The Everlight Chronicles Book 1: True Destiny

Chapter One: Nobody

She stared lazily out of the classroom, leaning on her hand as the teacher droned on and on about the things she already knew.  The sun gleamed through the window, warming her face and body. Everyone around her chattered and gossiped about useless things, but she just remained within her own mind. 

It was a truly beautiful day. Sunshine, blue skies, a few puffy white clouds like sheep grazing on a field. She sighed. What a perfect day to write a wonderful story. With this thought, she brought her pen to the paper before her and began writing. She had no idea what she was writing, or why, but it just came to her. She started off with writing about a sunny spring day, and it went from there. The stories she wrote were her confidant. Her only friends. They may not have given her human interaction, or attention, but it was how she got all of the jumbled thoughts out of her mind. The stories ranged from dark, to beautiful, to horrifying, to inspiring. They were her dreams, her hopes, her fears.

The story began with a boy named K. An experiment born in an underground lab and sent to the outside world to try and live a normal life. The boy, alone and afraid, outcasted by everyone, grew bitter. This bitterness soon grew to apathy. That was about as far as she got, before a sharp voice demanded her attention.

"Seven, you haven't even started on your work!" It was Mrs.Chandler, her math teacher. Seven stared down at the algebra assignment before her, and then looked up at Mrs.Chandler. Mrs.Chandler sighed. "You won't get anywhere if you don't bring your grades up, Seven. I know you're smart, so I want you to actually show it!"

Seven said nothing. Ignoring the teacher was never a good idea, but Seven found no point in listening. No matter what, she knew she would never be able to go to college. She had to stay home, protect her mother from hurting herself any further. Mrs.Chandler groaned, throwing her hands in the air before walking away to reprimand some rowdy kids. Seven let out a breath of relief.  Why should she pay any attention to her when no one else did? Seven knew how the human mind worked; human beings would do anything to conform to the 'norm' of the world. But Seven was different. Why should she try to conform to everyone else's views when her own views seemed far more sane? Who would want to be driven to madness all because they felt they had to be 'perfect,' when this so-called 'perfection' was absolutely impossible.

She shoved the assignment away from her. It had no purpose in her life. Let her grades fail, let colleges reject her, her destiny was all the same. She never had a life, and she never would. She gazed down at her story. She had lost her taste for it. 

The bell finally rang, signaling the end of the school day. She left the room as quickly as possible. She had to get home as soon as she could. She had to prevent her mother from bringing any more of those awful men home. Whenever Seven was around, she never did anything dangerous like that--not after what happened the last time. If Seven got home early enough, maybe they could be safe for the night.

As she shoved through the crowd, no one even granted her a passing glance. To them, she was just a nobody, a girl who sat at the back of the class who was far beneath their superior notice. At least that made the trip home easier. Nobody bothered her, making the way quicker. Her pace was a fast sort of walk, the best she could do without wearing herself out. Luckily, she only lived two blocks from the school. Her mother insisted that she did this to make things easier for Seven, since their car was completely unreliable, but Seven knew the real reason why. It meant easy access to drugs and the liquor store. As much as her mother claimed she did everything for Seven's sake, she wasn't fooled by that. Even to her mother, Seven was a nobody. And if that weren't the case, then she was at least a worthless nuisance. 

By the time Seven entered their crummy two-room apartment, she was out of breath. There were no unfamiliar cars outside or strong scent of pot or alcohol coming from the apartment, so hopefully she was in time to convince her mother to stay back.