Hope Valley

Prologue

"My name is Timothy." I said in front of the class, my hands clasped behind my back as my eyes stared through the strands of my white hair. I don't remember the last time I looked in the mirror and saw something other than white hair, and yet I was still a child. A child neering adulthood, but none the less a child.

They stared, and a few of the nicer students waved. I could see it in their faces though; they thought I had done this to myself, that I had the demeanor of someone who wanted attention. The irony of my features though, was that I wanted the least amount of attention drawn to me as possible. I did not want their favor, and I did not want their pity. All I wanted was . . .

Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn't know what I wanted.

"Go ahead and sit down." Mrs. Clare, our Biology teacher, said as she pointed to a chair in the front row. I shifted my eyes from left to right and then sat down, curling my arms around my abdomen as I sat quietly while the class began. It was the middle of the year, and no doubt she would pity me and give me a pass on the first test, but I knew that I could ace it if I really wished. Biology was my specialty, something I had been introduced to very early in my life.

"Are you going to eat lunch somewhere already?"

I turned my head to the right, seeing a girl with dyed blue hair grinning ferociously at me. From her punk boots and spiked collar, I knew what kind of person she was, and she apparently thought I agreed with her. In her defence, however, I was wearing nothing but black, and though it was plain, people believed that being goth and wearing black was somehow the same thing.

"No, I do not." I replied, trying to turn my attention back to the smart board.

"Do you want to eat lunch with me and my friends?" She rested her chin on her hand, glancing up at the teacher to make sure she didn't notice we were speaking. We were in the front row though, and by the slight wrinkles around her thin lips I knew she was trying to put up with it.

"No." I said, leaning my back against the bar between the chair and desk, hoping she would get the message and leave me alone. I was a little glad that she had asked for me to join her, and that even she was not against me, but I knew that the slime at the bottom of the pond always reached out to new people first. Anyone who had spent a good amount of time with them knew who they were, and slowly they began to be left behind for a better, higher scale of people. They wanted a second chance by someone that knew nothing about them instead of renewing themselves. Besides, I didn't like that stupid spiked collar around her neck, that and her nose ring. She had a right to wear whatever she wished, and it probably wasn't worn to impress me specifically, but I had the choice to condemn it.

My family knew it's rights, and they would voice them if they chose. It had been ground into me ever since I was small.

"Alright, you little bitch." She hissed under her breath.

I rolled my eyes and continued to listen to the teacher. At least I didn't have to deal with the goth chick after class was out.

. . .

When I entered first period Biology class, there had been only three people that had sparked my interest. The place that we lived in, the town we called home, was rather dark and rainy most of the time, and the people in it where about the same. There was a scale at which one was considered normal or freakish though, and maybe to California they would see us all as strange and unnatural to their taste. There were not many who looked even close to being from California, or any other place that was considered fun.

Mrs. Clare had been one of those few. With her brightly colored dresses and heeled shoes, the red lipstick upon her lips and the curls of dark hair around her head, she was by far the prettiest woman I had ever seen (besides my mother that is). Not only was she dressed wonderfully, but her eyes still glittered with interest, and a smile was still something that danced on her lips.