Deadly

Chapter 3

As Mia soon discovered, she preferred to be alone. She was perfectly content spending her recess in the back of the classroom, with only her thoughts for company. In fact, since she first came to Birskall Elementary, she had no interest in attempting to make friends. They were strangers, and she had no reason to associate with them. Unfortunately, some of her classmates didn't like that she kept to herself, and she was constantly teased about it.

One day during recess, Mia was sitting alone as usual, her thoughts keeping her company. She was trying to dig into her memory, a task she had burdened herself with whenever she had nothing to think about. As always, she was met with a blank white wall, one that she couldn't pass. But Mia was having a bad morning, so instead of making her give up, the wall frustrated her, urging her to push even farther.

She banged her fist against the table, ignoring the look of concern on her teacher's face. Stupid car crash! she thought angrily. Why did you have to take away my memories! But her internal screaming and protesting did not make any memories appear. For the rest of recess, Mia sulked angrily, not knowing that she had made a tiny crack in the cage that was holding her memories hostage.

"Mrs. M, can I go to the nurse?" Mia asked her teacher. "I have a huge headache." An hour had passed since her silent meltdown during recess, and her head was now pounding. Her teacher, recalling Mia's strange behavior from before, agreed to let her go.

"Don't forget to take a hall pass," she reminded her student. Mia grabbed the hall pass and rushed out of the room, her headache becoming too much to bear.

She stumbled into the nurse's office and sank to the ground. Her head felt as if it was on fire, and she couldn't bear it any longer. Then it disappeared just as suddenly as it came, and Mia felt a calming effect rush over her.

She was in a classroom. There was a table and some chairs off to one side, a play area, and a rug in the corner. She was sitting on the rug with a bunch of kids her age, and an elderly woman was reading a book to them. She wasn't focusing on the words the teacher was reading, only on the pictures. One of these pictures caught her attention.

"Mrs. Caroue, why are there so much flowers in that picture?" She asked.

"That's a good question Mia," Mrs. Caroue asked, a kind smile on her face. "There's a lot of flower's because it's a picture of Miss Mouse's garden." Then, directed at the children, "Do any of your houses have gardens outside?"

"My mom has a garden with vegetables," one of the boys proudly stated.

"Oh yeah, well my mom has a garden with vegetables and flowers," another kid boasted. "She grows tulips, and marigolds, and roses..."

"What's a rose?" One of the boys asked. Mia smiled. She knew something that someone else didn't. She loved flowers, and her mom told her all about them. She didn't have a garden though.

"Roses are red flowers," she said. "But they can also be pink, and white, and even blue!"

"They can't be blue," one of the girls argued.

"How do you know?" Mia challenged.

"Because," the girl stated. "I've seen one."All the kids listening to the argument gasped. But not Mia. She knew that seeing a flower, especially a rose, wasn't that big of a deal.

"Oh yeah, well my mom said that roses are ugly, and they make everything around them look ugly, which is why I don't wanna see one." Mia told the girl. She was proud that she remembered her mom telling her about the roses, and that she was smarter than the other girl by knowing it.

"Mia," her teacher warned her sternly. This argument was getting out of hand...

"Mia," a voice called from far away. "Mia, wake up." She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with the school nurse.

"What happened," she asked groggily.

"You said you had a huge headache," the nurse reminded her. "And then you passed out. Did you eat anything today? Did you get enough sleep."

"Yeah, maybe I slept badly," Mia told the nurse, but she knew that wasn't the reason for her passing out. Still, she felt better and wanted to get out of here. She needed to think.

"Would you like me to send you home for the rest of the day so you can catch up on your sleep?" the nurse asked.

Most students would jump at the chance to leave early, but Mia simply answered, "No, I'm feeling better." Besides, school was almost done for the day.

She wasn't paying attention for the remainder of class. Whenever she tried to focus on the board, her mind would venture back to what just happened. Mia couldn't be entirely sure what happened when she passed out, but she was nearly positive that it was one of her memories. Lost in thought, she didn't notice that the bell had already rung and that most of the students had already swarmed out f the classroom.

"Hey look, it's Mia, sitting all alone," the familiar jeering voice brought Mia out of her daze. She looked up, and sure enough, it was Aiden. The young boy was known by everyone, whether it was because he tolerated them or because he bullied them. And for Mia, it was the latter. "Why are you still sitting there?" he asked. "Did you forget how to walk?" His followers snickered. "Or maybe you were just thinking." He made sure to enunciate the last word. He didn't believe Mia when she told him that she liked being alone, and made sure that she knew it.

But Mia was having a bad day, and she didn't like that Aiden had interrupted her one good moment.

She looked straight into his cold blue eyes and spoke in her angriest voice, the low kind that her parents used that always sounded threatening to her.

"Leave me alone!" she said, spitting out each word like venom. She saw the surprise on his face, and allowed herself a smug look.

"C'mon guys, let's go," Aiden said suddenly. His entourage was surprised, but didn't argue as they followed Aiden out of the room. Much happier now, Mia hummed as she started packing up her books.

"Hello," a new voice startled her.

"What do you want?" Mia asked. No one ever came up to her unless they were bullying her. "You're a little late to the party if you came to tease me,"

"I didn't come to tease you," the voice said, taking Mia by surprise. She decided that this statement was at least worth turning around for. So she turned, and came face to face with a boy that she recognized from class, but couldn't remember his name.

"I'm Ethan," said the boy. He had light brown hair, and blue eyes, similar to Aiden's but with much more warmth. He shot her a smile and Mia noticed that he was missing two of his top teeth. Combined with his slightly large ears, he looked kind of funny, but she liked that he was nice.

"I saw what happened with Aiden," he told her. "I think it's cool that you stood up for yourself. Aiden teases me about my ears sometimes."

"Oh," said Mia, who had been thinking about mentioning his ears but now decided against it. She turned back towards her desk and started doing things to make herself look busy. Ethan was nice, but she didn't like people, and this conversation was getting too long.

Ethan didn't get the hint, "So I noticed that you looked kind of lonely. Do you wanna be friends?" he asked.

Yup, he definitely didn't get the hint.

"Um, sure I guess," Mia responded, hoping it would end the conversation. Besides, having a friend could be nice.

"So what's your name then?" Ethan asked.

Mia paused. This was her first friend. She didn't want him to call her Mia. That name reminded her of the constant teasing that she was subjective to. And it didn't feel like her. Ever since she woke up, her name, her family, her life seemed like something of the past. She wanted him to call her something that she felt connected to. And right now, the only thing that mattered in her life were her memories.

So she shot him a smile and said, "Call me Rose."