This is something I wrote for a drama project. We had to make up a biography of our character in our scene. The idea was jot notes, but that didn't work so it turned into this. Erin read it for me (thank you! :D)
Mary Barrett is a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in Alberta in the late sixties. This is her story:
“My parents weren’t so happy when they found out. You know, that I was. They’re pretty conservative. My father works at the bank – I don’t know what position, I only know that it pays enough so my mom could stay home with Janet and me. Janet’s my sister; she’s four years above me in age, but light-years ahead in our parents’ eyes.
“Mother taught us needlepoint and knitting, always told us a woman’s hands should never be idle. Janet was good at it from the start. Her knitting was even, never with the jagged edges mine had. Her needle points always had the smallest stitches and her rabbits were never confused for cats, like mine were. Even when we were really young, and mother had us cut the ends off of the green beans for supper, hers were always perfect diagonals, just like the picture in the cookbook, while mine were always a mess.
“It was worse in school. Janet was a model student; she always got good grades, sat quietly, spoke only when called on by the teacher. The same teachers I had three years later, the same teachers who told me over and over, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” Hard as I tried, I wasn’t anything like my sister. I couldn’t do as well in school and I didn’t fit in at all with the same crowd. Janet wasn’t that popular, but everyone liked her. She was one of those girls who fits in everywhere with everyone.
“I definitely wasn’t. I struggled through school, trying to get Janet’s grades, trying to have Janet’s friends, trying to be Janet. When I got to high school, I gave up. I stopped doing my schoolwork and started hanging out with people my mother described as ‘the wrong group’. I was, as usual, a disappointment to her, when I wanted so much to make her happy, like Janet could.
“That changed in grade ten, when I was seated with the popular kids in a few of my classes. I was so happy – this was finally my chance to get in with the “right” crowd. I completely changed myself – I tried harder in school, I wore the right clothes and cut my hair the right way. And I started fitting in.
“I knew my mother would be proud, and she was. She was proudest, I think, the night I went to my first high school dance. It’s ironic, really. Some of my popular friends had set me up with the new captain of the football team, Bill. I was so excited. My mother and I went and bought a new dress and she did my hair – without Janet. I’d never been this close to her before – I was doing all the things she’d done with Janet, never me. I was so happy I felt like I was floating. But it didn’t last.
“That night was the worst night of my life. It started out alright. Bill picked me up at my house, with flowers and everything. Then he took my arm and escorted me to his car. When we arrived at the dance, I felt like a princess, I felt like my dreams had come true.
“But during the dance, Bill seemed really distant and bored. He didn’t want to dance, so I spent most of my evening talking to my new, popular friends and pretended everything was fine. When Bill decided to leave an hour before the dance ended, I went. I was so glad the evening was almost over.
“On the way home, we took a detour that I didn’t recognize. We ended up in a dark, deserted parking lot. I started to worry and was about to ask Bill what was going on when suddenly, he was all over me, kissing my face, pulling at my dress. I was in shock; I couldn’t process what was happening until… until it was too late. I was so scared of him I didn’t say a word on the way to my house. I felt dirty, unclean. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and hide from what had happened.
“I arrived on my doorstep with my makeup running, my hair in a mess and my dress ripped. When I got inside, my mother leapt up, so excited… until she saw me. The light faded from her eyes and she turned away. I think that was the last time she looked me in the eyes.
“After that, I stopped trying to please her. I stopped trying to be popular. I just stopped trying. I went through the motions of life, but I wasn’t really living it.
“A couple months after that, I started to wonder what was wrong with me. I was constantly sick, and I was starting to gain weight. When I started to fit the pieces together, I realized I was pregnant. I hid it as long as I could, but it was hard. Hiding it from my mother was easy; she’d stopped paying me much attention. It was Janet. Janet figured it out, told Mother for me. I wasn’t surprised when they sent me away. I didn’t fit in with their perfect family portrait, never had. At least at this place, this ‘Rest Home’, I fit in.”
Kind words are always appreciated. Mean ones get glares :P
