Hey, I'm Mitchie! That's how I introduce myself to anyone who asks. I'm actually called Carolina, but I hate the name. It reminds me of my unimpressive childhood - my parents and the way it was all so great until... Never mind. A lot of things happened to me, and I don't even want to think about them. The most important part is the outcome; I ended up in W.H.S.I.S. That probably doesn't ring a bell to you. Well, let me tell you that it simply stands for West High School for Impressive Students. Everyone calls it WHIZZ instead. I like to mix with the crowd so I stick to it, too.
It was definitely a school for impressive students. I realized that as soon as I made my first step through the door. Many people weren't supposed to be there, and I was one of them. Only in WHIZZ can you acquire yourself an enemy before you actually have a chance to reach your home-classroom. She hated me from the very beginning of it all. Now, every time she passes me, it seems like the words 'I HATE YOU' are stamped on her forehead. It never changes, so it was the same back then. I read it by the look on her face. She was just taunting a red-haired girl at the desk behind hers when she spotted me with the corner of her eye. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I knew just then that I was going to be her next victim. Lola. That bitch.
I was sure I was never going to fit in, with Lola tantalizing me at every chance, but somehow I settled. I learned that I wasn't the only person who hated the evil girl so much, and that made me feel conscious of the fact that, for once in my life, I wasn't alone. I even found a friend - Chelsea. She was that red-haired girl Lola didn't really seem to like. Together we were one and we could fight and withstand all the bullies. We were only twelve and we didn't realize that these problems were kids' problems and nothing but. We were like two rebels, resisting the world of other children like us. Chelsea and I went everywhere together; we called each other best mates, and I guess that's what we really were. At least, I knew perfectly well that I wasn't about to be left all alone like I was years ago. But then came that age...
I didn't need our P.S.H.E. teacher to tell me that I was growing up - I was seriously changing physically. In two years, I had grown good-sized breasts and my hips were much wider. I got my first period when I was thirteen. That's not too late, right? However, what I didn't know was that when you reach this intriguing age, you change mentally and become more mature, too. Girls and boys begin to judge each other through looks more than anything else. This is where you start to find your real self, your real life, where no one will choose for you or even help you choose because they have their own decisions to make. This is when putting yourself in the first place won't procure people calling you selfish. It's when a person might be saying one thing but thinking something totally different, just too scared to let the world know what was on their mind. It was when you either became a vulnerable person for life, always caring about what people thought about you, or a strong one who just didn't give a damn. I stopped noticing Lola as much, although each time she seemed to find new and more painful words to hit on you with.
Then there's another subject that you've never been concerned about before... Love. You can't protect yourself from it. It comes just like that and you can't even tell whether it's true love for life or just an infatuation. When Chelsea and I had these 'girl talks', I'd always said how lucky I thought myself to not have fallen in love with anyone. Chelsea thought the same. Love evidently involved sex, so we talked about that, too. I was curious about the feeling of it but at the same time I felt disgusted and even embarrassed for thinking about it. We laughed for long hours before I reminded myself that my parents had 'it', too, to have me. I couldn't believe that Mom could go to bed with a man who, in the end, brought her to her grave.
I liked this "you're a teenager now" thing that my teachers told me every time I was supposed to make a choice and couldn't. I liked being close to grown-up but not yet quite that. But I didn't know that I was on the edge of losing everything I had acquired for the past few years in WHIZZ. Could I make it?
