Gen One- Chapter Thirteen

I fixed my hair and straightened out my clothes for the thousandth time. The outfit was a little too new and stiff for my liking, but good ol' Eden had refused to allow me to wear any of my previously bought outfits on my first day of school. Not that any of what I had could be considered old or worn at all. I had so many clothes that by the time I got around to wearing a few things twice Eden had already bought me more. It was becoming a really big problem that I was going to have to talk to him about soon. That issue was hardly bothering me at the moment though. I had thought my one year anniversary of being away from The Company earlier in the summer had been a momentous occasion. As it was, I was more anxious about what this particular day had in store for me. I practiced a smile and pose in the mirror right as Button shuffled into Eden's room. The mirror in my room wasn't low enough to get a full view of myself. I gave Button a pat before smiling wider at my reflection.

     "That just looks silly, doesn't it?" I said to myself and my dog, "I think a nice simple one will do fine."

     "Ethereal!"

The call came from Eden downstairs. My heart pounded loudly for several thumps. It was almost time to go.

I walked downstairs slowly trying not to scuff up my new shoes. I found Eden in the kitchen furiously scrubbing away at a horribly messy stove.

     "It still isn't coming off?" I asked in surprise.

     "This is what I get for letting Blaze cook. 'Just a quick little thing,' he said. Yeah right!" Eden complained.

     "You should get him over here to clean it off." I suggested.

     "Believe me, I would if I could. The idiot is smart enough to know that's what I'll give him an earache about, which is probably why he won't pick up when I call."

     "I find it funny, and somewhat annoying, how you'll let him cook, but you still are so uptight about letting me do anything." I half grinned, half pouted.

     "I do need to rethink my priorities, don't I?" Eden chuckled before sighing, "And I guess I need to give up on this for the moment."

He set the sponge down and looked at me. I rolled my eyes mentally because I knew exactly what was coming. I hadn't heard the end of Eden's worries ever since it had been decided I would start attending public school.

     "We have to be heading out in a minute," he began reluctantly, "Although I continue to think that we shouldn't. I don't know why I let myself be convinced that doing this was an acceptable idea."

     "It'll be fine! I really do think it's like what Blaze has been saying- if you get me out where I have more pressure on me then there's sure to be faster results."

     "He can only say that because he has no idea that you've only had about a year of proper education. And I can't get you jumping into a normal school after having such a short time to not only catch up to where you should be but also learning basic social norms and customs to play out well in my head. I think you, like Blaze, just don't understand exactly what you're getting yourself into."

     "My friends have told me all about what school will be like though. I do understand!" I reassured him.

However, Eden shook his head and sighed again. He clearly didn't believe me. His watch beeped. It was time for us to leave. I really wished he had more faith, but I was content with knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop the current situation. He had gone ahead and enrolled me despite his reservations. I had to show up for the first day now whether he liked it or not. Eden put the lunch he packed in my bookbag before ushering me out towards the car.

It was a pretty quiet trip to the school. Eden wasn't in a particularly cheerful mood, and with me growing more and more nervous with every second silence was the best option for passing the time. I think the fact that the school was right next to the hospital didn't help me any. That was one of the few things I was not looking forward to- having to go past that place everyday. I could glance right up to the room I had been in and easily bring back the bad memories. Doing that further reduced my previous good mood. By the time Eden parked the car and had me following him towards the main doors, my mood wasn't anything like it had been at home. Already my resolve was wavering and had me leaning towards the reality that Eden was most definitely right about my lack of preparation to deal with a typical education. However, I naturally had no choice but to walk through those doors with him.

     "Ah, public school. I do not miss it one bit." Eden said as we stood in the entrance.

I didn't have anything to say back. I was momentarily mesmerized by the walls. It was a cycling rainbow held together with brown wood paneling. Most other buildings I had entered had had one color as the scheme or had a loose rainbow theme, but this was the first time all colors had been represented so equally. There were even panels of pure white. A boy rushed suddenly rushed past further back in the hall while I was gawking. It broke me out of my daze. There was another thing I was not looking forward to. The terribly shy me now had to deal with meeting all sorts of new people and interacting with them without somehow making a fool out of myself.

     "The main office is right here to our right. Let's go in and get you all set up." Eden instructed, motioning to the nearby glass door.

