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Shelley Marsh had just woken up on the morning of November 24th, expecting the typical, lame ass birthday.
Little did she know that this would be one of her favorite birthdays.
She sighed as she heard her mother call her downstairs for breakfast.
Sharon greeted her daughter and told her happy birthday. She then added “You know, I actually have a surprise planned for your 14th birthday.”
Shelley was now intrigued. “What is it?” she asked and immediately realized how stupid that question was.
“The whole point of a surprise is that you can’t know what it is” Sharon chuckled.
Shelley didn’t have school today because of Thanksgiving break. She liked not having school, but she hated Thanksgiving because it took all the attention away from her birthday most years.
A couple of hours passed and Shelley heard her parents calling her. They told her to get in the car.
“Where the hell are they taking me?” She thought to herself.
She saw the orthodontist building and cursed out internally. She hated going there.
She reluctantly entered in with her parents. "Why do they have to do this on my birthday if all days?!" She thought again.
“All right, Shelley, I know you’ve been waiting for this to happen for a long time” Sharon started, “The surprise is that you’re getting your headgear taken off for your birthday!”
Shelley’s face completely lit up “Really?!” she said, beaming. Her headgear had been her biggest insecurity for almost two years. She’s hated it since she first got it. Nobody at school, other than her friend (or boyfriend) Kevin, would look her way because of it (if they did, they would just whisper shit about her), and the insecurity it made her made her much more irritable and angry than usual. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!” She added.
What seemed to be a normal day had just turned into one of the best day of Shelley’s life.
After the headgear was finally off, she looked at herself in the mirror and saw features that she never noticed were there because of how much she focused on the headgear. Sky blue eyes, prominent cheekbones, button nose, and cherry red lips. ”Was the damn headgear really hiding this much?”
She came out of the room beaming. “It’s gone! It’s finally fucking gone!!!” She cried.
“Shelley! Language!” Her mother replied, but couldn’t help but smile. “You look so beautiful honey!” She added.
When she and her parents cam home, Stan's jaw dropped as he saw how his sister looked without the headgear.
"Dude, I can barely recognize you!" he said.
"Thanks I guess, turd" Shelley chuckled.
For the first time in a while, she wasn't feeling angry at all, she felt happy and confident.
A few hours later, the Marshes gathered at the table for Shelley's cake, chocolate cake, her favorite flavor.
A few hours later
"Dear diary," Shelley started to write, "Today was the best day ever! First of all, my birthday was actually acknowledged this year unlike most years. Not only that, I finally got my stupid ass headgear off! I wonder if someone other than Kevin will finally look my direction at school. Also, for the first time in a while, I don't feel the urge to take my anger out on Stan, in fact, I don't feel any anger right now at all! But now that I think about it, I might have a lot less anger and insecurity in general without that fucking headgear, so i might actually apologize to Stan, but I don't know." She finished.
When it was finally time to go to bed, Shelley took one last look at her new self in the mirror and went to bed.
.