Ugly Duckling

Mom refuses to turn the air conditioner on until July.

It's March, and eighty degrees outside - eighty-five in.

So I changed out of my long sleeve shirt and put on a tank top and shorts. Because, well, I was hot.

Bad decision.

Nora saw.

She saw my scars
pale jagged ugly

My fresh cuts.

She saw it all.

I did a good job of sneaking out of my bedroom and to the bathroom across the hall without anyone seeing.

Too bad Nora Roberts was already in there.

Her brown eyes got wide and she nearly dropped the make-up remover pad in her hand.

But instead of calling me a freak, running off and telling the others, then making sure the whole school knew by the next day, she stayed.

Slowly, she pulled off her t-shirt so that she was left in only a leopard print bra.

She turned around.

She lifted her hair off of her back.

And she showed me her secret, almost as ugly as my own.

Pale, jagged scars were carved across her back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade.

Each small line met another, forming into two words:

I'm Pretty.