Angela's Secrets

Angela was from a large family where she was the middle child. With two older sisters, and two younger brothers it left Angela feeling as though she weren't meant to be in this family. Angela never felt this left out when she was at school. She had her own group of friends, not popular ones mind you, but friends nonetheless. She dreaded going home after school. She did all in her power to stay out as long as she could, but come home in time for dinner.

It didn't take fifteen years for Angela to realize that she was an oddball. All she had to do was look around. If anyone ever had the ability to make her feel more awkward, it was her mother. Angela's mother, Trisha, seemed nothing like Angela, and didn't seem to like her either.

Angela just got home from school, when her mother called her name.

"Angela! Get in here right now!" Trisha screamed.

Angela cringed, she wasn't sure of what she had done, but it couldn't be good. Angela never did anything good. Trisha never praised her. Trisha was a very busy neat freak. She was always on her feet and when she finally sat down she expected everything to be quiet. She worked all day long and when she got home she cleaned the house. Nothing was out of its place, for Trisha was very meticulous.

"I'm coming," called out Angela, "I'm coming."

Angela breathed a sigh. She was terrified of what her mom had to say. She didn't know what would happen.

"Angela, I need to talk to you."

Angela turned the corner into the dining room where her mother and her stepfather sat. Angela's stepfather, Marcus, had only been with her mom for 5 years. Angela was only ten when they had married. After her mother and father had divorced, her father, Jeff, moved away. She only got to see her father on holidays. She wasn't as close to him as she once was, but she loved him just as much. She wasn't prepared to accept this man as her stepfather. He would never take the place of her real father and he never tried.

Angela's mother and father divorced 7 years ago. Angela didn't know what it was like to have her father always around. He took such good care of her though. She didn't remember much of him when she was little, but she saw all the pictures, he was in every one of them with her. Her father moved a thousand miles away when she was eight and her mother was hardly present in some of the most important parts of Angela's live, but her father was always there before he left.

Marcus pushed a pink paper across the table. It had Angela's name on it and her "crimes". Angela shook her head. She knew what this paper was and by the look on her mother's face she knew that she was in big trouble. Marcus just gave her a wink, a reassurance that let her know that even though her mother was mad, he didn't mind as much as she did.

"How do you think it feels to have the principal call me out of my very important meeting to talk to me about your behavior? I was very busy and for this to come up is just, well....just stupid. I don't have the time to deal with your-" Trisha's last words were halted by Marcus. Marcus has a soft tone to his voice that let Trisha know that she had crossed a line and that he had something to say.

"Do you know what your mother is talking about? I mean, do you know what happened that she is this angry about?" Marcus said with much less fierceness than Trisha.

"Well," Angela said quietly, "I have an idea, but you don't understand, I didn't-" Now it was Angela's turn to be interrupted.

"I don't understand? I don't? Your principal said that you stole a girl's purse. This is very irresponsible of you. How could you steal something? Do you know how this makes me look? Mr. Schwartz said that you even denied these allegations." Trisha said with the worst tone in her voice. She was very angry. Trisha always made everything out to be about her. This wasn't about her.

Mr. Schwartz was the principal at Angela's school. He looked sixty, but Angela assumed he couldn't have been more than forty-five. He was portly and had very large, red cheeks. He wasn't married, which was obvious though no one ever mentioned him being single. He lived with his mother, which only made him worse to be around. His mother brought his lunch to school everyday for the last 2 years that Angela had been in school there. She had been embarrassed for him. For his mother pinch his cheeks, hugged him, and told him she loved her "sweet baby" before leaving campus.

"I didn't do it. I know why she blamed me. It was Stephanie; you remember her right? She used to be my best friend in second grade; well she told him that I stole her purse. I didn't though." Angela said in defense.

"If you did it, I promise I won't get angry. You can tell us, we won't be mad, but if you did it, you need to confess. There's no reason to deny it if the allegations are true." Marcus said, looking Angela straight in the eyes.

Angela didn't fear Marcus as much as she feared her mother. The look in Trisha's eyes showed Angela that she was very angry, she was beyond angry, she was irate. Angela had never seen this side of her mother, only a couple of times before, but never this angry. Not only was she mad at Angela, Trisha was mad because she was embarrassed that one of her children could do such a thing.

"Angela, what you did was wrong. And now not only do I have to apologize to Stephanie's mom, but I had to apologize to Mr. Schwartz and reassure him that you will never do this again." Trisha shouted. Her face red and her eyes open as wide as they could be.

