January 28th, 2018

As someone who has a pretty full brain, you have to know that forgetting my birthday wasn't that strange. Especially when that day is the last day of the semester and there's a huge assembly, a party in probably each class, and people everywhere. ESPECIALLY when you wake up with your dead sister sitting at your desk at four am and random animals roaming the room. There was a panda of some sort, a python, and something that looked like a jaguar but smaller and less vicious looking. And a few brightly coloured birds circling above me.

Sometimes this happened, and when it does, there's no point in taking my medicine. It would do nothing and probably make it worse.
It was obvious that the stuff wasn't real, but it looked so alive. I sat up slowly and cautiously, and immediately every animal was staring at me. It was unnerving and kind of terrifying as I slipped out of my covers, and out of my room. I shut my eyes and exhaled loudly as I closed my door silently so I wouldn't wake Jenny and Carmen. When I opened them, Bianca was nose to nose with me, a smug smirk on her lips and her eyebrow raised. This was another thing that gave away the hallucination. Bianca could never raise one eyebrow. She always tried and I would try with her but she never could. She was jealous when I figured out how.

"Why hello Nico-"

"No, not now, not today, please go away," I whispered, moving away from her and tip toed down the hall.

"Wow Nico, your vocabulary is pretty great today, who knew you could rhyme like doctor Suess at 4:00 in the morning?" She snickered.
I put a finger to my lips to quiet her, forgetting that even though it was a hallucination, only I could hear her.

"Oh you want to me to be quiet huh? Is this quiet enough for you?" She started slamming her hands against the hallway walls and yelling incoherently. I lunged forwards and grabbed her wrists to make her stop.

"Please don't wake Jenny," I begged, knowing that she would make me take my meds and not go to school. It would be better that way probably, but she would quit her work and probably baby me until I was better. I may not be sane, but I wasn't sick, I didn't need to be wrapped in a blanket in my room all day.
Maybe that's what should've happened, but I didn't want it.
She smirked and shrugged, so I dropped her wrists and made my way into the bathroom and turned in the tap to cold. She stood behind me, glaring at me from the mirror.
"You're kind of a waste of space, aren't ya Neeks," She taunted, crossing her arms.
I kept my eyes locked with hers until I dropped my head and splashed icy water over my entire face. When I looked up and turned off the tap, she was gone. I sighed in relief and turned to dry my face, but she was right there.

"God!" I caught myself and whispered the last part, "damn it, Bianca why are you here?"

"Why are you asking me?" She giggled, the floppy hat on her head bouncing with her black hair.
I huffed and dried my face.
I walked back in my room, thankful to see that all the animals were gone except the panda, which decided to fall asleep on my bed. I steered clear of it and checked my phone, that told me it was 4:50.
Slowly, while ignoring Bianca's teasing and taunts, I got dressed and ready for the day. I was in my usual attire of an old black hoody, what used to be tight black skinny jeans but now were big on me, and my beat up vans, because my feet deserved to suffer today. Thankfully I showered last night so my hair was fluffy and light and didn't weigh me down as much. I didn't bother to pack my bag with it's usual binders and text books, just a couple pieces of paper, a pencil, my recent book, and my phone and earbuds. Then, without disturbing the panda once, I snuck out of my room. At this time, it was 5:37, still way to early for school. Time for a walk.
I began down the stairs (with Bianca muttering things in my ear; useless, ugly, failure) and saw icy water from the second step all the way down. I had no clue how it could've gotten there since the air was warm (at least I thought it was). I gripped the railing tightly and made my way down, testing each step carefully and placing both feet fully on it, getting my grip, and then moving on to the next step. On the last step, I slipped off the edge and landed on my ankle painfully.

