‘Don’t talk to Daisy, she may look rich, but she’s really weird,’ they said. I peered over my shoulder to the farthest end of the cafeteria and saw Daisy sitting quietly, reading, and eating her lunch. ‘Huh, weird?’ I thought to myself. Rather than weird, I would say something hidden underneath the surface is constantly occupying her mind.
The next day, on a fair Friday morning, I saw Daisy in the cafeteria at the same spot as yesterday. “You guys can go ahead without me, I’ll catch up later,” I said and walked towards Daisy’s table. At first, after I sat down, she didn’t notice me but kept reading. I took a bite of my meatloaf and decided to strike up a conversation first. “Hi. What’cha reading?”
She looked up, looking slightly shaken up, and replied,” Hello. I am reading a book called ‘Hopeless’. Nice to meet you. By the way, I am Daisy.”
“I go by Julia,” I replied with a smile. Other than her formal way of speaking, I would say there’s nothing weird about her. She’s just a typical shy girl. Yet, I still felt like there was something that was bothering her. Who was I to try and pry? Instead of asking her a bunch of random, awkward, ice-breaking questions, I decided to ask her if she wanted to watch a movie with me since I had been meaning to watch one anyway. I felt slightly embarrassed as I had just asked a new friend to hang out with me outside of school, but it felt right.
Daisy widened her eyes and said,” A movie?”
I chuckled at her response and answered,” Yep, a movie. It’s not a horror movie if that’s what you’re concerned about. It’s just an animated movie about the secret lives of pets. It should be pretty funny.” She nodded her head and took her schedule book out.
Out of curiosity, I peered over at her schedule book and saw a bunch of uppercase letter M’s, D’s, and a bunch of ticks and crosses. She slid her finger over today’s date. Both the letter ‘M’ and the letter ‘D’ had an ‘X’ over them. She looked back up at me and excitedly said,” I would love to see a movie with you. But, I left my wallet at home so I will quickly run back home after school to retrieve it.” I tried to tell her that she could simply pay me back later, but she insisted on paying herself. She said something about it being improper to borrow money from me on our first outing together. Since I didn’t want to force her, I agreed. We exchanged contact numbers and decided to meet outside the school gate to swing by her house before going to the cinema.
After school, we rode our bikes to her house. On the way, we chatted and laughed together. It was the most fun I had in quite a while. What seemed like 5 minutes later, we arrived at her house. Her black and white, three-storey house had its own aesthetic compared to the other ones on the same street. It seemed well-put-together and posh as if it were a mirror reflection of Daisy. There were 2 cars parked outside, one black, and one white. Daisy grabbed the spare key that was stored under a fake rock in their front yard’s garden and skipped towards the front door to unlock it. As the doors flung open, it revealed the spiral stairs that traveled all the way to the top floor. Then, a glass vase came flying, missing Daisy by an inch, and landed on the floor, breaking with a loud, sharp ringing noise. It was soon followed by shouting and screaming that echoed through the long hallways of the house. I looked up and caught a glimpse of one male and one female, both wearing black and white suits. Daisy flinched, stepped back, and rushed out of the house, muttering something I couldn’t hear while grabbing me by the wrist.
After reaching the spot where we parked our bikes, Daisy released my wrist from her shaking, shivering hand. Before I could even react, she quickly filled the air by saying,” I apologize for everything. I do not think I will be able to make it to the movie today. I was really looking forward to it though. See you at school. Once again, I apologize. For everything.” She slowly got on her bike and rode back towards her house. As I stood there, I couldn’t help but think about how to comfort Daisy. I’m usually quite good at stuff like that, but this time nothing came out.
A few days passed at school and still no word from Daisy. I thought about approaching her first, but I didn’t even see her around the school. I looked everywhere, the cafeteria, the library, the hall, the classrooms. My last resort was the school playground. I walked on the grass, looking around for Daisy. Shortly after, I saw a small frame crouching down behind the bleachers. I walked over hurriedly and sure enough, it was Daisy. She looked up at me, wide-eyed, like the first time we met. She cleared her throat and said,” I apologi—,”
I cut her off before she finished and said,” Don’t apologize. You did nothing wrong.” Tears started to form in her eyes and I fell to my knees and gave her a hug. She started sobbing louder and I hugged her tighter. I was still unsure of what to say, but I just couldn’t let go.
What seemed like 40 minutes later, we walked over to the school playground and sat on the swings, side by side. We swung softly, in silence.
Daisy broke the silence, once again, saying,” You know, every time I see my house, I am reminded of both myself and my parents. My parents are both lawyers and think through everything carefully, just like they did for the design of our house. They designed the house together using their favorite colors. My mother likes white and my father likes black. For some reason, after they got married and had me, they started to drift apart as their differences grew. Isn’t it funny? While black and white represent the differences that tore my parents apart, the house itself seems to be a splitting image of me. They said that they would take some time apart, to sort out ‘some stuff’. They took turns staying at the house with me. Of course, sometimes they had to return to the house to grab different pieces of paperwork. So, they came up with a schedule together so they would never be at the house simultaneously. In fact, that was the ‘schedule’ I was checking last Friday. ‘M’ stood for Mom and ‘D’ stood for Dad, neither of them was supposed to be at home at that time. Somehow, last Friday, my parents who both respect schedules were there on the same day. Sure, they were arguing, but I feel like that was their way of working through their problems.
“It may not be the best or most ideal way, but who knows what ‘the best way’ actually is. I used to hope that their differences would just magically disappear without a trace, but now, I hope that they will work their problems out together, no matter the method, effort, or time. Just the fact that they went to the house on the same day gives me hope that they will sort out their differences together. I am sure that the day when we all live under the same roof again will come because I believe in my parents and in the power that their differences have. After all, differences do not exist to tear people apart, but to allow people to realize their need for each other. Sure, it is a little hard to bear at times, but that’s it. Yeah, that’s it.”
I didn’t reply since it didn’t feel right. I looked at Daisy who was looking at the sky smiling and saw tears forming in her eyes, and yet, her bright, blue eyes were sparkling.
I thought to myself,” So much pain lies underneath the surface but she hides it so well. At least, she’s not hopeless, just hoping a little less.”