Shadow

CHAPTER THREE - DAY ONE

The bell rang and I headed off to my first class of the first day. I had butterflies which wouldn’t go away.

I normally dreaded going to class because I knew it was just a matter of time before someone, anyone made me feel bad, but I was the new girl now. I was beautiful now. Hopefully I would finally be  treated like a human being.

I walked in the room and I almost forgot I changed. I could feel my heart beating faster, and faster. I had no idea where to sit, how to act, where to look. I just didn’t know anything.

“Hey you!” A girl with glasses and long brown hair called out to me. “You’re new aren’t you? Do you want to sit with me?”

I smiled back at her and I could almost see my reflection in her purely whites. I opened my mouth to reply but before I could, someone else butted in.

“She’ll sit with us. We don’t want her catching your ugliness June, now do we?” Two girls laughed with her and they grabbed my arm and took me to a seat at the back of the room.

June looked down straight away and quickly walked back to the front of the room. I knew that look. I could feel what she was feeling, just from that look. She was probably just like me, or how I used to be. I imagined her life at home.

A happy, ‘picture perfect’ family, with the exception of her. She stood out. She probably sat in her room listening to the same music, had the same fights with her older, prettier sister and she probably felt alone all the time.

I almost wanted to go sit with her, but I remember how hard I worked to get here and I decided that it’d be better if I just forgot about her. I didn’t need to think about this.

At the back of the room I was sitting down and meeting my new ‘friends’, which I didn’t have a choice in who they were.

“I’m Sapphire, this is Ruby and Jade.”

Their names were so ‘matchy’ they sounded like a girl gang of stones, it was an intimidating thought to say the least.

Sapphire looked like the all American girl next door. She had long blonde hair that fell just below her chest. She was tall, tan and skinny. She was a cliché. There was nothing much that made her, her own person, she looked just like a movie star and there were plenty of those already.

Ruby had curly brown hair that reached her hips. She was slightly shorter than Sapphire, but I wasn’t sure if it was just because Sapphires’ shoes were taller than the empire state building or because she was actually short.

Ruby’s face looked to have more personality, it was hard to see her freckles under the layers of make-up she had on, but she had a warm and natural beauty about her.

Jade was just as tall as Ruby. It was almost as if this was done on purpose, like they all were dolls made in a shop.

Jade, had green eyes, that well, pretty much looked like Jades. Her eyes drew me in, they had a story hidden behind them, but her fringe also drew me into her eyes, because it was resting just above them.

“I’m Elle”

I didn’t really know what else to say about myself, I wasn’t all that special.

“You’re so lucky we saved you from June” They all laughed again “She is such a loser!”

Listening to them taught and talk about June, sat uneasy with me. But I forced a smile to my face and laughed with them. I guess was finally belonging. It felt nice to actually be included for once.