Unique

Discovery

     I know you've heard about mythical creatures like werewolves, wizards, demons and so on.

"They are real in books and TV."
That had always been my reply when the matter was brought up or I was asked about it.(Only by relatives and unlucky cousins who were forced to socialize with me when trying to start up a conversation which always ends awkwardly).

I didn't know why that topic would always find its way to any conversation I have with my relatives.

My grandma always had an affinity for supernatural matters. All stories my grandma always told us was always based on a vampire princess or demons.

I didn't find out why till I was 17 and in my junior year of high school.

She's my paternal grandmother, my maternal one died in a battle with cancer.

It was very painful when she died because she was the only one who understood me and didn't fill my head with supernatural shizz.
Plus her brownies are the best.

I was a really boring person, I hate to admit it but I was certainly not the life of the party. I was quite the opposite, you could say the death of the party .

How I wish I was not noticed but I don't know for some reason I always brought negative attention to myself .

Maybe it's because of the way I like dying my hair every month or because of my piercings (just ear and nose piercings).

I always got the words "emo"and "freak" hurled at me offensively.

Maybe its because I like muted colours a lot.

I always thought to myself , why do they hate me so much and don't tell me hate is a strong word because hate is just an understatement of how they really feel about me.

They never fail to let me know how they feel every time I step into the dreaded place I called school.

It could be spitballs today, sewage in my locker the next.

It used to be physical but when I turned up at school all in black with piercings some people backed off and the ones who had courage got broken noses, sprained wrists and a few broken bones as a result of the taekwando lessons my dad forced me to take when I was in middle school.

I continued the lessons for obvious reasons because I was sick of being pushed around.

I thought if I reinvented myself I would stop being bullied but that never turned out to be the case. It was like the whole black outfit and piercings even gave them more reason to hate me. The only thing that stopped the physical confrontation and that was as a result of my taekwando not because of the emo look.

Before I tried really hard to fit in but my efforts were futile . I tried liking pink (when my favourite color was black)and stereotypically feminine things but the only thing it did was succeeding in making me weak. The only things I liked that was societally acceptable for a girl to like were shopping and fashion.

I didn't like gushing about celebrities like I didn't have a life of mine,
I didn't like crushing on every guy I meet
I didn't like shopping excessively
I didn't like a lot of things girls in my school did a lot.

I tried though, grandma above can be a witness to that.

I know its all jumbled up and confusing if you want to look at it logically, but that's just how confused I am.

It's how confused I became when I tried to figure out how it all started.
How they started hating me, the preppy me and the real me.

But one thing I figured out was that it was certainly not because of my dressing sense.

I was happy I could get the courage to come to school as the real me (black outfit wearing me) but that joy didn't last for long when Richard and his goons started making snide remarks when I walked into the main hallway.

I would avoid the main hallway if I could but lucky for me my last name starts with C : Collins.

Our school had a system of assigning lockers according to the first letter of your last name. A to J had lockers in the main hallway which was the widest and on the ground floor. The main entry leads to the main hallway. So if you don't want to be noticed or want to avoid someone this isn't the place for you.

Hallway B is the place for you if you don't want to be noticed. Its located on the first floor and you could look down and see what was happening in the main hallway. You could have a locker here if your last name started with K to P. The first floor is where all the labs are located and where the Advanced classes were held. So obviously the number of lockers are going to be small in comparison to the other hallways.

Hallway C is the third hallway which comprised of lockers of people whose name started with Q to Z . It's like the hallway for the other queen bees and jocks. If your last name started with K to P and you want to be one of the populars all you just need to do is just hang around hallway C, trust me you'll get your own share of attention. If you want to make an announcement and you want people to listen , best bet is to go to hallway C. It's directly over hallway B. To get to hallway C you've got to have this special pass that you've got to fill according to what you've got to do there. It's the only hallway the hall monitors monitor.  It's stupid if you ask me.

I have heard the joke about my initials being AC a lot and it's not nice but with every other thing they hurled at me abusively I learned to ignore it because I can't go around punching everyone that always made a snide remark because that would be like punching the whole school which could get me expelled.

I might look emo but I am smart and I want to quickly get out of this dreaded school and maybe a score a place in Yale or Harvard. (Yeah I'm that smart and my parents are that rich).

The day I showed up to school with the whole emo look , the minute I stepped into the main hallway the whole school went silent, I thought their reaction was a little bit (really) over dramatic.

Even the hallway B and hallway C were looking down at me.

It was nice (the silence) until Richard said
"Guess the freak knows when to stop pretending!"
The whole school cracked up.
I didn't even get how what he said was funny.

I don't talk much so I didn't bother to reply.

He obviously got offended at my lack of response and told his goons to surround me . I saw Parker on my left, and Caleb on my right with other unimportant ones at their backs. They gradually drawed closer and I was getting a bit nervous then I remembered my grandma above and all the times she would tell me to stand up for myself .I could picture her disapproving face if I allowed them to beat me up.

With a burst of courage, I bent down and ........