3) Rolling in the Deep like Adele

We all have that one song.

The one you never sick of hearing, no matter how many times it's put on repeat.

The one that, no matter how you feel or what mood you're in, makes you smile.

I dance around my room like a lunatic as my 'It's going to be okay' playlist thrums through the house. I sing at the top of my lungs hoping that the events of yesterday will disappear.

Smack!

A pillow comes out of nowhere knocking me backwards. How do I always keep ending up on the floor?

"Mace. You alright down there?" I hear the concern in a familar person's voice who is most definitely going to be dead in the next ten seconds.

"CHARLIE!!" I jump up and launch at him, hitting him repeatedly with my other pillow. "Why. Would. You. Do. That? Why are you even here?"

He catches my next hit with ease.

"I came to pick you up as well as  saving the neighbourhoods ears from bleeding. There was a terrible noise coming from your room and I can only assume it was you attempting to sing ."

So maybe I'll never aspire to win a Grammy or Toney award but my voice isn't so bad that cats serenade with me.

But when I have a horrible day I don't care if I sound like a dying sea cow. I will sing my heart out with my amazing out of tune voice.

"I will sing as much as I want thank you very much. Now let me get back to wallowing in my misery and leave me alone so I can forget the embarrassment, which I call my life." I crawl under my warm doona. There is no way that I'm leaving this bed anytime soon.

"Come on Mace, " Charlie sighs and comes to sit on my bed "you're going to make both of us late for school. You know Mr Brantmen said next time I was late he was going to lock the room so I'd have to climb through the window. And I think we all know how that's going to end."

I poke my head out from the covers.
"You would consider going through the window but as it's at the top of a 3 story building that's very unlikely. You'll probably end up at the door, knocking repeatedly and telling knock-knock jokes till he gets annoyed and opens the door."

His eyebrows shoot up in surprise "It's scary that you know what I'm thinking." It take him a moment to consider his next thoughts "If you come I'll buy you ice-cream on the way home. You can't say no to creamy deliciousness with unlimited toppings."

"Ice cream and a teacup pig," I demand.

"A teacup pig?" He exclaims "Where in the world am I going to get a teacup pig? Do we even have teacup pigs in Australia?"

"No clue. You're the one that's buying me a teacup pig," I shrug "maybe look on eBay, you never know what you'll find online."

His stare alone, tells me that I'm not getting a teacup pig anytime soon.

"Fine ice cream and a tub of Nutella."

My uniform gets thrown in my face "Great doing business with you , now  get ready. We're leaving in 5 minutes, " Charlies says as he leaves my room.

"Why am I still friends with him" I mumble to myself.

"Because you love me, " He sticks his head through the doorway "4 minutes and 37 seconds. "

Annoyed, I throw a pillow at his head. The things I do for food

****

I have my headphones on hoping that it would block out any chatter.

I remember all of the things that I thought I wanted to be
So desperate to find a way out of my world and finally breathe
Right before my eyes I saw, my heart it came to life
This ain't easy, it's not meant to be
Every story has its scars

For some reason when I need to distract myself and block out the world, I listen to Adele.
As I walk through the hallway, people seem to stop their conversations and stare at me as if I've murdered someone.

When the world seems so cruel
And your heart makes you feel like a fool

The sound of whispers fills the hallway that seems to be getting smaller by the second. I don't have to hear the conversations to know that they're talking about me.

I promise you will see

That I will be, I will be your remedy

I turn to Charlie "I thought you said nobody knew it was me, " I loudly whisper

"Well obviously somebody found out and told their friends."

I raise my eyebrows in disbelief "By friends you mean the whole entire school!!" I hate social media.

***

I'm nudged awake by Lee who is next to me. Lee is sadly friends with the devil himself Sam. Even though he can be extremely annoying at times but he's funny enough to distract me through the torture they call Maths.

There seems to be something wrong with Lees' eyes as he keeps rolling them in the same direction.

"What?" I mouth to him.

"Miss StClair, Are you with us?" a booming voice sounds throughout the classroom.

Ugh, not again. I close my eyes again. Maybe if I ignore him and block him out he'll leave me alone.

The voice is right in my ear now "Miss St-"

"I'm no saint sir" I look at him straight in the eye. Lee just looks at me like I've grown a second head.

Before I can stop myself I start singing Adele.

"This was all you. None of it me, " I put my hands up in surrender.
"I'm giving this up. I always forget it all. I need to be free. "

My math teacher looks at me in utter confusion "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Send my love to your next students. Treat them better."

"Miss StClair? " He says not quite knowing what to do and obviously not appreciating my new rendition of the song.

I stand up "We both know we're not kids no more. I was too strong and you were trembling. You can't handle the hot heat rising. Sir, I'm still rising. I'll be running and you'll be walking. You can't keep up then you'll be falling down. There's only one way down" my voice rises with noticing.

