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Chapter One: Good Enough
Cody O’Brien tilted his glasses upwards, scanning the book in his hand with his deep blue eyes. Strands of his dark brown hair fell into his eyes. Alone in the library, he had a pile of books on his table, each several titles about Physics and Chemistry.
Cody wasn’t exactly a popular kid. He wasn’t exactly noticed, either. Although he was attractive, he always hid it. He stayed at the back of every classroom and he never picked a partner whenever they had a project to do. He was always alone, yet he didn’t mind being invisible.
“Cody, sweetie, the library’s gonna close in awhile,” the librarian, Mrs. Pearce said softly. Mrs. Pearce was a kind old lady who ran the library. She had streaks of white in her gray hair and a pair of round spectacles. Cody nodded his head and stood up, holding the books in his arms.
“Thanks, Mrs. Pearce,” he said quietly, walking off to the shelves. Mrs. Pearce smiled sadly before walking off to the front desk. Cody finished stacking the books and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. On the way out, he grabbed his coat from the coat stand and pecked Mrs. Pearce’s cheek. “Take care, Mrs. Pearce.”
“You too, Cody.” Mrs. Pearce watched the seventeen year old boy walk out of the library, as usual, all alone.
Samantha hurriedly raced near the goal. Her teammate and best friend Alexandra Holton passed her the ball and Samantha quickly kicked it, making the ball sail past the goalie and into the goal. The horn sounded, signaling the end of the game. “YES! We won!” Alexandra screamed.
Crowds of the soccer players rushed towards Samantha and Alexandra, enveloping them into a group hug. The coach handed Samantha the trophy and she raised it up in the air proudly, making the audience scream and hoot in excitement.
After the game Samantha and Alexandra walked to the local diner, Joe’s. They walked in, all sweaty and tired, and everyone in the diner applauded them. Flashing the owner a grin, Samantha sat on the counter. “Hey Joe,” she greeted. The owner, Joe Baltimore, smiled warmly.
“Why, hello, Sam, nice game today.” He handed her a plate of fries and a burger. Samantha grinned and so did Alexandra. “You too, Alex, you two make the greatest team.” He handed Alexandra a plate of onion rings and a veggie burger. “Everyone at the diner was cheering for you two.”
“Thanks, Joe,” Alexandra said, biting into an onion ring. She glanced at Samantha, who was staring deeply into space. “Hey, did you see your parents in the crowd?”
“No,” Samantha said shortly. She played with a fry. “You know they never do come, Alex, even if today was the championship game. It’s always, ‘Sorry, honey, but it’s Ben’s debate championship today’ or ‘Sweetie, Ben’s awarding ceremony’s in an hour, we can’t make it today’ or something.”
Alexandra paused as Joe handed them both root beer floats. She sipped hers thoughtfully. “Look, Sam, d’you think you’re gonna be okay?” she asked. “I mean, before you never used to get so affected by it. Ben’s your twin, I mean; he never intends to do those.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Samantha sipped her own root beer float. “The parental units never do care about me anyway. Just as long as I do something satisfactory, they’ll be satisfied. My trophies are nothing compared to Ben’s.”
“Maybe it’s because Ben’s like the man of the family,” Alexandra suggested. Samantha shot her a glare with her piercing grey eyes. “It’s true. I mean, they always depend on the boy. Don’t you think Ben gets pressured with everything?”
“Don’t you think I get pressured? Hello, I try my best every time I do something! I always try to get their attention, but all they say is ‘That’s nice sweetie’ while reading a dumb newspaper.” Samantha bit into her burger. “Face it, Alex, I’m never gonna get noticed. To them, I think I’m fricking invisible.”
“It’s not—”
“Don’t defend them, Alexandra. I get that enough from Ben.” Samantha stared at her root beer float. I’m never gonna get noticed…
Cody walked past the dark alleys blankly before walking up to the apartment. He fiddled with the keys before carefully placing it in the lock and opening the door. He crept inside quietly and closed the door. “And where have you been?” a voice boomed angrily. Cody closed his eyes fearfully.
“I-I was at the library,” he whispered. A large man with a beer belly came up to him and yanked at his hair. Cody bit into his lip, trying not to cry. The man’s breath smelled of alcohol: he was drunk. “D-Dad, please don’t hurt—”
“Why were you at the library again?! Why can’t you be more useful, like joining the football team, huh?!” the man breathed furiously into Cody’s ear. Cody didn’t want to whimper; instead he bit his lip more. “You are stupid, you’re a fool! You’ll never be good enough!”
He threw Cody onto the ground, making Cody grunt in anguish. Pain spread from his hand up to his shoulder. The man, supposedly his “father”, whipped out a belt and smacked Cody’s back. Cody closed his eyes in pain, a lone tear sliding down his face.
I’ll never be good enough…
Samantha opened the door to the Leary Manor, taking off her shoes. She went to the dining room, seeing her parents and her twin brother sitting down and happily eating mashed potatoes and roast beef. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Your brother just won the debate championship for the third time in a row! Isn’t it wonderful, honey?” Mrs. Leary squealed happily, sipping her wine. Ben Leary, her twin brother, smiled weakly at her. Samantha plastered on a smile.
“Yeah, it’s great, congratulations, Ben,” she said softly, feeling the large trophy in her hand get heavy. Ben glanced down at the gold in her hand.
“Hey, you won the soccer championship again! Congratulations, Sammy!” He stood up and walked over to her, enveloping her into a hug. “I’m proud of you, little sister. Don’t you think it’s great, Mom, Dad?” He examined the large trophy. “It looks awesome.”
“Yes, yes, wonderful, whatever,” Mrs. Leary said distractedly, looking at her reflection in the glass of the cabinet that held the chinaware. “Oh good God, I have wrinkles!”
Samantha felt a lump rise in her throat. She cleared it and placed the trophy on her chair. “Um, I’m gonna go on up. Goodnight, Mom, Dad,” she managed to choke out before running upstairs. She slammed the door to her room closed, tears threatening to spill down from her cheeks.
“They didn’t even care…” she whispered. Tears cascaded down her pretty face like waterfalls. “I’ll never be good enough…”
