Different

Chapter 1

Lizzie

Everyone is unique. Different. However, some people are more different than others, like my friends and I. Until I was 14, I thought I was the only one like that.

I'll tell you about our lives, but let me get you caught up first.

It started off as a normal day, I got picked on at my locker in the morning, was late to class, got called out because I was late to class, etc. That's about where the normal stops that day.

Between first and second periods, one of the many people who picked on me approached me while I was at my locker.

Jordan.

I sighed and continued to exchange the books in my bag with the ones in my locker. I glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, "What do you want, Jordan?"

My single glance at him had apparently made him nervous, as he had begun fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. He put his hands at his sides and looked at me, "You," he began, "you're different."

I stop exchanging my books and turned to him.

"Excuse me?"

"You're different," he says again with more confidence, "I've heard what happens in the bathrooms when girls try to pick fights with you. Sinks just happen to explode and cause a distraction and you happen to make a get away."

I stared at him and opened my mouth to respond when the bell rang. I swore under my breath and slammed my locker shut.

"Look, I don't know where you heard that, but first of all, its bullshit, second of all, now I'm late to class," I say, beginning to walk to my science classroom.

He nodded and headed to the social studies wing.

I sigh, shaking my head. The amount of tardies I had was getting high, and I knew I'd be getting a detention soon, so I tried my best to hurry to class.

I thought about what Jordan said. Its true, I am different, in ways you'd never expect. But how did he know that? Why did he want to know more about it? All he'd ever done was pick on me for trying to express myself, so why did he want to know more about me now?

When I walked into Mrs. Ruiz's class, everyone turned and stared at me.

"Ah! Ms. Daniels! Decided to join us after all, didn't you?"

I rolled my eyes and walked to my seat as Mrs. Ruiz kept going, "One more tardy for you," she typed something into her computer and confirming my suspicions, she said, "Oh! Ten tardies! That's a detention, I'll see you after school."

I slumped in my seat and got started on the worksheet that had been passed out before I had gotten to class.

About halfway through class, a woman I had never seen before walked into the classroom and went straight to Mrs. Ruiz's desk. I watched as they whispered back and forth. Maybe this woman was a teacher that worked on the other side of campus? It is a pretty big school. As I was watching, they both sent a glance my way. Mrs. Ruiz nodded and stood up.

"Lizzie," I glanced at her, "Ms. Peak needs to speak to you in the hallway."

The woman, Ms. Peak, gestured for me to follow her out the door. She had shoulder length hair the color of chocolate and matching eyes. She was about my height and had fair skin.

When we exited the classroom, there were three younger kids in the hallway waiting. Two boys and one girl. One of the boys and the girl both looked pretty young, and it dawned on me that they were probably from the elementary school on the other end of the campus. The young boy had curly blonde hair and shocking blue eyes. The girl had dark, almost black, hair and grey eyes.