Shy Gal: An Introvert's Journey Through High School, Just Survived it!

By Franka Capuano

Bella has almost completed her first year of high school, but she still has to deal with a few uncomfortable social challenges just weeks before the school year ends. Luckily, Bella's new friend, Izzy, and Mercedes have stayed by her side to help and support her throughout the year. But Bella has a few secrets she's hiding from both of them and she's afraid that if her secrets are exposed, she's lose her friends forever!Follow Bella through her journey and experience the whole range of hilarious situations that have accompanied her to her final day as a junior high school student.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jan 31, 2024
• ISBN: 9780228897279

Franka Capuano

I come from an Italian-Canadian family, and we have our share of extroverts! I have first-hand experience growing up introverted and have managed to navigate life, learning ways to embrace my shy personality. However, my younger years, especially the years I attended school, were the hardest that I have ever endured. I was often reminded that my shyness was an imperfection and that there was something wrong with me. I didn't know anyone who was like me and I often felt like an outcast. It wasn't until years later that I learned being introverted isn't all that bad! After all, we're creative—you have to be when you're trying to get your point across to an extroverted world. We're observant—wouldn't we make great star witnesses in a trial? And we're unique—wouldn't it be boring to live in a world of extroverts? They would all be fighting for the spotlight at the same time! As I grew older, I learned ways to communicate better with all sorts of people, and now I feel more confident than ever.I want teenagers to know that things will get easier and not to obsess about what other people's opinions are of them. We are also living in age of technology that allows us to be more secure by keeping ourselves anonymous whenever we feel the need to be.

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Prologue

I left you hanging, eh? Well, let me fill you in on what has been going on for the past few months . . .

As far as our Niagara Falls essay marks (because I know you’re all dying to know), Mercedes got a ninety-five, the highest grade in the class on her essay, and I got 89%, which is good, too, and it earned me a cool hundred bucks from Grandma. I begged her to let me have a dog, but she said no, that I haven’t kept up with my other responsibilities enough.

Sigh.

Mercedes and her dad, Luke, spent Christmas with me and Grandma. Michael was out of town spending Christmas with his grandparents, so Mercedes said they were going to celebrate when he returned in a couple of days. To my surprise, Luke wore a Christmas sweater instead of his usual lumberjack plaid jacket. It was actually a super ugly Christmas sweatshirt adorned with poorly rendered, intoxicated-looking elves, so it wasn’t much of an upgrade, but I was relieved to be looking at something—anything!—besides red and black squares, at least for one day.

Speaking of which, Grandma and Luke only had eyes for each other on Christmas Day. It’s kind of nasty since there’s, like, a fifteen-year age difference between them. But Luke was apparently so captivated by Grandma’s black, shimmery, low-cut dress that he didn’t even notice that he’d forked half of my tofurky onto his plate. When he bit into it, his reaction was priceless! He forcibly spit it out and, well, I’ve never seen tofurky become airborne in quite that way!

Joyce brought our neighbour Delores and her personal support worker over to visit, too, and Joyce made sure the buttons on Delores’s dress were fastened the entire time. I noticed that Delores was mostly quiet, but she looked happy to be sitting next to my cat, Larry, who she calls the dog, and she even swung his arms back and forth while Christmas carols played.

Isaak showed up later after spending some time with his family, and afterwards, we all sat around and watched old Christmas movies. Sandy—Isaak’s sweet, actual dog—sat on the carpet next to Larry, but Larry didn’t think he was sweet at all, and most of the background noise of It’s a Wonderful Life consisted of a medley of Larry’s hissing and growling at Sandy.

Izzy couldn’t make it for Christmas since she was in California with her aunt where they were visiting an array of other aunts, uncles and cousins out there. Who knew she had all those cool relatives? I asked her to send pictures, but she never did because her phone camera broke when she dropped it at Disneyland—or so she said.

Other than that, winter was cold and long, but on Valentine’s Day, all of us (me, Isaak, Michael, Mercedes and Izzy) went skating and it was cool—well, until Izzy fell and fractured her arm. She, of course, took every opportunity to get people to sign her cast and even added a little artwork of her own. Unfortunately, her caricature of Mr. Bellows as a chubby snowman didn’t go over too well with Mr. Bellows himself, and he had a talk with Izzy about covering it up. She eventually did, but she wasn’t happy about being denied her freedom of expression and I had to hear about it for several days afterwards.

