Well, believe it or not, the month of February is over. I can't believe that within a few weeks, I went from being a naive foolish boy to a boy taking charge of his life, no matter how much it hurts. I also can't believe that mom and dad would let me watch grown-up movies when a few weeks ago, I wasn't allowed to watch TV. Between my last week of being 12 years old and now, I must have had something happen to me that caused me to change everything I was.
Better yet, I once was misidentified as a girl, but everyone now knows who I am. As of right now, my sister Jem is angry that I'm throwing away being a twin for being my own person, but still, Phil and Lil of the "Rugrats" will have to grow up and establish their own identities one of these days.
That's how life is.
The next day, I go to school and everyone there is gearing up for the end of the month dance taking place at lunchtime. Of course, Clayton and his friends are laughing as they planned to break up the party and Jem and her girlfriends would go around busting guys who they didn't like and try to set me up with a girl they want me to date. I'm not dating anyone until I go to college, mind you.
Not even if everyone else is dating. I have to keep my priorities in check.
Anyway, Claire and the twins are standing around the gym, talking about stuff. When they see me, Adrian says, "I heard your sister gave you some serious hell last night."
"Well, she's pissed because she's on punishment for messing up my room," I said with a snort. "So she's in a pissy mood right now."
"Shame on her," Dorian cut in. "She needs to sort out her priorities."
"Who cares about what she thinks?" said Adrian. "We should be lucky that Lulu isn't anything like Jem and Barbara. At least she doesn't make our lives a living nightmare."
"No, but because of her, we never saw our parents much," said Dorian. "We don't know who they are, and we've been on our own since she was born. How can we ever have a relationship with them if they pretend we don't exist?"
Again, I think back to when dad refused to talk about Uncle Zach and felt sick. To blatantly deny a person the right to be in your life is to be the stupidest person on earth. Too many people out there in this world have so many problems; they don't need anyone in their family telling them they're not worth the trouble.
I swear to God that I'll never treat anyone the way the Hamilton family treated Uncle Zach. We need more nice people and less mean people. Then and only then do we have a better world for everyone.
Anyway, I said, "Maybe it's not too late for you to have a relationship with your parents. Maybe they miss their sons and want to get to know them. Who knows how people are these days."
"We don't care about them, as they don't care about us," said Adrian as he kicked at the wall. "If they wanted to have a relationship with us, they would have done so a long time ago. But now it's too late."
"What do you mean?" said Claire.
"Last night, Adrian and I talked; we decided it's time for us to leave Mr. and Mrs. Johanssen and find another place to live."
Well, there goes any chance of reconciliation with the Johanssen family. If a child refers to their parents as "Mr. and Mrs.", then you know that that relationship between the child and their parents is irrevocably destroyed.
I felt sorry for the twins, who only misbehaved because they had no relationship with their parents and a nanny raised them. I'm glad I never had to go through what they went through.
But Claire isn't done with that story; she said, "If you're leaving Mr. and Mrs. Johanssen, where will you go?"
"What does it matter?" Adrian snapped at her. "We're leaving them and we're never coming back. In fact, we're skipping school today to pack our things."
"And if they protest," Claire began.
"We will remind them that they never loved us or cared about us," said Dorian. "They only cared about money or Lulu. Never us. That's why we're leaving them and never coming back to them as long as we both live."
With that, the twins left the school.
Claire and I stood there, watching helplessly as the twins walked away, knowing that they were never coming back. Or as I say it, coming back to the boys they once were. As much as I hate to admit it, I kind of miss the old twins who caused trouble and didn't give a tinker's hoot that they were causing trouble; I hate the twins who gave up on their parents even if there's always a chance at a possible reconciliation.
What is reconciliation, if it's something that might never happen?
With this unexpected revelation, Claire and I left the twins and went to class, knowing that nobody in the school knew the truth about Adrian and Dorian Johanssen, nor did they care. I knew it was useless to explain to anyone (including my parents) about some kids who can't live with their parents because of...reasons.
Why should I care? I'm living a decent life with parents who care about me and won't neglect or reject me for no reason. I don't want to deal with people whose lives are worse than mine.
(One page turn later...)
