Cowrite with @anywherebutreality
• • •
Secrets.
Secrets are toxic. They claw at one's very soul, tearing their victim's lives apart from the inside. Yet people still have them. And Cayden Levisay has more than most - yet, she doesn't seem to know t...
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All in all, it had been a regular Thursday. Cayden Levisay, The Girl With Silver Hair, (no one knew that it was dyed) had turned 16 last week, and she was already over it. Her uncle had been killed, she had full right to be an angry teenager. There was just too much death.
First her parents, now her uncle, who next?
Cayden had three rules in her life. One: Don't let death stop you. Ever since she was young, she had been exposed to death constantly. This gave her a unique resilience to it, but that didn't mean she was completely immune. Nobody could be. It still hurt.
Two: Don't let anyone in. Nobody could get close. It wasn't that she didn't like people, it was for their safety. When people got close to her, they got hurt. They get hurt because of her weaknesses. Nobody would ever die because of Cayden again. But the web of lies and secrets was getting to be too much, and the simple truth: She wasn't okay. She always said she was, but really.... Had she ever been?
Three: If ever asked out, injure the person in a unique, subtle way. It must be different each time. Cayden may be a biromantic asexual, but she had no time for romance. One time, a jock named Logan asked her out for pizza. She'd politely said yes, and then introduced his face to her burning hot pizza. Cayden was quite proud of that one. Logan was not, to say the least.
These three rules governed Cayden's life. They helped her succeed. Helped her to thrive inside a world where humans' brains were so limited they couldn't believe that anything was possible, even though technically, anything is possible. Some stuff is just highly unlikely. But when has that stopped anyone? Especially Cayden. One thing to remember about Cayden: She was unstoppable. No off switch. When she got started, she was hard to stop.
Cayden could be compared to inertia. She could only be forced to a stop, and even that was rare. Cayden could also be considered a xena*, and a mildly arrogant one at that. But she didn't let that stop her. Nothing could stop her.
Cayden could also be terrifying. When that happened, all 5 feet and 10 inches were transformed into nightmare-inducing terror.
• • •
Despite being a fully functioning teenager who was more than able to take care of herself, Cayden still had to go to school. School: Seven Crappy Hours Of Our Lives. It may be crude, but it was accurate. Sadly, there was no way to avoid school without a very persuasive legal argument... because Cayden would get expelled if she skipped again.
And technically, Cayden was an orphan in the eyes of the law. Stupid, fucking, death. Why couldn't the people she cared about just... oh, I don't know... LIVE?!
If being an orphan wasn't bad enough, Cayden just had to be stuck in a school containing people living their perfect, untroubled lives. Her "peers" were privileged in ways they didn't even know. They had living, breathing families who loved them. They had houses, or apartments, a place they could call home... unlike the orphanage, and the police station's holding cells. They had problems such as homework and dating, while Cayden had to deal with death.
Why was the world targeting her? What did she do wrong? What did she do to deserve this?
• • •
Fallbrook Hills High was a drab high school. Nothing more, nothing less. It was truly nothing special at all, just another high school. Cayden's high school. Because it was Cayden's school, she stood out; as one like her usually does. She was known all around Fallbrook Hills for her hair, her eyes, her parents, and her pranks on the people she went out with.
She wasn't popular, per se, but she was definitely not a nobody. People knew who she was. That didn't mean they liked her, but they knew her. Cayden was one of those people that sent out mixed vibes unintentionally (and intentionally). She was complicated; everyone knew that. An unsolvable mystery, a walking paradox, even to herself.
Cayden had no friends. She had acquaintances, sure, but she kept them at arm's length. Rule Number Two. She couldn't let these... kids with perfect lives be ruined because of her own mistakes. They still had so much to learn about the real world. About life. We need the evil of the world as much as we need the good. They keep each other balanced. These naive kids didn't know that yet, didn't know of the pain and hardships the real world came with. They didn't need to know, not yet. They were still so innocent, neglecting the fact that 20 percent of them had lost their virginity already. As one does in high school.
Cayden on the other hand had no intention of doing so, at least in high school. Romance was a distraction, a waste of time that could be going into something productive. It made you vulnerable. It was a weakness.
And Cayden could not afford to be weak. However, what Cayden needed to learn was that weaknesses can turn into strengths.
·.·.·.· *Xena (plural Xenas) A tough, physical, confident woman.
