CHAPTER 1

356 30 59
                                    

The weird twins, that's what they call us. Apparently we reek, we eat lice, we do not wear clothes at home, and many things that I can't even keep track. It doesn't matter anyway. Or that's what Ryan said to reassure me. "Samaira, we're there for you," he said.

Ever since Ryan and I moved from India to New York, we have been the center of attraction of the bullies. Well the bullies consist of about three-fourth the population of the school. We can't get through a day without being bullied. We will be in the class and a goo ball will hit our back. We will walk into the cafeteria and a leg will mysteriously appear to trip us. Our books were torn and our schedules all seemed to be marked wrong, always.

You might ask, why don't you complain to your parents? Well we have got none.

Our parents died last year in a car accident. Now here we are living with a distant relative in a distant land where we don't belong. It's really hard, being in a place where you have no claim on. One moment we had everything, from loving parents to normal lives. Now all we have is some haunted nights and thoughts, longing to see my parent's smiling faces again at the same time knowing that is never going to happen. The photo albums, the nightmares all made it worse if that is even possible.

At least Myra was empathetic. She provided us a place to stay and tried to fill the void left by our parents which didn't work in the least. But it felt good to have some support. But that sympathetic support was lost on a person like me who prefer a dark place to brood. But Ryan felt comforted. He wanted that comfort of someone being there for him. He felt happy at the places where he find this comfort, he can make himself at home, forget some things. But I did not have this talent that he inherited from our mother. I felt awkward everywhere. Now that our parents died, it became worse. A new country, a completely different life. My brain is just unable to process that.

Ryan seemed to have recovered, even tried to help me, but I was beyond repair. My parent's death had killed everything inside me. But I acted as if I became normal to make him happy. He is the only family left for me anyway. I don't want him to become unhappy because of me. I'm the one who agreed to live with Myra here. I thought things will change here. But that is not exactly how life works, does it?

But the endless bullying and practical jokes played on us weren't exactly helping. At first, we were called the Asian twins. Soon in the course of the year the prefix weird had been added. With all that sulking and brooding and the accent which somehow seemed funny to them, we were the complete victim package.

And today is Monday, the beginning of the cyclic torture after two days of total bliss. God, the last two days were fun. We were inside the house the entire time enjoying the comfort of solitude and pure bliss. We were not bothered which was completely fine by me. Ryan tried to mingle with everybody at first. But that didn't exactly work, he ended up being hurt by one of his "friends," who took up a dare to push him in the school pool.

The school didn't seemed to be bothered by this. Maybe they didn't notice anything which is highly unlikely. Or they did see and didn't bother to make it an issue worth mentioning. Who could blame them? Bullying is not a big problem after all. All the emotional trauma us unfortunate students face is a very small, negligible amount. Nobody needs to bat an eye about it.

"Do we have to go Sam?" Ryan asked for the hundredth time this morning. He was still lying in his bed reluctant to get out. He does this everyday.

"How many times should I tell you? We've already missed three days last week and today we have an important lecture. There is no point in being like this. Nothing's going to change," I said trying to control my rat nest of hair. It frustrates me every morning. Well everything about myself frustrates me. From my skinny appearance, the really pale skin with acne, the really frizzy hair and basically everything.

Destined To KillWhere stories live. Discover now