Chapter One
::Melissa::
I had the perfect life. I was athletic, smart, popular, pretty, funny, I was everything. I was Melissa Miller, voted most popular girl in school, and 2003’s prom queen. That was until today.
The sun was fresh and new when some friends and I headed out onto the beach. Lindsay, my best friend, set up a blanket and umbrella while Jake, her boyfriend, and Theo, my boyfriend headed out into the water.
I laid on the blanket with Lindsay, sun tanning. We talked about the latest things happening in school. About our other friends, the two new kids, about make-up, and about cars.
I fell asleep and when I woke up it was very hot so Lindsay and I waded into the cool water. We joined the boys in roughhousing, splashing each other. It was when we started body surfing that the trouble came.
After a few perfect size waves came in we saw a huge wave off in the distance. We all dared each other to take it, so we all did. We turned our backs to the water and prepared. I squeezed my eyes tight as I heard it rushing up to us. Then I was spinning around in the water, I couldn’t breathe. I got my head above water and took a breath. The water smoothed and it was calm again. I relaxed and began to swim towards shore when I was all of a sudden being pulled out into the ocean. I choked, coming in and out of the water. I used all my strength to try to swim back, but the current was too strong. I screamed for Lindsay, Jake, and Theo, no one heard me and I finally had to give up. I let the water take me. I was exhausted and began to breathe in the water. I panicked yet again and bobbed my head up, screaming and choking. That’s the last thing I remember.
I’m here now in the “Waiting Room” for heaven. A woman named Hannah appears to be in charge. She greeted me and gave me the best roasted chicken meal I’ve ever tasted. She laid down a few facts about the Waiting Room, there’s over 50, you get tastes of heaven every now and then, and that you are here for punishment. I argued with her about why I have to be here for so long, (6 months). I told her that it wasn’t easy being popular, that there’s lots of pressure, and sometimes I didn’t have a choice whether to be mean to someone or not. I rolled my eyes enough to make a statement, but she didn’t believe me, she knew I was lying. I looked around the small room, there was an evil looking man, a bookcase, a few tables and chairs, and a counter with a door behind it that Hannah constantly went in and out of. I slept for what felt like days, every hour awake felt like a year. There was nothing to do in the Waiting Room.
All I thought about was how I didn’t belong here, how I should be in heaven, I deserve all the royalties on earth. I thought about my friends, they must miss me dearly. They probably don’t know what to do without me. Theo and Lindsay are probably crying at their homes, lying in bed, refusing to go to school. That’s how much they miss me.
A month passed. I thought the same nonsense over and over again, ‘What is everyone doing without me? Life is probably frozen. No one can live without me. The earth practically revolves around me. They better be frozen.’ There was nothing fun about oatmeal, sleeping, PB and J, thinking, stew, and then sleeping. I played with my food, tried to meditate, made up riddles; I did everything to keep interested.
One day I bothered the evil looking man sitting alone in his corner. I came over to him and said, “So you gonna be here forever? What’d you do? Kill a bunch of people? What hints of heaven have you gotten, me just the food. What keeps you from going crazy?” He glared at me, and said nothing. So I asked another round of questions, and another and another. He finally blew up and yelled, “I was a serial killer! I’ll kill again! I will! Get away from me or else it’ll be you!”
I ran away laughing, it was so fun, and I planned to do it again. Hannah was glaring at me. “Melissa why don’t you follow me into this room?” she said. “Ha, finally figured out it was about time for me to go to heaven? I didn’t belong here at all, I know. You don’t have to apologize.” I said walking through the door. “That’s not it at all Melissa. I’ve brought you here because this place is a place where bad people change. You are too vain, and self centered to change. So I’m gonna help you. She opened a small window, the only window I’ve seen for a long time. “Look through here, and while you watch remember that it is all because of you. All of it.” Hannah added before letting me look into it.
The sky showed a faint picture, it grew darker, and bolder. There was a girl sitting on her bed. I could read her thoughts. She looked down at the bottle of aspirin. She pushed down on the top and slid it uneasily. Her fingers quivered as the little, smooth pills poured onto her hand. She counted sixteen and put three back. She stared down at the thirteen pills in her hand; thirteen was a symbol of her life, unlucky. She didn’t want to die; she didn’t want to live either. She leaned against her pillow and stretched her legs out across the bed. She began to think, ’What happens when you die? What becomes of you? Do you just become nothing? You just stop existing? Does your mind die with you, or does it live on?’ She tried to imagine herself not there, she wouldn’t be able to talk to herself, not even think to herself. She shook her head; it was too complicated of a subject to think about.
