Her Story

Welcome to Anna's potentially f****d up life!! Okay that sounds kinda weird but that's just how it is. So basically it was a bad morning for Anna (again*SIGH*) as she is getting ready to shift to the flat in the University premises where she is going to study English Literature for the next couple of years. She loves Literature more than anything else because that is the only thing that has given her strength enough to survive anything and everything that has been going on in her life since like what? forever, maybe. She walks into the dining room while her parents are still fighting over the fact that who should be going with Anna to her flat in order to help her in arranging her things over there and she had been thinking that they were done with this conversation but apparently, they are not. "How are going to help her when you know nothing about all these things? ", her mom almost shouts while preparing the breakfast. "I will manage somehow. ", her dad replies in a calm tone from the dining table. Yeah, this is how it goes most of the time. Her mom shouting and her dad replying calmly though it's generally her dad who begins the whole thing but her mom being short-tempered starts shouting. Anna takes her seat on the dining table and says, " Mom it's ok. All of you can come. Besides if you keep arguing like this, you might end up waking up Adams which isn't a good idea for now. " "Yeah you always have to silence me, why don't you say anything to your dad? ", her mom complains in a clipped tone. "I am saying this to both of you. I am not doing partiality with anyone so please don't get me wrong", Anna tries to reason with her mom. " Whatever", her mom says while her dad winks at Anna. Anna smiles at her dad and starts helping her mother in serving breakfast. Her mom is still tensed but tries to keep her temper at bay. "Good morning, everyone", Adams suddenly storms into the dining room at which the tension seems to evaporate immediately because he is like the soul of this house. Adams is seven years younger to Anna and is generally, oblivious to the things going on at home with his jolly nature, permanent smile and curious eyes. Everybody loves him and he loves everybody ,especially, Anna with whom he keeps arguing almost all the time but the brother and sister love each other more than most other siblings do so of course, Anna hardly ever gets angry with him because she knows that he does all those annoying things just to make her smile. He is a good kid but is dangerously naughty sometimes so she tries to keep an eye at him all the time. "Why haven't you left yet, huh?", he asks Anna while sitting down at the table. Anna just smiles and teases " I won't hang around more than needed so don't worry I'll be gone soon. " "You shouldn't talk to her like that, you know that right? ", her mother scolds him. Adams laughs while saying ," Okay, okay sorry. " This is how the morning goes almost everyday since a past few years and no matter how much she tries, Anna has failed in making the relationship between her parents better. Oh sorry now the home they live in; well it's not much, just a two bedroom flat with a small hall and a kitchen with some old furniture but they are content with it so no complains about that. And the rest of the things? Like their lifestyle and all? Well, that's not so good but it's kinda okay though Anna's mother complains about it a bit with all the things that she had to go through in her past.( Well, that's another story.) It's almost time for them to leave for the Uni campus to get Anna into her new flat where she is going to have a flatmate and she isn't really happy about the flatmate (being introvert and all) but coming from a middle class family she has to deal with it anyway 'cause as it is she got into the Uni with her scholarship so (obviously) she has to adjust a bit with a flatmate given that her parents are going to pay the rent of that flat. Now, Anna has reached the flat, in her dad's blue Prius, with practically her entire family. The flat is huge like almost twice the size of her home with two bedrooms, a big hall , an open kitchen and a single bathroom. Anna is disgusted while the rest of her family is dumbfounded with all the plush couches and mahogany wood furniture present almost everywhere in the flat. Crap! It's on the ground floor which again is not good for Anna since she likes to stand in the balcony enjoying the breeze on her face but now she will have to deal with the noise of the students around her flat during the Uni hours. Double crap!! The windows open onto the streets and are so low that one doesn't need to use the door to get into the house so she will have to look out for random strangers or rather, thieves trying to sneak into the flat. Triple crap!!! Her family helps her haul the little luggage that she has brought with her. "This is so amazing!", her mother mused looking around the flat for almost the tenth time. "Come on now, give it a rest Shirley. We gotta leave Anna on her own to make herself comfortable before her flatmate comes", her dad admonishes. "Don't forget to invite me to live with you one of these days", says her brother Adams, making a poker face standing in a corner of the bedroom. "Of course not Addy, I am never going to invite you to stay over", Anna chuckles messing Adams' hair to which he protests " Hey!! " So now it's time for her family to leave and as much as Anna gets annoyed with them sometimes, she misses them already. Adams is the most upset because Anna was always there to shield him from the rage of their parents or to fulfill all his stupid needs and wants. Anna tries her best to console him but he just won't stop getting upset about going back home without her. "It's okay kiddo call me whenever you