I followed him closely, dreading more and more with each beat of my heart his departure. I was far too used to being around Eden almost 24/7, and I doubted that was a good thing. Even when I was with The Company I had never been so absolutely unwilling to see him leave. Eden either ignored or wasn't aware of how much I was attempting to stick close to him. He reached out to ding a bell on the counter until a woman stepped out from behind the corner before he could touch it.

     "Hello. What may I help you with?" she asked politely.

     "I'm Eden Yonder. This is my sister, Meadow, and this is her first time being at a public school after several years of me instructing her at home." Eden answered.

     "Oh, yes. So you're one of my new students then, Meadow. I'm Mrs. Cascade Chamois, and you're actually on my roster this year. I just came into the office to get some papers before I head back to the classroom."

     "H-Hi." I mumbled, clutching onto the back of Eden's shirt.

Yellow and blue. Why? Just why did my teacher have to be yellow and blue? To top it off, her shades were nearly identical if not identical to the shades of yellow and blue Ms. Yellow and Mr. Blue were. Mrs. Chamois seemed nice, but I couldn't help but to instantly feel wary around her.

     "I was told there was something I needed to sign when I dropped her off." Eden continued the conversation.

     "Yes, it's right here. It's a simple confirmation that all the records you've provided are accurate and legitimate."

Eden casually took a pen and signed the paper with ease, giving no indication in the slightest that he knew everything he submitted was a lie. For the first time, I was truly scared of all the fake records surrounding me and him. One mistake on them could mess everything up. Although, I guess that wasn't so different from any other lying aspect of our situation.

Mrs. Chamois took the paper and filed it away in some folder.

     "Everything's in order then. You're free to take your leave, Mr. Yonder. Meadow's in good hands." he said with a smile.

Eden nodded at her before turning to give me a hug. It lasted a whole lot longer than he anticipated because I refused to let go. Even when he straightened up I still kept a firm grasp on him. My heart was beating so fast with fear that I didn't even care that Mrs. Chamois could so clearly see me being afraid.

     "C'mon now," Eden spoke with a sympathetic grin, "You were the one who gave me a headache about how badly you wanted to come here. Don't go second-guessing it all now. I seriously just signed off the last of all the crazy paperwork I had to do."

     "I'll walk you to the car at least." I said so softly it was amazing he heard me.

     "Nuh-uh. You're staying here, kiddo. Class is about to start, and you won't fool me into thinking that you're not going to try and stash away in the car if I let you see me off." Eden denied confidently.

     "I don't like that you're a genius sometimes." I pouted.

Sneaking into the car had indeed been my plan. Eden chuckled at me and gave me another hug. I was given a kiss before feeling horribly empty and somehow cold as Eden said a quick goodbye before he proceeded to walk briskly out the door. He was basically running away from me so I couldn't escape. The jerk! I frowned, shifting nervously now in the silence. Mrs. Chamois, pretending as if nothing out of the normal had happened, fiddled with the paperwork behind the desk for a moment. Then she addressed me again.

     "I have a few more things I have to finish up here. Our classroom is right past the staircase against this wall, so why don't you wait out in the hallway and meet some of your classmates? I'm sure you'll feel better once you make some new friends." she suggested.

I nodded and complied only because it was the lesser of the two evils. I either stood out in the hallway where there was a slim chance someone would bother coming up to talk, because I definitely wasn't going to initiate conversation, or I remained in an awkwardly quiet room with a woman who, through no fault of her own, reminded me of two people who I couldn't stand. I slipped out into the entrance area and stuck myself to the nearby wall. My gaze was kept low to the floor, and I did everything I could to bring no attention to myself whatsoever. I couldn't believe I had ever wanted to come here. I couldn't believe it was only twenty minutes ago when Eden and I left the house that I was actually looking forward to arriving. Oh, how silly and foolish I had been.

The hallways had been filling with more sound and voices as the other students goofed off nearby. I looked away from them until a blessedly familiar voice rang out.

     "Meadow!"

That was when I whipped my head to the right so fast that it hurt slightly. I honestly wanted to cry with relief when I saw Amaranth heading my way. My fear had had me forget that I did have some allies in the new territory I was in.

     "I was going to ask how you were, but I can see you don't look so good." Amaranth pointed out with concern.

     "I'm really nervous. I'm beginning to think I made a mistake deciding to come back to normal school this year." I admitted.

