Chapter 1
Chapter 1:
‘I know what I have to do, OK?! I’m sixteen, I’m not a child anymore!’
‘Then you should seriously consider stopping acting like you are one! Why don’t you tell me, like a sensible “adult” what the problem is?’
‘You know what your problem is, mom? You don’t trust me. And if you don’t trust me, you wont believe me. So I’m not telling you anything! Stop prying into my life!’ the 16 yr old shouted.
‘I will not be spoken to like that!’ her mother yelled equally loudly. ‘You had better learn your manners over again because you seem to be forgetting them as you grow older!’ Then, forcing her voice into a semblance of calmness, she took in three deep breaths, and continued, ‘and while we’re talking about forgetting our lessons, I notice you have not turned in most of the last two week’s assignments set at school as yet, and it’s long past the deadline. (Her daughter gave an audible gasp) In fact you barely managed a pass grade in the Math test you had three days back.’
‘You’ve been checking my bag?’ she said with a note of incredulity in her voice ‘without even telling me?’
‘It’s good that I have isn’t it, if you are beginning to keep things from me?’ her mother answered, a little defiantly.
Nina kept quiet. She looked at her mother with a glazed look in her eyes, as if she we’re not really seeing her standing there with a spatula in hand. A slight crease appeared across her forehead and she gave a small sigh. A lot had been happening in her life since the past few days. She didn’t know whether she could confide in her mother about all of it or not. Had it only been her secret, perhaps she would have, but it involved some other people. Some of who were old friends. She normally told her mom almost everything that went on her life. Her likes and dislikes, what all happened in class, how much she hated Tiffany, her views on current events. Her mum almost acted as a second conscience for her for she tried her best not to do anything that may bring her down in her mother’s eyes. And today she was having a row with her mother about her not telling her mum everything.
Nina saw her mother give her face a typically mummy type searching look. It was as if she could read her thoughts. An expression of concern replaced the anger upon her face. ‘ What happened sweetheart? What is it that you can’t tell mummy? I know that you are a big girl now and can take care of yourself, OK? I’m just worried about you. You look almost unhappy these days. Are you having problems at school or something? Not following lessons…? Try telling me about it, please…or you can just write to me if you want.’
Nina gave her mother a small smile. She had once written her mum a letter of confession when she had not got the guts to face her mom. She had been 6 then. She was 16 now.
‘It’s nothing Ma, I guess I’m just…It’s...it’s nothing...don’t worry about me, please… I think I’ll go up to my room and finish that Calculus homework, OK.’
She turned as her mother continued looking at her uneasily, went up the stairs into her room, and locked the door behind her. Then, instead of going towards her study table littered with books, copies, pens, pencils, etc. She went left to the opposite end of the room where her mirror and dressing table stood. She prayed with all her might muttering “Oh, God don’t let it happen again please, let it have stopped happening, let it have stopped, please!” Then she screwed up her eyes tightly.
She opened her eyes and, seeing the reflection in the mirror, made a hopeless sort of shrug kind of gesture. Her face drooped, so to speak but technically since the skin on her face was already sagging with age, that’s impossible.
She screwed up her eyes and bizarrely, when she next looked into the mirror, her skin was back to its normal smoothness. Her hair was no longer gray but, indeed, was again an ivory black, falling thickly to her waist. Her eyes, no longer the calm blue that had looked into her face moments before but beautiful, large and gazing ponderously into their own dark depths.
She turned abruptly to her bed and fell upon it. She was feeling extremely tired, mentally. She didn’t think she could stand a round of 20 grueling math questions. She had too many unanswered questions of her own.
