Find Me

Scenery mirrors on the passing vehicles and warps to the curvature of their frame, while lines of morning sunlight sneak through the gaps between buildings and trees. She leans into the car door with her chin in her palm, eyes squinting when the light plays peek-a-boo as her mother drives her to school. Her eyelashes catch her black bangs that lay down over her forehead as she deflects the suns rays that catch her green eyes gaze. 'Another new school, great.' She rolls her eyes as this thought crosses her mind. 'It's just another set of people who will immediately decide that I'm not worth anything, except to tease for their amusement of course.' She took a deep breath.

"Are you okay Annette?" her mother asks rubbing her back.

"As okay as I'll ever be." she sat back against the seat, simpering at her mom. "Thanks for asking."

"Of course sweetheart." she returned her daughters smile.

Annette returns her sight to the blending mundane colors as if viewing them from a carousel. She thinks to herself, maybe... just maybe, she'll finally meet the girl in her dreams. While she normally doesn't dream, when she does, they are more like premonitions. They lead to some type of reality in her life. She does realize that the setting of this particular dream isn't where she'll find this girl... it's just a little, she could say 'old fashioned'.

A forest scene, the ground covered in roots and dirt. The girl, a princess destined to be queen, with long dark brown hair decorated with gold and jewels, a black and purple dress with a slit up the side revealing her legs. She looked up to Annette with hazel eyes overwhelming with reminiscing thoughts that will remain long after that day. Her voice shaking with a tone of desperation and uncertainty.

"There's no other way, is there Annette?"

All Annette could do was shake her head.

"Just give me a moment before you join me."

"Yes princess. I'll keep an eye from the cliffs and come at your signal." Annette replied.

She took the princess' hand in hers up against her chest and bowed her head to her knowing how difficult this decision was. Annette saw the emotion leave her face as she exhaled and knew this empty, numb feeling would be all that was left of the princess after this day. Annette was left standing there a moment, her hand to her chest as the princess pulled away and ran into the darkness between the trees.

The dream always ends the same way. Annette finds herself in the middle of the woods, the darkness surrounding her. Scratchy laughter always behind her, as she spins, searches the darkness, nothing there. The darkness grows larger and closer, until a spike covered tentacle wraps around her ankles and pulls her into the pitch black waking her up in a sweat. Her left wondering what happened to the princess.

They turn in to the school drop off lane.

"I hope you have a good day. I love you."

She steps out of the car and leans in grabbing her backpack from the floor board. Her mother blows her a kiss and she catches it and holds it to her heart like always.

"I love you too mom."

She closes the door and turns, her mother pulls away. She stands there a moment to look at the building before taking her first steps.

"Look out!" a boy called to her as she stepped forward and she pulled back.

He jumped over the curb on his skateboard and onto the sidewalk from between two cars behind her. He skated over to his group of friends who were waiting out front for him. Annette began to walk to the building, two girls in short skirts and long sleeves ran in front of her making her hesitate her gait. They stopped at the boy that had jumped in front of her as well and then looked over their shoulders at Annette.

"Is that that new girl?" Annette heard them say as she walked by, she glanced her eyes their direction after her passing.

"Yeah, I heard she was..." their voices left her ears as she distanced herself.

She knew there would be rumors, she's left three schools in the area already, and came out of no where from Ohio, back where she would end up coming to school with black eyes. People avoided her seeing that she would do nothing, but harm them. 'Yeah, the only way to get a black eye is if you were in a fight and were the one harming someone, right?' she thought.

She walked into the cafeteria which filled the main building with hallways all the way around leading to the classrooms. Each hallway was listed by a letter of the alphabet. Between the hallways lining the border of most of the cafeteria were the lockers, except for the front that had the library , administrative offices, and large windows and front doors to the parking lot where the buses drop off. Observing the room, Annette saw all kinds of groups huddled together at their tables, people who have been friends for the last few years to people that had the first quarter of the year to get to know each other, and she was just the stranger walking in to the middle of it all. Although, she does see a single table in the middle of all the mess with just one person. Looking for just a moment, she edged her way past glaring eyes to that table full of space.

She stood across from the girl and cleared her throat...

"Hi, I'm Annette. Do you mind if I sit here?"

The girl didn't even glance up, just shook her head, so Annette took a chair. She sat quietly a moment, grabbing out a snack before classes began. She pulled out a vanilla pudding cup, and an individual size bag of salt and vinegar chips. She opened both up, and began to dip her chips into her pudding. The girl glanced up at her again.

"Really?" Disgusted yet curiously she asked.

"Yeah, you've never tried it?" She pushed both items over to the girl, "not only are they my favorite punk rock band, but snack food too."

When the girl looked up, the hair fell away from her face. Annette saw it was the girl she had seen in her dream. Same black hair, same greenish brown eyes. Same button nose and fierce brows, and partly the same numbness to the dream. The girl slowly took a chip and pulled the vanilla pudding cup closer. Lightly dipped it in, and opened her mouth. She lifted her brows as she set it down on her tongue and closed her lips beginning to chew. Her face settled in to enjoyment..

"Actually not bad, you're right." She giggled. As she took another... "Oh, sorry... You don't mind right?"

"Not at all, I'm just surprised someone else actually tried it."

"Before I go and steal all your food..." She scoots the bag and cup back over to Annette, "My names Auraya."

The two girls that were talking about Annette outside in the group got up with their trays of garbage and headed behind Annette towards the opening. A quick whisper 'watch this'. A tray of partial eaten food and used napkins flipped over Annettes head and down her face.

"Oops. I tripped." One girl said as they quickly ran off. The other girl tossing her tray in the bin.

Annette took out a small pad of paper from her back pocket with a tiny pen.

"You don't happen to know that chicks name, do you?"

"Yeah, that's Charlene Vero, goes by Charlie."

"Charlene," Annette speaks as she writes very hard against the sheets, "Vero."

"Umm, what is that?"

"Oh nothing, just my slaughter list." Auraya gave her an odd look, "you know, instead of hit list, I, have a slaughter list. Not that I would actually slaughter someone, but if there's a time when I can verbally emotionally cause them upset and embarrassment, I do not think I'd pass up that opportunity."

"I completely understand. Some people just need to be knocked down a peg."

The bell chimed to head to homeroom. Tossing their trays away, Auraya found out Annette had a lot of the same classes with her, including homeroom. As they started toward the hall she also noticed Charlene going to her locker that was connected to the set by the hallway they were about to walk down. So as she turned down the hallway, her hand slid along the last locker on the end. A few volts sent every locker door swinging open with a thundering roar. Annette stopped and turned at the sound.

"What was that?"

Auraya shrugged as the laughter started up. They both returned to the hallway entrance to see kids pointing and laughing. They followed their gaze to Charlene whose hair was standing on end with an additional look of shock on her face. Tears started up in her eyes as she screeched.

"What are you all laughing at? Stop it!"

One of her friends rushed over with a pocket mirror, trying to hold in her giggles.

"Oh, my, God!" She grabbed a hairbrush from her locker and ran to the bathroom.

"I don't know what happened, but that was priceless." Annette laughed walking back down the hallway.

Auraya grinned and followed on to homeroom.