She had often thought about death, more than once a day. Sometimes she thought that she was the only real person in the world, everyone else was just fake, not really there. When she finally died she would just be in a small white room, elevator size. She would realize that the whole world was made up in her brain, after all isn’t there a theory that the human only uses ten percent of his/her brainpower?
She walked into the bathroom with wobbly legs. She filled her glass cup with water and headed back to her room. She picked the pills off her hand, she was thinking so hard and forgot they were there and now they were all sweaty. She gave it one more thought, ‘any place is better than this place’, and popped the pills into her mouth. The sugary coating had worn off onto her hands and the pills tasted bitter. She took a swig of the water and flopped down onto my bed. She had done it; she was finally getting out of here. She fell into a restful sleep.
“Is she dead?” I whispered turning away from the window. “Not yet, but she will be in about an hour.” Hannah replied. “And umm, how does this have anything to do with me?” I asked. “She goes to your school. She killed herself because she was never welcome in yours or Lindsay’s presence. She was a nobody, no one cared about her. If you hadn’t been so stuck up with your head in the clouds you could have saved her. But you didn’t so she’ll be coming to this Waiting Room soon and I want you to become friends, understand?” Hannah said annoyed. All I could do was nod. I had some serious thinking to do.
I lay down on a green couch. Hannah was right, my head was in the clouds. I didn’t see normal kids, I only saw popular kids. I knew lots of people wanted to be my friends, and for some reason it always made me feel queenly when I put them down. Now I regretted it with all my heart. I actually made someone want to kill herself, and she did it. I began to cry with the realization that I had actually made some people want to be dead. I sobbed when I thought of all the great people I had over looked. I wanted to kill myself, not seriously, just to punish myself. Besides, I couldn’t anyway. I cried myself to sleep.
It's definantly not over yet I'll post more either today or tommorrow. Comments would be appreciated!
-Roxy
::Melissa::
I had the perfect life. I was athletic, smart, popular, pretty, funny, I was everything. I was Melissa Miller, voted most popular girl in school, and 2003’s prom queen. That was until today.
The sun was fresh and new when some friends and I headed out onto the beach. Lindsay, my best friend, set up a blanket and umbrella while Jake, her boyfriend, and Theo, my boyfriend headed out into the water.
I laid on the blanket with Lindsay, sun tanning. We talked about the latest things happening in school. About our other friends, the two new kids, about make-up, and about cars.
I fell asleep and when I woke up it was very hot so Lindsay and I waded into the cool water. We joined the boys in roughhousing, splashing each other. It was when we started body surfing that the trouble came.
After a few perfect size waves came in we saw a huge wave off in the distance. We all dared each other to take it, so we all did. We turned our backs to the water and prepared. I squeezed my eyes tight as I heard it rushing up to us. Then I was spinning around in the water, I couldn’t breathe. I got my head above water and took a breath. The water smoothed and it was calm again. I relaxed and began to swim towards shore when I was all of a sudden being pulled out into the ocean. I choked, coming in and out of the water. I used all my strength to try to swim back, but the current was too strong. I screamed for Lindsay, Jake, and Theo, no one heard me and I finally had to give up. I let the water take me. I was exhausted and began to breathe in the water. I panicked yet again and bobbed my head up, screaming and choking. That’s the last thing I remember.
I’m here now in the “Waiting Room” for heaven. A woman named Hannah appears to be in charge. She greeted me and gave me the best roasted chicken meal I’ve ever tasted. She laid down a few facts about the Waiting Room, there’s over 50, you get tastes of heaven every now and then, and that you are here for punishment. I argued with her about why I have to be here for so long, (6 months). I told her that it wasn’t easy being popular, that there’s lots of pressure, and sometimes I didn’t have a choice whether to be mean to someone or not. I rolled my eyes enough to make a statement, but she didn’t believe me, she knew I was lying. I looked around the small room, there was an evil looking man, a bookcase, a few tables and chairs, and a counter with a door behind it that Hannah constantly went in and out of. I slept for what felt like days, every hour awake felt like a year. There was nothing to do in the Waiting Room.