It was so unfair! Why should that tablet have affected her in this way? Beryl had been sensible and not taken it. How could she have been such an idiot? Why had she let Tiffany get to her? She should have known that anything Tiffany offered, as a favour, could not be anything good. But even Baron had taken that from Tiff. But, well, since when has Baron not taken anything that Tiffany Majors gave him? And, since when has he had any brains to help his decisions? No, it was her own stupidity. Hey, the heat was unbearable that day some two weeks back and everyone was doing crazy things to cool off during recess. If only they had not made that idiotic rule about the school electricity being given a break during recess too. She wouldn’t have needed to resort to Tiffany’s help. She wouldn’t have taken the “Antarctic powder” that Tiff claimed was keeping her cool. ‘I mean, that’s sooo third grade! “Antarctic Powder”! What on earth had happened to me? Obviously it must have been some kind of…you-know…drug or something…’She shivered, even the thought that she might have actually swallowed some slow poison made her feel goose bumps across her back. ‘And I guess Tiffany must have thought that it’d be funny to see me turn into some kind of freak-chameleon-thingy.’
But she agreed that it was her fault mostly. She could have easily practiced abstinence as Beryl did and have let common sense prevail.
There was one thought though that kept on haunting her. What kind of drug can enable a person to turn into someone else? That was the bizarre thing about it. The only person she had told about what she was experiencing was Beryl, and it was Beryl who had brought this point to Nina’s view.
The result of this was that Nina started spending a lot of time researching drugs in the library and on the net. She was too preoccupied with all of this to hear what her Teachers said in school. Also, she was feeling strangely unwell since she had had that substance and therefore was letting her performance in class drop drastically.
Oh, but what on earth was that stuff? What was she to do about it? The only thing was to tell her mum the truth. She felt horrible lying to anyone. Hiding the truth from anybody, least of all her own mother, was unnatural and unbearable to her. Her mother always seemed to understand this distinctly un-teenager-like behaviour of hers. She never took advantage of the fact that Nina hated to tell falsehoods. She also had an uncanny knack of knowing when a person was lying and when he/she was telling the truth, which had passed on to her daughter.
Nina turned wearily on her side, resolving to tell her mom everything about what all had happened in the past couple of weeks. She got out of bed and changed into her pyjamas. Then picked up her School Diary and looked through the day’s homework.
She pulled out her chair, sat down at her table and, shifting into a comfortable position, started wondering why her friends had been saying Calculus was tough. A baby could solve those sums. She picked up her pen and pulling her copy towards her, started writing furiously.
‘I know what I have to do, OK?! I’m sixteen, I’m not a child anymore!’
‘Then you should seriously consider stopping acting like you are one! Why don’t you tell me, like a sensible “adult” what the problem is?’
‘You know what your problem is, mom? You don’t trust me. And if you don’t trust me, you wont believe me. So I’m not telling you anything! Stop prying into my life!’ the 16 yr old shouted.
‘I will not be spoken to like that!’ her mother yelled equally loudly. ‘You had better learn your manners over again because you seem to be forgetting them as you grow older!’ Then, forcing her voice into a semblance of calmness, she took in three deep breaths, and continued, ‘and while we’re talking about forgetting our lessons, I notice you have not turned in most of the last two week’s assignments set at school as yet, and it’s long past the deadline. (Her daughter gave an audible gasp) In fact you barely managed a pass grade in the Math test you had three days back.’
‘You’ve been checking my bag?’ she said with a note of incredulity in her voice ‘without even telling me?’
‘It’s good that I have isn’t it, if you are beginning to keep things from me?’ her mother answered, a little defiantly.
Nina kept quiet. She looked at her mother with a glazed look in her eyes, as if she we’re not really seeing her standing there with a spatula in hand. A slight crease appeared across her forehead and she gave a small sigh. A lot had been happening in her life since the past few days. She didn’t know whether she could confide in her mother about all of it or not. Had it only been her secret, perhaps she would have, but it involved some other people. Some of who were old friends. She normally told her mom almost everything that went on her life. Her likes and dislikes, what all happened in class, how much she hated Tiffany, her views on current events. Her mum almost acted as a second conscience for her for she tried her best not to do anything that may bring her down in her mother’s eyes. And today she was having a row with her mother about her not telling her mum everything.
Nina saw her mother give her face a typically mummy type searching look. It was as if she could read her thoughts. An expression of concern replaced the anger upon her face. ‘ What happened sweetheart? What is it that you can’t tell mummy? I know that you are a big girl now and can take care of yourself, OK? I’m just worried about you. You look almost unhappy these days. Are you having problems at school or something? Not following lessons…? Try telling me about it, please…or you can just write to me if you want.’
