Chapter 3 : Juliet

“Juliet? As in the ‘Perfect Ericksson Who You Are Compared To All Your Life’ Juliet?” Ellie asks when I called her the first thing in the morning.

I sigh and rub my forehead, attempting to clear the headache that’s starting to form. I have been up most of the time last night, coming up with a solution to escape from the situation. Unfortunately, most of the ideas involve breaking a bone in my body and I’m not willing to risk a bone for a pointless escape which I know I will be caught in the end. “The one and only.”

“I’m sure you’ll be alright, Mags. Besides, it is only three months that she will be around; not forever. All you need to do is hoard yourself in your room with your laptop and Tuna, and you’ll be fine,” Ellie comments.

I pace up and down my room again. Tuna is curled into a ball as he sleeps soundly on my bed. “I can’t just lock myself in for three months. Tuna will, no doubt, hate me by this end of this month because he’s the only victim of my insanity. And please, for the love of Coke, don’t call me Mags.”

She sighs and changes the subject. “Did you say hi to your new neighbours yet?”

I groan out loud. “Ellie! My cousin is coming over and you want me to say hi to the people who moved here yesterday and they might probably not speak English since you said they’re German and make a fool out of myself?”

“Maggie! It’s rude! Even if they don’t understand you, it’s still nice to welcome them. Maybe you should learn a few German words just before you go and greet them like hello or welcome to Evenfield,” Ellie suggests.

“How do you suppose I’ll learn to speak German?” I shoot at her.

“YouTube. Duh, there’ll be thousands of video that can teach you to speak simple German words,” she answers. At that very moment, I want to hit myself for being so dense. Why am I thinking like I’m living in the eighteenth century with all those puffy dresses and men with bushy beards?

For a moment there, I’ve forgotten that I’m living in a world where all the information is just a click away.

I walk over to the window to see a blond man mowing the lawn in front of Roller Pin’s house. So he must be the new owner…

“What if I say it wrong? You know accents can change a meaning of a word. It’ll be so embarrassing! Instead of saying ‘Welcome to Evenfield’, I could have accidentally tell them ‘Go to Hell’.”

“It’s worth a shot at trying to be nice.”

“Telling them to go to hell is not nice and it’s not that easy to apologize when it’s a great mistake.”

“Just be nice, Maggie, and you’ll live,” Ellie states with a sigh, as if this is the millionth time she said this.

“Did you forget that I am not a social butterfly like you?” I point out, moving my phone to the other ear because my right hand is starting to ache.

I still don’t understand how a social butterfly like her is a close friend of a solitary person like me. I can easily visualize Ellie growing a pair of colourful wings, fly over the rainbow and steal a pot of gold from the leprechauns, land on the surface of Earth safely as rich as the King and finally buy all the stickers selling available.

Ellie has an unusual hobby of collecting stickers. She once showed me her collection of stickers, which both freaks and amazes me. She has some nice stickers with quotes and logos which fascinates me. Other stickers creeps me out like Barbie stickers.

I’m getting off topic. Anyway, the point is that standing next to her – a social butterfly – makes me look like a moth. A moth that has been living in a dark closet for the last eighteen years…

“Do you want to meet up somewhere?” Ellie asks, changing the subject. Again.

“I thought you’re grounded,” I say, plopping down into my seat in front of my desk with my history textbook staring back at me blankly.

“I can always sneak out,” she mumbles.

“And how do you suppose you’re going to sneak out with your mother watching over you and your brother like hawks?” I question, flipping through the pages of the thick book. Is history out to kill me with all these fine details?

Ellie sighs. “I’ll find a way. Jumping out through the window, bribe my brother to become a distraction, make up a lie… Just fix the time and place, and you’ll see Ellie Hurtfield there before you even know it.”

My thinking bulbs lights up with a ting sound. A grin forms on my face as I analyze my idea from all points. This is such a brilliant idea since I can gain benefit by avoiding my cousin Juliet’s arrival in half an hour time.

“Why not now?” I suggest.

Ellie does not answer right away. A minute later, she says, “Are you crazy?”

I shrug, forgetting the fact that she can’t see me. “So?

“I can’t just disappear right now! I thought we can think of a plan which guarantees my safety and freedom,” Ellie rambles.

I sigh. “I’ll be there in two minutes time. Get ready.”

“No, Maggie – ” It is too late. I have hung up on her. Knowing Ellie, she’s going to go all crazy on me later. Right now, I don’t care whether my ears are going to drop off by listening to Ellie’s rants later. I’m just so happy that I can get away from meeting my cousin.

I quickly put on appropriate clothing which are a long sleeved-shirt with a doodle of a cat on it and ripped jeans. I slip my phone into my pocket and grab my sling bag that contains money and car keys.

“Mum, I’m going over to Ellie’s!” I inform her as I descend down the stairs and walking towards the foyer until I realize something. I take a few slow steps back, only to see my worst nightmare has come to bite me in the ass.

There my cousin stands in my living room with her luggage surrounding her and my mum holding her car keys with a smile. My cousin turns around to face me and in an instant, her lips curl upwards into a smile.

“Hello, cousin. It’s been awhile,” Juliet casually says, looking at my outfit. No doubt she’s comparing mine to her ballroom-like dress. I, on the other hand, look like a trashcan next to her.

“Maggie, why not take your cousin along to meet Ellie?” mum suggests.

Like hell I will. “No.”

“Maggie,” mum sternly warns me with eyes that can kill and an overly smile set on her face, making me shudder at the possible consequences she might inflict upon me.

“That’s alright, Mrs. Eriksson. I really need a shower and unpack my things, which takes up a lot of time,” Juliet assure mum, making me relieve.

Mum glares at me while I put on a blank look. It’s not my fault that she doesn’t want my help, right?

“Well, if that’s what you want, Juliet. Maggie, can you take – ”

I cut my mum off quickly by saying, “I really have to go, mum. Bye!”

Without hesitation, I dash out of the house like a pack of hungry coyotes are after me. I jump into my second-hand car and drive away from my house and towards Ellie’s.

The second I left my neighborhood, I let out the breath that I didn’t know I was holding.

Fuh, that was a close one.

I’m so glad that I manage to think of a plan the moment Juliet arrived. You might think that she seems like a nice girl and to be honest, she is. The reason why I don’t like her is that she is not able to hold her tongue. If you don’t stop her, she can ramble on and on about her achievements, then compare her great ones to ordinary mine. By achievements, it means exam results, trophies from all sorts of competitions and so many, many more for me to think of right now.

Juliet is the bubbly academic girl who has a bright future with one of the most prestigious schools in the country. I wouldn’t doubt that she’ll be accepted into Yale or Harvard.

I can be jealous at her whenever she lost control of her mouth, but the thought of not being uptight is ideal enough for me to not be just like her. Sure, I have flaws and skills of my own, but I also want to be a regular teenager who hangs out with friends.

Even if I have only one friend…

“Hey! Move it!” Someone beep behind me, making me snap out of my trail of thoughts. I focus immediately to see that I’m the only person who’s stopping in front of a green traffic light.

My cheeks redden involuntarily as I take my leg of the brake pedal and step on the accelerator.

God, that was embarrassing.

What a long day it had been, and it’s only still morning. I need to find a way to make time faster so I can go home without seeing a certain face.

I glance at my watch, calculating the possible time for me to make a quick shopping. Right now, I have the urge to gulp down fizzy drink.

By fizzy drink, I mean Coca-Cola.

I quickly change my destination from Ellie’s residence to a nearby Carrefour.  

I’m sure Ellie can survive for another fifteen minutes.