@daughterofthewickedwitch
'September 1st, 1989. Dear Diary: I believe I'm a good person. Ya know, I think there's good in everyone, but here we are first day of senior yearI look around at all these kids I've known all my life and I ask myself: What happened?' Gillian wrote down in her journal, then looked around at her fellow classmates in the cafeteria as they shouted and fought with each other.
"Freak! Slut! Burnout! Bug-eyes! Poser! Lard-ass!" She went back to the journal with a sigh and continued to write, 'We were so tiny, happy and shiny, playing tag and getting chased.' "Freak! Slut! Loser! Shortbus!" 'Singing and clapping, laughing and napping, baking cookies, eating paste.'
"Bull-dyke! Stuck-up! Hunchback! 'Then we got bigger. That was the trigger, Like the Huns invading Rome-' Lost in thought, Gillian accidentally bumped into a boy and girl who snapped at her, and Gillian quickly responded as she moved away from them, "Sorry!"
'Welcome to my school, This ain't no high school: This is the Thunderdome. Hold your breath and count the days, we're graduating soon.' "White trash!" 'College will be paradise If I'm not dead by June! But I know, I know, life can be beautiful. I pray, I pray for a better way.
If we changed back then, we could change again. We can be beautiful...' In front of her, a jock knocked a scrawny, preppy boy to the ground roughly. "Ow!" The prep exclaimed as he fell. 'Just not today.'
"Hey, are you okay?" Gillian asked in concern. "Get away, nerd!" The boy shouted at Gillian as he got up. She huffed quietly and moved away from the prep. "Freak! Slut! Cripple! Homo! Homo! Homo!"
'Things will get better soon as my letter comes from Harvard, Duke, or Brown. Wake from this coma, take my diploma, then I can blow this town. Dream of my ivy-covered walls and smoky French cafes...'
Gillian bumped elbows with Panther, and the linebacker shouted in disgust, "Watch it!"
'Fight the urge to strike a match and send this dump ablaze!' Gillian thought as she grabbed her lunch tray. Almost immediately, Panther smacked the tray down and teased, "Ooooops."
"Panther Lily. Third year as linebacker. And eighth year of smacking lunch trays and BEING A HUGE DICK." Gillian grumbled under her breath.
"What did you say to me skank?" Panther snapped. Gillian thought about it, then said as she walked off, "Nothing."
'But I know, I know, I know... Life can be beautiful. I pray I pray, I pray For a better way. We were kind before; we can be kind once more. We can be beautiful...'