Rayna
I was voted most popular and biggest smile in the 7th grade yearbook. I’m in the photo smiling proudly, but I never strived to be popular.
It’s just that my mom is on every school committee, knows all the teachers and staff by name and chaperones every dance. She donates money to my school for every event i’m in, and even had our new glittery cheerleading uniforms custom made by some fashion designer in New York City.
So I wonder if she is the reason I won most popular and best smile?Because everyone knows the student votes don’t count when they are passed on to the staff.
Breanna should’ve been voted most popular, she’s the friendliest most lovable person in the 7th grade. And Antoine surely has the best and most genuine smile by far. My smile is practiced and my social skills are fine tuned only because I’ve done pageants since I was 5.
I’m the poster child for perfection because I've become so good at playing the role. I flip my hair and do my pageant girl wave. I laugh at jokes that aren’t funny and always wear bright colors to bring out my eyes like my mom tells me to.
But inside I’m dreaming. I want to do so much more, anything more.
One day on my way to cheerleading I walk past the art room and see everyone making ceramic bowls. I had no idea there was an after school ceramics program. My mom always said art was pointless, it wouldn’t put me front and center. But would it make me back and to the right? I liked that idea.
So I walked in and gave it a try. Of course I wasn’t very good at it. My bowl flipped and flopped splashing dirty water drops onto my face and pastel green shorts. Eventually my “bowl” flew completely off the wheel, hit the wall at full speed and flopped sadly onto the floor. But, for the first time I shared actual belly laughs with my classmates. New friends that I never knew were here.
Day after day I came back, over and over slamming the clay onto the wheel hoping to mold a bowl of some kind. It didn’t matter what the bowl would look like because I was finally shaping that real smile I know I have and molding the true expression of who I am.
