Flutter

Pic of Magnolia Stark (Maggie for short)

Jem~

I wandered aimlessly through the hallways of my high school, not really in the mood for algebra, instead I make my way to the art rooms, my safe haven

Ms. Aster always let me hide in her room when I skip, I was her favorite student after all

I pushed past the door into the bustling classroom, first year students scrambled around looking for paints and brushes and canvas, while the upperclassmen worked with a fluid grace... For the most part.

A girl close to the front of the room worked quietly by herself, nearly invisible in all of the chaos

Making my way up to her, not after sharing a brief hello with the teacher, and a even briefer smile, I sat down next to her not even bothering to look at her canvas already knowing what she had created

"What a lovely forest Magnolia, you should draw them more often"

"How would you know you haven't even looked at it yet, and how many times must I tell you to call my Maggie?"

"What's that shadow hiding behind those oak trees?"

"How do you see that? You still haven't looked at the painting!"

"And you haven't answered my question"

"Not a clue, it's what I see in my dreams"

You see, Maggie is much like me, her hair changed like leaves in autumn, gaining strands of yellow red and brown, and her lips had a deep chicory stain, like she's been eating berries. Her bohemian style always seemed to make these traits magical

"Fair enough, have you seen the construction workers on tv? The ones that where found dead in the woods?"

She smiled, a wicked grin if I've ever seen one "oh yes, the ones who where illegally tearing down the forest to make way for a mall"

"The police report said that they had been clawed to death by birds..."

Her grin twisted into a sneer, "that's what they get for defiling those poor birds homes"

.... She scares me sometimes....

The bell that signals lunch cut through the air, ceasing our conversation

Maggie grabbed my wrist  and drug me through the door and down the 4 flights of stairs to the cafè

I love this school, it has co-ed dorms, 2 cafés, hidden spots almost everywhere and best of all, people like me and magnolia. There aren't many, but it's nice to have people that can relate. There are are actually 5 of us counting me and Maggie.

There where two more girls and one boy, Cherry, who has hot pink lips that match her eyes and deep Asian set features showing off her Korean heritage.

Rain, although being the second youngest, after me, had stormy grey hair and eyes with blue and yellow flecks in them, her deep chocolate skin and soft curly hair reflected her African home country.

And finally Rowan was very zen and calm, his deep chocolate eyes and hair contrasted nicely with his sun kissed skin from the country air, his ears came to soft points and he was oddly small, he wasn't really a "midget" he looked just like a regular person, just on a smaller scale, he was about 4'8-ish and 93 pounds, and it looked like his cheekbones where bronze and sparkly, but there was no makeup

None of us where ugly, far from it actually, but our strange features have always made getting friends a challenge, that and our odd personalities.

I found that they where the closest I have to a real family, my moms back home where loving and tried their best, but I could tell that the looks the other parents gave me bothered them

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a small form jumping on my back, Rowan's lithe form nimbly latching onto me

"Carry me?"

"Of course luv"

And off we went, down three hallways and a flight of stairs into the café

I ordered one charamel Machiato with a pump of raspberry and an espresso for Rowan

He slid off my back and walked over to our usual table with me to be met with some first years in our seats and the others arguing with the others

Time to put the foot down, "oi freshmen, move before we move you!" Their faces drop when we arrive, no matter how much they hate to admit it, the freshmen where scared shitless by us

"Y-yes s-sir"

"S-stutter" cherry mocked, her grin reaching from ear to ear

He ran in shame, his friends not far behind as we took our seats, smiling wickedly at one another