Plus ⟫ hood

Un

You could always tell when Ellena was moving in the morning. Her footsteps weren't as heavy as her father's, nor as light as her mother's. Her sibling's feet barely made a noise as they raced down the staircase, or as they hopped out of bed. Her footsteps were different.

They made the floorboards creak under her toes, her sighing with every step as she moved throughout the house. The small squeak as she pressed her weight against the old stairs. She hated every noise that was made when she walked around the house.

She hated the way she moved. Her thighs rubbing together as she made her way down the hallway to her mother's room, or as she steadily moved down the staircase into the basement.

Ellena hated her body.

Her mother was a small woman, who always saw beauty in her eldest. She was her pride and joy, her favorite. She loved her dark brown hair and wide eyes the color of the frozen ocean. She loved the freckles that scattered themselves along her nose and cheeks, and the dimples that appeared when she smiled. Her daughter was her favorite person.

Her father was a proud man, tall and strong after years of service in the military, his time cut short due to an injury that ended his career and landed him a full-time nanny for her younger siblings, Kennedy and Oliver.

Kennedy had her mother's honey-brown eyes and her father's light blonde hair. She was barely fifteen, a full two years younger than Ellena. Her nose had the same matching freckles as her older sister and a scar that ran along her hairline from a fall as a toddler.

Oliver was the 'problem child' of the three, always racing around the house and harassing his older sisters. He had the same dark hair as his mother and eldest sister, and wide blue eyes the same shade his father gave his sister. His freckles not only lined his nose and cheeks, but made their way down his shoulders and across his back, arms and legs.

Ringlets of soft dark hair were pulled back into twin braids, allowing her icy blue eyes and long lashes to be on display. Her head was down, eyes following along lines and lines of print. Soft blue fabric clung to the skin like glue, outlining her curves and creases. Voices slipped through her mind, focused on the words in front of her.

A hand slapped down on her desk, the loud crack of a palm hitting metal startling her, annoyed green eyes staring down at her hands in disbelief.

"Miss Young, this is geometry, not english. Put your book away, and if I ask you again, you'll be removed from this course with an F in your transcripts." Mrs. Scott announced, walking off to continue teaching about some topic Ellena didn't care about.

She hesitantly slipped the hardcover into her bag, glaring at her blonde teacher. Courtney Scott was the devil and she knew it.

Her notes had already been written, highlighted in color codes, the perfect set. Ellena was a perfectionist when it came to notes, she couldn't read them if they weren't just right.

Thankfully the bell rang, dismissing the class with a screech. The shuffle of students moving through the halls clouded her thoughts, making it hard for her to concentrate on keeping her pace steady.

"One. Two. Three. Four. Repeat. One. Two. Three-" She bumped into someone, disrupting her mumbling. Icy blue eyes met brown, the warm feeling of comfort washing over her as she realized who it was.

"Sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, I'm so sorry." Her words ran, the way they do when you interact with someone you secretly love.

He shook his head, smiling as he spoke. "No, it's my fault. I was looking at my phone."

"It's my fault, really." She insisted as she helped him clean up the scattered papers that she had knocked over.

"It's fine, Ellena. We have next block together, right? I'll walk you."

The pair wandered through the hallways, Calum speaking about last night's homework, and Ellena admiring him.

They had finally made their way to the classroom, separating to their own seats across the room from each other.

Even from five feet away, she could still hear him laughing at something his friends had said, him smiling and telling them to shut up jokingly.

Ellena wished she could have that. She wished she could have him.