Children Of Wars

Chapter 1 : A Boring Introduction

"Watch it!"

How annoying. I rolled my eyes as I watched them yell at a teen with a mix of skin colours. Part of her skin is white, but most of it is black. She was new to town, and moved way back from the south, I heard.

"It's like a cow's skin. How unfortunate for her." My head quickly turned to a kid shorter than me. My eyebrows furrowed as I paused to eat my apple.

"That's rude, Nikolai. You should never speak ill of someone's appearance." I quietly scolded him as I finally took a bite of my apple. He lowered his head, muttering an apology as he stared at the new kid curiously.

I continued watching the rest of the scene; waiting for something new to happen.

Yes, this does happen every single day. At this point, we're all used to it. The bullying of our skin colour, the way we speak, our gender – even our hair colour.

Unfortunately, for Maya Dunedell, she got almost what the townspeople hate. She has a mixed-race background with both white and black ancestry reflected in her skin tone. It's a skin condition, called Vitiligo. I heard her educate us about it when Sister Alia let her introduce herself to the orphanage.

She's also an orphan, like the rest of us; I didn't get all the details, but I heard her father was executed for involuntary sex against her mother. Of course, I don't believe that, based on the photograph she showed us yesterday showing the three of them together. They looked very happy. Again, I don't know the details so let's just leave it at that.

On top of that, she likes girls. No, not the friendly like girls. She likes girls. She's also a girl, obviously, one of the reasons why she's the target of the town. People here think only men are meant to be successful. Annoying, isn't it?

Well, men who are considered normal in this society. Those with perfectly white skin with blondes, brunettes, or jet-black hair. Those who are not attracted to their gender.

Unlike a few of us in the orphanage.

Nikolai Reicher, a six-year-old albino. He has white hair and bluish-pink eyes. He becomes a part of us just because of his looks.

Farhan Deilar, a ten-year-old. He has dark brown eyes, just like his hair, his skin dark-toned. He's from the East, where war is currently happening. He became a part of us when people started accusing him of stealing a while back. He was saved due to Sister Alia.

Haeng Minjung is thirteen years old. She have long dark hair, eyes hazel, and with her monolid eyes, it was obvious that the town would stray far away from her, thinking that she eats sorts of stuff from the West. It was disgusting, honestly, how they judge someone based on what they have heard from other people. She became a part of us just because of the rumours from the West.

Aureena O'Connor, a seventeen-year-old. She's a redhead, with cute freckles around her face, and her sweet green eyes. She became a part of us when people found out she worships another deity.

Fiacán O'Connor, a year older than Aureena. They came here together. He's also a redhead. He, of course, also worships another deity. But that wasn't the reason people considered him a freak, it was because he defended me when people found out I like boys.

Then, there's me. Vincy Avington. I'm the same age as Fiacán, but unlike them, I grew up in this orphanage. I was the first victim of the town because I like boys and because of the colour of my eyes. I have heterochromia, which means my other eye is grey, and the other one is blue.

Apologies, that bored you out, didn't it? I have a habit of straying away from what's happening, now, back to what I'm currently witnessing.

The six of us stopped playing cards as we watched the man yelling at Maya, waiting to see if he would become violent. I think he might have done it because he grabbed Maya's shoulder.