Standing Out
Chapter 19: Rebirth

I felt liberated. It was as though I had been stuck in a cocoon, trying to replace myself, but only running into my invisible enclosure, and suddenly, I was free. I don’t think I emerged as a butterfly, but something slightly less beautiful, but free all the same. I had been reborn.

I think it was late June and my periorbital cellulitis was mostly gone. There was even talk of releasing me from the hospital. The worst thing is that this was the moment that I had been waiting for the entire time I had been stuck in bed with my snack maids by my side, but I didn’t know what I planned to do when I got to leave.

Would I have to repeat fourth grade? Would Cindy still talk to me after I stood up to Sara? Would Jessabelle try to bully me since she couldn’t befriend me?

I also considered what I would do about Jeanne and Jack. Jeanne had been a mess lately because Jack had actually been cheating on her with Clara. Unfortunately for Jeanne, Jack even went as far as to dump her. If Jack hooked up with a different girl, I would have been quietly cheering for him. But he didn’t. He had to date Jessabelle’s sister, making Jeanne’s problem more mine than hers.

I guess, in my silent musings, I had discovered that I hadn’t been reborn at all. I may be healed, yes, but the problems that I left had reached a higher magnitude. I was reborn into a new role and I was stuck in my chrysalis again.