I’m still getting together with Isaak on a regular basis. We’re good friends—and Grandma’s going to make sure we stay that way, at least until I turn sixteen when I am formally allowed to date. I’m so tired of listening to her annoying lectures about concentrating on school and not getting into any serious relationships until I’ve graduated university. Grandma and her endless lectures!

And Mercedes and Michael? Well, they look and seem perfect for each other. But sometimes, things just look perfect on the outside and that’s all I’m going to say about that for now.

Brianna and Todd’s relationship ended recently when Todd got in trouble for taking his dad’s new SUV without his permission and completely totalling it. His dad decided to teach him a lesson and is keeping a strict eye on him since he’s currently being homeschooled. He also had to get a part-time job to contribute to the cost of a new vehicle. That means for now Brianna’s sort of single again—at school, anyway—and searching for her next boyfriend/slave/chauffeur. What’s sad is that even knowing she’s a horrible person, there are some guys who would still go for her because she looks like a Barbie doll.

On Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I went to church with Grandma, not because I wanted to go, but because Grandma threatened to take away my internet privileges if I didn’t.

This is what happened:

Grandma came into my room on Good Friday, beaming about how Delores really does like fish, according to her daughter Joyce. (Backstory: Grandma was told by Joyce that Delores didn’t like fish. I know . . . like, who cares, right?) So, Grandma’s the cook and the saint of the neighbourhood, and of course, she just had to make salmon to bring to Delores because Joyce couldn’t make it this year to see Delores (apparently, Joyce sold Delores out to go see her husband’s family and left the caregiver in charge of her mother). Which is fine . . . go for it, Grandma—cook your brains out! But no, she expected me to look after the fish while it baked in the oven while she attended Mass, because she wanted it to be done and ready to bring to Delores once church had finished.

I not only refused, I triple refused. I couldn’t participate in baking a poor, innocent fish!

She replied with these awful words: The fish is dead. Meat is dead, and it’s not going to feel anything even if you nailed it to the wall.

Since those words made me upset and nauseated at the same time, I shot back some choice words of my own, but that just made her clippie-clop her high-heeled church shoes over to the modem to unhook the internet. Then she said that to get it back, I had to show some respect and come to church with her.

I wasn’t exactly happy to go, but I agreed just to get my internet back—and show some respect for the whole Easter thing. It turned out not to be as bad as I thought. The little kids sitting in the pew in front of us were making funny faces and kept tormenting their mom by not sitting still. So, yes, that was entertaining. The only thing was that I forgot to turn off my phone, so my message alerts from Mercedes and Izzy earned me and Grandma a few side-eyes and barely contained groans from the people around us.

After we arrived home, I ran up to my room to quickly change out of my uncomfortable church clothes. When I came back downstairs, Grandma had finished frying the fish to bring to Delores.

You want to come to Delores’s and have Good Friday lunch with us? Grandma asked.

No, I answered quickly, as I simultaneously grabbed my keys from the entrance table. I caught a glimpse of the mom and dad angels. I knew they were already proud of me for going to Mass this morning and wouldn’t expect me to do this as an additional good deed.

Why not? Grandma pressed. I’ll bring over something vegan for you. She opened the freezer and scanned my frozen meals. How about this one? she asked, holding up a package of meatless patties. I can warm up some frozen vegetables and rice to go with it.

No thanks! I yelled as I open the door to leave.

And just like that, Larry bolted out the door!

Picture this:

As I was chasing after him, he ran over to Delores’s of all places. Then, all at once, he turned and ran back in the opposite direction. That was good, but, well, mostly bad, because he ran right into Grandma who was carrying her tinfoil-covered fish over to Delores at the exact same time. To save the fish, Grandma did this hilarious little pirouette before losing her balance and falling onto the ground. Unfortunately, the fish didn’t make it—twice, you might say.

Larry was only too happy to lap up Delores’s lunch, while I was forced to endure another torturous talk from Grandma about rushing out the door to avoid situations and not looking out for Larry. Fortunately, I was still allowed to meet up with Izzy and Mercedes, but not until much later after I went with Grandma to Delores’s, and I had to agree to see her on Easter Sunday, too.

I’m not stupid. The internet would have been off-limits for weeks otherwise.