"Look, I am sorry, I don't think you understand I was trying to-" Angela said with the most disappointment in her voice. She knew she would never be able to tell her mom about what happened.

"Go to your room, you're grounded!" Trisha shouted. This was a shout that the dead could hear. Angela's face tensed and she could feel the tears well up in her eyes. She turned on her heel and walked to the bottom of the stairs, then broke into a run up the stairs until she got to her room.

Angela only ever felt safe in her room. She never ventured into the other parts of the house when everyone was home. She hated to be around all of them. When without her presence, the family seemed to fit together like a puzzle. But when they were with her, she stuck out like a sore thumb. She seemed so different from the rest of them, so she stayed in her room most of the time.

Her room was very interesting. She had taken the attic and converted it to a bedroom. She had put pictures all over the wall - pictures of the things she liked, the people she admired, and the places she wanted to go. Angela would look at these pictures and wish she were there right now. She wished she were anywhere else. She lay on her bed, face down, and cried into her palms.

Not long after she felt better, she felt a soft knock on the door. Angela didn't have to ask to know who it was. It was the only person that ever comforted her after she and her mother got into these awful fights. Angela almost wished she and her mother had the same sort of relationship that she shared with Marcus. She didn't want to saw she loved Marcus, because he wasn't her father and she would never love her father more than she loved her real father.

"Come in." Angela said after wiping the remainder of her tears away.

"Are you okay?" Marcus said.

"Mom didn't listen to me, I didn't steal anything, I swear!" Angela said with a squeaky voice.

"I know. You must understand that when your mother looks at you she sees your father. She doesn't hate you; she just doesn't understand how you can be so different from her." Marcus said sweetly.

"I didn't steal the purse. I was trying to return it. A few years ago Stephanie and I were friends. But once we got into middle school she started to hate me. I wasn't as cool as she was; I wasn't nearly as popular. She started making fun of me all the time. And today I found a purse in the bathroom, I looked in it to see whose it was and when I saw it was hers, I went to my locker to put my books up and when she saw me with it she freaked. I was going to give it back to her, but before she asked me what I was doing with it she went to Mr. Schwartz." Angela said with a quivery voice.

"I believe you, but for now, just listen to your mom. You know how she is, don't argue with her." Marcus said as he patted Angela on the back. Silently, Marcus turned and walked out of Angela's room shutting the door quietly.

About fifteen minutes later she heard Connor and Caleb come home. They ran all over the house and Angela could hear their screaming. Connor and Caleb were her two twin younger brothers. They were both five years old and never stopped moving. They were constantly moving and they weren't allowed in the living room. They had both just got out of soccer practice and though they had just played for 30 minutes, they were both still as hyper as if they ate a pound of sugar. Now was the time that Trisha made them both peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before dinner. She sounded so sweet when she talked to them. Angela could hear their conversation, but just barely. They sounded like whispers coming from the cracks around her door.

"How are my babies? I missed you! Did you do well at practice?" Trisha said as sweetly as she could, it made Angela sick.

"MOM! Mom! We scored 5 goals each! Coach said we were the best on the team." Caleb and Connor said simultaneously.

"Really? I am so proud of my babies!" Trisha said.

After that, Angela pulled away from the door and layed back down on the bed. She just wanted to live with a family that she fit in with.

A few minutes later Kendra and Sarah, Angela's older sisters, came home - both of which were on their cell phones. They were the types of girls that were drooled over by all of the most popular guys. Kendra was two months from being eighteen; she was, by no means, the smarter of the two, but she was the prettiest.

Sarah, who was 17, was beautiful. Her features were soft and her hair was a light red. She was the best volleyball player that the school had seen. She made good grades and never missed a day of school. Sarah and Kendra were partners in crime. They constantly did bad things, but their mother didn't mind because Sarah had the grades and Kendra shared the same life that Trisha had when she were her age. This made up for it, because her children weren't disappointment.

Two minutes after Angela heard them come home; she heard two doors slam and the Brittany Spears type of music come on. Angela couldn't be more different from her two sisters. She wasn't nearly as pretty as her sisters, but she had a look about her that showed her innocence and her sweetness, but what was worse it showed her pain.

Angela wasn't the pop princess that her sisters were. She wasn't the all A student that Sarah was, though she had the potential. She listened to metal and made b's. She was nowhere near perfect, but had she tried, she couldn't be. She could make all a's had she wanted to, but those things weren't very important to her. She was more interested in the things that were fun and interesting. She had friends that cared about her and never worried what her parents thought.

