Weather Girl (gxg)

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It wasn't hard for someone to stand out in our town. You didn't have to do or say anything because they'll know that you don't fit in when they first see you. Depending on what you look like and how you express yourself, it could go two different roads. One road lead you to amazing people, family cookouts, and warm smiles when you head into town. The other road lead you to cold shoulders, people whispering behind your back, and forced smiles. For almost sixteen years, I have seen many people come into our town and their lives go down either one of these roads.

Usually, when someone looked like other people in the town, they were easily brought into their homes with warm smiles and people getting to know them. For some, they felt like they were in a good town surrounded by good people. For the unlucky souls that went down the other route, well, it was a good thing that they weren't staying for too long in the first place.

Meeting Harper, I figured that her family was already going down the "good" road. Only because they were Mrs. Grower's family and most of the people in the town already knew of her mother. It was already set for the kids on how everyone was going to treat them. They didn't have to worry about the townspeople's judgemental stares, or people talking poorly about them behind their backs. When people saw their family, they knew who exactly they were.

Not like it was hard with the town being 95% white and 5% non-white.

Because news got around that Mrs. Growers family was moving in with her, everyone was prepared to see new non-white faces around the town. Which was pretty bad and racist in my opinion. If they happened to see a random black family walking around the town, they would've assumed that they were connected to Mrs. Growers. They would've made the connection without even thinking if they looked like her or held any resemblance, just assuming that because they were black that they were related to her. I saw it happen a few times before Harper and her family moved to town. It was embarrassing having to witness it and I wanted to apologize to the poor family but stopped myself from doing so. I could only give them a pitiful look before walking off.

The family that came to look around simply denied the connections and left right away. Which was fair in my opinion, I would've ran away as well if I could. They were calm and collected despite how some of the townspeople treated them too kindly because of the connection that they all thought that they had with Mrs. Grower. They just smiled, got into their car, and drove away without even looking back. I mean, who would blame them?

Though, after sitting next to Harper and talking to her, I realized that if that was her family in that situation, it wouldn't have gone the same way.

When you first meet Harper and actually talk to her, you notice that she was this bright and sweet person. Energetic, lovable, and funny. Without a problem, she was able to pull people towards her with her sunshine like personality and kind words, making me truly believe that without her being Mrs. Grower's granddaughter, that she was already going down the "good" road. However, there was more to her than what we were expecting.

If someone were to say something that was borderline offensive to anyone, she was usually the one to speak up against that person. She did it calmly and with a smile, making it harder to people to get angry with her. Though, you could tell that some people were annoyed with her. They would roll their eyes, snicker, or say, "Be careful dude, you don't want Harper to hear and destroy you." Even with knowing this, if she did, Harper continued to call people and stand up for others. Not only that, you could see what she stood for by the buttons and pins on her bookbag. They were colorful, big, and political in some ways. I remembered seeing the reaction on some students and teachers faces when they looked at her bookbag, whispering to whoever was nearby. At that moment, I thought that she was going down the "bad" road because of what she believed in. Because it was different than everyone else's and she didn't try to hide what she stood for.