Transformation, the beginning

Diary, 23

When I get home, I change my clothes and lay down on the couch. I close my eyes trying to relax but my phone that keeps buzzing makes it impossible. I grab it and see messages in the family groups chat.

Christina:
Good afternoon family, do you want to come over Saturday, just for fun.  Game night and pizzaaa!

Mom:
Yes, we are present.

OK, so we're going to Christina on Saturday. At the thoughts of that visit, the image of a wolf walking out of the woods pops in my head. That was the place this all started, going there will never be normal again.

I finish my homework and want to sit on my bed to watch a movie or something. When I grab my phone, I see a message from Daniëlle. She sent me a video of the new choreography she learned. I look at my ankle, actually, I could already dance. My crutches are downstairs and I have been walking around the house on my own strength. It is not completely healed yet, but just trying to dance won't hurt. I play the video and try to copy the moves. I turn on the song, a mix from Kriss Kross and Party from Chris Brown, on my laptop and watch the video a few times. There is a large piece of free space next to my bed, where I now stand and start dancing. I have to stop the music and watch the video again multiple times. After half an hour my ankle starts to hurt a little but I keep going until I know the whole routine. The music isn't as loud as I normally put it when I'm dancing, because I don't want my mom to hear it. My muscles start to burn and I feel sweat form on my body, which surprises me. I haven't been dancing for just two weeks, I can't ben out of chape yet. I keep on dancing till I suddenly hear a cracking sound, the stairs! I quickly turn down my music and jump on my bed. Shit I'm sweating, I wipe my sleeve over my forehead and gulp the glass of water from nightstand down. I hear my mother coming up the stairs.

"Hey Cira," she opens my door.

"Hey ma," I say and click the music away. She looks at me laying awkwardly on the bed.

''What were you doing?'' she looks suspicious at me, ''You weren't dancing, right? "She says with a stern voice.

"No, I was ... doing ab exercises." She looks at me suspiciously but then decides not to start a discussion.

"Okay, don't push yourself." She turns around and walks out of my room. "Come eat, I got us Chinese food."  I jump up, I didn't even realize I was hungry.

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The last hours before the school day is over, we have free lessons. That means that we are allowed to work on our own in a selected part of the school. There are computers and large tables. We have to make a paper about a country. I chose Italy, last year I did a paper on India. I sit down at a computer and put my crutches against the table. Almost all the computers are occupied and all the tables are full. It looks like five classes have been sent to this part of the school to work. I start the computer and read through my assignment sheet.

I'm all alone because Jade is still sick. Yesterday after dinner I video chatted with her. She really looked sick, the flu.

Further, at the table are Diaro, Klaus and their group. The rest of the class sits at the other tables. There are five long rows with twelve computers, the rest of the space is filled with tables to work on. It takes a while for my computer to start up so I look around me. All the way in the back are the freshmen. A couple of them are playing games on computers. Behind me are seniors, who really just do nothing.

Jason, James, Vanessa, and another girl are sitting at the back of the other corner at a table. The rest of their class is not there. Jason is sitting next to James and that other girl is sitting opposite him. He talks to her and, she seems to say something funny because they both start laughing. James is doing homework and Vanessa is also trying to but keeps paying attention to the conversation. The girl Jason talks to looks nice, she has brown hair that just falls over her shoulders, glasses and she wears clothes that are too big for her.