Jenna

Friday The Birthday

Jenna. Everyone always treated her like she was just a name. She felt unloved by the woman who brought her to life. Everyone was always so focused on Jesse. She felt as though she had no purpose. The only time she feels safe, is in her favorite class: math. She is always called as soon as Mr. Stevens walks in. She gets lost in all the algebra and word problems. She always feels needed to solve the problem of the fantasy world and felt capable of doing this because math is her one true skill.  After math it is time to go home. She doesn’t really like her apartment or her family. Her mother treats her like trash, her brother is becoming ‘emo’, and her father only sleeps, eats, and complains. Hardly anyone at school knows her name, except for Alisha.. Sometimes in math, when her name is called, Alisha looks over to her. She always feels that, in a way, she has known Alisha all her life. She knows, though, that Alisha most likely does not feel the same way. Her mother used to work at the school, and always talked about Alisha. “Alisha is great! Alisha is so smart! Oh Jenna, why can’t you just be like Alisha?”. Jenna got so tired of this. Even now, Kiara, Jenna’s mother, sometimes asks how Alisha is doing.

    She always wanted to be friends with Alisha or Susan. They look so perfect in her perspective. Sometimes, she looks over and sees Jesse talking to them! ‘They’re so lucky!’ Jenna thinks. She’s always been an outcast. She always saw Adrian and related to him. No one bothers with either of them, but one of their differences is, people talk about Adrian. No one even bothers with Jenna at all. Sometimes, Jenna ponders the thought of suicide. The only person she can usually trust is her brother, Nico. Nico is pretty depressing, and it has worn off onto her. She now sees the glass of life as half empty, and has thought this since she was eleven. The only thing keeping her from committing suicide is the goals of becoming more than just this. She’s getting As and Bs, so she knows she’s accomplishing something.

    On her 14th birthday, which is coming up, she hopes that she will have some people at school wish her a happy birthday. That’s all she wants for her birthday. The Friday of her birthday arrived and she woke up slightly happier than usual. Soon after she woke up, Nico came in. “Happy sweet 14 or whatever” he said, holding back a smile. “Thank you. Hey, what time is it?”, she responded. He sighed then smiled and said ‘6:12’ and left the room. She got up, put on a cozy shirt, some jeans, socks, boots, and her favorite grey beanie. She made herself a bagel and a smoothie. She ate them as she packed her school bag. Then, she brushed her hair and teeth and left for school on her bike. When she arrived, she saw a little note in her locker. She opened it, and saw that it is from Susan. It read ‘I may not know you well, Jenna, but I’ve memorized most people’s birthday, and wanted to wish you a happy 14th birthday. ~Susan” . Now, she was very happy. She pranced through the halls to her first class, feeling the glass half full. The day went by well, and sometimes, she would bring out the note and read it to herself to make herself feel special and happy. Before math started and everyone was coming in and putting their stuff down, Jenna got up the guts and went over to where Susan had put her stuff down and poked her. “Huh? Oh hey Jenna!” “Hi! I just wanted to, erm.. thank you for the note! It really made my day.” Susan smiled. “Ya, of course!” Jenna didn’t know how to reply and stood there for a second awkwardly. “Well I better go sit down” she said at last, “class is about to start. Thanks again!” She walked over to her seat and sat down. “No problem!” she heard. Just then, Mr. Stevens walked in and shouted her name. “Here!” she shouted with great enthusiasm. He stopped for a second, surprised. Then went back to roll call. She listened to all the names roll off his tongue. “.. and Adrian” “Here…” Adrian mumbled. Math began. As usual, class went by fairly quickly. Nothing too out of the ordinary. But then, as a last word problem, Mr. Stevens used Jenna’s name as the main person in the problem. She was very happy about this. She had had a fantastic day. She packed up her bags and rode home. She came home and saw Nico had already arrived. She walked in and saw a beautiful, fresh red velvet cake on the counter. Nico popped up from behind the couch. “Hello! Happy birthday!” He ran over, hugged her, then put the candle that said ‘14’ in the cake. He got out the lighter from the drawer and began to sing ‘happy birthday to you’. Jenna had a huge smile on her face. She was happy and surprised. Nico was never this happy. But today he is, and just for her. Their parents aren’t home yet, thankfully. Otherwise Carl, the father, would’ve already stuffed the cake in his face and washed it down with Bud Light. After he finished singing, she clapped and he said, “Happy birthday little sis.” She was so happy that she hugged him and squeezed him. He tried to say “thanks… but I can’t… breathe!” She understood him and let him go. After catching his breath, he ran to his room and brought out a box wrapped in wrapping paper with cute and spunky skulls and crossbones. “Got you a present!” She squealed and took the box. “Thank you, thank you, Thank you!!” She began to unwrap the box. She opened it up and there was a purple lava lamp. “Oh my goodness! I love you!! Thank you so so much, Nico!!” She ran and put it in her room. She set it up and turned it on. It was beautiful. Nico soon came in after her and put out a little bag. She didn’t notice for a moment, but when she did, she said, “Another? Woah.” and opened it. It was a little cactus. She put it right by her mirror. “This is perfect! Thank you so much!” She remembered the cake when she saw him still holding the lighter and ran to the kitchen. She grabbed the cake knife and walked over to cut the cake.

