Perspective

Reese's Perspective.

Reese Tannenbaum’s P.O.V:

         I woke up that morning feeling strange, as if something was destined to happen. It was an unusual feeling, one I’d only gotten twice before. The first was when I was eight and it was Christmas morning, and my two sisters and I had received tickets to Disney World. The second was the first day of high school, where I instantly became wildly popular. That’s how I knew that something good was going to happen today.

          Because of this promising feeling in the pit of my stomach, I wore my favourite pair of Lululemon yoga pants, and sprayed my wrists with my newly-acquired Abercrombie perfume. It’s going to be a good day, I told myself over and over again. But I knew that it was going to be more than just good, it was going to be life changing, just like my MAC Happy Together Blush.

          I examined myself in my bathroom mirror, thinking I looked pretty good, minus the small zit on my forehead. I’d taken a small-barrel curling iron to my long, golden blonde hair and it had turned out into perfect ringlets. I smiled, proud of myself. I allowed myself one final squirt of hairspray, and then headed downstairs.

          When I stepped into the kitchen, I realized that my sisters, Olivia and Cassidy, seemed incredibly excited about something. Olivia was younger than me, in the eighth grade, while Cassie was going to graduate high school in a few months. Olivia had hair like mine, except it was more of a white-blonde, while Cassidy was the brunette of the family.

          “You two look happy.” I commented as I slid on to one of bar stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

          “We are. Mom brought us each Danishes from that new Dutch bakery that just opened on Main Street.” Cassidy smiled. Her love for pastries was not well-hidden, and neither was my mother’s distaste towards anything with calories.

          “Wow,” I said, as I fluffed my hair. “Give me mine.”

          “You took too long upstairs so Cass and I split it.” Olivia grinned, as she swallowed the last of her Danish.

          “What?” I gasped. “How horrible. Today is supposed to be a good day.” I pouted at them.

          “Why’s that?” Cassidy asked.

          “Just a feeling. Now, since you two ate my Danish, can you put some bread in the toaster please and pass me the box of Lucky Charms?”

          Cassidy did as I asked while I grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and some milk from the fridge. “Eat your breakfast quickly, Reese, I have to be at school early to ask my teacher some questions about the Physics test before it starts.”

          “Yeah, yeah.” I said through mouthfuls of rainbow-shaped marshmallows. “Where’s Mom?”

          “She went out for a jog. It’s actually a nice morning. I think we’re passed the rain.”

          “Hm,” I murmured, as my toast popped out of the toaster. I dipped a butter knife into the jar of peanut butter that had been left out on the counter and spread it on top. The sound of the knife scraping against the crispy bread made me lick my lips.

          I ate quickly, and had just enough time to throw on a turquoise, velour Juicy hoodie as I walked out the door. I slipped into the passenger seat of Cassidy’s silver BMW (it was used so not really all that impressive), and checked how my eye makeup was holding up in the mirror.

          “You are obsessed with your appearance.” Olivia said from the backseat.

          I flipped the mirror up and spun around to glare at her. “I most certainly am not.”

          “Yes you are. That’s why people don’t like you.”

          I laughed, shortly and bitterly, at this. “People like me just fine. Better than fine, actually. Everybody’s my friend. Except for the sketchy ones, and the ones I don’t like.”

          “All the girls in my class think you’re really mean and stuck-up.” Olivia shot back, clearly passionate about this whole issue.

          I rolled my eyes at her as Cassidy drove us through our lush, green neighbourhood. “Do you really think I care what eighth-graders think of me? The answer is, no, I don’t.” I slid on my Ray-Ban sunglasses to block out the glare of the sunlight seeping through the windshield.

          Cassidy laughed breezily, her head tilting back so the light caught the shine in her light brown hair. “Oh, Olivia. Those girls are just jealous of Reese. Do they really even know her? They probably just creep her Facebook profile pictures and wish they looked like her, and since they don’t, they choose to hate her. But I bet you one million dollars that if Reese walked up to one of them right now, they would fall all over themselves complimenting her.”

          “Oh, Cass.” I blushed. “I’m not really that pretty. In fact, haven’t you noticed how fat my calves have been getting? I nearly have cankles!” I giggled a little at this, although there was a bit of a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought. I’d stopped going to the gym lately, and I did think the effects were starting to show.

          Cassidy just shook her head, not going to even bother to argue with me. Her reaction immediately took me back to science class last Monday, when Cameron had done the exact same thing when I explained my cankle trouble to him.

          His green eyes had shone, so piercing and mysterious...  I wanted him so badly. And that wasn’t a good thing. He was dating my best friend, after all. But I couldn’t help it. He was just so handsome and so perfect.

          Unfortunately, Kieran Glover had interrupted the glorious moment where Cam had denied my having cankles, by asking some stupid question about if ionic compounds were electrolytes. It was stupid because I obviously wouldn’t know. I was failing the class with a forty-eight percent, and Kieran knew that. He probably was just looking for an excuse to talk to me.

          Kieran Glover was a boy with some sort of a sick, dark sense of humor, and I was stuck with him as my lab partner. Why couldn’t Mr. Martin have paired me with Cam? That would have been perfect! I think he has something against me.

          I rolled my window down, letting the slightly warm breeze ruffle through my hair, giving my curls that perfect soft, windblown look. A small smile lit my lips. Even though Cameron wasn’t mine, and probably never would be, today would be another fantastic day in my favourite place, high school. I felt good, and I knew I looked good, so there was nothing to fear. Except my math test. Forgot about that.