Colours Of The Dark (Completed)

4

We got into class just few seconds before Mrs Veronica walked in. Her face was red and I could see finger marks on her left cheek.

"Sorry, I'm late." She sniffed. "Submit your assignments now." She dropped her bag on the table and went to the board. "Drop the assignments on the table." She turned to look at us. And then I noticed her eyes. They were swollen. What was going on with her?

"Shit! I forgot to bring my assignment." Dory was searching through her bag. She brought out a long white sheet of paper and sighed. I guess that was her assignment.

Everyone started filing out to submit their assignments. I wondered what they wrote. What could be the day they never forget. I didn't have any memorable days –I couldn't tell the whole class about they way my family hated me– so I just wrote about how I got my bracelet.  Maybe some people just lied. I don't think anyone actually told the truth on these essays.

As I was dropping my paper, I took a glance at the one before mine. The day  U̶n̶c̶l̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶ a man killed my S̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ sister's dog. It was weird. The way the words were just crossed and not totally cancelled out. As I was about looking for the name of the person who submitted it, someone pushed my hand away.

"How long does it take to submit a single paper?" She rolled her eyes and dropped hers. The day I got my first car. I fought so hard to roll my eyes.

"While you're taking your sweet time to submit that, you might as well take another assignment." Mrs Veronica walked over to her seat. "Pick any book of your choice and write what way you thought it would have ended instead. Happy endings or sad endings."

"Like Charles Dickens and Shakespeare?" Someone asked from the back.

"Yes. Exactly." She lowered her voice and whispered,"sad endings will be more appreciated."

"But everyone deserves a happily ever after." Another girl whined.

"But not everyone gets a happily ever after. I'll like you to pair up for this. It'll be easier to quickly read them. See you in our next class." She grabbed the papers on her desk and stuffed them into her bag.

As the door closed behind her, people started murmuring. Some were not happy with the way she squeezed our papers and some people, like me, noticed her mood today. Something had happened to her. Maybe something connected to why she preferred we rewrite the stories with a sad ending.

"We're taking Romeo and Juliet." Dory threw her hand over my shoulder.

"Why?"

"Duh! Everyone knows Romeo and Juliet. And I believe it should have a happy ending." She brought out a notepad from her bag and began scribbling. "I have the perfect idea." She paused and looked at me. "And you can also contribute. If you want."

"Of course, I'll contribute. It's called team work for a reason." I dropped my bag and also brought out a notepad but I didn't have anything in mind. I thought of fairytales. Sometime ago, Disney had done exactly what we were about to do. Turn tragic stories into a happily ever after. Happily ever after stories gave hope to kids but was it reality?

"Okay." Dory announced, making me look up. The page on her notepad was full while mine had doodles I made when thinking. "After school, where should we meet? Your place or mine?"

I wanted to say hers. It was in my head but when I opened my mouth to speak, it seemed to have a different idea. "Mine."

"Oh. Okay. We better hurry for our next class."

_______________ 

I knew I should have said hers. I knew bringing her here was a bad idea. Of all days, everyone chose today to be home early. They were watching TV in the sitting room when I walked in with Dory behind me. At first they ignored me, then Hailey's gaze narrowed into a squint.

"Is that Aurora Lance?"

Her sentence made everyone look behind me, their facial expressions changing rapidly from surprise to extra friendly.

"You didn't tell us you were coming home with a friend today." My stepmother stood and walked towards us. "Aurora lance." She smiled at her.

"Um, good afternoon." Aurora hesitated before she took her hand. When my stepmother's hand lingered a little too long, Dory coughed. "Um, I came here to work on an assignment with barbie so it's best if we begin here."

"Oh. Okay." My stepmother stepped back. If she'd noticed Dory call me barbie, she didn't show it.

"Why is your room separate are far from the rest of the house rooms?" Dory dropped her bag on my bed and looked around. I feared she'll compare it to hers.

"It was the only free room in the house." I lied. We had two more, larger rooms. One before Hailey and Laney's and one downstairs, although the room downstairs was for visitors.

"Oh. So you like your privacy."

I nodded.

"It's cool. Let's start business." She brought out her notepad and pointed at the ideas she'd written down. "I know this one sounds a bit like zeeworld but we can change it."

"Zeeworld?" I laughed. "In zeeworld, there would be no suicides. Someone in the family will do it for them. Although we can say they didn't die. Maybe faked their deaths and eloped."

"Got married, had seven children and lived happily ever after."

"The children became the seven dwarfs in snow white"

"Their stunted growth was caused by the poison Juliet drank."

"Okay, I think we're going into another story. Let's just stop at elope and married with three kids. Three is easy to manage."

"Okay."

"Barbara! Aurora! Food is ready." My stepmother's voice rang from downstairs.

"Food?" I blurted.

"Yeah. That's what I heard. Any problem?" She eyed me.

"No. Let's go."

I wondered how far my stepmother would go to pretend to be nice.

As I stepped down from the bed, I noticed dory wasn't moving. She was staring at something. Staring at me. At my wrist.

"Barbie, don't freak out. But I just saw something."

I knew what she wanted to say but I held my breath. Maybe it was something else.

"I just saw your bracelet turn from black to blue."

Who  else agrees that romeo and Juliet could have ended differently?

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