No Love for the Poor

Hello, my name is Serena Alicia Conner and I'm 17 years old. I'm a senior at Westbridge Preparatory School in Los Angeles, California. I have one older brother, Josh who's in his 2nd year of college. When I was four my dad died of cancer, leaving my mother, Kristina to raise us all alone. She worked three dead end jobs to keep a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and clothes on our backs. I'm still not exactly sure how but my mom managed to get us in the best prep school when we were really young. Between her lousy jobs, our school cost and other household bills, we never had the best in life….well except for education. We shopped in thrift stores for clothes so it was common knowledge that we were poor so my school life was hell.

My brother didn't have it anywhere near as bad as I did though. When he was a freshman he got on the school's football team as the 2nd string quarterback and through some kind of miracle, the starting and 1st string quarterbacks were both injured before the second half of their first game and he was left to play. He took them all the way to nationals that year and every year after and from then on he was treated like a god. If my mom couldn't buy him something, he always had a girl, a coach, or just an adoring fan that would buy it for him. I'm not even going to pretend and act like that didn't bother me because it did. I was hella jealous of my brother and that's something that I don't deny to this day. I've gotten over it in the last couple of years, but at times it can be irritating when I'm compared to the great Josh.

Me, I'm nothing like my brother. For one, I'm a girl and for two, I don't have any athletic skills what so ever. I have a nice personality and I'm very sociable once you get to know me. I do great in school, I've been getting honor roll since I can remember. I have a photographic memory so I've never had to really study. School has always been pretty easy for me. Yeah, if you haven't already guessed it, I'm a nerd. "Princess of the Nerds" actually, I was dubbed that back in the beginning of second grade with my big thick black glasses and braces and because of it; I was treated like… well shit.

My friend Amy was dubbed queen for the simple fact that she took all advanced classes, had been skipped a grade, and that she made straight A's. Amy, who happens to be a year younger than me, wants to be a pediatrician and by the looks of things she will soon achieve her goals but it causes her to study ALL THE TIME, which I understand. It's just that sometimes I wish she and I could hang out like we used to, instead of me just spending time alone.

Besides Amy, I have one other friend. She's a teacher at my school, a real nice lady with an adorable little girl, who also happens to be my god-daughter. Believe it or not, I have actually had boyfriends, two to be exact. The first one was actually a great guy while the other happened to be a sick joke the "populars", as I call them decided to play on me. With as much shit as I've been through, I'm still far too trusting, which seems to always be my downfall that causes me more and more pain and well... this is my life.