     "Don't say that. You've gotta make it through one day at least before you throw in the towel. Besides, you have the rest of us to help you. Me, Frost, Cocoa, Bud, and Pistachio- we're all in the same class as you. We also lucked out and got the best classroom in the whole school! It's the closest to the cafeteria and playground entrance, which means we get first dibs during lunch and recess. It's also right next door to the nicest bathrooms. There's lots of things to be positive about." he encouraged.

     "Y-Yeah." I agreed with some reluctance.

Amaranth refused to accept such a lackluster response. He tossed more encouragement and comfort at me until I was sick of the stuff. I finally cheered up some. That's when he gave me one of his goofy smiles and started a normal conversation. We hadn't been talking long when Bud rushed up to us from out of nowhere.

     "Hey, Meadow," she said quickly before taking a deep breath as she got right to the matter that had her excited, "So, you two will never guess what I just found out!"

     "What's that?" Amaranth asked back curiously.

     "There's going to be an all white girl in our class!"

     "Really? What's her name?"

     "No idea."

My body froze. It felt like my heart took a deep dive from my chest to the bottom of my shoes. Did someone know? How had they found out? I nervously looked down at myself and rubbed at my hands. Was the green fading? Was it peeling off somehow?

     "I heard she moved here from Lavish Lakes though," Bud continued, "Isn't this exciting? I've never met someone who is white before!"

     "She's just going to be a normal person." Amaranth shrugged.

     "Don't give me that 'Mr. Obsessed-With-Quartz-Prism'. You're such a big fan of his."

     "Is this new girl a famous, incredible actress?"

     "Um, well, no..."

     "Then there's no reason for me to obsess over her then, is there?" Amaranth challenged gently.

I was hardly listening, for I was focusing too much on regaining better breathing now that the reality that Bud was not talking about me was sinking in. I didn't even have energy enough to remark on the coincidence that there were going to be two white girls in the class- even if everyone only knew about the one. Bud and Amaranth's talking was soon cut off. Mrs. Chamois came out of the office to lead us into the classroom as the first bell was about to ring.

I stuck to Amaranth like I had stuck to Eden, but I barely walked inside the golden walled room before Mrs. Chamois put her hand on my shoulder.

     "I would like to introduce you the rest of the class- you and your other new classmate." she explained.

Great. Sitting amongst a whole bunch of new people had been a worrying thought, but now Mrs. Chamois had me standing in front of the rest of my classmates like I was a thing to gawk at. And they did stare at me relentlessly. I couldn't help but to twist and fidget nervously as the glances were made. If Frost hadn't been sitting in the desk directly in front of me smiling encouragingly and talking quietly to ease my nerves, I dread to think what would have happened otherwise.

A few seconds before the intensely obnoxious bell rung did everyone have someone else to stare at besides me, and they truly did gawk at the girl who walked in with an ease and air of confidence that I certainly didn't have. She barely looked at anyone. She simply walked tall and strode over to where Mrs. Chamois and I were. I have to admit that I had trouble looking away from her too. It had been over a year now since I had seen my true appearance. With no pictures to remind me of who I used to be, and adding on the fact that I had never been out in the colorful with my own skin so devoid of color, it was quite the shock to see what natural presence I should have had. I never imagined how drastically the white would stand out. Even the white actors and actresses I had seen in movies hadn't had as much impact as the girl walking towards me did. Now I was finally beginning to understand why people treasured the rarity of the lack of color so immensely. The other new girl almost seemed to shine.

Mrs. Chamois motioned for her to stand next to me, which she did. I was given a small smile before she turned to give a wider grin to the class. I fidgeted again. There was no helping feeling anything but small next to her. I wondered if I could stand so confidently if I wasn't green. It was true I had thought it a terrible idea before for others to only bother with me because I was white, but if it gave me an almost guaranteed assurance that everyone would like me I doubted I could really complain at the end of the day.

     "Everyone, these are our two new students joining us this year- Meadow Yonder and Purity Waters. I know a few of you already know Meadow since she has been living in Berrybrook for a year now. She's returning to the traditional education system after taking a break for a few years with homeschooling. Purity has just moved here from Lavish Lakes. I know you will all give them a warm welcome." Mrs. Chamois introduced us to the class.

She then motioned our way.

     "Why don't the two of you say a little something about yourselves in order to help the class get to know you better?" she suggested.

