Avery

{EDITED} Chapter One~ Rainbow Girl

{First punished November 2015}
{Edited 6-14-2016}

                                                                                                                              { Avery }

"Avery. Are you listening to me?" Miss Theresa asks me in a placid tone.

I nod while my eyes are locked onto the forest beyond the floor to ceiling window behind her desk. What I wouldn't give to be able to go there. Be able to smell the woods. The soft dark soil, the trees. To have the wind fluter across my face.

"How do you feel about leaving the Institute?"

I half to clear my throat. I don't speak much.

"Fine." My voice comes out eerily calm. I've learned the word fine works in a lot of ways.

How are you doing?  Fine.
How was your day? Fine.

I could go on and on, but Miss Theresa pulls me back from my thoughts.

She lets out a frustrated sigh. She's been working on tiring to get me to show a spark of emotion, any emotion, for the past  year, but hasn't succeeded.

I turn to look at her and take notice of the light red ethereal ribbons floating around and through her body. No matter how hard I try, when emotions flare up with a great amount of strength, I get to see it. But it doesn't last long, a couple of seconds at best, unless the emotion is so strong the person feeling them can't even get a grip on it. Then the ribbons float around for awhile.

I snap my eyes close and breath in deep. I hate seeing them, but at least I no longer half to feel what I see. Hearing the tip-tap of a pen I open my eyes and look into Miss Theresa muddy brown ones. She put on to much mascara. Her lashes are clumped with it, I can't help but see it.

She's giving me that look, the one that says I'll wait for a better response from you. She should know by now that I always win are stare offs. No one likes to look into my ice blue eyes for long.

"Alright Avery." She lets out a pint up breath. The ribbons going crazy. "So you'll be moving to live with your Uncle in West End. Do you have any concerns about that?"

We've been having this same discussion for a couple of weeks now, since we found out I'm getting released. It's the same every time. Why she keeps bringing it up is beyond me.

"No." Simple.

Another sigh passes from her cherry red lips, "What about your friends. Wouldn't you like to see them before you leave?"

"No."

"And why is that Avery?"

" I'm not the same girl any more."

I'm coping and that's what matters. And it's not like any of my friends wanted to see me, other than Julie. She stuck with me for a year before she finally gave up. Which I don't blame her. Hell. Evan, my boyfriend never showed up. Not once.

I heard from Julie his lame excuses and break-up speech. Like I said before I'm different in more ways than one. That bubbly cheerleader I use to be is gone. Last time Julie came to visit me, she yelled and voiced her feelings loud and clear. She finished her rant with an " I miss you A and love you, but I can't do this anymore. I know what happened was horribly wrong in so many ways. It's like your not even here. Hell your probably not even listening to me now. Let me know when my best friend comes back okay girl." She left with a whispered I love you. I haven't seen or heard from her since. She was wrong though. I heard everything she said. I just didn't feel.