Impure; The Untouchable Saga

Chapter 1 (fully edited) 1990

I am Kylie, and I am not your typical teenager. At just a very young age I was diagnosed with a life-changing illness. I will never forget the day that I was diagnosed.

Up to ten years old, everything seemed normal. I went swimming and had tiny red itchy rashes that broke out. I just figured to take Benadryl, and I would be okay. I was, until an incident.

I was sunbathing at the public pool when a mean girl walked up and claimed I stole her spot. I got up and started to walk away because I wanted to avoid drama. That was when she pushed me in, unaware of the consequences.

I never had bad issues with water before. After this, my skin burnt and I cried. I went by my mother and complained.

"Mom, it hurts so bad." I cried.

"I can give you Benadryl" she claimed.

"No that is not it; this isn't normal" I continued to sob.

My mom drove me immediately to the hospital after that. My skin was bubbling. We went to a well-known doctor. The doctor asked my mom a bunch of questions and performed tests to confirm the allergy to water also known as Aquagenic Urticaria. He told me to protect myself from the water by wearing waterproof clothing. Which unfortunately was a pair of waders.

I was constantly teased at school because of what I wore. Teachers didn't know about my medical diagnosis, but they knew something was wrong just by seeing me wear waders. My mom wanted me to pretend I was normal, but I was far from it.

Everybody else got to wear whatever they wanted, and I had to wear these big balloon-like pants because I needed "protection." I just prayed to be accepted. I wanted to be like everybody else, but because of the limitations of my disease, I became a loner.

Initially, the only ones allowed to chat about it were my mom and the doctor. That was the case until I met Marissa.

"Hey, Fraidy Waidy, why do you look so boxy? You could lose those waders, or are you just that shape?" the bullies laughed manically and grimaced in my direction. Neisha and Leah always picked on me, so I ignored them. A girl came to my defense from across the room. She had zero tolerance for bullies; she came up next to me,

"leave her alone, or I will tell your parents!" The girl boldly yanked Neisha's hair, pulling her to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Fraidy!" The two bullies instantly knew that if they hadn't done something, they would get their asses kicked. They cowardly ran away.

"I'm Marissa." She reached her hand out to greet me, but I was hesitant because I didn't have friends.

"I'm Kylie, and those girls, have been picking on me forever; I have no idea why." I looked at my watch and noticed the time. "I gotta get home; it's very late."

"Here, I'll join you," she smiled.

As we were walking home from school, Marissa saw the expression on my face and worriedly asked me, "are you okay?"

In my mind, I always told myself I was okay, but Marissa could read people. Though cautious, I upsettingly said, "no, I just don't know why they pick on me."

"Listen to me, okay?" Marissa put her arm in front of my chest, and we stopped on the sidewalk.

"Okay, I don't have a choice," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Everybody has problems, and most problems will resurface in time."

Finally, I understood those girls had issues but were too afraid to fix them. At least my problem was always upfront and not a problem from within.