The Middle is the Best Part

The middle child is always said to be the "black sheep' of the family, and Jasmine could see some truth to that statement in herself. She was different, and everyone knew it. She tried to fight it off, and every time someone would say it, she'd just brush it off. Eventually she started to realize that being the black sheep in her family may not be such a bad thing after all. She had always known she was different, but she just didn't quite know how. She dressed differently of course, and acted differently, but she mainly thought it was her decision to never take other peoples opinion into consideration when making a decision that separated her from the rest. And truthfully, she was glad to be separated, she wanted great things for herself, and she didn't foresee her future including many people in dreary Cokstone, Idaho. Her family wasn't even the stereotypical farmers, and she wasn't a huge fan of potatoes either. They weren't poor, and they weren't particularly rich; depending on who you were asking. They had enough, and on her dads good years in car sales, they had more than. 

Jasmine loved her dad, she thought, but sometimes it seemed like she didn't even know the main well enough to make that judgement. She wrote I love you on his birthday cards, but she felt guilty saying the words to the man who had been practically absent throughout her entire life, even though they'd lived in the same house for every day of the 16 years she'd been alive. She honestly didn't know how she truly felt about her father. She didn't mean to, but she constantly found herself blaming him for the constant problems around the house. Somehow she felt like things would've been different had he been around more. Been there for her, to love her, and to love her mom. Sheila and John Newburry, the ideal suburban couple. The idea brought a laugh to jasmines lips. They were anything but an ideal couple. She thought that maybe they had been once upon a time, before Marcus, before mortgage. They had to have been. No one she knew would have had four children (Marcus wasn't exactly planned) purposefully with someone they didn't love. Jasmine hoped not anyway. Now though, she couldn't see how they could ever have possible loved each other at all. They had nothing on common, and Jasmine hadn't heard a positive word from one to the other in years. In fact, they barely spoke words to each other at all. She hoped that one day she wouldn't end up like her parents, she hoped, wished, and prayed on it. 

One would struggle, as I am, to find words for Jasmines parents. She felt like they barely even noticed her, though she knew that wasn't true, they noticed. They'd been noticing from day one. They could never seem to remember her favorite color, her best friends name, or who her favorite band was, but the numbers from her last exam were always a topic of discussion. They frequently looked at her longing for a normal teenage experience to be from a lack of focus on her studies, but at heart she knew that no matter how much she studied that she'd never be able to meet their expectations. She had reached the point where she didn't have the willingness to try anymore either. The part of her that wanted to please them had died long ago.