Un-Ordinary Girl

Chapter 3

          When I opened the door to the Wong's apartment, streamers flew out at me. "SURPRISE! HAPPY ALMOST BIRTHDAY KATELYN!" I smiled and took it all in stride. These parties still caught me off guard even though I knew to expect them. After everyone singing happy birthday to me, I played with Lulu for a bit before dinner.

          "Are you sure that Lulu can't stay with me while you're both out of town?" I wined for what was probably the billionth time. Lulu loved me more than her own owners. She seemed to like Jackson just as much as she loves me. It made me feel a bit jealous but Lulu still was mostly playing with me.

          "No Katelyn. You know your mother can't stand Lulu. Maybe someday but not this time." Mr. Wong chided me. I pouted but ended up smiling as Lulu started l*****g my cheeks. After eating my favorite meal, spaghetti with extra large meatballs and cheesy garlic toast, they both gave me a present and did the normal thing and told me not to open it until my birthday. They did the same thing when it came to Christmas, New Years, and Chinese New Years. I went home early because I still had to reapply the dye to my hair. Mrs. Wong was able to see the silver white color underneath the black hair dye.

          In elementary school, I got teased a lot about my strange hair color. One day I came to the Wong's crying about it. Mrs. Wong went to the store and bought some black hair dye. She did it to help me feel better since I really didn't like my natural hair color. It just wasn't normal. Anyway, I have to dye my hair every four weeks. I was also mad that this new guy thinks he knows what I should and shouldn't do. Before I finally left for the night, he pulled me to the side and told me that I shouldn't dye my fur so much. I kindly told him that I didn't have fur and that it was my choice on what I did with my hair. I wasn't sure how he knew since he just met me, but whatever the case may be, I wasn't about to let him dictate how I did things. Mom doesn't understand why I dye it either. But then again, she never listened or cared. She just says it is waste of money on the Wong's part.

          After I went through the painful process of dyeing my hair, I went to bed. It was only painful because I have never gotten a haircut. So my hair went down my back and covered my butt. A lot of the girls at school were jealous of how long my hair was. But they soon just stuck to ignoring me. It made life much easier when they did.

          Usually when I sleep, I dream that I'm running on four legs. I only knew that I was on four legs because of how close my face was to the ground. I considered it to be a good dream. But tonight, it was different. I was on two legs. I was walking in the forest that was just behind the apartments that I live in. I was staring at the full moon when all of sudden, this intense pain ripped through my body. I cried out in pain. I screamed and cried. I opened my eye and through my tears, I could see Jackson in the forest. He was trying to say something to me, but I couldn't hear him. I was screaming too loud. I looked at his mouth while he was saying something. Then I woke up.

          I was still screaming when I woke up. I stopped when I realized that the pain was gone. I was badly shaken after that dream. I tried to think back to when I looked at Jackson's mouth. His full lips were trying to tell me something. I was still thinking about it when my room door burst open. I jumped and screamed again until the intruder turned on my lights. I covered my eyes and looked up. It was my mom. And she looked pissed. I took a quick glance at my alarm clock and saw that it was only 4 o'clock in the morning.

          "Don't you have any clue what time it is? And you wanna be screaming!" I would have spoken, but I could smell the booze coming off of her. She was drunk and angry. Whoever she was with must have dropped her of early. "Listen here you stupid child. I run this here show. And if I wanted to come home to screaming, I would have stayed in my mother's house. So suck up whatever is scaring you, shut the f**k up, and go to bed!" She turned out my lights and slammed my door shut after she finished yelling at me. It was stuff like this that made me glad that I wasn't little anymore.

          What she use to do when I was younger was leave on Friday and come back on Sunday afternoon. She wouldn't remember my existence until I come home knocking on the door Monday after school. I had my own key at seven. She was tired of having to get up to let me in and she didn't want to leave the apartment unlocked. We did live in a shady part of town even though nobody really bothered with our apartment. She left the key on the table one morning and hasn't asked for it back since then. I made a duplicate copy of the key just in case she ever asks for the one she gave me back.

          When I woke up the next morning, she had a mug of black instant coffee in her hands with a snarl on her face. I knew this was going to be a bad day to be in the house. I pulled a track suit out of my closet and grabbed a fanny pack, my MP3 player that I got from a garage sale, and an old wallet. After I made sure that my door was locked, I pulled out my money box and grabbed a couple hundred dollars in straight twenties and put them in the wallet. I would grab some McDonald's after my run. To be ironic, I ran in the forest behind the apartments.

          I left when she got into the shower. I made sure that my money box was securely put away before opening my door. I had to be really quiet though. When I finally got into the hall, a voice startled me. "Going for a morning jog?" I turned around and saw Jackson, my new neighbor, coming out of the apartment right next to mine. "I heard the screaming last night. You okay? You sounded like you were in pain." He looked worried and scared. Suddenly the words that he was trying to tell me in my dream finally came to me. He was telling me that it was almost over.

          "I gotta go." I quickly ran off. I was frightened. He somehow knew I had dyed my hair, he appeared in my dream last night, and he heard my screaming through steal walls. I once checked with the building supervisor about that. I was ten at the time. I'm now wondering whether it was just a coincidence that he got the apartment right next door to me. What ever it was, I needed to know if I was safe, or if I was in danger.