It was a question she asked, but I knew I had no choice in the matter. All eyes had turned towards me. I hid my hands behind my back because they were sweating so much.

     "I'm Meadow. I moved here last year from-"

     "I can't hear you!" a boy in the back of the room interrupted.

I took a deep breath, hoping my nerves wouldn't make my voice shake too much.

     "I'm Meadow," I repeated as loud as I could, though my voice was still rather soft, "I moved here last year from Shiny Sands with my older brother, Eden."

Mrs. Chamois gave me a look like she expected me to say more, but what I said was definitely the most she was getting out of me. Thankfully, the attention quickly shifted to Purity.

     "I'm Purity," she spoke with perfect volume and poise, "My father, mother, and I moved here from Lavish Lakes, although I was born in Rich Hills. My hobbies include theater and singing, and I'm looking forward to being friends with you all soon."

Naturally, Purity's answer was met with much more enthusiasm. I was glad in a way though. At least I did have her to take the attention off of me. Otherwise, I would have been up there on my own, which never would have turned out well.

     "Than you, you two. You can take your seats now. Everyone's arraigned in alphabetical order by last name. Purity, that means you'll be next to Amaranth there, and, Meadow, you're on the corner."

I tried not to be too disappointed with that. The back corner seat seemed like a great spot, but I was one seat away from sitting next to a friend. I would rather Purity have the corner seat instead of having her between me and Amaranth. Knowing complaining would put me in Mrs. Chamois' bad graces, I took my seat without hesitation. She clapped her hands together as soon as we were in our chairs.

     "Alright. Meadow and Purity got us off to a great start, so why don't we spend a little more time familiarizing ourselves with each other? Let's start from the front corner. Say your name and what you want to be when you get older."

Starting from the front corner near Mrs. Chamois meant that I would have to answer dead last. That should have given me a lot of time to think, but a lot of time to panic was what I had instead. I was too concerned at first with trying to remember everyone's names and their answers. I really wanted everyone to like me. Or, more accurately, I didn't want to make anyone dislike me. Forgetting names was sure to get me off to a bad start. However, it was when it was Amaranth's turn to give his response I realized it was my turn soon. My mind raced with terror instead of ideas. I could hardly concentrate on Purity's answer.

     "I want to be an actress in both movies and plays. I also want to give singing professionally a go if I can. I actually had a part back in a commercial that aired in Rich Hills, and the director said I had a lot of potential in all three areas." she revealed.

I didn't notice the quiet exclaims of amazement that a few of the others gave.

The attention was all back on me. The room went silent as they waited for me to speak. My gaze was stuck to the wood of my desk. My body froze as I nearly lost my voice. What did I want to be when I grew up? I hadn't thought about it before. There had been no reason to do so. On the chance that The Company wasn't exposed before the time I graduated high school, that was when Eden had said the injection supply he had would run out. Without me being able to hide behind a fake green coloring, the two of us were going to have to live in hiding. Whoever Eden's "friends" were were going to have to provide everything for us. I couldn't contact anyone I knew again until I was safe, let alone have a job or anything of the sort. Eden had said the chance of that happening was fifty percent. With me thinking only of that worst case scenario, I hadn't bothered to consider potential careers. I just wanted to be safe. I just wanted to be with Eden.

Unfortunately, everyone was still waiting for my answer. The air was growing awkward once more. I gripped the sides of my seat tightly and mumbled as loud as I could the lone thing besides being safe and being with Eden I had ever contemplated.

     "I want...to be a mom."

There were a lot of giggles and even some full blown laughs that scattered throughout the room. I sunk into the back of my seat with cheeks burning and a welling sensation in my eyes that threatened tears. If I could have lived down bolting out of the room and rushing out of the building to run home, I would have done that. I merely prayed Mrs. Chamois would accept the answer and move on, but I wasn't nearly lucky enough for that to have been the case.

     "Haven't you thought about an actual career?" she asked me.

I think she was trying to make her voice nonjudgmental, but her expression was disapproving. I shook my head.

     "Perhaps you'll want to think about things you like or your hobbies and see where that takes you. It's good that you want to be a mom, but it's important at any age to think about your future. It's becoming more and more unrealistic for a parent to simply be at home with the children all the time. It's better that you pick something that you can actually support yourself with instead of choosing something that's almost guaranteed to happen anyway." she continued.

