Chapter 1

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A/N, before I start writing this story I apologise for any mistakes that I make about America (like the school system) as I am an Aussie, so I live on like the other side of the world. Also heads up this is set in like 2005 (or around that area). (Apologies for the crappy cover, I'll make a better one once I get my laptop back). Read on my narwhals!! :D



Chapter title : a starry night

Meadow Shultz packed her backpack and looked at herself in the mirror. Odd.
Meadow always looked odd to herself, in fact, she always thought everyone looked odd.

She always had the same questions swimming through her head
Why were we born with arms as arms and legs as legs?
What if our eyes were somewhere else like the bottom of our feet?
Why are noses shaped like that?

Every time she meets someone knew she scanned over them to find something unique with their physical features, eyes, nose, freckles, you name it name and she saw it.

What Meadow thought was odd about her was her eyes; one was a bright blue while the other was a deep brown. When she was younger, she was teased about her eye colour and people called her blinky and insulted her fashion choice.

Meadow finished packing her bag and started her long trek to her new school; Belleville High school. In her opinion, it was a rather boring name for a school, but again her old school also had a boring name.

As she closed the front door and started to skip her way to the end of the street, she noticed a commotion a couple houses down from hers. Two boys were walking, each of them yelling at each other, the taller one playfully shoving the smaller one across the pavement.

Meadow continued up the road, walking through the park and marvelled at the fallen yellow and orange leaves around her. Pulling her cardigan tighter around her, she hurried along to her new school.

Heading to the front desk to collect her timetable, Meadow then started to walk to her first lesson; physics. Any type of science was Meadow's favourite, it just intrigued her, which is why she immediately chose to do all the science courses she could at her new school.

After asking countless people where room SB207 was located, she finally arrived and found a seat at the front of the class, eager to learn.

"Good morning class!" The teacher said walking in, "we have a new student today, could Miss Shultz please stand, face the class and tell them about themselves?"

Meadow stood up and faced the class "hi my name is Meadow Shultz and I moved here from Australia." She flashed a little smile and returned to her seat.

"Okay class, today we will be learning about electricity and magnetism..."

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Soon lunch came and Meadow picked a quite table in the corner of the cafeteria, opening a book; Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Many people her age had already read the books or seen the movies but Meadow belonged to that small population of people who hadn't. Turning onto the first page she began to read "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious-" Before she could finish the second sentence she was interrupted but someone talking to her.

"So you're like the new kid right?" Someone asked.

Meadow blinked and studied the person before her; a boy who looked to be around her age and had a little skin indent, perhaps a scar, by his right eyebrow. She shook her head and look him in the eyes, "yes I am the new kid," she responded, continuing to read.

"My friends and I were wondering," he pointed to a group of guys on the table next to her, "if you'd like to sit with us perhaps?" The boy asked.

"Um, no thanks but I really appreciate the offer," Meadow politely declined and flashed a small smile, continuing to read and take little nibbles of her sandwich.

Meadow didn't notice the boy go, nor the bell ring signalled the being of class until people started walking out of the cafeteria. Hastily grabbing her things, Meadow walked to advanced math, once again choosing sitting out the front.

The rest of the day flew by quickly, each subject giving her more and more homework to add to her things to do and quite frankly she didn't mind as long as she was able to paint the stars that night.

Every single night for as long as she could remember, Meadow had painted the stars. She had a special assigned place on the grass in her backyard that she sat every night in order to analyse and paint the stars, her colours blending into beautiful concoctions on the canvas. She had to start her paintings at precisely 9pm and finish them at 9:30pm every time to ensure that each detailed painting was accurate to compare to the rest. Every night she made sure she was free in order to paint the stars, even if that meant missing out on parties that her old friends would throw, not that she would go to them anyway.

At her old house, her painting spot was always on the grass out the back but since moving she had to find a new area and it wasn't exactly easy. The spot at her old house ensured that there would be rain cover from the trees, but not enough that she couldn't see the sky. At her new house, the backyard was swamped by so many trees that one could barely see the entirety of the sky and it's beauty, let alone enough to paint it. This left the only available place in the middle of the sidewalk in front of her house, the lack of trees and the perfect spacing of the light posts on the street left a clear and beautiful sky and was perfect to paint.

As 9pm struck that night, Meadow Shultz was our sitting on the sidewalk and just made her first stroked of blue onto the canvas. Humming away to a tune, she continued to paint and paint until she finished at exactly 9:30pm, her brush leaving the page.

Setting her canvas to dry on her desk, Meadow slept soundly that night knowing that even though she had moved, her routines had not changed.

Never coming home *Mikey Way*Where stories live. Discover now