She had plenty of friends, but they were the kind that people made fun of. They weren't the type of kids that were in sports. They weren't all a students and they weren't like all of the other kids at school. Angela just wished that labels didn't matter. Angela knew cliques never meshed. She just wished that Ross, a boy from her grade, would know she existed.

She wasn't sure that Ross knew she were alive. He had never really talked to her before. He did smile at her in the hall, but he seemed to smile at everyone. Would Ross ever know that she was alive? Angela tried as hard as she could to get him to notice her. She sat behind him in math class and hoped that he would turn to her and say something.

Ross was sixteen, he was on the football team and was more popular than Angela could ever imagine. He was sweet and his smile, oh his smile, she couldn't imagine an angel with a more perfect smile. His eyes were perfectly blue. He was everything anyone could ask for. Angela's day was going to come, but Angela didn't know it yet.

The next day, Angela went to school early. She had barely slept the night before. She never left her room, she was terrified of what her sisters would say and even worse, and she was terrified of the looks her mother would give her.

Walking down the hall, Angela saw Ross. She looked towards the floor, hoping she looked all right. After reaching her locker, she slowly looked up and saw Ross standing right next to her. He had smiled at the funny look of shock on Angela's face.

"Hi, I am Ross," he said.

"Yeah. I know who you are," Angela said in a very monotone voice.

"Um, yeah, haha. You're Ashley right?"

A frown spread over her face. She was disappointed. She had hoped that he knew her name.

"No, I am Angela. Erm, did you want something?" she said with slight discomfort.

"Well, I dunno if you know, but the Sports Ball is coming up. And um, well, I didn't know if you had a date or not, but I was hoping that you didn't, I mean, um...." he said quietly.

"Actually, I don't have a date, but I wasn't planning on going. Wait....why would you want to go with me anyway? I mean, isn't there a cheerleader that wants to go with you?" Angela said with a little bit of sarcasm and jealousy.

"Won't you go with me?" he said with the cutest smile on his face.

Two weeks later Angela was getting ready to go to the Sports Ball. The Ball was a big dance that all of the popular jocks and cheerleaders went to celebrate the good seasons of the sports. Angela was filled with excitement; for once Ross was noticing her and that made her happier than she had ever remembered being.

Angela sat with Ross, drank punch and danced until her feet hurt. She got looks from all of the other girls. They had been jealous, but it didn't matter, Angela was happy that she had gotten her chance. Jenny, a popular girl from her grade, came up to her.

"Hi, I'm Jenny. You're here with Ross?" she said.

"Yeah, he asked me out." Angela said with a smile.

"Awesome." Jenny said, and then walked off.

After an evening of perfection, Ross took Angela home and walked her to

her door. He took her by the hands and held them. He looked perfect under her

porch light and the moon gleamed in his eyes. They shined brighter than the sun.

"I had a great time tonight, Angela. I wish it would never end. I am glad we went out. Maybe we can do something again?" He said with a crooked smile.

"I would love to." Angela said.

Ross walked down the drive and Angela waved to him as he drove off. Before her fingers could touch the doorknob, the door swung open. Sarah and Kendra stood there with their hands over their mouths. Their eyes were wide and they let out a giggle. They giggled until they fell to the floor and rolled around.

"He asked you? Why did he ask you? He asked her?" Kendra said.

"Oh...my...god...he did ask her, it was a joke wasn't it? He was joking, right?" Sarah said.

Angela passed them; they were still sitting on the floor holding their stomachs. Angela knew they were jealous, that's all it was. Angela felt a grin come across her face. She had made her sisters jealous and that made her feel good. The next day Angela couldn't wait to tell her best friend, Adriane.

Adriane was Angela's age. She was in almost all of Angela's classes. She was pretty and smart and one of Angela's best friends. Angela and Adriane hung out all of the time and never got sick spending time with her. When she was sad Adriane knew how to make her feel better and she never felt alone. She could always call Adriane when she needed help.

The next day Angela told Adriane about he great night she had with Ross. She was so excited; she and Ross were now a couple. She was so happy that she could finally say that she had a boyfriend. It was one of the things that Angela could say that would make her sisters jealous beyond all means.

Three weeks later, Ross sat down with Angela to lunch and told her that they weren't working out. Angela felt as though her heart had been ripped out and torn into a million pieces then stomped on. She was absolutely heartbroken and she didn't know what to do. Silently Angela got up and walked off.

She proceeded to her 5^{th period class and sat down. The teacher was absent and of course the students took that as a free day. Silently she stared at her shoe. She had never noticed that it had a tiny hole right above the toe.}

And in a flash, she was pulled right out of her thoughts when someone tapped her on the shoulder. With the most confused look on her face Angela looked up to see Christian. Angela's eyes widened and she blushed horribly.