I'm sitting in the library, trying to get my work done and ignoring the order by the student council to attend the dance. Claire sat at a computer, presumably on MySpace. (Nobody at the school is allowed to have a MySpace page or a LiveJournal profile, save for Claire and the twins.) I bet the student council is against kids using the Internet, as if the Internet is for friendless losers who have no social life. (In fact, hanging out at the library when you don't have homework is considered a social sin. I swear I'm not making up any of this.)
So, what I'm doing is breaking the school's rules by doing what I want to do instead of what everyone wants me to do.
This means I'm no better than the Teen Rebels, who refused to follow the school rules and rebelled against the American teenage lifestyle. I'm sure Josie, Seth, Moira, and Trixie are laughing at me, as I once swore to never be like them. I mean, why be a teenager when teenagers cause nothing but trouble?
So much for being the typical all-American boy. (I'm sure mom is disappointed in me, as she expects me to be normal like how the other kids are.)
Anyway, as I was staring into the book I was reading, I chanced to notice a red-haired girl sitting in a dark corner of the library. She wore a floor-length black dress and a pair of dark glasses. I guessed she had to be one of those Goth kids; dressing in dark clothes and wearing sunglasses was against the student dress code. I knew she was in big trouble the minute the student council noticed her in the library along with myself, Claire, and the 25 other kids who decided to skip the school dance in favor of reading comic books or studying.
But no such thing happened, as the girl looked up from her book and saw me, saying, "Didn't your mother tell you it's impolite to stare at girls?"
"Well, it's not like I'm gay," I said right back. "Then that would be stupid."
"You're right, Jedidiah," said the girl.
"And how did you know my name?" I snapped at her.
"I know the names of everyone living in Charleston," said the girl. "Your name is Jedidiah Hamilton, isn't it? You live with your parents, brother and sister in Lochland, am I right?"
"You are," I said. "But who are you and how did you find out about me?"
"I'm here to watch over my investments," said the girl. "And for some odd reason, fate seems to have thrown you into my path."
"And who are you?" I snapped.
"I'm Joanna Norwood, and I live in Norwood Village," said Joanna as she smiled at me. "You know where that is, don't you?"
"At the edge of the city," I said nervously.
"Very...good," Joanna hissed at me. "You, Jedidiah, are the one who will change everything."
"Like what?" I cried out.
"You've managed to save Claire from her tormentors and forced the twins to grow up," said Joanna. "But that cost you one of your friends, didn't it?"
I thought about Milton and grew sad. Sure everyone I knew had begged me to break off my friendship with Milton for a multitude of reasons, but I never thought I would lose Milton to his parents and his sister Barbara. I'm sure that the Holt family didn't want Milton to have any friends, nor did they want Barbara to get help for her mental problems. Something really had to give, no matter what happened.
Joanna sighed, saying, "I know all about the Holt family and I believe they're an absolute disgrace. They don't care about their children's well-being, not even if sending one child away to get help for their mental problems could benefit that entire family."
"So you know about Uncle Zach?" I said.
"I do," said Joanna, "and I'm sorry to hear about his recent death."
"Did you know him?" I asked.
"I did," said Joanna. "And unlike what they'll tell you, your uncle was a very smart man who knew exactly what he was doing, but they had to slap the words "mentally disabled" on him and force him to remain a child when he should have become an adult."
"I see," I said with a strange look on my face.
Joanna continued, "He told me what he wanted was to be with his brother, who happened to be your father. He wanted your father's love. But he never got so much as a single phone call or letter from him, and he died a lonely broken man."
I felt awful, not knowing that my father had rejected his own brother. I could never do that to my own brother, I thought to myself. In fact, I would rather die than hurt someone because he happened to be mentally disabled. I was raised better than that.
But I knew something was up with Joanna Norwood, as no other girl would show this much interest in me. I swore to stay away from girls until I was in college, but that would have to take a back seat, as Claire seemed to fill up most of my time. She still needed help despite the fact that she was freed from her tormentors. And I couldn't give up on Milton, despite everyone else in the school doing that.
But what Joanna said next would define the rest of my year: "If you're looking to grow up, you must get rid of everything holding you back." At that, I grew worried, knowing that yes, I had a ton of things holding me back. I'm not sure if I'm ready to let those things go yet, as I may be 13 years old, people still expected me to remain a kid. I was not about to make the same mistake Uncle Zach made in refusing to let go of the things I liked.
And when I did let everything go, I had no idea of how much I was going to lose...
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