Fairy Eyes

Chapter 5

Middle school was, perhaps, the most confusing time of Belle's life. Everything about it was backwards. There were some things that she was supposed to get, as she had gotten better at understanding.

For one, Belle was an ugly girl. How ugly, she did not know. She never really felt very guilty about being ugly. Never tried to put makeup on, cause how was she going to put it on if I could not see myself?

Her hair was, in reality, quite tangled with various bird's nests. She had a lopsided face, with one eye bigger than the other. Her posture was terrible. She did not know how to shave her legs, so the boys would notice the hair sticking out on her knees. Worst part was that she didn't know how to interact around boys, so she would sweat profusely whenever around them, leaving stains all along the sides of her shirt.

When she looked in the mirror however, she saw a short and lithe body. She saw blue eyes and bright red hair that curled in ringlets. Belle never looked dirty because she was always pretty in her mind's eye, and she neglected to shower / take care of her hygiene unless her parents really pressed her to do it. Her parents thought that when she entered middle school that she would understand what it took to be accepted by people and wouldn't engage in those kinds of behaviors again.

That was not the case obviously.

Can you really blame her though?

Seriously, if you looked into the mirror and all you saw was the most beautiful version of yourself looking back at  you, would you think that you needed to brush your hair? Or put on makeup?

You wouldn't.

Belle didn't.

All she saw when she entered the school were people that shown themselves for who they really were. Some of the girls were hags, some of the men were brawny soldiers, some were angels, and some were trolls. Everything was in opposite of what it should have been, meaning that the pretty and popular people were ugly and the ugly and weird people were actually god and beautiful.

For example, Belle noticed that there was one girl that was the most popular at the school. Her name was Gabrielle Samosa. All she heard were the boys at her school whispering about her.

"Gabby is literally the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."

"I hope Tyler doesn't stay her boyfriend forever."

"You may be lucky Devin, I think they may breakup soon."

Belle didn't understand. Physically couldn't. Why did the boys like her? She must be some kind of angel to them. Yet why did they perceive her mean actions as niceness? Really, what could she possibly compare herself to in Gabrielle that would make sense?

When Belle looked at Gabrielle, she saw an elderly maiden. She had one eye that was bigger than the other. Her hair was ratty and disheveled. She was hunched over, and she had a large belly.

Yet the other boys saw her as beautiful. They saw Belle as ugly.

It was beginning to worry her parents how much Belle was not adjusting to getting along with the other kids. She would come home from school on the long train ride through the mountains, passing by rolling hills. The passengers would look at her, but she wouldn't care. She was caught in my own little world.

Since Belle had grown up with the fairy eyes, she began to see things that feared her as she developed a growing awareness of the fairy world.

For one, there was a dragon that slept outside the grounds of the school. If one day she forgot her homework or decided  that she wanted to skip school and go home early, the dragon would roar, swallow her whole, and sometimes keep her trapped in the dark, icky slime of it's stomach until she could convince the dragon that she would try to be a better student. Then, when it would let me out, Belle would have to tell the nurse that she was actually better so that the nurse could call her mom to explain that Belle would simply be more careful as she went about her school schedule.

Eventually, one day, the most popular guy had come to talk about her lack of hygiene. His name was James Rose, and all the girls had major crushes on him. James Rose, in Belle's mind, was the biggest troll of all. It simply did not make sense why anyone would see anything good in him.

He was a tall, purple troll with a big belly and a gigantic wart on his forehead that would come into school with the loudest and most booming voice.

"AGhaoaah, chishiCACHICAH!" he would say.

Nothing he said made sense. He was always trying to talk to Belle. He would enter the school and say "MorgansworthIFSACONEN!" and Belle would usually respond, "Once again, I do not understand what you are saying" to which he would laugh.

In reality, he was the most handsome guy at school. A big ass nevertheless, but he was tall and had the most mesmerizing cat eyes. He had just come back from his trip to South Africa and he was Scottish, so all the girls thought he was exotic and all the guys felt upended in an effort to compete with and be like him.

One day, they were all sitting in art class. James took a seat right next to Belle, and tried to carry on a conversation.

Belle ignored him like he always did, until he said something quite incomprehensible.

"Could you say that one more time?" asked Belle.

"God. Beeeeelllleee. For the sake of all of us, couldn't you just take a shower?" joked James, to which the other goblins and ghouls laughed.

Belle blew up.

"Oh really James? Come on. We all know what you really look like" she said.

"What did you say?" he asked menacingly.

She stood up, noticing that everyone's were wide, their throats stitched shut with worry, and were looking directly at her. Gathering her courage, she took a deep breath and decided to keep going.

"Yes. James. I hope you hadn't realized, cause I felt so bad for you. You think you are so hot, but really you're nothing but a tall, pimply, drooling troll!"

His eyes popped.

By this time, her anger was boiling. She turned around to Gabrielle, not understanding the teacher was telling her to stop, because she couldn't help but hear the sound of high-pitched laughter. Belle did not realize at the time that Gabrielle was laughing with her, not at her, and felt her cheeks flamed with fury.

"Oh yeah. Gabrielle? I thought you should know that I hear everything you say about me. I feel sorry for you. Truly. For you losing your virginity in middle school. You're nothing but an old hag!"

She started to cry.

"Rachel! That's enough! Come with me!" yelled the vice principal.

...

They took Belle to the school psychologist. She  first had her fill out a questionnaire about what she was feeling, then had asked her a numerous amount of questions, such as what she had believed about the magical world she "thought" that she lived in.

Belle spilled the beans of her frustration with her classmates, her fascination with the other world, and frustration that others could not see what she saw. 

The psychologist determined that Belle had psychosis with a possible diagnosis of Schizophrenia, was a danger to herself and others, and needed help. Telling her parents this, she was sent away to a special facility, where she said to be able to get the help that she needed.

Belle came to learn while she was there that what Belle was seeing was not normal and was deemed by many people as a mental illness. Understanding this, she tried the medications they gave her.

Only now she saw a lot more worse things.

Belle saw demons in the shadows. Witches walking through walls, staring at her menacingly. Vampires walking the streets with hungry eyes. The ways that many people were going to die.

Over the years,  Belle began to learn how to stop taking the medication. She withdrew off it very slowly, cutting it in thirds and halves without her parents realizing it over the course of years. Believing that she would get better, they allowed her to order her own medication once she got to college. That was the time Belle came off her medication cold turkey and was determined to never let anyone into her own little world again.