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| Bridget Vreeland last summer |
My name is Bridget Vreeland, and I am 17 years old. Last summer, I was tall, beautiful, healthy weight,
long, flowing blonde hair. Well, I wouldn't say I was beautiful, it was only my hair that gave everyone the false impression
that I was "BEAUTIFUL". Lenny is beautiful - I just have long hair. Guys just seemed to love me! But this summer...I was so
devasted by Eric (see below) rejecting me... I gained 10 pounds, and died my hair black. My heart is just broken from a combination
of my mother dying 7 years ago and Eric, my coach at summer soccer camp last year.
Last summer, I went to soccer camp for two months. I met this guy - this amazing guy - and,
long story short, I KNEW that I had to have him! He was just...perfect! We became really close, or so I thought. Eric kept
turning me down, even though he knew he wanted me. He TOTALLY wanted me. He told me many times that he was a counsellor
and I was the camper, and it just wasn't right for us to be in a relationship. Whatever. At the end of the summer, he told
me that he liked me, but it couldn't work out. He said "call me when you're a famous soccer star in college with all the guys
swarming around you" or something like that. Ouch.
This summer, I found out that my dad had hid some letters from Greta, my grandma - my dead mother's
mother that is - addressed to me and my brother, Perry. I was so angry! She lives in Burgess, Alabama. I knew I had to
go see her. I had to find the old Bridget. I missed her. This new Bridget was just...so not...the old Bridget. I had done
everything to try and change myself. To try and block out the broken part of me and replace it with a new life. If I wanted
to stay connected to the old Bridget, I knew I had to find Greta. The thing was, when I got to Burgess, I saw her and just
got got scared and told her my name was Gilda (after the name of the prenatal aerobics class that all four of our moms went
to...that's where they met.) I offered to do some chores for her, and ended up cleaning her attic. I found many old pictures
of my mom, Marly Vreeland as a spunky teenager with lots of friends. She was so beautiful! I never remembered her being that
lovely. Marly was captain of the cheerleading squad, always surrounded by boys in every picture. After the first day, Greta
recognized me. But she didn't tell me until almost two months after I got there. I went to watch some guys playing soccer
at a nearby field... and I recognized some of them. I recalled that many of them had been on my team when I played in Burgess.
I even noticed my former best friend, Billie. He obviously wouldn't recognize me what with my dark hair and blubber that
seemed to awkwardly hang off my arms and legs.
I wanted to go back to my old self so badly. The colour started to come out of my hair when I showered.
I always wore my hair up in a hat so that Greta and Billie wouldn't remember my blonde hair. I wasn't quite ready to face
them yet. Every day I would practice soccer for a few hours. The first time I had made contact with the soccer ball in almost
a year. I was so pumped. Nothing in the world mattered at the moment I heard that familiar THUD of foot-to-soccer-ball
sound. I ran every day. By the end of the summer, my blonde hair was back to normal, and I had lost most of the weight that
I had so ungracefully gained over the winter. Billie and the rest of the team were treating me like a coach for a while, but
by August I was playing in all the games. It was just incredible to experience such a time-rewind...thing. I was so excited
to back and show my friends the new / old me!!!
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