Me at 10's Arc

Chapter 1 of 9

Lindsay is the kind of town where everyone knows whose father owns what. At Queen Victoria Public School, the other kids in Grade 5 know her dad has his own business. Bob Williamson's Gas Service. It should make her somebody, but she doesn't feel like somebody. She feels like she's disappearing. She walks to school every morning past the row houses on the north side of town. The white stone ones with the arched doorways and the big windows. Those belong to the doctors and the lawyers. Her house isn't like that, but it isn't like the small gray houses on the south side either. Her dad owns his own business, so they're somewhere in the middle. But middle feels like nowhere when you're trying to be seen. At recess, she sits on the stone steps at the front of the school building. The brick is warm in the sun. She can see the clock tower from here, and the heavy wooden doors behind her. This spot is hers because no one else wants it. The other girls play hopscotch by the fence. They don't ask her to join, and she doesn't ask either. Asking for things makes you need things, and needing things means you're not being good. After school, she sees the blue car parked outside the gas station down the street. Her dad's there, under the hood of someone's truck. He doesn't see her walk by. She keeps her head down and keeps walking. She used to stop in after school, just to be near him. But lately he's been busy, and she doesn't want to be the thing that gets in the way. So she walks past, quiet as air, and tells herself that being invisible is the same as being good.