Nina gave her mother a small smile. She had once written her mum a letter of confession when she had not got the guts to face her mom. She had been 6 then. She was 16 now.
‘It’s nothing Ma, I guess I’m just…It’s...it’s nothing...don’t worry about me, please… I think I’ll go up to my room and finish that Calculus homework, OK.’
She turned as her mother continued looking at her uneasily, went up the stairs into her room, and locked the door behind her. Then, instead of going towards her study table littered with books, copies, pens, pencils, etc. She went left to the opposite end of the room where her mirror and dressing table stood. She prayed with all her might muttering “Oh, God don’t let it happen again please, let it have stopped happening, let it have stopped, please!” Then she screwed up her eyes tightly.
She opened her eyes and, seeing the reflection in the mirror, made a hopeless sort of shrug kind of gesture. Her face drooped, so to speak but technically since the skin on her face was already sagging with age, that’s impossible.
She screwed up her eyes and bizarrely, when she next looked into the mirror, her skin was back to its normal smoothness. Her hair was no longer gray but, indeed, was again an ivory black, falling thickly to her waist. Her eyes, no longer the calm blue that had looked into her face moments before but beautiful, large and gazing ponderously into their own dark depths.
She turned abruptly to her bed and fell upon it. She was feeling extremely tired, mentally. She didn’t think she could stand a round of 20 grueling math questions. She had too many unanswered questions of her own.
It was so unfair! Why should that tablet have affected her in this way? Beryl had been sensible and not taken it. How could she have been such an idiot? Why had she let Tiffany get to her? She should have known that anything Tiffany offered, as a favour, could not be anything good. But even Baron had taken that from Tiff. But, well, since when has Baron not taken anything that Tiffany Majors gave him? And, since when has he had any brains to help his decisions? No, it was her own stupidity. Hey, the heat was unbearable that day some two weeks back and everyone was doing crazy things to cool off during recess. If only they had not made that idiotic rule about the school electricity being given a break during recess too. She wouldn’t have needed to resort to Tiffany’s help. She wouldn’t have taken the “Antarctic powder” that Tiff claimed was keeping her cool. ‘I mean, that’s sooo third grade! “Antarctic Powder”! What on earth had happened to me? Obviously it must have been some kind of…you-know…drug or something…’She shivered, even the thought that she might have actually swallowed some slow poison made her feel goose bumps across her back. ‘And I guess Tiffany must have thought that it’d be funny to see me turn into some kind of freak-chameleon-thingy.’
But she agreed that it was her fault mostly. She could have easily practiced abstinence as Beryl did and have let common sense prevail.
There was one thought though that kept on haunting her. What kind of drug can enable a person to turn into someone else? That was the bizarre thing about it. The only person she had told about what she was experiencing was Beryl, and it was Beryl who had brought this point to Nina’s view.
The result of this was that Nina started spending a lot of time researching drugs in the library and on the net. She was too preoccupied with all of this to hear what her Teachers said in school. Also, she was feeling strangely unwell since she had had that substance and therefore was letting her performance in class drop drastically.
Oh, but what on earth was that stuff? What was she to do about it? The only thing was to tell her mum the truth. She felt horrible lying to anyone. Hiding the truth from anybody, least of all her own mother, was unnatural and unbearable to her. Her mother always seemed to understand this distinctly un-teenager-like behaviour of hers. She never took advantage of the fact that Nina hated to tell falsehoods. She also had an uncanny knack of knowing when a person was lying and when he/she was telling the truth, which had passed on to her daughter.
Nina turned wearily on her side, resolving to tell her mom everything about what all had happened in the past couple of weeks. She got out of bed and changed into her pyjamas. Then picked up her School Diary and looked through the day’s homework.
She pulled out her chair, sat down at her table and, shifting into a comfortable position, started wondering why her friends had been saying Calculus was tough. A baby could solve those sums. She picked up her pen and pulling her copy towards her, started writing furiously.
posted by bee at 12:53 PM
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