Call Me Ashleigh

Chapter 1:

CHAPTER 1:

It at all started in January, when I went to school. I was a teenager now, so my mum said, which meant I had to behave like one. My parents always told me to act my age and be normal. I didn't get what they meant. I always acted as normal as possible, but I never did it right, according to my parents. In my old school, no one really liked me. I didn't know why, but they liked to pick on me. I figured it was because I was different, like people always said. Having the school counsellor constantly trailing me probably didn't help with popularity points either. Not that I cared. Friends were for weak losers who relied on others. I was strong enough on my own. I was big and tough. I didn't need friends.

But that year I was hoping to start anew, and maybe be normal. Make some friends, follow a couple of trends, (even if trends were totally ridiculous...) look people in the eye, smile, cut out the ice and odd eccentric behaviour... and BAM! I'd be just like any other girl.

It was probably too much to aim for. As soon as I got to school, all my confident plans faded away and I was left as that oddball girl who stared at you, talked to herself, and well, kept to herself. Which was apparently not normal.

The first few days of the year were nothing new. Teachers called up my parents, senior student leaders thought I had some mental problem and gave me special attention, and my classmates? Well they pretty much thought I was weird and didn't want to be my friend. Well, at least that was what I thought they thought.

Rejection hurts, a lot. I'd rather be alone and friendless than have to deal with the sharp sting of rejection.

It was just another one of those lonesome days when I was wallowing in my own misery, that a letter came for me. It was from someone who called herself my angel, who was apparently my senior. I pretended not to care, but secretly I was quite flattered that someone actually took the time to write to me. She told me she picked me too, because she liked my name. I found that quite astonishing, because I thought my name was ugly. The name on the namelist, the name this angel would know me by, was 'Freda', my real name. Which was ugly.

But I couldn't let anyone know that I was maybe just the tiniest bit excited about this letter, so I faked disinterest and chucked the letter away. Not surprisingly, given how messy I am, I lost in within a day.

I just didn't know how much that letter, and that 'angel', was gonna change my life.

Forever.