The day I sat with Joanna’s group, it felt amazing. I put on my friendliest smile.
The other girls just chatted like I was nothing new. Good. They talked about last night’s TV shows – Beverly Hills 90210 and X Files. And then they started on actors and the stories about them in recent issues of TV Week. I had nothing to say.
I thought about my evening. Dad and my brothers talked about physics and planets and Dad used his wine glass and the pepper grinder as props. I was rostered to wash up so I chose the music. I could imagine what these girls would say if I told them I sang along to Evita while I did the dishes.
So I sat and smiled. But still I wandered… lonely as a cloud looking wistfully over to my empty place in the sun.
Written for dVerse's Prosery prompt March 14, 2022 Use "I still wandered lonely as a cloud" in a piece of prose of no more than 144 words.
Out of the Cave 
gimme physics any day.
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😃
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Why do we always feel that need to belong instead of to be?
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Yes. But I didn’t stay with that group. I simply had nothing to contribute to their conversation. I had nothing in common. I went back to being one of the “outsiders”. When you’re a teenager, I think your priorities are easily messed around with by your peers.
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Very true. It’s only as you mature that you realise that fitting in is not always so important.
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And perhaps you find a wider pool of people than just the ones who happen to be at the same school as you.
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I would hope so! 😂
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😃
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The person washing up picks the music. How wonderful is that! I love this piece, Worms. 💕
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Thanks, Misky. It was a good system. 🙂 Born of having no TV. Music was what we shared.
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I’ll take physics any day.
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🙂
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Sounds like a fellow member of the Outsider’s Club. My specialty in high school was Staring At My Feet While Leaning Against The Wall By Myself During Lunch Break. (No talking allowed, either.) I was pretty good at being an outsider, so like others in this comment section, I’ll say I’d choose physic every time! It’s impossible to become a clone or a drone if you’re not part of a group. 🙂
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I wouldn’t say I prefer “physics” per se (I never did well in science at school) but I am definitely glad I grew up without TV and in a family who sat down to dinner and had conversations.
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