Second Helpings Read Online Free PDF Page B

Nutcrackers, like the hero from the ballet of the same name, a mere fraction of the extensive collection she keeps in a display case at home. They are all dressed in military garb but carry different weaponsa gun, a sword, a British bobby batonas if they were guarding her virginity. Theyd better be on high alert, because I walked in on her in full-frontal frottage with the saxophone player hottie on Day 5. Unspecified Intimate Moment #1 . Ack.
     
    Positively Troubling Fact: Call Me Chantalle brought a half-dozen bottles of Summers Eve douche, which she keeps in plain view in her closet, not to mention the Summers Eve body wash in her shower caddy, and the travel-size Summers Eve disposable wipes stashed in her backpack. What makes this hygienic hoarding so odd is that she doesnt even try to hide it, which makes me feel like Im wrong for thinking its weird. But it is weird, isnt it? Then again, maybe theres something that Ive been doing in the privacy of my own bedroom my whole life that I think is perfectly normal but is actually illegal in thirty-two states. Call Me Chantalle could observe the way I clip my toenails and think, My God, how can she cut the pinky toenail first, when every sane person knows you finish with the littlest piggie???
     
    I am doing my best to be positive, by celebrating Call Me Chantalles quirks. After all, isnt this the beauty of having a roommate? Getting a glimpse of someone elses private world and discovering that everyone is as big a freak as you are, just in different ways?
     
    I got a postcard today from Hope, whos in London, where she has had a far more interesting assortment of cool characters to observe. Id like to think that shes got the advantage of a fascinating location, but I know that its just the way she is. At first, strangers are struck by her appearancesix feet of luminous, alabaster skin topped by wild, flame-colored curls. But then theyre drawn to her warmth, sensitivity, and good humor. No matter where she ends up at college, Hope will make lasting connections with the chatty girls in her dorm, the brooding guys in her art classes, the awkward sopranos and tenors in her choir, whoever. She could find redeeming qualities in Call Me Chantalle, thats for sure.
     
    Im afraid that Hope will still be as vital to my sanity but I wont be as important to hers, simply because she will have made new friends to fill the void. I dont think shell forget me, but shell move beyond me, because thats the healthy thing to do when your best friend lives a thousand miles away and you can only talk to her once a week, and see her once a year.
     
    Maybe I should try to get used to this now. Maybe I should accept that this journal is the only place thats safe to express whats really going on inside my mixed-up mind. Or maybe I should give others the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, just maybe, I should stop blaming SPECIAL or
     
    Pineville for not serving up my soul mate on a silver platter with caviar on the side. Drop me anywhere on the map and Id quickly prove that location isnt the problemits me .
     
    the seventeenth
     
    My trial run for college is still not going well. My classmates hate me. I should have known SPECIAL would be a haven for Noir Bards, and that they would have no tolerance for a fraud like me.
     
    Pretentious and depressed, a Noir Bard is very big on the fact that he/she is a writer. They write a lot about writing, often rhyming words like verse and hearse . To them, black is always the new black. They spend a lot of time at poetry slams and other literary events, chain-smoking and washing down Paxil with (black) coffee. Their intricate facial hardware and Goth getups are painfully obvious cries for help. Heres a brief archetypal member profile, very much tainted by my cynical analysis. (But thats okay because cynicism is in keeping with the true, blackened spirit of the Noir Bard.)
     
    Name: Rebecca Adams (aka the Female Nosferatu).
     
    Hometown: Cherry Hill, by way of