Her Curse

Haley’s POV I want to be free, really free. Not some childish version of freedom that I hear about in the hallway at school. Girls at school, you know the ones, think they’re on top of the world based on some miniscule popularity contest. Head cheerleader on the arm of the football quarterback. Everyone knows that Daxton Harper and Becca “perfect as perfect can be” Friedman will be this years prom king and queen. Daxton is a very tall, like freakishly tall, thor-like body with long blonde hair to go with it. I ran into him once, I mean… I literally ran into him. I was late to class due to my mother yet again, drinking herself into a slunder and unable to take me to school when I missed the bus. Here I am racing to get to class before the bell rings and when I round the corner and slammed into none other than Daxton Harper. He didn’t move a muscle, it was like I ran into a brick wall. A very toned and tan brick wall. Becca, of course, always on his arm, got a good laugh out of it. I can’t say that I blame her, it had to look like a scene from Roadrunner when Wile E. Coyote hits a wall. How weird is it that as fast and as hard as I hit him, it was like he didn’t feel it? I think about that at times, but honestly, if you see him compared to me.. No one would think twice. I’m average in height but I’m scary skinny. Not due to malnourishment or an eating disorder or anything. Nothing like that, I’ve just always been this way. I probably eat more than most of the jocks at school too. I’m not ugly, but I’m not gorgeous. I can be pretty if I try to be, but I’m pretty plain. Stringy brown hair that isn’t sure if it wants to be straight or wavy, always frizzy. I’m nothing amazing to look at and my frame doesn’t do me any favors. I’m pretty invisible almost anywhere that I go. When I was younger I used to pretend I had some magical superpower that I could make myself disappear. With all my invisibility abilities, or rather just good at blending in, I feel so trapped. I feel like I can’t leave this small town, I feel like something is holding me here. But, I blame my mother for that. Lydia Grant. Model tall, bouncing light brown hair that always seems to have the perfect wave to it, big brown eyes, sultry lips and teeth whiter than white. Exquisitely beautiful on the outside. She tells me frequently that she never wanted me and that I have ruined her life. A straight A student, never gets into trouble and is always there to clean up her messes, but I am still a disgrace to her. Maybe it’s because I’m not more like she is. Maybe she would prefer a daughter more like Becca Friedman. They’re one in the same as far as perfect looks go. Mother has had her good days but it feels like the older I get, the more she hates me. My dad? Your guess is as good as mine, really. I never met him and Lydia doesn’t keep any photos around unless they are of herself. I have dreams about him frequently. I like to think that I look like him and maybe I get my brains from him too. I hope one day to find him. School will be over in about a month, but more exciting is I will be 18 in about a week. I can’t wait for that day, then graduation. That is the day that I will be rid of Lydia Grant and this town forever. I live in Spring Ridge, Massachusetts. It really is a beautiful and quaint little town. There are deep green forests full of the tallest trees, wildlife roams around without care. They say the falls are gorgeous and even magical. If you believe in that sort of thing, Mother has never let me go there, she says bad things happen at the falls. It might be the only parental thing that she has ever said or done for me. Maybe she is really trying to protect me? Or maybe she just wants to make sure that I’m home to always do her bidding. It’s such a Cinderella story but without the prince and glass slipper. I don’t need a prince to save me, I just need to endure these next 6 weeks and then I am getting the hell outta dodge.