Chapter 2: 9/11
My mom dropped me off at school after taking my youngest siblings to the elementary school that was right next to my high school. My younger sister Amber was in Middle school which was across town closer to my mom's job.
My mom worked as a receptionist at a Christian radio station and parked cars at night with one of her co-workers. He eventually took over the company and started to pay everyone a fair wage.
For now, my mom was living paycheck to paycheck trying to support 5 kids and a husband who was too proud to get a better-paying job because he didn't want to work for someone else. It could be worse! My real father lived off disability because of a work 'accident' that he caused while he was drunk! Oh well, you can't choose your parents. Luckily, I had my mom. She was a good example of a hard-working mother.
I was thinking of ways to start earning more money so my mom wouldn't have to work so hard. As for now I only got to split the tips with my sisters and my stepdad at the ice cream shop.
Most days we had to use that to buy our lunch on the weekends or after-school snacks during school days. We had free lunches at school, so I would get them when I could. My mom even told us to stay until noon if we weren't feeling well to get lunch. For me that was most days, but hopefully not today. If this works, I will never eat dairy again! Maybe I can invent dairy-free options before it gets big.
I was thinking about non-dairy options available in the future when I ran into my friends Laura and Victor. I had been best friends with Victor since middle school and he was currently dating Laura. The problem was that he was also dating Bella, my other best friend from middle school. I had known Victor longest and told him he was wrong to date 2 girls at once, but I didn't want to get him in trouble.
He was like a big brother to me. Every time I saw him, I would run up to him and he would lift me over his head and spin me around. He was around 6 feet 2 inches, and I was only 5 feet 8 inches. I felt like I was weightless and could fly when he picked me up.
We all hung out until my boyfriend, Thomas, got to school. I went for a walk alone with Thomas while Victor and Laura went off on their own.
Thomas was a football player and played the Cello in Orchestra. He was smart but had ADD. He wouldn't do his homework but still got A's on the tests. I also got straight A's, but always did my homework and any extra credit that was offered. My mom always told me to do well in school and go to college. She wanted me to have a better life than she did.
Thomas was an only child, and his parents were very supportive of him. I wanted to be in the choir like I was in middle school, but my stepdad told me he didn't have time to take me to the choir concerts. I also wanted to dance, but he wanted me to go to the ice cream store after school.
I walked and talked to Thomas until school started. He would carry my books for me and help me with my locker. That was how we met on the first day of school.
I was dressed up in a blue jean skirt and a frilly white top. I wore my cute floral flip-flops and pink lip gloss. I wanted to dress up to break up with my middle school boyfriend for ignoring me on my 15th birthday. He spent the day hanging out with my younger stepsister instead of hanging out with me. When I got mad at him about it, he told me that he was too nervous because he was meeting my parents for the first time. I thought first and last!
He didn't even call me when he went on a summer trip! I was a Leo and wanted more attention. The first day of school I walked up to him and told him, "We're over!" Then I walked away and found the cutest boy I could and asked him to help me open my locker.
Thomas thought it was a ploy, but I had always been bad at combination locks. LOL! He helped me every day after that and carried my books to class even though his teacher would get mad at him for being late. He didn't care because he didn't like that teacher.
My first class had my other best friend, Bella. I saw her and took my seat next to her. We would talk when the teacher wasn't looking and write notes when he was looking. I wrote notes to my other friends and boyfriend as well. I was always fast with my schoolwork and finished my homework during class, so I had time after school.
I helped my mom take care of the younger kids and walked home with them after school. The boys usually didn't write back much, but, Bella and Laura would write back and pass the notes between classes. We would learn new ways to fold the notes and I kept all the letters in a binder. It was like my journal.
The first couple of classes went by as usual, but by the time we got to my third class, I started to have an ominous feeling. It was then I noticed the date. It was 9/11/2001!
It hit me when the teacher shushed us and turned on the TV. We watched the news and saw the terrorist attacks that were reported earlier that day. They showed continuous footage for the rest of the day as we all watched in silence.
I thought, Oh my God! This was not a dream! There was no way I dreamed that, and it happened. This was happening like it did in the past. I was sad that I couldn't prevent this tragedy but was thinking about what I might be able to change in the future.
I remember this day clearly. It was a major life event for the entire world. It also sparked the War on Terrorism. The stock markets would fluctuate, but eventually, the war was a boost to the economy and people started to have more pride in their country. I started trying to remember all the things that happened and in what order, but it had been over 20 years. The event timeline was a little fuzzy.
I wrote down what I could remember in my notebook. I remember Bush had a second term when I was 18. Hurricane Katrina was in 2005. I had some extended family from Louisiana who came to live with us for a little while after the hurricane.
We lived in Texas in a City by the sea, so we were always worried about hurricanes. Luckily, we didn't get a major one for a while. I remember there was a school shooting in 2007 and Obama was our first black president in 2009. He introduced Obamacare. I should tell my mom to invest in healthcare before then.
I was writing the timeline and didn't notice my boyfriend coming up behind me. He read my notes over my shoulder and asked, "What are you writing? Can you believe what happened today? My mom works downtown. What if they target downtown next?" I sighed and assured him, "Don't worry, they won't target our small town." He replied, "We are a major port city in the South. They could target us! What if there is another plane they don't know about?"
I just shook my head and hugged him to calm him down. I already knew they wouldn't attack us from my past life. I didn't want him to think I was crazy, so I didn't tell him. Not yet anyway. We had only been dating for a month and we were barely dating. Since I wasn't allowed to date, he wasn't technically my boyfriend. We never went past hugging and holding hands.
Every day after school my mom would ask me, "Did you kiss that boy?" She knew we were dating and was so worried about me getting pregnant. The funny thing was that I was the only one of my siblings who didn't have kids.
Amber got pregnant at 15! She was almost 14 now, so I had a year. I was thinking about it, and I didn't want to change the future too much, so my nephew was never born. I loved my nephew! The part I wanted to change was her getting addicted to drugs and partying when she was 14.
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