Anzlee: A Short Story

One night, while Lizabeth struggles to fall asleep, she abruptly wakes up to the sound of her parents arguing. Upon closer inspection, she can hear her father say “Twenty-two years, Maybelle, twenty-two years... and I got nothing for you.” (Collier 146). Her mother tries to calm his festered feelings of failure as a husband, which is to no avail. Watching her family balance go into disarray, Lizabeth panics

Deej Logan was just like any normal high school girl. She woke up on her first day of school and combed her hair, picked out the “perfect” outfit and headed out the door. What she didn’t know is that after that day nothing would be the same. Nothing that day seemed to be going right. At school drama was swarming all around her, not exactly what she hoped the first day would be like. By the time the last bell of the day rang she was more than happy to get out of that school. She drove home as quickly as she could but as soon as she got home she realized that she had forgotten to pick up her sisters. “Great.” She thought sarcastically as she sat back down in her car and drove off. Just then she pulled out her phone to message one of her friends about her awful day. That one decision changed everything. Before she had a chance to send the message Deej veered off into oncoming traffic and was killed on impact.

Melinda Sordino was just a young teenage girl trying to have some fun. Now, she is loathed by afar for something nobody understands. During a summer party, Melinda drunkenly fumbled for the phone and dialed the cops. As she enters her freshman year of high school, her friends refuse to talk to her, and she escapes into the dark forests of her mind. “I am Outcast” (Anderson 4). But something about that party was not right. Something she tried not to relive but to forget. “I have worked so hard to forget every second of that stupid party, and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can’t tell them what really happened. I can’t even look at that part of myself” (Anderson 28). Depression is a

“That’s why they were only taking a few things at a time; they weren 't really coming for ivory and paintings. They wanted me!” Even when she wasn’t in her room she was always afraid of something. “I always dreaded that my parents would divorce. It was my third biggest fear, right next to the fear that one of them would get abducted by heartmen on the road to Sugar Beach, or my first fear, that I would get sucked into the lagoon by neegee.” Out of all three fears only one seemed to happen. Her parents relationship finally came to an end after a lot of fighting, disagreement, and cheating. “Daddy, I hold your foot, don’t leave us. Daddy, please, I beg you” she cried that day. From then on, except the servants and cook, “it was only women at Sugar Beach.” Even after dealing with something so hard in her life that wasn’t even what affected her the most.

Sara rents a small, dirty, private room of her own after deciding to move out. She finds a day job in laundry, and

As she went to her room she slammed the door as loud as she could. She started crying when she got into her room because her mom is forbidding her to see the person that she actually cares about and the person that she really loved. Towards the bottom of page 102 it says “It’s so unfair. I haven’t seen Sammi or Megan since school ended. Dan’s practically the only friend I have left in the world.”

It was just for one night, thought she as she closed the window. The wind is howling and the rain is conducting a symphony of drums against the glass. She turns around and starts walking across the room, the white carpet is soft underneath her bare feet, as she walks to her chair, fixing up her mess of long, beautiful black hair into a messy bun. She has the hair of a Disney princess and the school thought she's one of the most beautiful girls in the entire class, with eyes of ice and a heart of gold. Underneath the mountain of clothes she has yet to put away she finds a towel and hands it to Roman. He takes it from her, their hands lightly touch and he flashes that million dollar, white as snow smile. His dad must be drinking again. Why else

Connie, a stereotypical fifteen year old girl, views her life and her family with dissatisfaction. Jealous around her twenty-four year old sister, June, despite June’s outward plainness, and tense around her irksome mother, Connie escapes to the mall with her friends. She and her clique of friends

town. Everybody is waiting for the day George Amberson Minafer, the only grandson and extremely spoiled, to get his “come-upance.” One day at a ball, George meets a girl named Lucy Morgan and falls in love. Her father, Eugene Morgan, works in the automotive industry, which George despises. Lucy and George are “almost-engaged”, but Lucy says she won’t go any further until George decides what career he wants to go into. George says he doesn’t want a job and blames Eugene for those ideals.

