Killing beauty - by: Charlotte Arizmendi

Strength

When I was 13 years old, I lived in a wonderful house, a house full of love, where everybody loved me, and cared about be, mi mother, Barbara, had beautiful and deep black eyes that I inherited, a very pale skin and ginger hair, which unfortunately, I don't have, she always smelled like fresh orchids, and she baked delicious pineapple pies with cherries on the top. My father, was a very quiet person, but also a very gentle one, once, he took me to the zoo and every time we ran into a new animal, he told me stories about them, he used to sell wonderful children books with stories about flowers, monkeys, houses and other pretty things, his eyes had a brownish color with a few tones of a color similar to the honey, and his hair, just as mine, had a very dark color, to match his eyes, he always wore a black leather jacket and a pair of dark jeans, their favorite ones, he had a beautiful and fancy English accent and used words like: excellent and wonderful. He is called Millard.

I don't have any siblings, because my mother couldn't have more children, and however, they didn't seem to wan't more children, I guess they where comfortable with me. But one day, someone knocked the door and when my mother opened it, it was one of my teachers, miss Lawrence, she was very sweet and had beautiful green eyes, every time I couldn't do something at school, she always told me to keep trying, that in some point, I would make it, she was my favorite teacher in school. But she looked terrified, she looked like she just saw a demon entering her house. She was telling something to my mother, she was speaking so low she was almost whispering, when she finished talking, my mother was more scared than ever, she looked like someone stole her soul. "Millard! Come! Please, Milla's math teacher is here!"
I saw my father run to the door where my mother and Miss Lawrence where standing. Without anybody noticing, I crawled to the door, and hided behind the door. Then, teacher Lawrence started talking again "I am sorry to tell you this, Mr. And Ms. Collins, but I am afraid that Milla has been cursed." In that moment I want to shout but I cannot, because I am hiding, but this is a total lie! Of course I am not cursed! I am normal! My parents are normal! I can't be coursed! "Bullshit!" My father shouts to miss Lawrence. "Mr. Collins..." Started miss Lawrence. "No!! You won't come to my house and tell me that my daughter is a monster" says my dad. My mother looks like she is really convinced about what the scared teacher is saying, something that I do understand, because my mother has always loved me of course, because I am her daughter, but she has always cared about me less than what my father does. She starts talking while she looks directly to my dad "Honey, calm down, let her tell us her story" I'm starting to get sad, I never thought that my own mother wouldn't fight for me. Miss Lawrence started talking. "We where in class and a boy started saying things about Milla, he said she was ugly and dumb and crazy, she started getting mad and..." I remember that day, it was 2 weeks ago, and I really don't understand how can THAT be related to me being cursed. But she kept talking. "She got upset and suddenly, the earth started shaking, we thought it was an earthquake happening in the hole world, or at least in the hole country or city, but when we investigated, the earthquake only happened in our classroom." I could see the terror in my mother's eyes. She continued. "We thought this was to weird, so we investigated more, and..." My mother looked like she was watching a horror movie. "And it turns out that the epicenter of the earthquake  was Milla's desk." The teacher said. But my father wasn't really convinced "I don't understand how my daughter can be the epicenter of a hole earthquake" my mother tried to calm down my dad with sounds like shh adding words like easy honey, easy. "Well, we believe that the girl created the earthquake" the teacher with green eyes says. My father looks like he can't understand any of this, just as me, I believe that if I was cursed and I could create an earthquake, I would already know it. "Barbara come on!" My mother answers my father's expression with a confused look, and my dad continues talking "I mean, are you really believing all this bullshit, Barbara?" "Well, I don't really think that she is lying" "Of course she is lying!" "Mrs. Lawrence, do you have any prove?" The teacher doesn't look nervous at all, I guess that is because she does have some prove, but it can't be possible, I KNOW I'm not cursed, I just know it. "We have prove of an earthquake that only happened in our classroom, and that the epicenter was this girl.." My father decides to interrupt the teacher "her name is Milla, she's not called girl her name is Milla" the teacher apologizes with her eyes and keeps talking "The only thing we don't have prove of is the thinking about Milla being who caused the earthquake, we just know she was the epicenter of the earthquake" My father looks mad, he KNOWS I am not hunted, but my mother looks like she is VERY convinced that I am a monster.