Teenage Angst

Teenage Angst

It all started when Tamia was fourteen. She'd always craved to be a ballerina ever since her mother enrolled her into classes while still in kindergarten. Her past performances in plays and recitals received many accolades, but now her seriousness for the profession blossomed. She'd always kept a diary, but she kept another secret notebook in which she entered all her desires when it came to ballet.

In early November, a wonderful dream came to her where she was the star of the school's Thanksgiving Day Pageant, and before leaving for school, she entered her dream into the notebook. She planted her name on the pageant roster along with a list of available roles and crossed her fingers.

The following day, the cast list was posted on a bulletin board, and to her dismay, she was chosen to be part of the background cast. She was too good for such a minute role. Her eyes scanned the neighboring kids, which held smiles just for being cast at all, then she spun away in a huff.

Back at home, she retrieved both her diary and notebook and started scribbling. She recalled the names of everyone standing around her and jotted down how she felt about them in her diary, something she did often. Inside her notebook, she entered that she should be the star of the pageant and that the faculty selection committee had botched it, faulting them for not recognizing her natural talents. She closed both journals and stashed them once her mother called her from the kitchen.

During the rest of the evening, she couldn't shake her disappointment and returned to her room to finish her thoughts in the notebook. She opened her closet, kneeled down, and reached toward the back where she stored it. It was warm to the touch, something that never happened before. She drew it out, clasped it between her open palms, but didn't understand why it was warm. After closing the closet, she sat at her small desk by her bed.

She flipped through the pages to the spot where she left off, but realized there was much more writing inside. She backed up a few pages and began reviewing the entry she'd started earlier. The same entry continued but with different handwriting. Tamia knew the names of everyone on the faculty selection committee, and their names were entered into her notebook along with terrifying accidents that would befall them before the day was out. Tamia stopped reading, clutched the notebook, and rushed to her mother to show her.

She found her mother glued to the television viewing a special news report. Tamia sat next to her.

"Shhh! Tamia, something's happened to some of your teachers at school."

Tamia's blood went cold as the reporters revealed the gruesome deaths of four faculty members and that all were connected with the pageant.
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