortunately, though, he doesn't attend this school.

After we were done eating, we made our way back to class, this time walking side by side without touching each other. Candace looked kinda pissed off the entire time, so in order to cheer her up, I started talking, "Aw, hope I didn't get you in too bad of a mood."

"It's nothing," She pushed me away when I tried getting closer.

Why so cold?

"So, Candy," I continued speaking. "Can I call you Candy?"

"Hell no."

"Right, red flag, huh?"

I laughed lightly before slinging an arm over her shoulders. She pushed the arm off. Well, first of all, that was rude, second of all, I saw a girl with hot pink hair. When my line of sight followed the girl, the girl took one glance at Candace before leaving.

"By the way, why did you decide to be a blond?" I questioned Candace.

"Then why did you decide to dye your hair green?" Candace countered. "None of your business, so fuck off."

Touche.

There was a moment of silence.

"Y-" I was starting to talk before Candace interrupted.

"We need to have a private talk," Candace said to me.

"Are you going to beat me up again?" I joked.

She gave me a 'What do you think of me as?' look. What? If you've been bullied by this girl for close to three years, it's a logical assumption.

I gestured to some of the injuries I had on me. "I may look like I enjoy this, but honestly, it really hurts, so no thanks. Not into that foul kinky shit."

I grinned, getting closer. I was basically walking into Candace's right arm. "Sorry to disappoint you, love."

Candace was very visibly cringing.

"I'm not gonna beat you up or anything," Candace said, looking away but not pushing me away. "I just wanted to talk about something important."

"Suuuuuuure," I agreed without hesitation. "Just tell me when and where."

"After school."

"I'm down."

We were right outside the class, everyone staring as we walked in. Candace split from me, walking back to her group of friends. You know, ever since Candace returned, she just hasn't been the same.

I swung my arms as I walked to my seat.

My oh my.

While waiting for the class to start, I noticed most of my classmates checking their phones. Holy shit they look like Fable. So I also did my best Fable impression and looked through my phone as well.

Apparently, earlier this morning, Catherine sent me a text.

It was a selfie of her at a doughnut shop. I could tell since it had an array of doughnuts in the background lined up in the typical Dunkin Donuts style. She had an exaggeratedly forced smile, her eyes looking like she was dead. Catherine's hair was done up as well, and she looked like she applied some makeup.

'Intern getting doughnuts.' Catherine sent a text along with the picture.

'You should get a coffee too." I texted back before putting my phone away.

"Alright class, as the exams are approaching, we do need to finish your revision," The teacher said the moment she walked in. "As such, I shall bribe all of you with a pizza party when the exams are over."

There was some light cheering, but nothing much.

"An actual pizza party," She added. "With a lot of pizza. What else would y'all want?"

"Doughnuts?" I suggested.

"Alright, we'll have doughnuts too."

"Wooo!" I cheered by myself.

When several of my classmates turned around to face me, I shrugged, "What? It's free food."

Lessons proceeded. I don't really care much about the whole pizza party thing, but I am interested in the whole Catherine situation. I knew she was interning, but being an intern seems hard, huh? I mean, she's still in University, and I think she graduates this year. Damn, is Catherine finally gonna get a job at 30?

But hey, that's a long time from now. I might not even be around to see it.

You never know~

After. School.

Screw the school bell, I'm with Candace.

She stood beside where I sat, telling me, "C'mon, follow me."

"You aren't going to take me to our usual place, right?" I started joking.

"The usual place?" Candace raised an eyebrow.

"You know, the place where you lay your hands on me, touch me in ways other people don't touch," I continued the joke, getting a few glances from students we were passing by.

"What the fuck?"

I waved that statement aside.

"Anyway-" I tried to change the topic to no avail.

"Wait, let me get this one question out of the way first," Candace cut in, pointing at me. "Are you gay?"

"Wow, what a question!" I laughed.

I put a finger to my chin and then tried to look at Candace as seductively as I could. "Why? You want me?"

I laughed, turning away from Candace. Candace scowled, arguing, "You act like that and think people won't make assumptions?"

"Yeah, that's the whole point," I nodded along.

We continued walking as I genuinely tried to think about it. I answered, "Well, I mean, if you think about it, it may seem that way, huh? I used to be aggressively straight, like, straighter than a ruler."

I shrugged. "Don't really have much interest in any of that stuff now."

She brought me to a place where there were lesser people walking around. I swayed on my feet as Candace tried to be as serious as possible. I randomly commented, "So… you planning to bang?"

"What. The. Fuck?" Candace exclaimed.

"You were making hints at me," I defended myself, putting my hands up. "But yeah, just joking."

I chuckled waving aside the joke. "So, whatcha wanna talk about?"

There was some hesitation showing on Candace's face as she took her time to think about the questions she wanted to ask. Meanwhile, I was busy checking out the option in the vending machine nearby.

"What do you think of Otto?" Candace asked.

"He's Mr Popular, right?" I asked to confirm.

"Mr Popular?" Candace repeated what I said, raising an eyebrow.

"I suck ass at names," I defended myself. "In fact, it took me about a year to remember your name, and you were constantly beating the shit out of me."

"Fuck, what do you think of him?"

I looked away from the vending machine, thinking about it. I mean, he did call me out to have a meal with him, and he likely has a crush on me. I don't know though, mostly through speculation at this point.

"You know, ever since you told me he liked me, I've been meaning to confirm it with him," I replied.

