Page 16 - 2019 Priory MUSE Magazine

Maxxie Price by Livie Carusi
It was a cool, clean, crisp February day in Westchester county when Maxxie Price returned to town and returned to school. After what had happened with Maxxie, nobody expected to see her back around. But something was different about her. Maybe it was the medication they had her on, or what her shrink had been telling her, because Maxxie walked with her spine cracked back. Her shoulders squared off. Her step even and deliberate, as if walking through the crowded streets ofManhattan at noon. She was wearing large bright red cat-eye sunglasses to match the blushy glow in her cheeks. Although underneath her large wool coat was just the school’s standard uniform, her’s appeared to be better pressed, better fitted, and better looking. Heads turned and eyes rolled as she entered the large oak doors of the school building, her leather handbag perfectly positioned in the bend of her upper elbow.
Maxxie had risen from the dead, appearing to find joy and power in her meltdown three months ago. Some people said she was crazy. Others said she was weak. Everybody had a different story about what exactly happened to her after that day in class; she was hospitalized in the mental ward; she went to live with her grandparents in New Mexico; she was sent offto an outdoor reform school in the Adirondacks. Nobody knew the truth. But the one thing, the one and only thing the
whole school knew about Maxxie was what we all witnessed three months ago. Maxxie Price cracked. She couldn’t handle it anymore. The stress. The pressure. Society's expectations. Her parent’s expectations. Her grandparents’ expectations. Her friend’s expectations. All of it finally became too much, and Maxxie snapped. In the middle of class, something ruptured inside of Maxxie, sending her into a whirlwind oftears and rage. People say you could see her heart beating so fast that it sailed out ofher chest in search of a more tame, more calm, and more mellow body. That was the last of Maxxie Price, we figured. Another one bites the dust, right? I guess she just wasn’t cut out for this school. Maybe she bit offmore than she could chew. No one thought she would come back. No one.
But on that crisp February day, Maxxie’s hair swayed in like a pendulum as she floated past the lockers. While walking down the halls, she lifted her red cat-eye sunnies offher face and onto her head to reveal her hazel eyes, and only to push her hair into cascades on the back of her head. Maxxie’s shoes clicked as she walked. Click clack. Her shoes were perfectly synchronized with the beating of her heart. Dadum dadum. The same heart that sailed out of her body so effortlessly three months ago. Click, clack, dadum, dadum, click, clack, dadum, dadum, click...
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