Christian was Ross' best friend. He wasn't nearly as popular as Ross, but he was far more popular than she was. Chris had the sweetest face. He was much more quiet than Ross and he never seemed to say anything bad. He was on the lacrosse team and played tennis. He was the perfect athlete. He had fans, they loved him so much that he had to sign autographs after his games.

Before Angela could get all of these thoughts out of his head, Christian had started talking. Angela almost missed what he was saying because she had been so deep in thought. Christian sat down right beside Angela and kept on talking.

He apologized for Ross and said that he didn't know Ross had been that way. He said that Ross was weak and had far too much free time. He looked most sincere when he told Angela that if she ever needed anything that she could always talk to him.

After that class Angela couldn't almost wait to tell Adriane of what Christian had said. She wasn't sure that she believed him. Was this another one of Ross' tricks? Christian looked so sincere, how could it have been?

In a week Angela hardly remembered what Ross had done. She knew this moment wouldn't last in her memory and she let it slip out of her mind. It was a good thing that she had forgotten it, because two days later Christian came up to her. He walked so perfectly up to her and asked for help on his math work. Angela wouldn't deny him help; though she did warn him that she wasn't the smartest in that subject. He didn't mind he just needed a little help.

Later that day Angela went to Christian's house. He wasn't as rich as Ross, but his house was slightly bigger than Angela's. It was so homely and comfortable. They both sat down at the dining room table and took out their books. Twenty minutes after they had worked out their entire math homework assignment, Christian put his pencil down and just stared at Angela. Slowly Angela turned towards his and asked what was wrong.

Not long after they began long discussion on what they both enjoyed. It turned out that they both had a lot in common. They realized that they were very similar and before Angela left Christian asked her if they could do something the following weekend. Angela was excited.

The next weekend Christian and Angela went to see a movie. Afterwards they stopped at a pizza place on the walk home and sat down for a slice of pizza. Before they finished their pizza Christian looked Angela in the eyes and told her that he had enjoyed the time that they were spending together and said he wanted to do this more often. He had asked her out. Angela didn't hesitate in saying yes. She was ecstatic and couldn't wait to tell Adriane and when she did, they both jumped in joy.

Angela and Christian spent a lot of time together and made the cutest couple. Soon, Angela was telling Christian about her horrible life at home. She was like Cinderella and it was not fun. Christian told Angela that everything would be okay and not to worry. Angela felt a sigh of relief and he told her she could call him whenever she got into a fight or felt sad.

The last few months of school went by so quickly and Angela was sad, because she feared she wouldn't see Christian as much. Nothing had changed at Angela's house and she spent every second she could talking to Christian about her horrible life at home.

After the next two years of school Angela was two weeks away from being a senior. Kendra and Sarah both went off to college. Kendra majored in boys and eventually flunked out of college. Sarah majored in Business Administration and graduated with high honors. Not long after Sarah opened a franchise of her stepfather's business.

Connor and Caleb were both in third grade, about to go into fourth grade. Trisha and Angela had not gotten any closer, but Angela spent a lot of time telling Marcus about Christian. She loved him so much that she wanted to marry him.

Secretly with the help of Marcus, Christian and Angela planned out a way for them to elope and run off together. Marcus had been putting money aside for them both to have a place to live and he helped Angela with arranging plans for college.

Two days after graduation Marcus went with the couple to elope and a week later Angela was moved out and living with Christian. Trisha wasn't happy, but didn't know the extent of Marcus' involvement in the whole situation. Angela was old enough that though Trisha demanded them annul the marriage, Angela just smiled and laughed and said "no way".

Christian's words still echoed in her head. She would remember those words for the rest of Angela's life and nothing could take them away from her:

"I will never leave you, I will always be here for you and for as long as I live I will always love you. Never forget me..." he had said.

Ross had been long forgotten after high school. He became lazy and fat and lived with his mom until he was 40. Angela never worried about that night because she knew that she was with the one that mattered the most.

Angela knew that he would be the person that she would have kids and a house and a cute dog with. Angela wanted to grow old with Christian and her wish came true. They are both living out the rest of their years out in the country in the house that Angela helped design. She filled her house with her paintings making her home warm and inviting. She has five kids and now has twenty grandkids.

Though Angela's mother is long passed dead, she still thinks about her mother and the awful words that still ring in her head. Trisha's words of discouragement were damaging towards Angela, but it only took a little encouragement from Marcus and Christian for her to realize that she was loved and never alone.