SmartGirl Authors

In Your Own Backyard

by SG Author Annie

Linda is a freshmen in highschool. Just figuring out who she is would be a hard enough job for herself. Her life gets even more complicated when her older teenage sister gets pregnant. With the help of her faithful guy friend, but not boyfriend, she learns who she is and how to appreciate what's in her own backyard.

Chapter 1

"Linda, Linda, LINDA! If you weren't planning on being conscious today, why did you even bother coming to class?" yelled Miss Lebarge.

"Can't work because of those darn child labor laws," I heard myself mumble.

"That's it, leave this room and go to the office, I don't want you to return until you get an attitude check." I had done it again, fallen asleep in math, and of course - to top it off - I made a "sassy" comment as my mother would call it. It's hard to explain to adults sometimes that being a teenager, some comments that are said aloud aren't really meant for them - they only hear them because of our lack of internal monologue and in my case, lack of sleep. Ever since my sister Jena had become pregnant she hadn't gotten a full night's sleep without having "morning sickness," not properly named if I do say so myself. Not to mention there seldom was a night that my parents weren't arguing about what childcare the baby would receive, who would take off work, what role the father would play in its life, and yada, yada, yada. I always wondered what my sister thought about all of this, after all it was her baby and not my parents', even if she was only sixteen. She seemed so solemn, like a robot. As if she was watching her life as a play, she had no control over it, and couldn't even guess as to where the plot was going. The only thing she ever talked about anymore was what was on TV, what she guessed her next craving would be. I'd seen other pregnant girls at our school and they weren't like her. They seemed like they more so felt now was the time to take their life in their own hands, even if it cut their childhood short. Of course, in my family my sister was always the perfect straight A, popular, honor student, and ironically enough, so was her boyfriend.

I finally got to the office after walking through the empty halls. It was sort of bizarre to see them without a mass of kids goofing off, making out, or fighting. Our school's hallways usually overflowed with activity and kids. Mr. Martinez was waiting for me in the office when I got there. Apparently Miss Lebarge had called down to see I got there to receive my punishment. Lucky for me, Mr. Martinez was in a good mood, but he also felt like it was necessary to analyze my psychological state.

"So Linda, how's life been lately? It's kind of hard to deal with your sister's pregnancy?" Yep, that was Mr. Martinez for you, always blunt. He had too many kids to deal with to make small talk. It was actually kind of refreshing. He let me off with a warning. I exited his office stage left. Boom! I fell to the office floor in front of every secretary in the entire school; don't they ever leave for a lunch break? I had just crashed into this kid wearing a black leather jacket, and was afraid of the warning he'd lash out to me. Probably something like, "Hey! Watch it freshman, or you'll be sorry." But amazingly, he didn't.

He reached out a hand to me, and said, "Oh geese, sorry about that. Are you okay?"I was shocked in a daze. I just stared at his green eyes - not the eyes of a bad boy who's out solely to prove he's bad.

"Um, yeah I'm fine. That's okay," I smartly replied. He looked like he was new around here. As many kids as there were, everyone knew what grade you were in, especially if you were a freshmen. This kid must be new.

"So what are you in for?" he asked.

"Talking back." Yes, I found the words, finally I found the words, even if they were lame.

"Oh, so you're one of the troublemakers around here, huh? Yeah, my parents warned me about people like you," he said with a smile.

"I guess today I was," I replied.

"Well, what's your name, so I know who to avoid around here?"

"Linda, and yours?"

"I'm Matt. Well, maybe I'll avoid you around, bye." A guy, decently good looking, and obviously older than me had behaved like a human being in my presence. Amazing. Well, wonder if that'll ever happen again in my life.