Chapter 1

Mother’s Day

This is one of the worst days of the year for me—right up there with its close relative, Father’s Day. It’s difficult to face both these days since I lost my parents in a car accident seven years ago.

Grandma is the closest thing I have to a mom, so she gets to celebrate Mother’s Day with me—or, I should say, I do with her. I would make bacon and eggs for her, her favourite breakfast, but I don’t touch either of those things, let alone eat them, so she’s making breakfast for us today. I guess that doesn’t sound too special for her, but she’s going to love the Mother’s Day card and all-pink beaded bracelet I made her. I also picked lilacs from the lilac bush outside the house that I’ve already arranged in a vase on the kitchen table.

I hear her shoes coming down the stairs, so I quickly grab Larry and stand in front of the flowers to give her the best visual I can surprise her with on Mother’s Day.

Grandma flicks on the kitchen light and immediately pulls out the carafe from the coffee maker to fill it with water. Shoot, I should have made coffee for her. Next year for sure I’ll make tons of coffee for her! I make a mental note to learn how to make coffee. Mercedes says her dad makes coffee with just pods. I’ll do that—it sounds super easy.

She looks over at me, Larry, and then the flowers. Happy Mother’s Day! I shout while smiling widely.

Bella, what beautiful lilacs, Grandma says, clutching her chest. Are those from our lilac bush outside?

Yes, I say. I picked the best ones for you, see? I position the vase of lilacs toward her.

They’re just lovely! She walks over to me and gives me a hug.

And I made this for you, too. I pull a bracelet out of my pocket. It’s all pink because I know you senior women wear pink a lot.

Oops.

I mean, I notice that women of a mature age, such as yours, seem to really like those nice pastel sort of hues and, um, tones. And leopard print, I add. You all like the animal prints. At least, that’s what I’ve noticed.

Grandma contorts her face. Then she slips the bracelet over her wrist. It’s lovely, Bella. I’ll wear it out to dinner tonight. I have the perfect flowered pink dress to go with it.

I knew it!

Did you want to come with Luke and me? We’re going to that new Italian restaurant in the plaza.

Mmm . . . I’ll admit that I’ve been kind of eager to try this restaurant for a long time. I’ve heard that they have a selection of vegan food, too. But this, I feel, is an uncomfortable, awkward trap that would involve lots of talking, nodding and smiling.

No, you guys go ahead, I say. I’ll just stay in tonight. You know, finish my homework and such. Work on my beading. Brush and feed Larry at some point. Get my clothes ready for school tomorrow.

Okay, but don’t hang out with Isaak too late. It’s a school day tomorrow.

How does she always know when I’m lying? Sure, Grandma, I answer. Don’t stay out too long with Luke, either.

I won’t, she laughs. We seniors need our rest too.

***

Jack’s

I hop on top of the ledge at Jack’s where I’m meeting up with Isaak and check my phone. Suddenly, I feel a pair of warm hands cover my eyes. If I didn’t know it was Isaak and hear his dog panting inches away from me, I’d probably be scared to death that someone was kidnapping me or something even worse.

Hi, Isaak, I say calmly.

He pulls his hands away and kisses me gently on my head. You should never assume it’s me, Bel, he says. What if I was some crazy person about to—

Mug me, or murder me? I finish his sentence for him. Izzy loves this spot, but she’s always saying the same thing about how hidden this place is.

She’s right, Isaak says. Oh, speaking of Izzy, I saw her on the street on my way over here.

I turn to look at him. Why didn’t you invite her to come with us?

Isaak sits down beside me, placing the palms of his hands flat on the ledge. The metallic letters on his T-shirt that spell out Save the Earth glisten in the sun.

I don’t know, he says. She seemed kind of preoccupied with arguing with some lady who was walking beside her.

Really? I ask. Was she walking with her aunt?

That old lady you showed me a picture of at Niagara Falls? No way. This lady was way younger. She was dressed cool—more like an older sister or something, but who knows? Isaak shrugs his shoulders.

Funny, Izzy never mentioned having an older sister, I think to myself.

I bend down to pet Sandy on his head. You should have still said hi.

I didn’t want to interrupt, Isaak says. Anyway, you can always call her or text her and invite her here now if you want. Isaak digs deep into his jeans pocket and pulls out some change. Do you want any chips or snacks?

Just a pop for me, thanks.

Any particular kind? he