All I thought about was how I didn’t belong here, how I should be in heaven, I deserve all the royalties on earth. I thought about my friends, they must miss me dearly. They probably don’t know what to do without me. Theo and Lindsay are probably crying at their homes, lying in bed, refusing to go to school. That’s how much they miss me.
A month passed. I thought the same nonsense over and over again, ‘What is everyone doing without me? Life is probably frozen. No one can live without me. The earth practically revolves around me. They better be frozen.’ There was nothing fun about oatmeal, sleeping, PB and J, thinking, stew, and then sleeping. I played with my food, tried to meditate, made up riddles; I did everything to keep interested.
One day I bothered the evil looking man sitting alone in his corner. I came over to him and said, “So you gonna be here forever? What’d you do? Kill a bunch of people? What hints of heaven have you gotten, me just the food. What keeps you from going crazy?” He glared at me, and said nothing. So I asked another round of questions, and another and another. He finally blew up and yelled, “I was a serial killer! I’ll kill again! I will! Get away from me or else it’ll be you!”
I ran away laughing, it was so fun, and I planned to do it again. Hannah was glaring at me. “Melissa why don’t you follow me into this room?” she said. “Ha, finally figured out it was about time for me to go to heaven? I didn’t belong here at all, I know. You don’t have to apologize.” I said walking through the door. “That’s not it at all Melissa. I’ve brought you here because this place is a place where bad people change. You are too vain, and self centered to change. So I’m gonna help you. She opened a small window, the only window I’ve seen for a long time. “Look through here, and while you watch remember that it is all because of you. All of it.” Hannah added before letting me look into it.
The sky showed a faint picture, it grew darker, and bolder. There was a girl sitting on her bed. I could read her thoughts. She looked down at the bottle of aspirin. She pushed down on the top and slid it uneasily. Her fingers quivered as the little, smooth pills poured onto her hand. She counted sixteen and put three back. She stared down at the thirteen pills in her hand; thirteen was a symbol of her life, unlucky. She didn’t want to die; she didn’t want to live either. She leaned against her pillow and stretched her legs out across the bed. She began to think, ’What happens when you die? What becomes of you? Do you just become nothing? You just stop existing? Does your mind die with you, or does it live on?’ She tried to imagine herself not there, she wouldn’t be able to talk to herself, not even think to herself. She shook her head; it was too complicated of a subject to think about.
She had often thought about death, more than once a day. Sometimes she thought that she was the only real person in the world, everyone else was just fake, not really there. When she finally died she would just be in a small white room, elevator size. She would realize that the whole world was made up in her brain, after all isn’t there a theory that the human only uses ten percent of his/her brainpower?
She walked into the bathroom with wobbly legs. She filled her glass cup with water and headed back to her room. She picked the pills off her hand, she was thinking so hard and forgot they were there and now they were all sweaty. She gave it one more thought, ‘any place is better than this place’, and popped the pills into her mouth. The sugary coating had worn off onto her hands and the pills tasted bitter. She took a swig of the water and flopped down onto my bed. She had done it; she was finally getting out of here. She fell into a restful sleep.
“Is she dead?” I whispered turning away from the window. “Not yet, but she will be in about an hour.” Hannah replied. “And umm, how does this have anything to do with me?” I asked. “She goes to your school. She killed herself because she was never welcome in yours or Lindsay’s presence. She was a nobody, no one cared about her. If you hadn’t been so stuck up with your head in the clouds you could have saved her. But you didn’t so she’ll be coming to this Waiting Room soon and I want you to become friends, understand?” Hannah said annoyed. All I could do was nod. I had some serious thinking to do.
I lay down on a green couch. Hannah was right, my head was in the clouds. I didn’t see normal kids, I only saw popular kids. I knew lots of people wanted to be my friends, and for some reason it always made me feel queenly when I put them down. Now I regretted it with all my heart. I actually made someone want to kill herself, and she did it. I began to cry with the realization that I had actually made some people want to be dead. I sobbed when I thought of all the great people I had over looked. I wanted to kill myself, not seriously, just to punish myself. Besides, I couldn’t anyway. I cried myself to sleep.
It's definantly not over yet I'll post more either today or tommorrow. Comments would be appreciated!
-Roxy