I nodded miserably and sunk even further down into my seat. I wished Eden had stolen something from the The Company that could turn me invisible. More giggles came from various places in the room.

Amaranth suddenly raised his hand.

     "Mrs. Chamois?" he asked.

     "Uh, yes, Amaranth?" she replied.

     "Why are you singling Meadow out?" he questioned almost accusingly.

Every head snapped towards him. I lifted my head up enough so I could watch him from under my lashes.

     "What do you mean?" Mrs. Chamois answered uncertainly.

     "You told us to say what we wanted to be. You didn't say the answer had to be an actual job. You didn't say the answer had to be realistic. In any case, Meadow's answer was a lot more realistic than Linden's answer of an astronaut. We all know the chaos his project caused last year at the science festival."

     "Oh, thanks, Vivid!" the yellow boy sitting in front of Amaranth retorted.

That caused a few more laughs.

     "We'd all be lying if we said we truly believed half of what the rest of us answered are believable and dependable goals for our future. So why are you not allowing Meadow to have the same generosity of support you gave everyone else? Why are you discriminating so much more against her wish? Is it just because being a mom doesn't earn any money? If so, that's terrible. Meadow places a lot of importance on family. She wants nothing more than to take on possibly the hardest yet most important job on the planet. I think that's incredibly noble."

There was dead silence in the room. No one was daring to giggle now. Mrs. Chamois' mouth opened and closed as she struggled with what to say. I kept my mouth firmly shut. A few heads turned my way, but I definitely wasn't going to get involved in this. I simply watched my teacher shift in great discomfort as the tension in the room got worse and worse. Finally, she stammered out a few syllables of nonsense before sheepishly glancing at Amaranth.

     "You are right. Absolutely right." she conceded softly before addressing me with a voice full of guilt, "I am terribly sorry, Meadow. I should have taken a moment to think before speaking. Please forgive what I said before. I have to agree with Amaranth and say that your desire to be a mother is incredibly noble and a goal worth striving for with all your heart."

My response was once again a nod. Mrs. Chamois continued to shift in remorse for a few more seconds before clearing her throat.

     "Alright, um, everyone take out- no, the, uh...class rules...the copies..."

She had begun to speak to herself, fumbling with a bunch of papers that she reached for on her desk. My attention was taken away from her when I caught Amaranth waving slightly to get my attention. He gave me that big grin of his and a supportive thumbs up. I wouldn't have believed I was capable of it only thirty seconds or so earlier, but I managed to give a small smile back.

I think Mrs. Chamois was afraid of choosing me to answer any questions for that whole day. The real lessons eventually started, and if no one volunteered to answer her queries she would randomly pick someone in the class. All too often her gaze met mine, but she would tear hers away the second that happened. I was more than willing to not raise my hand and feel safe that she wouldn't pick me.

Because I didn't understand anything.

I thought I had had a good grasp on the basics of what I needed to know, but boy was I wrong! It took me too long to work out what Mrs. Chamois wrote on the board. My reading skills were still sorely lacking. I tried to copy it all down, but by the time I got halfway done with what I needed she erased everything to start something new. She talked slow and was thorough, but I just didn't have the information everyone else did in their head to make sense of it all. There was nothing to do but resign to the fact that I had taken a dive in the deep end after forgetting I could barely swim. Eden was going to be doing a lot of gloating when I got home that afternoon. I began to wonder how long it would take to switch me back to homeschooling.

Unfortunately, the day got even worse. I wasn't able to get away without further embarrassing myself. It was time for Reading class. Mrs. Chamois had been reading a story to us while we followed along in our own copies of the book. I had hurriedly been underlining every word I didn't understand. There were more lines than there were not lines. Eden seriously was going to have him hands full when I got back. The story Mrs. Chamois was telling eventually ended.

     "Now we're going to turn to page 68 in the same book where there's an excerpt from Words of Stone. This is going to be a class participation exercise. There's enough for everyone to read one paragraph and for me to finish it up. Since we started in the front last time, we'll start in the back corner this time. Oh, um...Meadow, will you please stand up and read the first paragraph for us? Everyone else stand up as well when it's your turn."

I wondered what Mrs. Chamois would have done had I refused to read, but I wasn't brave enough to find out. I reluctantly turned to page 68 and stood up. My legs shook, so I had to lean my arms against my desk slightly to keep upright. I stared down at the text and nothing else. I think the thing that saved me from failing outright was that the story had something familiar to me- a main character named Blaze.

