March 12, 2023                                              Friday - sunny with some clouds

Dear Diary,

So I’ve lost my parents to my brother's lacrosse season again. I don’t get how athletes dedicate themselves so much to a hobby that is weaved with so much violence, like you see a flier that says: “Go through 5 stages of tryouts to possibly make the team where we can jab, hit, and whip each other with metal poles!!”, and teenage boys will say heck yeah. I guess he has good reason, he’s good at it, he’s got some skill. And you know Joshua, he’s a natural leader who knows how to plan and please. He’ll get a second year captaincy as a senior, there isn’t much competition so it won’t be a surprise. Just another accomplishment that Mom and Dad will praise him for while I have to light the candles. So over this. Oh, my life? Yeah going pretty well, straight A’s, paid well for tutoring and babysitting, en route to go to a nice college in a couple years and get a boring job. Yeah I have a lot of fun! 

A slam of valuables on my table interrupts my writing for a second, before another moment of silence to finish off,

Okay… till next vent, Gigi ♡.

A voice cuts the silence once again, but I don’t mind. Olivia's voice alone could wake me from the dead,

 “Okay. 8:00, TJ’s dorm lawn. Celebration of our U.S presidents!” She exclaims, almost inaudible because of the big smile on her face.

“Liv it’s March, Presidents Day was last month.” I counter

“Well yes, obviously,” No, not very obvious, but I let her continue, 

“but we’re getting the new spring sports boys for the season. So who wouldn’t want to casually meet athletic handsome boys to end the school week off?”

 She’s lying, she will only be going to make crucifying eye contact with the host TJ across the party. 

She came to me one night a few weeks ago upset that Tj had stopped responding to her and didn’t explain why, she was so distraught and so confused. Ever since I’ve been against that tragic excuse of a boy, but she can’t help herself from still longing.

 I have no desire to go meet the new boarding guys for our school, nor do I want to even step foot near one of the schools dormitories as they always REAK of different illegal hobbies, but I’ll go because anything is fun with Liv. 

“Alright sure, when are we getting ready?”

 I already know this answer but I ask anyway. If we want to get there fashionably late at 8:30, we’ll still want to be ready for eight. We need to go to my house, change clothes, do makeup, and fix hair. All that adds to about three hours right?

She answers as predicted,

“Right now… duh” Right. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The picture of Liv and I decked out at our school's high school game wearing glitter on our faces, with our hair up in braids, and jerseys on brightens my facial features as we check the time. 8:34 PM. Perfect. We’re walking on the block of the Brabble dorms preparing for the social hours ahead of us. 

Compared to my phone's lock screen I look like a bore tonight. With a just perfectly fitted charcoal sweatshirt courtesy of Rihanna's merch store, and Lululemon athletic shorts that are so short you could classify them as underwear.  Liv gave me a scold saying I’ll be cold and miserable without leggings, but 50 degrees is better than 40 so oh well. 

Liv is wearing her cropped LEWIS MOORE HIGH tee with a tight white long sleeve underneath to accompany the dark gray and blues on the shirt. All with black flared leggings and her seasonal platform UGGS. Liv has always been beautiful, even before she’s started going blond. Her all-natural-no-extension-fake-blond hair hanging a couple inches off her armpit has never seen a bad hair day, and her face makes having blemishes look like a blessing. There's nothing about her I could ever see as a flaw, her defined thin nose that doesn’t agree with sunglasses, her chestnut brown eyes that take the attention away from the horrible self tanning job she did the night before, even her just sweet height that makes it so she can make fun of shorter guys, but not quite reach a top shelf. 

I’ve never bothered with comparing myself to Liv because I knew there would be more cons than pros, but that’s always been okay with me. I am a couple inches shorter than her, with natural dark brown hair which I’ve never had the urge to dye. We’re the same size in most clothes but she gets bloated less. I have deep brown eyes that could look black when being side by side with hers, and freckles that inhabit my face poking holes everywhere they touch. I’ve been called pretty and beautiful before, and when I look in the mirror I’m not disappointed, but parts of me would wonder what it would be like to spend a day in Liv’s body.

Once we’re in, Liv goes on her little adventure of playing cat and mouse with TJ and I’m left to socialize with the few people I’m actually close with. Some boring conversation near the entrances, and boring conversation near the back, I’ve decided to refill my cup and find Liv again. The drink and food station is scattered with different bagged snacks and pitchers of various liquids, with some toppings for  your concoctions. Bowls of fruits and sweet treats are at the end of this high school buffet. A girl must have organized this, no boy could be this organized, even with the bags out of place you can tell. 

“Is it true Michigan's cherries are plucked from the trees of heaven” 

One of the new boarding athletes made his way to the table. Making himself a makeshift beverage and taking a toothpick and stabbing soft red cherries with it. Seeing as he’s completely new to the school, and no one else was at the table I didn’t mind being forced to answer the dumb question and have another boring conversation. 

“More like plucked and then dipped in liquid cocaine.” 

I had to add a laugh, sometimes my tone can be untelling and people don’t realize I'm making a joke. 

The boy is cute. He’s got a good height, meaning he’s taller than me. He’s got brown hair that's long enough to think you can put a ponytail in, but short enough to fail when you actually try. Blue eyes, wait, maybe brown? These blue and purple lightings are making it hard to see his facial features. He’s got a nice smile, laughing at my joke, and big smile lines. Cute. 

“Cameron, by the way,” He starts introducing himself, I’m half surprised he didn’t put his hand out for a shake, “I’m boarding here from Pennsylvania.”

“Gigi. I live like five minutes away from here.”

 I finished collecting my bag of chips and pouring off my solo cup by the time I finished my sentence. I glance around beginning my search for Liv seeing as introductions are done and he’ll go find some other new friends, but my search gets stopped by a new conversation.

“Looking for your boyfriend?” He starts right back up.

I let out a breathy laugh before replying, 

“No, I don’t have one. I’m looking for the girl I came here with, my best friend.”

“Phew, and I thought I just wasted 20 minutes of my life hyping myself up to talk to a pretty girl because she had a boyfriend after all.” He responds quicker than I can follow. He thinks I’m pretty. Cute.

March 13, 2023   Sunny but cold

Dear Diary, 

Josh grounded me. The boy I talked to for almost all of last night is apparently boarding here for lacrosse, and he is so good that the coach is looking to put him in as captain instead of my brother. Apparently Josh saw me chatting it up and got all worried that this guy is coming in and messing with him. I tried to tell him that Cameron didn’t know who I was and that he was just making friends, but Josh told me he did know exactly who I am. He said Cameron didn’t mean any of the compliments or the laughs that he might have presented to me the night before, and it’s all just to get in Josh's head so Cameron can get the crown. I didn’t believe him, but now writing it down I’m not so sure. Cameron was cute and I thought we clicked but now I just want to avoid anything lacrosse related for the rest of my life. Anyways, RIP Cameron unknown last name: March 12, 2023 9:02 pm - 12:43 am.

Wonder what I’ll get in trouble for next, Gigi ♡.