WELCOME TO SUPPORT GROUP NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC ART AND WRITING AWARD GOLD MEDAL WINNER
By Miranda Cornell
I couldn’t help but cringe when I noticed the sign and the cheesy comic sans font. The sign itself made me nauseous and just laying my eyes on the door next to the sign caused my heart to pound furiously in my chest. I sighed, gathering all of my willpower, I forced my outstretched hand towards the curved door handle. Once or twice my hand flinched away causing snickers and giggles to sound next to my right ear. Finally I had a firm grip on the handle. Taking a deep breath I pushed the handle down. ‘So far so good.’ But when the door was about halfway opened, a loud screech echoed through the still air. Horror wrote itself across my paling face.
“Now look at what you did!” A vile, mocking voice tickled my ear. The tight hold around my neck tightened. ‘Oh God.’ I prayed and pleaded to any being for the promise of my hidden presence, but when I peeked around the cracked door only to see multiple set of eyes staring in my direction, I couldn’t help but curse. I quickly slipped into the frigid room and closed the door behind me but not without first glaring at it for its betrayal. “Oh good, you came! Rose can you please take a seat, we are about to begin!” a rehearsed, overly cheery voice called from behind. Turning around I spotted Miss Evans, the consoler that was in charge of controlling and organizing this support group. When my therapist a couple of days ago recommended that I should attended this meeting, I wanted to say no, but as usual I couldn’t mutter a single word. So my silence was taken as an answer and I was handed information packets. As I slowly shuffled my way towards the group, I couldn’t help but flinch when I noticed the painted on smile that Miss Evans displayed. Neither of us wanted to be here apparently. 8