     "Blaze W-Werla buried Or...Ortman before breakfast."

Wonderful. I was already stumbling over my words.

     "It was the fifth of July, and already the day was white hot."

I was reading so slowly it was painful.

     "Blaze p-peeled off his T-shirt and tossed it on the hard ground. He sh...sho...shoveled quickly and..."

I had no clue what the next word was.

     "Furtively." Mrs. Chamois helped me out.

     "Furtively," I repeated timidly, "M-Making a small, neat hole the size of a basket...ball..."

I was able to hold on to some composure for a little while more. Then I made the mistake of glancing up. Mrs. Chamois was looking at me. Several others were doing the same. I could tell a few students weren't paying attention to the story at all, but most were paying nothing but attention to me. My nerves rising to unstable levels, I began messing up on the most simple words. I couldn't get a sentence out without butchering it with stammers. Mrs. Chamois had to help me even with words I did know. The paragraph lasted an eternity. It felt like I would never sit back down. I did sit though, and it was Purity's turn to read. She was flawless and done before I knew it.

Reading was the last class before lunch. I grabbed the packed lunch Eden made me and honestly contemplated if it was possible to sneak out of the school. Part of me considered turning on the cheap cell phone Eden had bought me. I was to have it off all the time and only use it for emergencies, but I was definitely considering this situation an emergency.

     "Meadow, could I talk to you for a moment before you head off to lunch?" Mrs. Chamois called to me as everyone was leaving the room.

That drew more stares and some hushed whispers. I mentally withdrew myself. Why? Why did Mrs. Chamois have to keep singling me out? I had have a mind to just walk out the door as I found my patience for her waning, but I did as she told and waited nearby until everyone else was gone.

     "How are you following along with the lessons?" she asked gently.

     "Not well," I admitted, realizing there was no point in lying, "I hardly understood anything. I can barely follow along. Eden was right. I should have stayed homeschooled."

     "Perhaps he wasn't right. The first day is always the hardest. There's no helping that it's going to be difficult adjusting back to a completely different atmosphere and pace from what you're used to. I'm sure it can't be easy when you're already nervous, and I know I didn't do anything to make the situation better for you."

Her voice had turned guilty again.

     "I want to apologize once more. I shouldn't have said what I said to you. Your desire to be a mom is a mature and heartfelt wish."

     "It's alright." I accepted quietly.

     "Thank you. And please let me know if there are problems in the classes that get you truly stuck. I'll be more than willing to get you some tutoring. Remember as well that there would be no need for school if everyone already knew everything. I'm sure plenty of your classmates also had little idea what was going on what with everyone still on the summer highs."

She paused.

     "Despite all that though, I know you'll be fine since you're friends with Amaranth. He never fails to look after others or stand down when he thinks someone needs protecting. He has even dared to challenge Principal Fog several times." she concluded with an amused grin.

I forced myself to appear more cheerful for her sake, and Mrs. Chamois let me leave for lunch. The cafeteria down the hall was already full of other students enjoying their meals. I worried for a brief moment about finding my friends, but that turned out not to be an issue for me at all. Sunset and Sunflower had found Amaranth, and the three of them were waiting for me. Amaranth apparently filled them in on how I hadn't been having a stupendous day since they were incredibly sympathetic from the start. I was happy for a moment that Sunset and Sunflower were around. However, with it now just being my friends and me in a relatively secluded corner I found it much more difficult to hide how awful I felt.

     "I want to go home." I mumbled a few seconds into the comforting they had been doing.

     "You were so excited to come here though. We talked about it all yesterday." Sunflower reminded me optimistically.

     "It was a stupid mistake to think I was ready to come back. I'm not ready at all. I don't think I'll ever be ready." I mumbled even quieter.

A burning sensation flared up in my eyes. The tears I had been holding back for hours were forcing their way out.

     "Aww, Meadow..." Sunset cooed, wrapping me up in an embrace.

     "Try to hang on for a bit longer. It's time for lunch and recess- the best parts of the day. And if you do still feel like crying once we get outside, I'm sure that'll be enough to convince Allium to let you chase him around and pelt him with whatever ball you can get your hands on." Amaranth encouraged.