I pulled my phone out and checked the time, seeing that that had taken me a whole 23 minutes. It was now 6:00. Jenny would be up any second, I had to leave.
I hurried to the kitchen, trying to ignore the random animals and objects thrown around the house. I grabbed a pear from the fruit basket and scurried towards the door, stepping over a pile of glass from a candle and a sleeping frog to get to the door. I heard movement from upstairs while I slipped my thick black jacket on and left the house.
I was hit with a freezing blast of air, making the inside of my nose freeze instantly. I shivered in realization that if these hallucinations persisted through the day while everyone was moving and flowing around me, I wouldn't know what was real and what wasn't.
With that pleasant thought, I stared walking to school, even though it didn't start for two hours.

—
The walk to school was as bad as I thought. Although Bianca whispering in your ear is bad, walking through icy winds for 20 minutes was even worse. By the time I got to school I was an hour and a half early, my fingers were purple and my nose was bright red. Thankfully, my art teacher from last year, Mrs. Harbour, arrived at the same time as me, and said that I could stay in her classroom with her until school began.
The halls were weird, with something different and equally as strange staring right at me around every corner. The teacher paid zero attention to these things though, so I tried to do the same and made myself stare at the loose bun tied to the back of her head.
Her class wasn't bad so I settled into a seat in the second row and watched her unpack her stuff for the day. She wad probably the best teacher I'd ever had, but I would never call her amazing. I'd seen all of the pitying and sympathetic looks she cast me the year before. She didn't treat me like a normal person, which made a slight resentment grow in my stomach.

I sat quietly with one ear bud in, and flinched when I began to hear students enter the building, about 30 minutes before school started. She let me stay until students began to come in and sit down. As soon as I closed the door of her class I knew something was wrong. I turned around and was pushed to the wall by hundreds of students rushing by me. They didn't acknowledge that the ceiling was bright red, and that we were treading through an inch or so of water. I shook my head to try and make it go away but it didn't, so I plunged into the mass of student for my first class.

There were people in the hallway that would stare at me. They didn't break away or switch their attention to anything else, and they wouldn't blink. Their eyes seemed to be red. It was very unnerving and I was relieved to get to my English classroom without going insane.
Instead of throwing a party, my English teacher did what she always does, and put on Romeo and Juliet, the version with Leonardo DiCaprio, for the 4th time since I first had her as my teacher. I've had her for every English class except grade 9, and I had come to an unsettling conclusion she only put this movie on so she could stare at younger, shirtless Leo. She's 60.

The whole time though, I was working myself up for geography, and didn't pay attention to any of the movie. Everyone in this class had seen it a million times.

The evil geography teacher decided to listen to his three favourites in my class and throw a party. Caleb's two goons, who wouldn't go near me without Caleb, and Caleb's newly installed bitch of a girlfriend, Madison Cox.
I normally refuse to call girls bitches in a serious way, because I respect women and consider myself a feminist. It wasn't right to share that insult, but this girl really, truly was.
I try not to think about her even if she's in two of my classes because just listening to her talk hurts my brain.
She wears the skimpiest clothes that she can get away with, like shorts that don't cover her we, crop tops that could be bras, and if we have any trips of days at school that involve water, she brings, and wears, a tiny black string bikini that she's known for. Also known for falling off because she loosely ties it and guys will pull the string of the bow to make it undo.
She uses about 9 guys per semester that she knows have crushes on her by sending them nudes so they'll do her homework, all while she was dating the quarterback of the football team, whom, last year at the grade 11 end of year trip, she snuck to his cabin and slept with him. I didn't go, but they came back half through the last day and she was bragging to literally everyone about it. I overheard in every class we had together. She slept around for her own personal gain, played with boys feelings, and was a complete asshole to everyone. Especially younger grade girls. 
So yes, I would call her a bitch.

At the end of Romeo and Juliet (spoilers; they both die) I left the classroom and entered the hallway. It was different now, but still weird. The people staring thing was still the same, but the red and water was gone and was replaced with the lights that seemed to shine 50 times brighter than usual, momentarily blinding me. I put up my hood to walk to class and kept my head down. Bianca had disappeared somewhere. I was glad she was gone.

