November 1981

"Come on Mandy," My twin brother, Mike says to me, "We'll have plenty of time to finish up the campaign."

"I don't think so," I say to him, giving him a look, "We're starting the campaign two hours later then normal and we barely find up at the time we normally start with."

Dustin sighs, "I'm sorry but my mom's not going to let me out of his one, I promised her."

"It's fine, Dustin," Will says, patting him on the shoulder, "Mandy is just scared after what happened last time."

"Oooh, he got you there," Lucas smirks.

The boys started laughing as I mumbled, "We don't talk about that."

"Talk about what," said an awful voice that I hated to hear.

Me and the boys turned slowly to face Troy and James coming up to them with smug looks on their faces.

I sigh, not wanting to deal with them today or ever for that matter.

"Well, well, well, the freak show is back again," Troy smirks, "You talking about that geeky game that you stupids play every weekend?"

"How do you know about that stupid geeky borad game unless you secertly play it," I sassied him as I put my hands on my hips.

Troy rolled his eyes, "I just know about it because you talk about it all the time."

"But we're not even in the same class," I mumbled, "And don't say that you hear it at recess because you don't hang out with me."

Troy made a face, "Well... I just..."

"Oh save it Troy," I rolled my eyes.

"No, you save it," Troy snapped, looking upset, "You need to shut up."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because you're nothing but a freak, you know that," Troy said, "Your nothing but a big, nerdy freak that can only make friends with her twin brother and his three friends."

My hand fell to my side, not really knowing what to say to that. He had a point and it felt a little weird to think that it was that obvious to everyone around me.

"Oh, see I shut you right up didn't I," Troy smirked, "Hey everyone! Don't you guys agree that Amanda Wheeler is a hotheaded freak."

All eyes are on me in two seconds and all the sassy or confidence I had just started to slip away from me. Everyone was watching us now, looking to see what Troy was going to say next.

"See now everyone thinks that you're a freak, a hotheaded freak that will always be alone," Troy said as I continued to keep walking backward away from him.

That was my first mistake.

I lost my footing once I got to the end of the sidewalk and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the hard concrete, looking up at everyone.

People started giggling and smirking in my direction, I hated every second of it.

Troy and James high-fived then started over to the front doors of the school, looking very happy with themselves as always.

But I hated every second of it.

"Mandy, are you okay," I heard Mike's voice say to me.

"Mandy?"

"Are you okay?"

That's when I got to my feet and ran for it, not wanting to be around anyone any longing. I ran through the front doors of the school, pushing my through teacher and student, ignoring what they said to me.

I opened the door to the bathroom which to my surprise was pretty empty beside a couple of other girls.

I opened the door into the first empty stoll and slammed the door shut, locking it.

That's when the tears of embarrassment filled in my eyes and I hated every second of it. I hated to cry, I hated feeling weak, and I hated that I felt affected by his words.

I didn't know how long I was there for but I knew that I was probably late for class.

But suddenly, I heard the bathroom doors open.

I immediately shut my mouth, not wanting anyone to know that I was here.

"Do you have my lip gloss?" A girl's voice asked.

"Yup, here you go," Another girl's voice answered.

I felt like those two girls were chit-chatting forever and they hadn't said anything that I would never care about.

But as soon as I was going to get lost in my own thoughts.

That's when they started talking about something interesting.

"Did you see what happened to that girl this morning?"

"You mean what happened with Amanda Wheeler, yeah of course I know, everyone knows," A girl says.

"Do you know her or something?" The other girl asked.

"Of course not. But I mean Troy has a point, she has always been a loser, nerdy girl that can't make any friends beside the outcast. So I mean, she was just getting a slap in the face."

That's when I heard the bathroom door open and close.

I knew at that moment what I was going to do. I never ever wanted to feel like this again, people making fun of me for what I like or who I hang out with. I knew that it was selfish but I was going to do it.

Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a new me.

~~~

November 1983

"Come on, Melissa," I said as I sat down on my bed, phone in hand, "There is no way that you should be mopping over that stupid boy that don't give two shits about you."

"But..."

"But what, Mel?" I asked, "You need to pick yourself and show him that you are better without him."

"But..."

"But WHAT, Mel?"

"But he was my first boyfriend..." Melissa sniffed.

"That's bullshit Mel and you know it," I said into the phone, "He is a jerk and he always has been."

"I guess you have a point. But I got to go, see you tomorrow."

"See you."

"And don't forget to do your homework for Mr. Clarke," Melissa said.

I rolled my eyes, "Come on Mel, you know I always do my homework."

Melissa let out a small laugh then the phone went dead.

A small sigh came from my throat as I put the phone back down on the bass. I didn't want to do my homework but I guess I had nothing better to do since my twin brother and his friends were the ones who always got the basement.

I took out my textbook and papers out of my backpack and put everything on my bed, ready for the next hour of doing boring science homework for Mr. Clarke's class.

I only answered the first three questions and half of the next one before I was interrupted by a knock on the door.

I looked up to see two familiar faces standing at my door. Lucas, who has chocolate brown skin, big eyes, and was wearing a heavy fall jacket and Dustin, who has curly brown hair, fair skin, and a big toothless grin on his face.

If I was being completely honest, I didn't remember the last time I had talked to them. Even though they are here every weekend, I never talk to them. It's sometimes weird because I used to hang out with them all the time.

"Hey Amanda," Lucas said, grinning.

"What do you two want?" I asked a little too coldly.

Lucas and Dustin looked at each other for a second then Dustin said, "Do you want the last slice of pizza. Sausage and pepperoni!"

"No thanks," I answered as I started to tap the pencil against the textbook.

Lucas cleared his throat and asked, "We are gonna have another campaign soon if you want to join. I mean... if you want."

"I'll think about it," I said.

"Ok... Ok..."

"Lucas, let's go!"

The two boys soon started down the hallway back towards the stairs, leaving me with my thoughts and my science homework.

It was probably an hour later when I finally came to the last problem but that was when my eyes fell and I didn't stop myself from falling asleep.

