She ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. Nobody had even known that she was home until that point, because nobody cared that she was home. She locked the door and ran to her bed just before she burst into tears. She grabbed her pillow and pulled it to her face so that nobody could hear her sobs, not that anyone would care if they did hear her. She sat on her bed, with a pillow against her face, sobbing until her eyes ran dry, until she had no more breathe left in her. She lifted her face and listened. She strained her ears to hear even the slightest sound, but the world was still around her. It’s just me, alone, against the universe.
What she didn’t know was that her mother had just left to go fetch her brother, James, from a friend.
Alison sat on her bed for what seemed like hours, counting all the mistakes she had made that day, all the reasons why she would never be good enough. She had received a less than perfect mark in biology, she had spilled the juice onto one of the girls that she had sat with in lunch, the spice that she had forgotten to add to the supper that she had already prepared for tonight. I will never be good enough!
What Alison didn’t know was that her family didn’t like the spice that she had forgotten to add or that her friend who she had spilled the juice on had forgotten about it five minutes after the incident occurred.
Alison slid off her bed, weak from her pain, and went to retrieve her cell phone from her back pack. She turned it on, only to find that she had no messages. She moved to her computer and logged onto each of her social networking accounts. Each one was clear of any notifications or messages. Everybody hates me because I’m not perfect!
What Alison didn’t know was that her best friend, Megan’s phone was broken, or that the internet had been down in their house the whole day.
When Alison finally mustered enough strength to leave her room, she found her mother and her little brother waling in, carrying groceries.
“Ali, James asked me to get you a coke, since I got him one and he knows they are your favourite. Oh, and I bumped into Megan, she told me to tell you that her phone boke and that she’s been trying to get hold of you. And sweetie, the internet’s been down today so you have to give it a few minutes for everything to come through,”
As Ali was walking into her room, the house phone rang. She answered with a faint “Hello?”
“Ali, I’m so glad I finally got hold of you,” Megan gushed, “my phone broke and my sisters been on the house phone all afternoon! I needed to tell you that Mrs Green called you after class, but you had already left. She said to tell you that she miss-graded your biology test. You actually got 98%!” Megan and Ali continued speaking for another hour. Ali finally said goodnight when her dad came home and it was time for supper.
At the dinner table, her dad tasted the stew.
“Ali, this is delicious!” he dad exclaimed.
“Thank you, but I forgot the cinnamon.”
“Ali, we don’t eat cinnamon,” her mom said, with a smile.
James got up from his seat, handed her the coke that he had asked his mother to by just for Alison and gave her a giant hug. Although he was only eight, his hug was the biggest and most important one of Ali’s life. From that moment forward, she vowed that she would be less harsh on herself. In that moment, she realised that it was okay not to be perfect, and that people loved her, not despite of her imperfections, but because of them. She was human, just like anybody else. From that moment forward, she vowed that she would be less harsh on herself.