     "Maybe..." I said with the slightest hint of cheer.

I didn't chase Allium around with a ball, but my mood did improve drastically during our break time. Blaze nearly breaking our stove had not prevented Eden from making me an amazing lunch. It was all I could do to hold back an abnormally obnoxious Frost who was trying to swipe some of my favorites. Listening to everyone joke around had me laughing along. Recess was the best though. The six of us played like we always did, and soon I forgot that anything was different about the situation at all. For Allium, Sunset, Sunflower, and me, we spent most of our time on the swings. We had a competition of sorts. Sunflower and I sat on the swings, but we weren't allowed to pump our legs or anything. All height we got had to be through Allium and Sunset pushing. Allium and I obviously became the winners.

And, class wasn't as terrible as it had been during the morning session. I remained lost and confused throughout most of it, but I changed my note taking tactics to writing down the main ideas instead of every single thing Mrs. Chamois said. If I at least knew what to study, I could look up the specifics on my own time when I wasn't under such pressure. I had to have been the most grateful person in the world when the final bell rang. Classes were done and I was free. Amaranth invited me over to this place since it was so close to the school that he walked to the building all by himself, but I had to decline. Eden was coming to pick me up after all, and he would already be on his way.

I said my goodbyes to him and most of the others as they took buses home. I made my way to the cubbies outside our classroom to pick up my stuff when I saw Purity and two other girls in our class there. I could remember their first names- Flow and Apricot- although I blanked majorly on their last names. I tried to be as unobtrusive as I could as I walked around them to get my things.

It seemed the other three were going to let me do what I needed to do without bothering with me, but the conversation suddenly went silent. I stopped reaching for my bag to notice them all looking right at me.

     "Meadow?" Purity asked.

     "Y-Yes?" I replied hesitantly.

     "I was just making sure that was your name. It's hard to remember so many new ones."

     "It is." I agreed.

I fumbled with my backpack strap as my wish for Purity to turn her attention away from me died. She kept looking at me as no one said anything further. I had been intimidated and maybe a little jealous of her at first, but as the day had gone on there had been something about the way she spoke and presented herself that rubbed me more and more the wrong way. I was having trouble figuring out what it was about her that irked me so much until she thankfully put it out there for me to latch on to.

     "You did a really great job reading." she said, her tone suddenly growing condescending and haughty.

She laughed as if she had told an amusing joke, and Flow and Apricot laughed along with her.

I stared at her as I quickly realized the truth. This girl was as arrogant as one could get! Eden had told me that was an unfortunate reality of most who were born white. It couldn't be helped considering everyone practically worshiped the ground they walked on and rarely denied them anything they wanted.

Purity eyed me when she stopped laughing.

     "How come you're staring?" she asked in moderate annoyance.

     "You're just so pretty." I lied, hoping if I fed her attitude she would see it fit to leave me alone.

     "Thank you." Purity accepted with a stupid brush of her hair that I'm sure she must have thought looked graceful.

     "Meadow is right," Flow chimed in to take the attention off of me, "You really are pretty, Purity. You're so lucky. I'm sure you're going to be amazing with your acting and singing, and imagine the day when you have a whole bunch of adorable white children running about your house! It'll be like a dream."

     "I know. It'll be quite a sight." Purity giggled along.

I should have kept my mouth shut, but there was something in me that couldn't stand to let the conversation continue with such false information.

     "Actually, that's not how albinism works." I revealed.

     "Albinism? What's that?" Apricot asked.

     "It's the condition Purity has."

     "Condition? Like a medical condition? Isn't she just white?" Flow wondered.

     "No. Not at all. She's not white because it's something that randomly pops up from time to time. She's white because she lacks color. There's something wrong with the melanin, which are the pigments that give color, in her body. You can think of it as someone scraping off the blue paint to reveal the white canvas underneath." I explained.

     "So she won't have white kids?" Flow then asked in disappointment.

     "It's extremely unlikely. Albinism is passed down through recessives genes. Even in the incredibly rare situation that Purity's husband has the albinism gene as well, the chance that they'll have an albino child is about 1 in 17,000. In all honesty, you and Apricot have just as much chance of having a white child as she does."

     "I had no idea. How come you know all this?" Apricot questioned.

     "Oh, uh," I hesitated, "I knew another albino girl back in Shiny Sands. She and I were good friends."