I wasn't that early to class, but it seemed that everyone was late today. The stupid teacher who always gets mad over when I'm late didn't even look up at Caleb's friends and Madison when they came in 9 minutes late. Camilla trailed being them, rolling her eyes in disgust in Madison's general direction. From what I learned while we were still speaking, She hates Madison with a passion. Apparently they were best friends all through middle school and then when they came here Madison dropped her for literally every guy in the school.
Then my gaze flickered to Madison herself (after Camilla decided to not even look my way). She was dressed for the occasion apparently, in a tight black mini skirts and a pale pink tank top that was cropped to her stomach. She had black stripper heels on, and her strawberry blonde hair was pulled into a messy bun, two strands on each side of her head framed her perfect make up. I took a closer look and realized she was straightening her skirt and pulling the strap of her shirt up. I moved to look a bit behind her and saw Caleb pass the door with a smug smirk on his ugly face. I glared at her again as she made her way to her seat. She caught me and contorted her face in a disgusted fashion, like she just smelled a compost bin that was several days old, and mouthed the word psychopath at me. I looked away and stared out the window, but I could almost see her satisfied smirk.

—

I was strolling the empty halls right before school ended, just to get away from my classroom that had some strange things in it, when Caleb passed me. I kept my head down while he glared at me, and when he passed, he shouted,

"Watch your back Di Angelo!" Which was enough to make me sprint down the rest of of the hall.

I went to my locker and grabbed my jacket while everyone started to leave their classes, excited that that semester was over. I shoved through students and out of the doors. It was cold, but not as bad as that morning at 6 am. I started to replay some of the other weird things my mind (hopefully they were just hallucinations) conjured up today, like how the bathroom seemed to be on fire when I went there during third period, the cow in the cafeteria, and the weird staring people throughout the assembly. I had to leave that early so I wouldn't go insane.
Not even a block away from the school, I heard my name being shouted. I hoped this was also a hallucination and kept walking.

"Hey Di Angelo, where do you think your going!" Caleb yelled from behind me. Not a hallucination. I ignored him like I ignored Bianca, who had returned and was walking down the middle of the road parallel to me. They stopped shouting so I assumed they disappeared. I dropped my shoulders in relief, and two seconds later my left should was grabbed and I was pulled back and around to be face to face with Caleb.

"Oh you're in for it today Di Angelo, do you think ignoring me made it better?" He sneered. I looked at him, and his two goons were behind him along with Madison, who was probably freezing her ass off.
Today could be pay back day for the broken nose. I had no energy to fight back, and there was no telling what'd they'd do to me. So I twisted out of his grip and started sprinting, but due to my lack of athletic ability, they caught me almost immediately, and shoved me forwards. I tripped and landed on my hands and knees, ripping larger holes in my black jeans.
I was breathing heavily when Caleb bent down and turned me to face him. His hand gripped my shirt because I hadn't zipped my jacket shut in my haste to leave the school.

"This won't be pay back for breaking my nose, but Madison came for a show, and I'll give it too her. Also, I don't want her to see too much blood," He snickered and dropped me hard. I was wearing my backpack, which protected me from hitting my head and receiving a concussion again.
He towered over me, looking particularly evil. With one swift movement, he kicked me in the ribs so hard all of the air I my lungs left my body and I was gasping for air. Not broken. Just bruised.
Tears sprung to my eyes as I held my hands to the hurt spot. In response he kicked my right side. It didn't hurt as bad, but holy fuck, I was in a lot of pain.

"Griffin, Callum, pin his arms," Caleb instructed. I struggled and tried to move away but they got to me first and held my arms above my head. Caleb smirked and kicked my left side again. At my very obvious look of pain, he did it again, and again and again, all the way up my left side. I couldn't breath. I had my eyes squeezed shut. I couldn't even think about what I would look like after this.
When he stopped, I opened my eyes to see Madison squeal and clap her hands in excitement behind him. He spit beside my head, wiped his dirty shoe on my cheek, and then walked away.
I couldn't move at first, I just laid there, waiting for the pain to diminish. Getting up too quickly would just make it worse.
When it started to snow I got up, and slowly pulled myself home.

