A Is For Albino

  Disclaimer: I do not own Zombies, nor the characters and I do not make money from it.  

What hurt Addison the most about being albino was that her parents made it seem like she was cursed. Missy and Dale did not have to say that Addison was not the daughter they wanted but the way their eyes lingered or the way their mouths dropped whenever she did not wear her wig said enough. Yesterday morning, for example, when Addison groggily stumbled into the kitchen in her pajamas with her glasses on and wig off, her mother shooed her out the room and told her to get dressed. The way Missy clenched her teeth as she said, "Someone might see you" made the cheerleader's eyes water. It was hard knowing that her parents felt that she was un-beautiful as her natural self.

When Addison woke up this morning, she laid on her bed waiting until her vision was clear enough to get up. The moment she opened her eyes in the morning, her already poor vision was so blurry that even her ceiling fan looked like a white blob. Some days she stared at the fan, squinting her eyes to see the outline of the blades. Maybe if the ceiling fan had a splash of pink, she would be able to see it better. Her parents probably seen her as the ceiling fan - just a blob of paleness, a blurry white mass. On days like today, her eyes lingered on the fan a little too long, never adjusting properly to see the elegant swirls on the fans blades or the intricate design on the base.

She sat up on her bed, letting the sun from her front facing window shine onto her. The rays never left a mark of her porcelain skin as if the sun decided to ignore her, leaving her Casper white while everyone else was tan. Her eyes traveled over to the tanning bed that her mom bought her years ago. She hated laying under rays, cooking her skin and burning her flesh to no avail since her complexion remained unchanged. The cheerleader told her mom how much she disdained artificial tanning but her mom refused to listen to her, forcing her to spend hours inside the tanning bed. It was not until a doctor explained to Missy about the risk of skin cancer until she stopped making Addison use the dreadful machine. The girl had hoped that her mom would finally love Addison's beautiful cream colored skin but the matriarch started investing in spray tans for her daughter.

The last time Addison had a sprayed tan was a few weeks ago before the family took a trip to the tropics. Addison was actually sitting in the food court with Missy and Bucky, just sipping her diet coke (Missy would not allow Addison to have a rootbeer float) when the ambush happened. All of a sudden Bucky came over to her side of the table, pulled her to her feet and picked her up. He held her in his arms as he followed behind Missy. Her mother led the way to the tanning salon. It happened so fast that Addison was quickly stripped to her undergarments, her face became colored with redness as her cousin helped his aunt push the half-naked girl into a booth. Her wig was pulled off with such quickness that she gasped. Tears stung her eyes as the spray got behind her contact lenses. The pressure of the spray made her skin redden. Her white hair was coated with a light orange spray.

The embarrassment did not end there. When she finally came out, she was blinded by a flash. She rubbed her eyes, wishing she could remove her lenses to clean the spray out of them. Once she opened her one good eye, she saw Bucky shaking a Polaroid picture.

"And that's how you need to look if you want to join my team in the Fall," he said as he handed her the photo.

The memory of that event coated her blurry eyes with tears as she got out of bed. Her family thought they were helping her by making her look like everyone else. It only made the poor girl feel ashamed of herself to the point that she refused to leave her bedroom without being fully dressed in her contact lenses and a wig.

As she took a step onto her furry white rug, she wondered what would happen if she took the chance and showed everyone the real her. She walked over to her vanity to grab her contact lens case as she envisioned the scenario. Maybe there would be a boy that took one glance at her and thought her paler than normal hair, the gorgeous white locks that adorned her head were beautiful. The thought of a guy telling her how pretty she was as herself made her heart trembled. That was unlikely because everyone in Seabrook had one idea of beauty and Addison did not fit the mode.