"I think thats enough from you Mackenzie, please see me after class where we will have a discussion about appropriate expression of emotions in class " he grunts walking back to the whiteboard. His

"Cause baby now we've got bad blood. You know-" I start to whisper to myself but I'm cut off by a tap on my shoulder.

Lee is looking at me in concern "Umm, you realise that's Taylor Swift right?"

I decided not to respond as I'm very close to snapping and I don't want to lose the only good entertainment I have in this stupid subject.

***

We all sit down at lunch time hoping for some peace and quiet. Sadly yesterday's incident hadn't died down yet.

"It will all blow over soon Mace," Zoe says as she devours her pasta salad. She points her fork at me "by Monday I can bet no one will even remember who you are and will completely forget about the rumours."

"RUMOURS? What rumours?"

Zoe and Charlie look at each other, having a silent conversation.

Zoe's eyes soften "There may be a couple rumours going around about yesterday and how you triggered the fire alarm. Like how you have an evil twin."

"Or you tried to set the school on fire to take revenge on the math staffroom for not giving you bonus marks," Charlie adds

"I liked the one that she's been hiding here for the past 3 months to uncover the mystery behind, why gym teachers are evil."

"What about the one where's she's trying to make a romantic gesture to her true love?"

I hide my face in my hand, I had to give it to my school, they really are very creative.

"But I put out the fire, the alarm shouldn't have gone off. There's like a 75 percent chance it wasn't me."

Jess sits herself opposite me with a look of concern on her face. "How are you feeling Mackenzie. I heard about what happened yesterday and I just wanted to reassure you that I'll be here the whole time if you ever need support. I know that being a teen mum can be-"

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse "Um. Sorry, it sounded like you said teen mum?"

Jess sets her hand on top of mine squeezing lightly "I know that caring for a baby can be costly so you set the fire alarm off so everyone would leave the building and you could steal from the schools safe."

School safe?

"Just think of the baby next time. I don't want you to be having a baby in prison. Orange is really not your colour."

A voice comes from behind "My favourite is her escaping from a rehab facility so she could go back to school to find her brain where an evil scientist took it. I personally think that the evil scientist part was a bit of overkill but you got to give the people what they want, " Sam says with a sly grin.

I turn to Jess "Bless your soul, you've got your head in the clouds believing all those rumours" and pat her hand.

Swivelling around I point at Sam.

"You made a fool out of me and boy I'll be bringing you down. I'll make your heart melt. Yeah you're cold to the core."

"Now rumour has it I'm the one you'll be leaving them for," he says sharply.

"Actually it was, I set fire to your face .Watched and laughed while I hit you very hard with a mace."

I can tell he is about to make a stupid remark when my phone starts to vibrate. A random phone number from another state pops up. Oh come on, not these guys again.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mackenzie?" a voice says over the phone that definitely sounds like a telemarketer.

"Yes that's me, " I stop him

I don't want to buy your products. So will you stop calling me?

I am over everything.

I don't want death insurance or need Telstra calling me.
Hello from the other side...

I can hear Jess whispering to Charlie, "Is she singing Adele? She knows they're not the lyrics right?"

"Oh, that" he brushes it off like it's something that occurs regularly. "When she gets overwhelmed she tends to listen to certain artists, today it seems to be Adele. Depending on her mood she can start to use lyrics from songs to talk, because well she's Mackenzie."

"You must have called a thousand times
To tell me about stuff I don't want to buy
So will you please delete my number before I cut off your line."

The line goes blank. Here's a lesson to remember: if you want to get rid of telemarketers. SING.

"I think I speak for all mankind when I say, will you stop torturing the school with your singing. We don't want anybody dying because they start to bleed out from ears" Sam says grimacing "I'm going to leave before everyone starts singing and it turns into a killer musical. Literally."

My mood has gone from bad to worse. Why did I even leave my bedroom again? Yes, that's right for a scoop of ice cream which is now going to turn into a tub of ice cream with a tub of Nutella on the side.

Zoe comes around to me with sympathetic eyes and pulls me into a hug
"It'll get better soon I promise. Just keep your head up high and look forward to an amazing future" she says softly.

I only hope that this amazing future she talks about comes soon. Because I'm getting sick of being everybody else's entertainment.

Cupcakes Theory #3
When you're having a terrible day sing your heart out no matter how bad you sound. You never know; someone may even start singing with you.

:):):)

So someone actually tried to sell me death insurance. And when I told them I was under 18. Their response was: you never know when death might hit you. #rays of sunshine coming your way!

Hope you're having and awesomely cool week where ever you are.
(Because it's 30°c 90% humidity in Sydney. I swear it's supposed to be autumn)

Theforgottonone ☆