All the lights were on in the house but there were no cars in the drive way. Jenny or Carmen probably just left them on by mistake this morning.
I checked the time and saw it was 4:35, and they were home at 5:15. I stepped inside the warm house and stripped off my jacket and went into the bathroom in the front hall.
I looked half dead and the mud on my cheek looked black against my skin. I used a cloth and hot water to rinse it off.
There was a small red patch on my cheek where it once was but that would go away soon, and I didn't even want to know what my ribs looks like, so I took off my shoes and made my way up to my room. There was nothing out of the ordinary in my house this time, except when I opened my door, a smiling, happy Will Solace was staring at me. I had to do a double take and hope for the best that he was actually real.

"What are you doing in my room?" I asked him bluntly. He laughed a bashfully.

"Well you weren't home when you normally were, so I decided to come wait up here," he informed me, as if it made perfect sense. I was still very confused so I decided to rephrase my question.

"No, like, why are you here. As in my house. Not that I don't like you here or anything," I corrected myself, taking a step into the room. My bed wasn't made and my desk had stuff strewn all over it.

"Do you not remember? We planned it all last week!" I thought and then shook my head.

"I don't remember," I shrugged helplessly and his eyes widened in amusement.

"It's your birthday you absolute spork! How could you forget you're 18!" He jumped forward making me flinch and take a small step back.
I checked the date on my phone, and sure enough it read January 28th on the screen.

"I had a busy day I guess it just slipped my mind,"

"Slipped your mind! Nico you're an adult now! You can get your G2 easily at this point-"

"I don't have a license," I said dully, cutting him off. He waved that comment away with his hand.

"Anyways, it's your birthday, and I got you a present, sit down!" He moved me to my un made bed and made me sit while he grabbed a mediocrely wrapped present off of my desk that I hadn't realized was there.

"Will I said no presents, I don't need anything-"

"Stop. You're going to open it and you're going to like it," he said defiantly, crossing his arms like Bianca did this morning. I tried not to think about that as I opened the first package. It was the box set of all 8 Harry Potter movies.

"Ok so I got you these because I was snooping through Jenny and Carmen's DVD collection and saw they didn't have any Harry Potter movies which is basically sac-religious," he explained. I smiled and opened the next two things. He also got me a beautiful black leather bound sketch book and black, extremely soft, fuzzy pj pants.

"I knew you liked that ones I let you wear at New Years, so I got those for you," he murmured. I pulled him into a hug that wouldn't hurt my ribs and then pulled away.

"Thank you Will, you're amazing," I put them all down beside me when I heard the front door open and Jenny call.

"Boys! We have Thai food and cake!" She yelled up the staircase. Me and Will made eye contact and jumped up at the the same time, running out of my room and sliding on our socks. I stopped at my door and he looked behind to ask what I was doing.

"You go down, I'll be right there," I replied and closed the door to my room. I went into my desk and pulled out my pills that supposedly helped my schizophrenia and dry swallowed one. I looked at the orange prescription bottle, and then took a second. No harm no foul. Then I went downstairs with everyone else.

They had set out all types of Thai food on the table, take out from our favourite restaurant just like I suggested we do. We made nice conversation as we ate and Jenny complained that she didn't get to make me breakfast because I left so early. No one realized how badly my ribs hurt.
We finished and Jenny and Carmen cleaned the plates while Will and I talked. Then they brought in a huge chocolate gourmet cake. It looked incredible.
They sang happy birthday and I blew out my candles on my cake before Jenny distributed equal pieces to everyone. We ate silently and ravenously because the cake was even better than it looked.

