The Disastrous Emancipation of a Teen Named Ravynn Gall

So it all starts here. Middle school. Scratch that. Before middle school. This is where I had dreams—aspirations! Here I had only a few friends. But they were amazing, to be honest. I had only a handful but my first friend I’d ever had was Eibon.

Eibon White. Albino, American, not quite jock. He was known for being one of the most handsome kids in school.

I was crying one day, in the playground in second grade. It was my first day, and my parents had just moved from Indianapolis to Bates, Washington. I hate moving. Now let’s be completely honest. I don’t like moving, but me crying was nothing special today. Since preschool I was a big crybaby.

I had been crying because I was afraid to make new friends, because I’d never had any. It was new to me. And some bullies came over and tried to pick on me.

“Why are you crying?” they asked, curious.

“I just want to be left alone,” I said, sternly.

“You look pathetic just sitting there one the ground. Why don’t you just get up and do something? Don’t you have any friends.”

I didn’t ever have any friend. I honestly always had just hoped I’d feel better if I left it that way. That way I couldn’t hurt anyone or burden them, like the voices said. That way I wouldn’t be someone else’s problem. I grit my teeth, and cried harder, tucking my head into my knees, pulling myself closer, to seem smaller.

Maybe they’ll go away if they realize I just wanna be left alone. If I ignore them. Or at least that’s what I thought. Or maybe that’s just what the voices said. To be honest, they make it hard for me to remember memories.

“What a crybaby,” said one the bullies. I withdrew my arms and head inside my shirt, hugging my arms around my legs.

Suddenly, a person appeared in front of me. He had to have ran to get between me and the bullies, who were about 10 to 15 feet away. I pulled my eyes out of my shirt to see what was happening.

“Hey you!” He shouted, holding out his arms and legs, blocking the bullies off. “Go away! Stop trying to hurt this innocent person.”

One of them kind of scowled, and the other guy harrumphed. “It’s no fun when this guy’s around.” So they left.

Eibon kept watching on, waiting for them to walk away completely. Finally he harrumphed, satisfied, and looked back and smiled at me. “I hope you’re doing okay. Why are you crying? Did they hurt you?” He looked back at them, and stuck his tongue out at them. “I’ll beat those meatbags to a pulp.”

“M-meatbags…?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah. Meatbags! It’s what you call a stupid person. A mouthbreather. It means they’re bags of meat. They have no substance and no bones that keep them together. They have nothing better to do than make other people feel bad.”

“Oh…” I smiled, just a tiny bit. “I like that.”

“You okay?” He looked confused. “I thought you might’ve been hurt, but you seem perfectly fine.”

“I just prefer to be alone sometimes.” I thought for a second. “I bit a kid in preschool and I thought people wouldn’t want to get to know me because I might have mad cow or something.”

“Whoa. You talk a lot. But definitely don’t give me mad cow. Most people our age are much more worried about ‘cooties’, though. But I know they’re just called germs.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer. “I’m kind of a clean freak. My mom’s afraid I don’t have good social skills.”

I laughed. “No, germs are definitely a legit worry.” I tried to make my face as serious as I could. “I’m a bit crazy, though. I bet you can’t handle me.”

“If you’re crazy, I’m crazy too. I need more friends like you!”

Two girls walked around the corner. “Eibon,” said one of them. She had dark seemingly black mid-length hair, and grey eyes. “Are you seriously trying to recruit more people?”

The other girl piped up, “Hey! Eibon’s really nice. He just likes making friends.”

“It’s not like has a whole lot, though,” said the other girl. “Sorry we didn’t introduce ourselves. Eibon already roped you in, though. My name’s Lilia Evans, and this’ Eve Winters. Touch her and I will kill you.” She glared me down.

Eibon shook his head. “So, we’re apart of a group. We like to call it our family guild. We’re known as the Bates’ Birds. Eve the dove, Lilia the vulture, Eibon the eagle, and…” he gestured to me. “You are…?”

“Ravynn. Just Ravynn. Ravynn Gall.” I paused for a moment. “Oh yeah! Spelled R-A-V-Y-N-N.”

“Ravynn the raven… I like that! Our character names are actually because of our DND characters.”

“D…N…D?”

“Yeah! It stands for Dungeons ‘n Dragons! You’ll have to meet our Dungeon Master, Nikolas Rester. His character name is Maximum Lester. He plays guitar a lot, but he plays with us when he has free time. I think you’ll like him!”

And so that’s how I met my group. My family.