“The birthday girl never cuts the cake!” she heard Nico say. “Well then, I guess I’m a rebel.” she replied. All of a sudden, they heard pounding from the ceiling.
“Allie’s home” Nico said with a sigh. “Yep. She has Ed and Mikey this weekend”. After Jenna cut the cake, they each brought a slice into the living room and watched the new episode of The Big Bang Theory.

After the episode was over, They heard the sound of Kiara’s Toyota Camry pull into the parking lot. Nico took the plates and began to clean up. “Thanks again, brother. I can’t thank you enough. Now that we’ve had our fun, I better start on my homework”. “Sounds good” Nico said as he turned off the water, “I’ll make casserole tonight. From scratch.”
“Yum! Thanks!” Jenna said pulling out her history homework.
Kiara walked in.
“How are my darlings?”
Nico looked over and said, “Pretty good. Want some cake?” She looked at the cake.
“Ooh! Yum! Looks pretty good! I’ll have some after a bit. Did you get it just for me?”
Nico rolled his eyes and stared at her with a look that said ‘Really?’. “What?” Jenna sighed and lightly shook her head, still reading from the textbook.
Nico said bluntly “It’s Jenna’s birthday, mother!”
Kiara had a moment of realization. “Oh, that’s right! Brainfart! Ha ha!” She trailed off laughing nervously. “Happy birthday, Jen”. She looked up. “Thank you, but don’t call me Jen, please”.
Kiara just walked away and mumbled ‘fine!’ under her breath. About an hour or so later, Jenna had finished her homework and Nico’s casserole was ready. She ran into the kitchen while Kiara was on the phone with Caterina, their old neighbor. She grabbed the biggest piece, put it on her plate and sat in the dining room, ready to eat. Nico called Kiara to the table.
“Mother! Food’s ready!” After a moment, they heard a reply saying ‘okay!’ and her saying goodbye to Caterina. After dinner was finished, they heard the Ford F150 pull into the parking lot.

Jenna cleaned up her dishes and went to her room to read the romance novel she was in the middle of called ‘Not If I See You First’. Carl walked in. “Hello, family! What’s for dinner?”. Nico, walking to his room, said “Casserole”. After Nico had left, Kiara whispered, “Did you remember it was Jenna’s birthday?” Carl said, “Well, I thought there was something special today, but I couldn’t remember what.” She sighed. “Ok, well, help yourself.” After Jenna got tired, she slipped into her regular oversized T-shirt and sweatpants that fit her perfectly, she knew she would grow out of them soon enough, and got ready for bed. ‘At least 2 people remembered my birthday and I still got 2 presents. Maybe we’ll do something fun tomorrow, as a belated birthday’ she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

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More parts to come! Next chapter is just 'fluff' btw (meaning the majority is just for fun and pointless 😜)