16 June 2012
"Not so sweet dreams"
"Can you read me a bedtime story?" Anica asked.
"No," I said bitterly.
"Please," she said.
"No."
"Pretty please."
"No."
"Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty,-"
"SHUT UP!" She totally ignored what I said and continued.
"Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty-"
"ALRIGHT! I'll read you a bedtime story!" I said feeling defeated.
"Yay!" she cheered as she handed me a huge book, it's cover was worn and it's pages we're yellow with age. On the cover it said " A collection of fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson."
I had absolutely no idea who Hans Christian Anderson was.
I looked at the table of contents.
Now let's see, which story wouldn't be total agony to read.
Little Ida's flowers, no. The little mermaid, no. The princess and the pea, no. The emperor's new clothes, oh $@%# no. The nightingale, hey that one doesn't sound so bad. So I decided to read that one.
The story "The nightingale" (in case you didn't know) is about a nightingale (obviously) who sings so beautifully that she is invited to the emperor of China's Royal ball. She sings at the royal ball and everyone loved her singing so much that the emperor has her sing for everyone whenever they want to hear a song.
Then one day the nightingale was replaced by a mechanical nightingale covered with jewels. So then the nightingale feels depressed and neglected.
The mechanical nightingale breaks so then everyone else is really depressed (they totally deserved it). The emperor grows really sick and- wait a minute, why am I telling you how the nightingale ends?!? If you want to know how it ends get off you're lazy @$$ and look it up on google!
Anyway, the moral of the story is is that you're original and no one can replace you. Either that or machines can't replace people or something like that.
It made me think about my past, how my parents just loved Eric and thought he was so perfect. No matter how hard I tried to be the perfect son Eric always came out on top.
I was so lost in thought I completely forgot Anica was there. " I can tell you're distracted by something," she said. "Wha-no, I'm not distracted! I'm fine!Totally fine! You kids and you're imaginations! Heh, heh, heh," I said nervously.
"It's ok, lots of his stories make me think a lot too. Did you know that his fairy tales were inspired by things that happened in his real life?" Anica said.
"How do you know so much about Hans Christian Anderson?" I asked.
" I did a report on him in school," she said. "Did you know that he was an only child? That was pretty rare back then."
" Interesting," I said. "Uh, good night I guess."
"Good night," she said cheerfully. " I hope you have sweet dreams!"
I collapsed on my bed. Today was totally exhausting. I fell asleep almost immediately.
I was back in high school, my home room teacher Ms. Medlan announced " Today everyone we have a new student. She's from Russia and has never been to America before so she doesn't speak English very well. I want you all to be respectful of her culture and differences. Could you please tell everyone your name?"
"Ramona," she said shyly.
She had short, jet black hair, which was so black it looked purple, eyes that were the color of dark chocolate, and freakishly long fingers. She wore big black boots, long black pants, a white shirt, and a scarf which had a incredibly complicated looking pattern on it.
"Dobrey utra vsem," she said happily.
Wow, I thought. She literally doesn't speak a word of English.
She smiled at me.
"Ramona take a seat," Ms. Medlan said. She sat down next to me.
"So................ You're Russian," I said nervously.
"Da, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, " she said. I was shocked. " I thought you didn't speak English?!?" I said.
" I don' speak it very vell, and I don't like the sound of it very much. I sorry, I meant no offense," she responded. I had to agree with her on that one, English definitely isn't the most beautiful sounding languages out there, but come to think of it Russian isn't one of the most beautiful sounding language either.
" I'm Deric Caleb Bellamy," I said as I shook her hand.
" Ramona Bronislava Gavrilla Irinushka Aksinya
Ania Ostrogorsky," she said cheerfully.
Holy $@%# that was the longest name I've ever heard! I tried to hider shocked expression. "So uh, how do you like America so far?" I asked.
"Ya ni panimayu?" she said. "Oh right, you can't speak English very well," I said. " How about I teach you, you know, how to speak English an' all."
She smiled. I could tell she meant yes. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
I gain the admiration of my parents ( and girls too) by taking this poor foreigner under my wing and she gets to learn English. It's totally a win- win situation!
Little did I know it would become so much more than that. I woke up. I checked the clock, it was 4:00 am. I thought about Ramona.
Oh God, I miss her so much! She was my best friend, my only friend. A tear rolled down my cheek.
"Stop crying you idiot! Crying is for wusses!" I thought angrily. I fell back asleep.
I dreamt of all the crappy things that happened in my life. When I cried on Christmas when I was seven years old and no one noticed, when I found out that Eric was marrying someone as beautiful and hot as Jacinta and I didn't even have a girlfriend,and when I first laid eyes on Anica.
I guess you can say I didn't exactly have sweet dreams.
Chapter 2 of how a little girl ruined my life • Opuss № I