Mondays About Milk

Hello guys. I'm just taking a quick break in the midst of my "studying" and "homework" haha. Blogging is a great way to just relax and get that frustration and anger out there. Sometimes people are skeptical when I tell them I blog, for a hobby, besides you know doing math and annoying my friends with facts about plants. It makes me smile and I hope it makes you smile, even a half smile. I realize that's why I blog: to spread smiles. There's nothing wrong with that because we all spread happiness in different ways. Some people can be funny to watch on TV while others educate us on annoying facts that we tell our friends. Anyways, here's another Monday Memoir. It was inspired by one of my friends. Friends are one of the best sources of inspiration. Enjoy! xx

Milk 

Jane sat down in the back of the classroom. She hated to attract attention to herself. The spotlight was already beaming at her since by definition she was a foreigner. Her cousin, Leah, was an extrovert who enjoyed some of that attention that trickled from Jane. Jane snuck a glance towards Leah. Leah was sitting in the middle of the class with her hand already holding today's issue of some popular celebrity gossip magazine. Other girls were drawn to her eagerly waiting for her to flip the page. Even some of the guys glanced over at the crowd of girls rating each one from zero to ten. Jane heard one of them murmur that Leah was only a 9.5 today. She rolled her eyes but secretly wondered what her rating was. Jane had forgotten she was staring in their direction. One guy did glance over at her and started to tap one of the other guys. She shrunk away and wanted to melt into a puddle of nothingness. 

"Jane," Leah said loudly. "Come over here." Most of the class turned to stare at her in an agonizing way for the next two seconds. Leah had forgotten all about her statement once the class was abuzz with some interesting tidbit she had learned because Jane the foreigner was staying at her house. 

Jane sighed and wondered why they cared so much about people who loved the spotlight. Maybe inside they were like her. Maybe they were pushed into the spotlight and had no way of escaping. Maybe they were locked in the spotlight for too long to even realize they didn't like anymore. Jane shuddered and wished she had  never thought of that idea. She was only staying for another month but that month seemed like an eternity. She just wanted to return home to her quiet bookworm life. 

Jane heard the neat little clicks of her teacher's shoes. The gossip magazine had travelled a couple desks to the right and was swiftly dropped into somebody's backpack. Leah looked longingly for her magazine and Jane shook her head with disbelief. This happened every morning and yet Leah expected that the shiny new magazine would return back to her hands. Jane stretched her back and straightened it as her teacher walked to the main chalkboard. Today's lesson was about basic economics and Jane slouched back. 

She was only awoken by the disheartening sound of the afternoon bell. The gossip magazine had made its return on one of the desks. The front cover had been folded and a couple pages were slightly wrinkled. Leah made a face as if she hadn't anticipated that to happen. She barely held it, gripping the left hand corner with two fingers. Leah acted as if it was complete garbage just because a couple of pages had been damaged. 

"It wasn't a good issue anyway. . ." some girl said defending Leah. There was always one of those girls who wanted popularity more than even Leah herself. All the other girls nodded their head in unison badmouthing some celebrity who had probably worked hard to earn the daily feature. 

"What do you think, Jane?" Leah asked loudly and Jane wanted to disappear. The other girls turned to her with eager anticipation. This was almost a daily routine as well. 

"I don't know," she said. Leah's stern look broke into an amused smile. 

"Foreigner," Leah whispered, just loud enough for Jane to hear. Leah always did a spectacular job of making her feel so alone. Jane leaned her head against the wall but heard the rattling sound of the milk cart. She groaned loudly, forgetting that she had an audience. 

"I thought foreigners liked milk," some girl spewed out into the crowd of gossipy girls. That girl flicked the imaginary particles of dust off her pleated uniform skirt with a satisfactory smug. Jane stared down at her backpack at the soggy cartons of last week's milk rounds. She turned away from the crowd and took out the little slip of paper tucked in her skirt pocket. They were losing interest in her by now anyways. She had used the excuse that she was sick three times in the past month. Jane had given her milk to one of the nicer boys three times in the past week. She drank her milk once last week. The cart was already rattling onto the wooden floor of their classroom. Jane watched the milk cartons disappear one by one. She was about to get up when she realized all of them had been taken. She quickly reached for one of the soggy ones in her backpack. It was disgusting but the teacher glossed over her and quickly left their class. Jane threw the gross mess back into her backpack and was truly thankful for someone's anonymous act of kindness.



PS:
For those of you that like pictures, go check out yesterday's post. There's a gem in that collection. Maybe the word blue will be a great hint. Leave comments for word suggestions or even character suggestions.