A Lesson On Elopement...Part 2

If you've ever tried running away, you'll know what I mean when I say: It's hard. As resentful of your home and your family as you are, as unhappy with your life as it is, it still takes a good deal of nerve to actually do it. I don't mean the kind of running away you did when you were five, taking a picnic basket full of plastic food and a blanket to the bottom of the yard, I mean leaving everything you've ever known in your life, and escaping from everything you ever considered as yours. That takes guts, and it takes time.

I started planning my escape three months before I even thought about actually leaving. I knew it would take care, detail, and an whole lot of inteligence and luck. So I was everything: careful, meticulous, and clever. But here's how I thought it all out, and if anyone reading this is considering eloping, then I suggest you follow my idea: it's perfect.



Let's begin with some basics; in this first depiction of my escape, we will see a cast of characters, names, description, the attributes that set them apart. However, there is one point I must make clear. On no account will my name be revealed, because this story is true, and I wouldn't want to be named responsible for rash action on the part of the reader. Thank you.

I have dirty-blonde hair, or as my hairdresser called it: rich mahogony blonde. Whatever floats your boat, I say, but there you go I'm a blue-eyed girl, big baby blues, and I can either wheedle my way out of any situation, or make anyone see my point of view. It's actually pretty useful. Anyway, I'm not very tall, to put it lightly, and I weigh less than the average ten-year old (I'm fourteen by the way). I think that's enough for now about my looks, but character-wise, I'm stubborn and very conceited, which is good because I'm going to be an actress (and a large ego is all part of the makeup of that career). I'm smart, almost abnormally so, having been placed in multiple gifted programs, and upsetting the teachers so badly that the superintendant of education for the state forced my mother to homeschool me, despite her numerous protestations. I am not a very easy person to get along with, to say the least.

That doesn't mean I don't have friends, which I do. I'm too pretty, too ambitious, and too interesting not to have them, and without them my plan would have completely failed in every respect. I have three best friends, who I will now describe:


Phoenix: Tall, slender, black hair, and quite possibly the sweetest, most gentle person I have ever known. He has been my friend since we met at the playground when I was three, and it was his birthday. He sat alone, because other children didn't like his serious kindness, and the intensity with which he performs everything. I saw him, and I walked up and sat next to him. I said, "If you wanted to be alone, then I'm sorry because we're best friends now." And we were, and have been since that day.

Jamie: Sturdily built, not quite plump, absolutely stunning. Corkscrew black curls, cut to her shoulders, pale and heavily freckled. She was a beauty, but her temperment was strange. So shy, so soft and notincredibly intelligent, but she varies from affectionate and loving one moment to vicious and harsh the next. She is bipolar, and she complains about it sometimes, but we love her dearly. She has an excellent sense of humor, and she is well-versed in the ways of the world, and has a good idea of people (in that she can tell when someone is sincere or whether they are worth being friends with). We couldn't do anything without her.

Regina: Oh, Regina. She is my very best friend, but sometimes I don't know how she can be. I suppose we are so alike that it often leads to contention and argument, because we both are proud, bear grudges, are spiteful and vain, and are over-bearing perfectionists. She too wants to be an actress, and we argue over who has more talent. Secretly, it is me, but I suppose I am biased. She is a fiery red-head, with a temper just as flaming, and her green eyes can shoot flames. We four friends are al beautiful people, and not just inner beauty: Phoenix is handsome and dreamy, Jamie is warm and regular-featured, and I am traditionally gorgeous, but Regina has majesty and regality. It was smart of her parents to give her a name meaning 'queen' for she is one, through and through.

So there we are. Our group of crusaders, our sufferers of the mainstream and the predictable, and we survive each day by each other's company. People who are set apart from the main body of a group, the misfits, the outcasts, the lost ones who always tend to be more sane, more fun, more real than those who are the conformists, or trying to be. They stick together, they do not backstab or hurt as regularly as the others, and they are proud of their singularity. That is us, we are real and proud of it.

And this is where I leave you, with the cast of characters, with the plot of this performance-yet to come, the body of the story, the climax, and the finale. If you are an outcast like us, be proud of it. Be strong! Fight back! And if you liked the beginning, follow us to the end...we won't disappoint, we promise.