Candace looked away.

"I mean, seems silly, right?" I joked with Candace. "Seems like a trope you would see in some rom-com. The oh-so-handsome popular guy falls for the unpopular bullied nerd in class. Seems dumb to me."

I shrugged. "Who knows? He might just be using me too."

"Point is, I don't like him in the slightest," I finished.

I could see a hint of hope in Candace's expression.

"A year ago I would have been fucking thrilled to have that guy even look at me," I added on for the laughs. "Seriously, he attracts too much attention. Now though, I don't really see his appeal. What's so special about the guy?"

I was trying to play it off as a joke, but Candace didn't seem too happy about what I just said. Before she could send me to Hell, I put my hands out, telling her, "Just my opinion though, don't get so mad."

"I'm not mad," Candace grumbled.

"You seem mad to me."

Candace wasn't talking as much as I hoped she would. So while I was just swaying around while standing around, I asked her, "So… girl talk, how did this crush on Mr Popular happen?"

"None of your business," Candace brushed me off, walking away.

I walked after her, hanging by her side, "Well, I'm just wondering why he's so insistent on staying away from you."

When she didn't respond, I added, "Could it have something to do with how you beat up his girlfriends? Bully them? Didn't you guys date for like, a solid week?"

Candace immediately grabbed my collar, her other arm raised up to punch me. Her eyes were wide, very obviously pissed off. She hesitated, then put her arm down. "Who told you that?"

"Mr Popular himself, innit?" I replied honestly.

Candace let go with a slight push. I then brushed my uniform a little. Candace was headed to the main gate of the school to presumably leave the school. I can't have that. So I asked her, "I thought you were gonna start beating the shit out of me."

"Fuck off," Candace said, not even turning around.

"You're gonna leave the school already?" I asked her.

She didn't even bother to reply.

"I was thinking we could spend some time together, you know," I continued talking. "Hang out in school, find some places which others won't find us. Kinda like a game of hide-and-seek, but the seekers are the teachers."

Candace stopped in place.

"Considering it?" I mused, getting close to her.

She took a shaky breath before putting a hand in front of my face. She said simply, "Just… just leave me alone, okay?"

"Alright, I'll stop here," I agreed.

As she walked off, I said after her, "We never actually established what we are. Are we friends or are we lovers?"

Candace did not give a reply.

Standing in the middle of the hallway awkwardly, I ended up going in a different direction instead.

I went to the closest bathroom which conveniently had nobody in it. I washed my face before yawning. Rubbing my eyes. Right after, I just chilled in the bathroom for a bit, scrolling through my phone. Club was about to start, but I didn't feel particularly energised or anything.

Catherine had responded to my message not long after I had sent it. It was a simple picture of a box of doughnuts and a cup of coffee.

That's cool.

I slapped my face a couple of times before stepping out, a bright, or what I hoped was a bright smile, on my face. Club activities! Aren't those fun? What in the world am I gonna bake today?

Let's be honest, I don't have to talk to anyone except the guy that works at the same work table as I do, that being Ted. When I walked in, I saw Ted already at the table with a couple of bruises and scratches on his face.

When he noticed my stares, he tried hiding them.

"Teddy Roosevelt got beat up, eh?" I joked when I sat beside him. "What happened?"

"Oh, uh… some guys wanted to find trouble, that's all," Ted replied.

"Hm… I see," I nodded along to his story. "But why though?"

"Why?"

"Unless it's because you're skinny, I don't particularly see why people would want to bully you," I explained. "Unless you got some dark secret you aren't telling me."

Ted shook his head, looking away, "The same could be said about you."

The session began and we were off baking.

"Heard that the Captain of the Tennis Team transferred to a different school a couple of weeks ago," I randomly brought up while slapping a bag of flour.

"Yeah, he left while I was still around," Ted confirmed. "Where did you hear about this?"

"I don't know, heard it from some of the other girls at the time," I shrugged. "Randomly remembered it now for some reason."

We continued to work in silence. I was about to ask him a question, but after taking a look at him, I decided to shut my mouth. He wasn't Candace. Instead, I joked with him, "But hey, you're in the Baking Club now, huh?"

He cracked an awkward smile. "Guess I am."

"You know you're popular here?" I randomly pointed it out.

"I am?" He asked, flustered.

"Considering how you're the only guy we have, I wouldn't be surprised."

Ted chuckled, "Please don't joke about something like that."

"Planning anything next year?" I questioned. "You'll be a second year, you'll probably be involved in the Summer Festival around… June, I think."

"I've been thinking about that, actually," Ted said with some enthusiasm. "I was thinking of selling fresh baked goods with an area where people can sit down and eat, but they can also have it on hand as well."

He continued droning on and on about his plans.

End of the Club, I waved to the only person I talked to off before leaving for home. On the way back, since my Mom's gonna be running a tad bit late, I stopped by a Subway to grab a quick sandwich.

Eat fresh.

No junk food here. Unless you want to argue that Subway is junk food.

I chilled in my room for the rest of the night. I don't really have much else to do other than finish some schoolwork before writing some stuff down in my diary. Flipping through the pages, I can't believe it has already been 21 days.

Time's ticking.

Well, everyone needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night, so I gotta get that real quick. Before I go though, let's show our appreciation to all the cows out there that go 'moo'. A moment of silence for the cows that stopped going 'moo'.

…

Not going Vegan though.

Aight, goodnight!