stigma

|02|

As soon as I stepped into the building, I felt several pairs of eyes on me and voices whispering.

I frowned, getting more annoyed by the minute. It had been 3 years and people still tormented me.

I had always been labeled as an outcast, ever since the first day of school to the very minute. I looked different from every malayali, special even. I had light brown hair, that usually only north indians possessed. I was also really pale, so pale that you could see the veins near my eyes, and people often mistook me for a foreigner. As a young child growing up in the Gulf, Arab children at my schools often made fun of me by calling me a 'ghost'. On top of all that I had bright green eyes which had small flecks of brown in them. My english language was better than everyone else's, which made me a common target for their taunting.

I still remembered my first day. A huge group of children gathered around me, insulting me and calling me crass words in Malayalam which I clearly understood. I remember hiding behind a bookshelf in the library and crying, feeling my heart fall at my feet.

However, that day did have one bright side.

I smiled to myself as I saw the head of my best friend. I crept up behind her and grabbed her shoulders. "Boo."

She flinched wildly and turned around, nervousness all over her face. It eased into a smile when she saw me. "You should really stop doing that." she said as she play-punched my shoulder.

I laughed. "Nice to see you again too, Sophie."

She smiled sheepishly and pointed at her ears. She reached behind and slid a button on her hearing aids, and then nodded. "Sorry I turned it down so that I could ignore everyone else."

"It's cool." I smiled at her.

I met Sophie Sebastian on my first day. She too, was hiding away in the library and crying. She was hearing impaired, a result of an accident when she was little and now depended on hearing aids and lip reading. She too, was being bullied by the other children and had hidden away in the library. Like that, we met, started talking and became the best of friends.

I always felt like it was my duty to protect her. Sophie was smaller and more lithe, unlike me who was tall and athletic. She had curly brown hair that she always tied in a ponytail, chestnut skin and coffee brown eyes. At the time I met her, she had just gotten out of her other school which helped the hearing impaired and blind to learn communication. All her life she had been home-schooled and it was her first time at a public school. She was more unstable then, more fragile. She was capable of breaking into tears at the littlest things. So, I protected her from the bullies, even fighting with a few of them and landing myself in detention. I was sure she would do the same for me.

Sophie was the only person who really understood me and I understood her. We were always there for each other and told each other everything. We were two parts of a whole, best friends.

A group of boys walked past us. "Hi Sophie. Still the same deaf loser, I see!" a boy snickered and his friends laughed behind him.

I let out a low growl. "Say that again, asshat!"

He turned around to look at me and visibly recoiled. "S-sorry Ciara. I didn't see you." he stuttered and his friends nodded behind him, terrified expressions on their faces. Sophie smiled at me, her eyes twinkling with gratefulness. The group walked off quickly, one of the boys tripping in his hurry.

I smirked secretly to myself.

This was what I was known for in this school. Ciara Rodriguez, the girl who picks fights, the girl who freely swears, the girl who is spicy with a sprinkle of sugar. I was a scene away from the rest of the amicable, friendly kids- I was the quiet loner who grew snarky quickly, treated school like a time-pass and still got by with the highest grades, the secret 'redeemer' who often picked fights and arguments with close-minded bullies. I was the one whispered of.