Malloy is so excited to be fully part of the Beta Gamma Pi she believed that her life couldn’t get worse because she has a happy and proud mom and a lot of girl that are part the sorority and they treat her like a sister. A loving father and a loving boyfriend that is in the NFL. Malloy woke up on a bright monday morning by a phone call. The person on the phone was her boyfriend ex-girlfriend, and ex-baby mommy Sharon calling to hang out because they didn't have school in the morning. Malloy said okay because Sharon and her made up and Sharon finally understand that Kade don’t want her and started getting ready while getting ready there is a knock at the door and it’s her boyfriend Kade she so excited and hug him. During their hug she she smell a flower perfume on him but he decide not to jump to conclusion. She told Kade she was hanging out with Sharon and he said okay and kis her and she taste and smell strawberry on his lip. After he was gone she went back to getting ready but she couldn’t stop think about how Kade smell like he been with another girl. Arriving at the store that Sharon text her to meet her there she step out the car and saw Sharon in her car texting some that started with a ‘K’ but she didn’t see anything after that so she knocked on the window and Sharon jump like she was hiding something. Stepping out the car Sharon put her phone in her bag and brought it with her then she gave me a hug and i could smell

She stares at herself in the mirror, examining every self inflicted scar from picking scabs. Her skin tone is grey and dull. Her hair has gotten oily and unkempt. She stopped caring about her looks and was not aware of it. There are age spots on her face that seem to have appeared over night. She touches her face and strokes the bags under her eyes with her finger tips. She looks now at what used to be a beautiful smile and cannot believe that her teeth have decayed, they are almost gone. It saddens her and she looks away. She feels ashamed of what she has become. She looks back at the mirror only to be looking into her eyes. With a hoarse voice she utters the words, “How did this happen?”

With her husband's outrages and seclusion, she did her best by taken care of the situation with care and calmness, especially in front of her children. Surely, when alone, she would breakdown from the pressure, sadness and changes. A family that would once take walks together on Sundays now had to deal with the father's outrages and drinking problems. Ben, the narrator, was only eight years old at the time and even his young fragile mind noticed that his life would forever be different.

Riley’s family move from Minnesota to California. With the difficulty of moving homes, the emotions go into panic mode, like any normal pre-teen would react, but Joy recognizes the problem and tries to help keep the situation positive. On the trip to Riley’s new house, the emotions share the possibilities of what their new house could look like. The creativity that the emotions contain depict houses with slides, dragons, candy, and even in a tree. When she arrives at a new house all the emotions are quickly disappointed by the exterior of Riley’s new home. Joy then remembers that Riley’s dad was talking about how great Riley’s room was going to be. Again, Riley is disappointed and Joy is pushed off the control board by Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear to create memory balls. Joy tries to influence the emotions by creating a dream room for Riley. As Riley heads downstairs for her stuff from a moving van, she discovers that they van is delayed for a couple of days. Bad situations seem to keep piling up for Riley’s family and when Riley realizes this, she begins to play hockey with a piece of paper to take her parents out of their mood. Her dad gets a phone call from his job and the mood goes down again. Her mom seems sad and Riley suggest pizza from a place she saw down the street. The pizza is a disappointment, it has broccoli on it. Riley can’t seem to get out of her rut. When night comes, she overhears her dad still upset on his phone and asks to be tucked in. Her mom comes into her room and right before Riley was about to get mad, her mom thanks her for her positive attitude in

These constant beatings in Maggie Johnson’s home, furniture thrown from parent to parent, and every aspect of her family life as being negative, her family situation is not an extremly healthy one. But, despite her hardships, Maggie grows up to become a beautiful young lady whose romantic hopes for a more desirable life remain untarnished.

Although a light read, her experience is heart-breaking as she is abused at home, institutionalized, and instead of being treated for her depression, doctor’s attempt to “feminize” her with eye shadow and lipstick. She is the type of advocate that makes noise in a silence because she tells a tale that would otherwise be unknown.