Chapter Text
Through her mother’s high expectations to be the perfect dancer, student, and daughter, Gina Porter needed an escape. On the rare nights where she wasn’t doing school or dance, she would bike to a park that was around five minutes away from her house. When she’d get there, she’d take her laptop out of her backpack that she brought and write on her secret blog.
Gina used this blog as an outlet to place the feelings she felt she couldn’t share with anyone else. There were times where she wanted to share this other side of herself with another person. She knew her mother couldn’t be that person, after all, all she cared about was her being perfect. It never seemed like her mother cared how she was doing, only that in whatever she was doing, she did it without flaws. There was also Ashlyn, her neighbor, who was almost like a sister to her. They spent many late nights together, either talking on the phone or at each other’s house. Regardless of their closeness, Gina was afraid that if she told her, she’d be letting her feelings fly. That, she wasn’t ready for yet.
Plus, everyone that knew her, only recognized her as a dancer. This is why this park was so special to her— it was the one place where she could just be still and not focus on the thoughts of others. She wasn’t a dancer, she wasn’t a student, she wasn’t a daughter, she was just Gina. For once, in this park, with the soft sounds of crickets chirping, she felt she could actually breathe.
When in the park, she’d sit on a small swing set and pull out her laptop to write. Tonight, she was supposed to write her third blog post.
On her blog, she went under the pen name Eve on her blog (after her full name Genevieve) and hoped nobody from school would be able to see her deepest thoughts. Luckily, her blog was not popular so she didn’t worry about that all that much.
Gina’s 3rd Blog Post:
I don’t know if it’s the stillness of the stars, the serenity of the sky, or the soft, subtle sounds of the crickets and fireflies, but sitting amongst the night makes me think and reflect a lot. Nature moves, grows, and changes, and people silently let it, but people are expected to move, grow, and change, in a certain pace or way. People are a part of nature too and though we are more complicated beings than crickets, we should be able to grow and change as we wish. As long as we turn out to be good people, why does it matter? We shouldn’t expect ourselves to be perfect because there is no way we can be. We are nature and should be treated just as beautifully and imperfectly.
- Eve