A Child's Reality (BBRae AU)

IV

IV
That Boy
~~~

Raven's eyes have been locked on a specific spot on her ceiling for the past three hours. Her six o'clock alarm rings for school and she hardly even gives it a passing glance, let alone a move to turn it off.

I'm gonna get another migraine if I keep this up.

Maybe she'd be able to sleep if the house didn't seem so foreign to her.

You walk in and immediately notice that the navy blue walls and powdery light pink, almost white ceiling and carpet are nothing like your old room, there are two nightstands in place of one, and as you stare into the vanity mirror, you can't help but notice its size difference compared to your old one.

Nothing about this room evokes the slightest sense of familiarity within you. It's frighteningly cold. You feel lost in your own bedroom. Even though the room looks clean and friendly with a lot of open space. To you, it can be likened to a prison cell. Not a furnished, but just as damning. This is the one place that is supposed to be your safe haven, the place you always go to for comfort and maybe even happiness when all else fails. But it's not.

The disempowering darkness of the closet was an unsettling version of the darkest shade of umber, but she has to go in and get her clothes for today. Should she try today or should she go as a bum in sweats?

The thick, soft cloth of the Jump City High "school spirit" sweats already makes her feel a little safer. And to add to it she wears her most comfortable shirt she can find, then the most comfortable sweatshirt.

She's not messing around. If she gets a chance to sleep anywhere in class today she—

"Raven!! It's almost seven thirty!! What the hell have you been doing?!"

"Shit..." She sighs. "Coming, Mom..." Why did I even say anything? My voice is hardly loud enough to breech freaking my door. Let alone go down the enormous stairs.

Dragging feet, dragging body, dragging hands, nothing about her is lively.

She walks mindlessly, it feels like the stairs turned from static stairs to mobile ones. The escalator moves lethargically slow and Arella continues to yell.

"I'm going to the car! Be outside in five minutes, Raven!"

Raven merely stuffs a plain bagel into her mouth in order to hold it, then grabs her new black backpack and a stick of gum.

She really thinks it'll take me five minutes?

"Finally." The door slams. "Why are you holding the bagel like that? You've got two free hands." The engine fires up. "Just make sure you can finish it before first period." They pull out from the driveway

"Relax, Mom," her gently timid voice says. "I have English first. She lets us eat."

"I thought you had gym?"

Raven halts mid-bite.

Damn. It.

She doesn't even bother to change her clothes in the locker room. She might as well be ready for gym. She places her butt down in her designated spot, and out of the corner of her eye, something familiar, something red, bright red hair... Where had she seen that bright red hair before?

Where had he seen that rich purple hair before? It was sticking out of the girl's hood, and the more she leaned forward, the more it fell from in there out to the open air of the musty gym.

Then she abruptly leans back and plops down onto the floor on her back. The students around her look at her in an odd mixture of shock and utter confusion. That's when he gets a decent angle of her face. Raven! That was her name!