Chapter Two: Changes

We walk in. People stare at us, stare at me and Jake, staring at everything we looked like. Lets just say I didn't like it.

"KELSEY!" someone exclaimed. I turned to see it was my old dance instructor, Madame Damie.

"Madame Damie! How lovely to see you! How have you been?" I asked, hugging her.

"OK Kelsey dear, OK. How have you been?"

"Well…not exactly good, more along the lines of terrible."

"Why? I can smell smoke on you, Kelsey. Please tell me its Jake back there who smokes, not you."

"I'm ashamed to say that it was Kelsey who smokes now. Not I, Madame Damie," Jake piped up.

"Nonsense! Kelsey dear, you know better than that, don't you?" She put her hand to my chin and lifted my chin up examining it. I knew that she was looking for any trace of acne that I didn't have.

"Unfortunately, 'tis true. I have ever since mother died. It just helps me relax. I want to quit but you know what they say about bad habits. They just don't die down."

"I understand completely." We were walking down the hallway, kids still staring at me.

I passed two girls who looked utterly familiar. They took in all of my white-blonde hair, and faded blue jean eyes, my neon green skinny jeans that held my tanned, toned, long legs; my Sum 41 t-shirt, and my converse. Familiarity dawned in their eyes, like the sun setting.

"Kelsey?" Annie asked me in a whispered voice.

"Yes?" I questioned her.

"Do you remember us?"

"Annie, and Ferah. Of course I do." They ran to hug me. I hugged them back.

Ferah whispered, "What in the world are you doing here? Weren't you kicked out for," she lowered her voice, "doing pot?"

"No!" I exclaimed, surprised that they would even think that.

"Oh. Well, you have changed a lot, Kelsey. You look like a model. People were texting us, wondering who you were."

"Annie! Ferah! Its time to go!" a girl said. She was a girl I hated the most. She was like a prep at our school.

"You guys turned to the prep?" I whispered, astonished by their actions.

"We had to, we bunk with her," Annie said, apologetic.

"You pick your rooms still, right?"

"Yeah. But still…she isn't so bad. She is actually pretty nice once you meet her."

"You guys betrayed me. Everyone is betraying me it seems like. Everyone except for Jake." I stepped away, turning towards Jake. He was talking to a girl.

"Jake," I called out, my voice cracking. He turned to me, saw the pain in my eyes, and told the girl something. She nodded, and left me and my brother alone.

"What happened?" he asked.

"They…they…they…" My voice gave in and I sobbed. I hated feeling so…so…I don't know. Exposed, maybe? I just hated that.

Jake put his arm around me and walked towards the door.

People sympathized for me, finally figuring out I was Kelsey Marie Ambridge. The girl who's mom died a year after a transplant took place between me and my mom. They didn't know how I felt. Didn't know how I treated such pain. They just didn't. They couldn't.

They just couldn't.