Daughter Nature

Adalyn Thornton

Her birthday. She would be turning 14 today. Great. That meant she would be spending the entire day watching her brother get spoiled while people would pretend she didn't exist. Not that they didn't do that already, but it still hurt. She wondered if she would ever make it out of her brother's shadow. She still had school that day so she went downstairs. Just as she expected; the table was full of birthday presents but not a single one for her. She decided to get started with breakfast because otherwise she would get scolded for being lazy and attempting to ruin her brother's birthday.

Once she was done with the pancakes, her parents came downstairs. They didn't even acknowledge her. As Leia was setting the table, her parents kept talking like she wasn't there. They kept saying things like 'our perfect little boy' and how his birthday had to be perfect.

A few minutes later Leo came downstairs. He looked almost identical to Leia except his hair was short and his eyes were ocean blue. Leia had always wondered where she got her green eyes from. Nobody in her family had them. Her mother's eyes were a hazel brown and her father's an ocean blue.

She watched in silence how her brother opened his 27 presents. He got his own television for in his room, new dumbbells for working out, an electric guitar, a brand new phone, a pc, a new gaming setup, and much more. Over the years Leia had gotten used to this since it was the same every year. She would get new clothes every three years, but not more than she had right now.

When it was time to leave for school it had started pouring like it never had before. Her brother would obviously have the luxury of being driven to school while she had to go by bike, as always. Her school was about 10 kilometers from her house, so she was on her way for about half an hour. This meant that she was completely drenched when she arrived at school. Her hair and clothes stuck to her body like glue and the fact that she was ten minutes late didn't help.

When she walked into the classroom everybody turned to look and laugh at her. Her teacher, Ms. Peverberry, gave her an extra assignment as punishment.

It didn't seem like the clock was moving, that's how slow time ticked by. The lessons were boring as always. Her main bully, Melanie, seemed in an extra happy mood today which meant that she threw the worst insults possible at Leia. These were things like 'You look like a toad full of warts who just came out of a swamp' or 'How come it looks like you showered but it worked the opposite way?'.

When the bell rang at 4:30 p.m., Leia got up quickly and hurried off to the bicycle shed. It was still raining, but not as heavily as this morning. She grabbed her bike and went to her spot in the forest.

After she arrived at her spot, she grabbed her sketchbook and started drawing. She drew a beautiful fox who looked exactly like Roxy. When she realized this, she closed her book and decided to explore and see if she could find her. She wasn't scared of getting lost since she came here every day for nearly ten years. Her parents didn't care what she was up to as long as she came home before curfew at eleven p.m. They would leave their leftovers of dinner on the table because they never cooked for her. She always had to cook for herself or eat their leftovers.

Leia found some tracks of foxes and followed them deeper into the forest. Soon the tracks weren't visible anymore due to the many leaves that lay on top of the tracks. It was fall after all.

Eventually, Leia gave up searching for Roxy and decided to return to her spot by Ilana. After ten minutes of walking, she stopped dead in her tracks after realizing she was lost. This didn't look like the forest she had known for years. The trees seemed thicker, there was no path to be seen, bushes completely surrounded her and the amount of nature seemed to have doubled. There was no sign that a human had been here before Leia.