~~~

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock and it probably made me jump about a foot in the air.

I was surprised to see that I wasn't sleeping on top of my textbook and that I was sleeping under the covers with my head on my pillow.

Time for another school week which I wasn't excited for.

I threw off the covers and sat up straight, stretching out my back and arm. Once I was done stretching, I got out of bed and started getting ready.

I got into some pale navy jeans and a somewhat small blue t-shirt. I brushed out my long brown hair until there were no knots or any sign of my terrible bed hair that I normally have when I wake up in the morning.

Once I was done getting ready, I was quickly out my bedroom door and down the stairs then into the kitchen where the rest of my family was.

This is how breakfast was every morning. Dad was sitting looking at the newspaper ignoring us until we did something that he didn't like. Mom was in the kitchen taking care of my little sister, Holly. Mike and Nancy were sitting at the table, being annoyed with each other and I normally showed up to breakfast without having any time to really eat.

"Amanda, you need to get ready faster," My mom said as soon as she saw me, "Or you're going to make you and your brother late."

"I'd be happy to go without her," Mike smirks as he takes the syrup and dumps it all over his scrambled eggs.

"Micheal!"

"That's disgusting," My older sister, Nancy said with some attitude in his voice.

"You're disgusting," Mike snapped back.

That's when the phone started ringing and Mom immediately started over to it. I took my seat at my spot at the kitchen table and quickly started eating my food.

"Hello? Oh, Joyce, hi," Mom said as she talked to Will's mom on the phone.

As I ate my breakfast, I watched as Mike took the maple syrup and dumped it all over Nancy's scrambled eggs.

"What the hell, Mike!" Nancy said, annoyed.

"Hey! Quiet!"

"Language," Ted said, barely looking up from the newspaper.

Nancy looked super annoyed and her face was priceless.

"Are you kidding?" Nancy complained, looking from Mike to Dad.

"Omg Nancy, stop being so overdramatic," I said, "You're gonna give yourself pimples."

"Shut up, Amanda."

"Will? No, no, no, it's just Mike," Mom said into the phone, "No, he left here around a little bit around 8:00."

I looked over at Mike to see that he was also listening to Mom's conversation that she was having on the phone. Something didn't feel right after Joyce called us asking about Will.

~~~

The front of the school was crowded.

I put my bike in the bike rack and looked around for Melissa and the other girl's in our friend group. It didn't take me long to find them, they were standing by the front door in a little clump and they were all looking at me.

When I was younger, I hated having attention or standing alone as everyone else looked at me. After what happened with Troy a couple years ago, that when I changed things. I changed myself so the embarrassment in myself would go away.

Now I had a reputation for myself and I didn't hate having the attention anymore. No matter what people thought of me, at least I didn't feel the hate in myself anymore.

It only took me a couple seconds for me to walk over to the clump of girls that were standing by the front door. They were all chit-chatting among themselves and eyeing people that walked past them.

There were five total girl's in our friend group. There was me and Melissa, who were probably the closest in the group because we were friends before junior high. Then there was Stacey and his two minions, and I didn't have the best relationship with them, even though they were in our friend group.

Stacey and I were somewhat friends but we had some beef with each other. We both have big reputations so that obviously would make us not like each other a lot.

"Hey guys," I said once I saw close enough for them to hear me.

Melissa looked relieved, "Mandy, I never thought you were going to make it."

"I'm sorry, Mel," I tell her.

"I mean Melissa, what did you expect," Stacey said, "She is always late, we shouldn't both wait for her."

"Come on," I said, "The bell hasn't even rang yet. Are you supposed to be meeting someone or something."

Stacey rolled her eyes at me, "No, of course not."

Melissa tried to hide her smile as I said, "That's what I thought."

Stacey crossed her arms over her chest then turned her head and a smile came onto her face.

That immediately made me look out at the parking lot, trying to see what she was smiling at.

My eyes immediately fell onto Mike and his friends, who as normal were being bullied by Troy and James. I made a fist but luckily it was covered by my sleeve.

"Oh, Amanda," Stacey says, "Maybe you should go save your brother and his friends. They would probably love your help."

"Stacey, come on," Melissa said.

"Oh come on Melissa," Stacey snapped, "Amanda knows that her brother and his friends are geeks."

I watched as Troy and James pushed their way through the boys and started in our direction.

I also released that Will wasn't with the boys, he still wasn't here.

"Amanda?"

I turned to see that the four girls were looking at me.

"Yeah."

"Got anything to say?"

I didn't want to say it, I didn't want to. But the words slipped out of my mouth.

"Yeah, their freaks."

Stacey smiled and that's when the five of us started into the crowded school.