Apricot sort of nodded. The air went silent. I turned to look back at Purity. I cringed when I saw the expression on her face. For some reason, it was easy for me to read her emotions even though I struggled to do that with a lot of people. She was furious! I had just thrown out her secret. Of course she knew that she was and albino and of all the technicalities behind her condition, but she didn't believe others had to know. All they had to do was praise her because of her condition. Now word was going to get out, and others weren't going to look at her with as much awe as before since I had explained what she hadn't wanted explained. Most of that wasn't reflected on her face though. Purity instead stared at me with an expression of upset disbelief.

     "You're really rude, you know." she said stiffly, exaggerating the hurt in her voice to gain pity I'm sure.

     "Eh?"

     "How can you talk about me like that? You don't know my life or what I go through. Maybe I don't talk about my condition because it's something personal that I don't want to shout out to the world- you ever think about that? Clearly not. No. You just blurt it all out like it's no big deal."

     "It is no big deal. There's nothing embarrassing about it. What I said is no different than me explaining why Frost has to wear glasses." I countered timidly.

     "See? You don't get it at all." Purity shook her head.

I didn't know what to say. I cringed when Flow and Apricot threw their support back to Purity.

     "Yeah! You're mean, Meadow!"

     "How can you be so thoughtless?"

     "I'm not-" I countered weakly.

     "I think I'll call you Envy from now on." Purity interrupted.

     "E-Envy?"

     "Green is the color of envy, isn't it? And you have to be jealous of me. You're upset that you're not like me, so you're trying to bring me down instead."

     "No! I-"

But she walked away. Flow and Apricot frowned at me before eagerly following. I stood there dumbfounded.

There went my hopes of not making anyone dislike me.

Eden pulled into the parking lot as I made my way out there. I didn't have to say anything for him to realize how my day had gone. Blessedly, he didn't see it fit to gloat in any manner about how right he had been. He actually even took me to my favorite ice cream parlor to cheer me up before he took us home. I was still so down he cuddled me while we watched television. Eden didn't mention homework or assignments for a long time. He waited until after I broke down and told him about everything save for the incident with Purity. I wanted to tell him about that, but I found that I couldn't. Eden expected my troubles with the schoolwork, but he was aghast with what Mrs. Chamois said to me. He went on and on for ten minutes on how he was going to talk to her tomorrow when he dropped me off. I was able to convince him out of it. She apologized profusely after all. I was willing to give her another chance even if she was blue and yellow.

I finally dragged out my bookbag and took out my homework. There wasn't much to do considering it was only the first day. However, I knew too well I would be working for hours in order to be able to understand half of what I actually needed to know.

     "If I said I wanted to be homeschooled again, how long would it take for the switch to happen?" I asked Eden as he sat down to help me.

That earned me a head shake from him.

     "I told you when you kept begging me that signing you up for public school was going to be a commitment. Even if I started the transition process tonight, you would have to wait until winter break. It's next to impossible to jump back and forth during a semester like that."

     "Oh." I mumbled in disappointment.

     "I think by then you would have changed your mind again anyway."

     "I doubt it."

     "And I doubt that. Listen, I know this is hard. I know there's a lot you don't understand, but that's why you have me. I'm going to teach you the trick to sailing through your classes with ease."

     "What's the trick?" I asked curiously.

     "You actually read and study the material. It's simple, I know, but you'd be surprised at how many people can't grasp how that's the only way to learn in a school setting. Did Mrs. Chamois give you some kind of syllabus or say anything about what you would be going over next time?"

     "She handed out these sheets of paper that say what we'll be learning during the week."

     "Excellent." Eden smiled as I handed him that paper.

He glanced over it.

     "Alright. I'm going to help you with your homework and answer the questions you have. And that's where most everyone else will stop. We're going to keep going though. We'll cover the important parts of what will be coming up, and that will give you the head-start you need. If you already know the answers, you're going to be more confident. You'll learn more if you have faith. It's a cycle that will grow stronger. We're also going to work on your reading some more. You've definitely got a bright mind. I'm still amazed that you've come this far in such a short amount of time. I really do think it's only because your literacy level can use more work that you're being held back. Once you can read with more ease, I think you'll find the rest will become a lot easier as well."

     "I do hope so." I sighed heavily.

     "It'll be fine," Eden encouraged again, "Now, let's start from the top."