She was just a girl, outcast by society, a nonconformist, and an individual. Shiny, black outlined her eyes and a deep dark purple tinted her lips making the dark circles under her eyes seem to vanish. She was adorn in a male size medium KoRn shirt, sporting the words “ I have issues” in front and the typical logo on the back; a black shirt. Just that could get her suspicious stares by her teachers and peers, but she didn’t care. She wanted to show everyone she wasn’t afraid to show her love for her favorite band.

But this was not all that would get her those hateful stares. Around her neck dangled a large metal ball chain, on her wrists a series of black bracelets along with one red and one blue; a memoir of her adolescent rebellion, but not really. On her right wrist, a small maroon velvet spike bracelet was clasped, a birthday present. That little ornament got her a lot of comments, mainly from concerned adults. Accompanied by a hand-made braided stretchy band decorated with little red plastic gems. This was given to her at a school renaissance fair. All these little additions had sentimental value, like memory files on her wrists.

Her longs nails were painted black. Her legs were shrouded in Nike tear away jeans. Her friends loved them and she liked them too. Her only anxiety was that some one would think it would be fun to rip them away and expose her in humiliation. Her thoughts always got the best of her, but she went anyway.

She looked down at her mom’s “combat boots” that she was kind enough to give her. She mumbled again. “Damnit where is she?” She new the first day wasn’t going to be easy. It was such a big school. So many people, so many judging eyes. She hid behind her clumpy locks of hair, her long bangs protecting her face. She looked frantically from left to right scanning the crowd of clones. “Damn sheep” she thought. Why were there so many of them? Would she ever find anyone like her? She gave up searching for anyone she new in the vast mob of teenagers; it was hopeless. She felt that pang of fear and a swelling pain in her stomach. No! She was not going to cry. Not here, not now. She forced back the pain and carefully maneuvered through the seemingly endless sea of people, worrying she might bump into someone. Finally she made her way out of the mob and to a lonesome bench away from everyone.

She proceeded to rummage through her backpack. Past her Queen Of The Damned novel, past her poetry book, and finally grabbed up her drawing book along with a pen. She opened it up to a picture of her and her friends performing a song. She had recently been learning how to play bass and had become obsessed with drawing bands. She flipped to the next page to see one of her favorite picture; a scene from Interview With The Vampire; one of her other obsessions was with vampires, she had grown a huge liking towards Anne Rice over the summer.

She quickly flipped to a blank page and began drawing instinctively looking at her new surroundings for inspiration. Her heart sank as she watched the clumps of students walk by. Rarely did anyone acknowledged her presence and when they did it was with a glare and a disgusted sneer. This is what she’d had to go through for 3 long years now. Even if she tried to fit in, she some how stuck out, like a reject puzzle piece that has no place. She had become so use to these stares but even now that weight in her stomach was pulling her down. She didn’t know why they all had to judge her this way. She had never done anything to them. And she was too afraid to stand up for herself; she couldn’t risk getting herself hurt.

Time passed slowly when she felt a presence close to her. She looked up and sighed with relief to one of her best friends peering down at her drawing. “Smeli! Where have been?” She exclaimed to her friend getting up quickly. “Whoa, I just got off the bus.” She said a little surprised. “Dude! Did you see how many preppies there are around here??” She nodded, “Ya well this is High School, Ki, get use to it.” Ki looked down and frowned, “I was kinda hoping we’d find at least some people like us…” She didn’t know what to say,“Ya well…”

Both suddenly looked up to see Blondie, their platinum blonde friend prancing over to them. She cheerfully greeted the two unhappy girls on the bench with a hint of nervousness, “Hey guys what’s up?” Ki shrugged, she was too worried about what was in store for her today to think about the present. Smeli passively said, “ We’re just looking at all these trendy preppies go by.” Sara looked concerned; she didn’t have it as bad as the two others. She could easily fit in and conform. “There aren’t that many, I mean look at that guy.” She pointed to a guy amongst a crowd of skaters in an Mxpx t-shirt and plaid pants. Smeli frowned and mumbled, “Poser.” Ki chuckled looking up at Blondie, “Um I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but Punk’s gotten pretty trendy lately.” She tilted her head a little, “Oh.”

Suddenly they wee interrupted by a harsh ringing. It was time to get to class. They said their quick good-byes and went on their way.