Just A Girl

That Day

That day seemed like a normal one. Same alarm clock. Same birds singing outside. But it wasn't normal. That day was... unexpectedly strange. I'm not sure what happened exactly but I know that it definitely was not good. I can't really explain it, I'll just tell you what happened and why that day was different to the rest.

I woke to my alarm clock buzzing loudly. I turned it off before getting out of bed and putting on my school uniform. I was still quite tired but I fought all temptation to go back to sleep. I went down stairs and poured myself a bowl of cereal.
"Mornin' Mum" I said as I sat down.
"Good morning dear, could you pass me the salt please?" Mum answered. I gave her the salt before asking,
"Where's Leah?"
"At work." Mum said, yawning. I finish my cornflakes and kissed her on the cheek.
"Well Mum I'd better get going, love ya" I grabbed my bag and headed for school.

It was a pretty long walk but I knew the way, anyway it was a good workout. On the way there I normally give Margaret a sandwich. She's a lady who sleeps out on the street near our apartment and we're good friends. She wasn't there today. That's fine though she was often somewhere else, but it's what I saw in front of me that caught my eye. There was a woman who looked around 50 or 60, sitting on the pavement, crying.
"Are you OK?" I asked when I came by her.
"No" she answered, continuing to sob. "I lost my phone and I don't know this part of the city"
"Well there's a police station just ahead. They can help you more than I can." I told her, offering a reassuring smile.
"Thank you." The woman said. She put something in my hand before smiling and walking away.
I looked into my hand. There was a pink sweet, I unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth, it tasted strange but not at all bad. I continued on my way to school sucking on the sweet along the way.

When I got there everything was normal. My first class was English, it was my favourite subject so I was quite happy. When we were lining up however, Gertrude and her friends came and shoved me against the wall.
"Hey nerd" she said, chewing gum as normal.
I sighed. "Hello Gertrude" I answered politely.
"Gimme ya homework" she ordered, holding her hand out.
"I'm sorry but this project is worth half my grade and.."
"Why would you care about grades, you're too poor to go to any university." Gertrude declared.
The insult hit me hard. My mum's out of work at the moment and money is kind of tight. I started to feel weird and my teeth felt oddly sharp.
"Yeah you can't even afford school shoes, we all know those are runners painted black," one of Gertrude's friends said. Soon they all started throwing insults while Gertrude whacked my books out of my hand. I went to pick them up and she kicked them away. I clenched my fists and teeth. There was an excruciating pain in my head as my vision began to blur. The insulting words spun around in my head and the laughter echoed in my brain, I clutched my wrist, which had started to throb. My normaly smooth skin felt rough and hard. I felt a knee in my ribs and fell helplessly to the ground. The pain in my head shot down my spine and I felt something grow from my lower back.
The laughs turned to screams as the pain exploded throughout my body, touching every limb, muscle and joint. I could make out the blurred image of children running, and I looked down on hands that weren't my own, hands that were big, hard and were a deep shade of purple, with huge, sharp claws emerging from each of the fingers. Now I couldn't even control my body, I lunged myself towards the nearest person without even having the ability to stop. My vision went black and I stopped hearing the screams of pain and fear.

I don't know what happened next but in the morning I was fine, mum transferred me to a different school and I started seeing a child therapist every week. It happens quite often now, the thing that happened that day, when ever it does happen we have to move, that makes it pretty hard to make friends,  but well it's what I have to do now.