After sunrise part 2

Lose all you've ever loved, gain something new

Monday November 20, 2022:

Esmee POV

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Indeed, I regret this day the minute I step into the hallway of school.

The concierge looks at me with a baffling expression.

To answer the questions in people their heads:

'Yes, it is me.'

'Yes, I look different.'

'No, I haven't had plastic surgery.'

'And yes, it is strange that I've changed for an unexplainable reason.'

I walk through the halls of the school with my head held high.

When I reach my locker, I see Emma standing in front of it.

When she sees me her eyes grow wide in shock and incredulity.

'Hai.' I speak as I open my locker.

Emma looks at me with a blank face, 'I never thought you would go through with it.'

I look up and smile in comfort, 'I did.'

'Did it hurt?'

My smile grows wider and with my hip I close my locker, 'Not as much as I thought it would.'

'Good.' And with that she gives me a quick hug.

'You look beautiful, 'She whispers in my neck.

I step back and look at the face of my best friend. A wave of admiration and graft fullness floods over me.

'So do you,' I speak, 'Do I still look like me?'

She nods, 'Yes you do. Only more polished.'

I laugh, 'That is how I feel. I look like a character from a vampire movie. Like a painting from a museum. I look fake.'

She takes my arm and we walk to our first class while Benjamin fallows us closely, 'No you do not look fake. You look more like a person who one cannot believe a person as such could live.'

I frown and look her way with an indignant expression, 'That is the definition of fake. Almost to the letter.'

She simply shrugs, 'You just look perfect. I am so jealous. You always get everybody's eyes, and now probably more.'

We walk up the stairs and I look down to avoid stares, 'Yes but as you can see not all for the good reasons.'

'Maybe, but they are still stares. Some people get none. There are people that go through live without ever getting noticed, without ever getting seen and acknowledged. That is a feeling that you don't know because you've never been ignored in your life.' She throws my way.

I am thrown of my game. For once I don't know how to respond back. And I don't know if she is simply making a statement, or doing it to insult me.

Because of my silence she continues, 'I don't mean it in a bad way, it is just the way it is.'

I nod, 'Maybe. But you don't know what it is like to always get noticed. I don't know if people like me for who I really am or the things I can bring them. It is really hard to make a female friend. I've never told you this, but before I applied for my job in the nursing home, I actually went on an interview at a company in the city for a position as a secretary. Despite my age the main reason I got rejected was because of my looks,' I explain while Emma takes in every word, 'You see the person who took the interview was a middle-aged woman. She told me that the reason she rebuffed me was because I was too beautiful and I will only cause chaos in the office, and she can't have that.'