Ugh! Today was probably the third or fourth worst day of my life. Right when I think I’ll have a good day, someone comes with an eraser and blows the remains into my face. Beatrix, or Bea as I like to call her, said today could have been much worse, but when I asked her how much worse, she said she didn’t have a clue. Gees, if people don’t have anything good to say, they shouldn’t even try. However, I will give her credit for trying unlike some people.

By some people I mean Jacqueline Hinkhimer, who is only the stupid prep, err I mean the most popular girl in the school. Seriously, how can someone like her who only talks on their cell phone all day and wear two tons of make up become popular? On top of that, she’s not very nice and I had witnessed it firsthand. During break today, I was just innocently minding my own business, looking at a poster for prom, couples only. Well, it wasn’t really for couples, but one look at the ticket prices said so otherwise. Still, my mother said that it would be a good thing to experience it because you could never have a high school prom again, so I toyed around with the idea of going. That was until Jacqueline Hinkhimer and her group of stooges, I mean friends, showed up. She looks at me, then the poster, and then at me again. She burst out laughing and everyone joined in with her, while I blinked in total confusion. I was hoping she was laughing out of insanity, but it proved to be much worse.

"You," she said, pointing her finger at me, "cannot be serious about going to the prom. What is this world coming to? If this world was a fruit basket, you would only be a grain of rice." She laughed again and then mentioned something more about the other "rice grains" before moving on down the hallway. My initial reaction was to at first punch her pretty face in. Who was she to say that I couldn’t go to prom? Luckily for her, she had already disappeared before I could carry out my actions. Taking a few deep breaths and trying to let the anger dissipate, I thought over what Jacqueline said. I mean, what was up with the fruit basket analogy and me being a rice grain? Then, it hit me like a brick through a glass window. Rice wasn’t even a fruit, or one of those vegetables mistaken for a fruit and would never belong in a fruit basket. It was worse than telling me in plain English that I was a misfit, a complete nobody. She was terrible, no, worse than that, she was cruel. Why did she pick me out of the nine hundred people who looked at that same poster? From that moment on, I pushed out the idea of prom, thinking of some excuse for my mother why I wouldn’t go. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my free time in the same place as Jacqueline Hinkhimer.

School trudged on slowly and ruthlessly, each minute lasting an hour. When school was finally over, I quickly packed up my things and resolved to leave without a word when Bea stopped me. She wondered why I was leaving so fast and without a word of farewell. She honestly did look very hurt and it pained me to see that expression on her face. Not wanting to worry her, I said it was nothing. She looked perplexed and obviously didn’t buy it. Finally, I told her about Jacqueline and the whole fruit basket analogy. When I asked her why I became the victim, she simply replied that I was there at the wrong time and that things could have been much worse, which brings me back to the beginning of this entry.

In short, today just stunk, end of story. There is nothing much more to say or for me to do except contemplate on what Jacqueline said. Maybe she’s right that a puny rice grain doesn’t belong in a fruit basket. Who knows though? Maybe there is enough room to include this one, and just maybe this rice grain might become equals with the strawberry in this giant fruit basket of life.