want ,okay? You know I love you. Don't be naughty and please try to help mom and dad with their work", Anna says as she hugs Adams goodbye. Her mom is still giving her instructions, " Don't make random friends who come around only when they need you. Don't avoid food and sleep ; dry you hair properly and don't get wet in the rain or else you will catch cold", while moving out of the flat as her dad is trying to take them back to the car. Anna just smiles and says, "Take care of yourself mom. I will be fine so don't worry too much about me", all the time her arm around her mom. "Take care, dad and thanks for everything", Anna finally says to her dad a bit hesitantly since they generally don't have that sort of conversation. Her father just says, " 'Course little girl and all the best for your first year in Uni" giving Anna a half hug and then off they go after saying their final goodbyes to Anna which is when reality hits on her hard because now it's just her and the crappy flat where she is supposed to live with her flatmate who hasn't showed up yet. So Anna simply loads her stuff into the built-in wardrobe in her bedroom which doesn't take long since she has scarce supplies, then she walks around the entire flat criticizing every part of it since she hates all these extravagant things and the rich people who own it. No she doesn't hate rich people because she isn't from a rich family because honestly, money was never a big deal for her but because rich people always show-off their money and look down upon the rest of the society as their peasants which really is horrible. Anna has been waiting for her flatmate for four hours now and it's almost lunch time. She didn't have much problem in spending the time alone since she had wisely brought a few novels with her, just in case, she needs them (absolute nerd). She decides to eat the granola nmbr snd drink the fruit juice that her mother had forcefully packed in her bag and she is really feeling thankful to her now. And this is when she drifts into her past (yet again). Her mother, Shirley, could never go to the University due to the family problems at her home so she was instead married off to a middle-class boy called Alexander whom she barely knew much less liked and that also even though she was from a rich family. The first few months were fine but things became ugly when Alexander's mom kicked Shirley, who was six months pregnant at the time, out of the house accusing her of the fact that she is making excuses with her pregnancy to do the household chores and Shirley being always a woman of self-esteem comes back to her mother's place in a dying condition. She was immediately taken to the doctor who told her that if the baby ,she is pregnant with(Anna), doesn't show any movements in the next one day,will have to be aborted. Shirley was scared out of her wits but was determined to keep her baby alive at all costs so she didn't give up and diligently took all the medicines prescribed to her which results in her baby's movement and the doctor's approval to keep the baby much to her relief. Shirley's parents decided that they will keep the baby and marry Shirley off to someone better than Alexander who didn't bother to call once to know whether she is alive or dead. But, surprisingly enough, Alexander's mother passed away due to a cardiac arrest in her sleep. Shirley had gone to the funeral since she wasn't divorced yet. Exactly a month later she gave birth to a baby girl and that was when Alexander suddenly realized that he had a wife and now a child too so he turned up, apologized for his past unfair behaviour and asked Shirley to come back with him to which Shirley agreed despite the fact that she did not want to go back to that house again but she did it anyway because she thought that it would be unfair to deprive a child of her father's love. And that proved to be the greatest mistake of her life since things hadn't changed much with Alexander. Ever since then, Anna has been blamed that she was the reason her mother came back to her dad leaving behind the riches of her(Shirley's) paternal home. No her mother never did that intentionally but yeah she did it every once in a while which could only mean that she really does blame Anna for her present condition even if it's a tiny bit because , of course, Shirley loves Anna more than anything else in the whole world and Anna knows it but you know, how does it feel like when you know that you are the reason of someone's misery, especially, if that person is your own mom. So yeah, Anna has been a fighter for her dear life even before she was born in this beautifully cruel world and no, she doesn't literally fight for anything, now that she is here, mostly because of her introvert nature and guilty feelings for her family. But she feels a strong responsibility towards her family as she wants to support them financially mostly because she wants to give her brother the lifestyle she never had or could ever imagine of. Well, that is when the door bell rings and brings her out of her reverie ,as she wipes her cheeks suddenly realising that she was crying because that's how emotionally weak she is, and walks up to the door to welcome her very unwelcome flatmate with a fake smile on her face and for God's sake, she is really bad at pretending. Chapter end notes: I feel a strong connection with Anna and I will try to bring out her character as much as I can. Please do let me know how did you like this chapter and also leave some suggestions so that I can improve. I will be dedicating a song to every chapter that I write ans so the song for this chapter is "Don't give up on me" from the movie 'Five Feet Apart' which expresses Anna's feelings towards her family. Thanks a lot for reading, y'all lovely people.