The End, So Far

Beautiful and Strange

She started at our school one month into the year. I thought It was odd to be going to a new school for your last year, but the more I thought about it I realized I was new too. I wasn't the same person I was before and it did feel like starting over, in a way.

In our school they've adopted a desk free concept.

It sounds weird but I kind of preferred it. It made things a lot easier for me and I don't think many of the other kids missed them either. Instead we all sat at long tables, some classes had them set up in rows, one was a giant horseshoe, another a big circle.

That morning in English class I was sitting in the big horseshoe on the end next to Danny and Aaron when she came in.

The teacher introduced her as "Eden" and she took a seat at the end next to me.

She looked like she could be the subject of Edgar Allan Poe's the raven.

Her name should have been Lenore.

Her wild black curls hung to her shoulders settling loosely into the hood of her sweatshirt. She was small, or 'petite' I guess your supposed to say. She kind of reminded me of what a sad fairy would look like if you shrunk her down and threw on some wings. She had the darkest brown eyes I've ever seen, they almost looked black, and were topped with thick arched eyebrows. Her wardrobe didn't help to bring any signs of life to her appearance. It was all shades of dark greys and black. The only color on her pale skin was her slightly pink lips. She could have walked right out of a black and white movie.

"Hi. I'm Mike, welcome to hell." I turned my chair slightly and joked smiling as she sat down beside me.

She gave me a weird look, nodded and turned away.

Ok then.

I didn't really think anything of it.

She was new, I figured her guard was probably up.

I ended up bumping into her a few times the first week she was there it was kind of hard not to, we had a lot of the same classes.

I tried to be nice each time and show her that not everyone in this school can be a total jackass but she kept giving me the cold shoulder. She never spoke back, smiled or even gave me more than a second glance.

She had this aura that followed her everywhere, like a dark cloud.

Her eyes always looked sad and blank like she was lost in deep thought.

She fidgeted with the hair ties and rubber bands on her wrist constantly with fingernails coated in a layer of chipping black polish. I kept waiting for one of the bands to snap and go flying across the room.

Sometimes she would doodle in the spine of all her notes while the teacher talked in class.