"Can I have another piece? I want another piece," Will exclaimed, and pulled the cake towards him, while the rest of us were stuffed. I had an idea. It was rash and it may not end well but I wanted to do something, Anything, that could make the other half of the day disappear.
So while Will was deciding on how big he wanted his slice to be, I put my hand behind his head, and shoved his face into it.
Jenny and Carmen were in shock but started laughing right away, Carmen snorting and Jenny giggling. I stared to laugh too when Will slowly lifted his head out of the icing, and his entire face was covered. His mouth was smiling but he had an evil look in his eyes while he wiped off the icing off his face as well as he could, but he just smeared it. Then, in one graceful swoop, he smeared all of the icing in his hands onto my face. My mouth dropped open and I laughed with surprised before taking a handful of cake and hitting him where his Collar bone was. It fell down his shirt.
Then we were in a war, all four of us laughing our heads off while me and Will threw and smeared cake over each other. I put it in his hair and over his shirt while he put threw it anywhere he could.
By the end we were almost completely covered and there was only one handful of cake left. I was laughing with everyone else with my mouth wide open when Will grabbed the last of the cake, and promptly shoved it in my mouth, muffling the laughing. I spent 5 minutes trying to chew it and swallow it with Jenny having tears in her eyes and Will and Carmen holding their sides.
Then the bell rang.

"That would be for you," Will laughed. I looked at him in confusion while I giggled and stumbled like a drunk person over to the door. I didn't realize how ridiculous I probably looked, covered in chocolate cake, when I opened the door. Camilla was standing there with a card in her hands. Her mouth was open to say something but she saw what I looked like and closed it.

"What the fuck happened to you?" She asked. Will popped up behind me and raided his hand.

"That would be me," He piped in mischievously. Her eyebrows raised at the sight of his hair.

"Um, not to be rude, but I thought you hated me, while are you here?" I asked, but Will answered that too,

"Yeah, that was also me. I hacked your phone and stole her number and made her come today," he rambled quickly. I turned around to look at him,

"You did what?!" I exclaimed, but he grabbed my shoulders and made me look at Camilla before running back into the kitchen. Behind her, her car was running and she was shivering a tiny bit.

"So you're not staying I'm guessing?" I asked her. She shook her head and passed me the card. I took it, trying to get the least amount of chocolate on it as possible.

"I wanted to, but I have a family thing to get to. Even though you're an asshole, I kind of miss talking to you, so maybe we could do that again?" She asked and I nodded a ton, really fast and really hard.

"Ok good, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then, happy birthday," she obviously didn't want to touch me because of the chocolate, but nodded and hurried back to her car. I shut the door and opened the card, an American eagle gift card falling out.
Then I read the card.

Dear Nico,
So I still kind of hate you because you're an asshat, but I do miss you and it's your birthday so I decided to give you this. You dress like you're an emo kid from 2012 and make horrible fashion choices so buy something not ugly here please. Or you know, just take me and I'll help you. You need new clothes.

Camilla

I smiled and closed the card, walking into the kitchen.

"What'd she get you?" Will asked, trying to get the icing off of his face, and not succeeding. He managed to cover the floor with chocolate crumbs from his hair though.

"Fashion advice," I laughed and after a confused glance he did too. Then Jenny yelled at us to clean up our mess.

A/n
Ok so I wanted to actually die last night. I spent 4 hours writing this entire chapter, a 4500 word chapter, and then I published it for you guys to read. But then it didn't publish properly so I went back in the chapter to see what was wrong AND THE ENTIRE CHAPTER WAS GONE. and then cue Thea crying becuase it was 1 am and she was over tired and just wasted 4 hours of her life. So yea I woke up early this morning so I could write it before company came over so you better be fucking thankful because I am thoroughly pissed off rn.
Ok so I re did the entire chapter and it's done. This is dedicated to Kit_is_crazy it's they're birthday on the 13th and they deserve all the love they can get. Anyways solangelo is closer than you might think so get ready.

I love you all and if deletes again I'm deleting my entire Wattpad.

Thea