Outcast

It was late fall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The weather was inhospitably cold, and sharp enough that even at three in the afternoon, a light frost clouded the windowpanes of the houses; making them look like they belonged in a Christmas catalogue.
In fact, all of the houses that lay in this particular neighbourhood looked perfect - unsettlingly perfect.

For the sullen-faced girl who was walking down the icy street, the sight of that perfect neighbourhood was frustrating.
She was in the kind of bad mood where she wanted to go up and smash someone’s perfect little front window with a rock, or find a spade and dig up their perfect lawn.
She wasn’t angry at the occupants, though; she was angry with her parents.

This was not just because they didn’t understand her, and didn’t try to; no, that was an everyday occurrence.
She had got used to that; today she was in a foul mood because of their sudden, and totally unexpected declaration over breakfast, that they were moving.
But that wasn’t the last of it - moments later, her parents told her that they were moving, not only to another town, but to another state - Ohio, more than 1200 km away, on the other side of America.

“Shit!” Amanda Pearson stormed down the street under her violent black cloud, muttering unintelligible curses and exclamations under her breath. “This can not be happening!”

She shook her head in amazed annoyance as she vented her frustration, her crazy blue hair bouncing up and down with her as she marched on, the white streaks on the side keeping time.

“How can they just decide to take me someplace, where I don’t want to go, and not even ask me? Motherfuckers!” She scuffed the ground as she walked, spooking a stray dog as it searched for food amongst the trash.

Watching morosely as it ran away, Amanda knew full well that there was no real reason why she would want to stay, for no one ever had got along with her, except maybe her albino rat, Moonshine.
And although she knew this, it was her parents’ constant ignorance that she was 16 now and could have an opinion about decisions regarding herself, which made her furious.

At the end of the main street, Amanda finally stopped - ahead of her stretched a lake, as cold and grey as the bayside tributaries that fed it.
Slumping on a bench, under the biggest tree she could find, Amanda stared out at the glassy water.

It seemed so calm, the thin sheet of ice on its surface glossy, like the pages of a magazine.
The similarity made her smile for a moment, as she thought of the deep, dark depths that both the icy lake and flimsy magazines hid.

A sudden breeze blew up then, rippling the water and sending little flurries of ice spiralling off the tree and onto her jacket, making her realise how cold it actually was.
She had been out for more than an hour already, and Amanda knew that she would have to go home eventually; deciding to bite the bullet, Amanda stood up from the bench with a sigh and dusted off her jeans.

As she began walking home, Amanda found that she was no longer in her black mood from earlier in the day.
She was just too tired with everything, with her parents, to keep being mad. Sighing yet again, Amanda resigned herself to the move.
There was no way that she was going to be happy about it, but she couldn’t stay angry forever.

By the time she got home, she was calmer, and even managed a civil hello to her parents as she came in.
Her mother had cooked some vegetarian lasagne, especially for her, and was serving it out as she walked in.

”Good evening, Amanda…” a pause, as Amanda’s mother reached for the tray of lasagne, ”…did you think about how you feel, about the move?”

Amanda almost forgot the promise she had made not to make a fuss about it, but caught herself just in time.

”Yeah, mom, whatever. As long as I can keep Moonshine, I don’t care… I’m gonna eat in my room while I feed him.” She grabbed her plate and walked out, not before noting her mother’s surprised look with a wry smile to herself.

She got to her room and put her plate down on her desk, before reaching over into the cage by her bed and taking out her rat.

“Hello, ratty-boy; I bet you have no idea you’re about to move… lucky you, hey?” Amanda murmured softly to her pet before putting him gently back in his cage, giving him one of his favourite peanut butter treats, and sitting down at her desk to eat her own dinner.

That night, Amanda did her homework quickly, and cleaned out her rat’s cage - it being the one thing she kept impeccably clean, unlike her room.
She thought about moving house as she worked, and how she could make it into a good experience; or at least a not so bad one.

Of course, that plan failed, so as a last resort, she tried to make a list of positive things about it.

...At any rate, Amanda thought, she would have to throw out some of the junk in her room… but then again, some of the stuff that even she called junk - like the scruffy old stuffed giraffe her best friend in primary school had given her - were things she didn’t want to get rid of.

Nothing seemed to be working - the best she could hope for was to remember her promise, and try hard to find something to be happy about once they had finished moving house and were settled in.

Lying back on her bed, Amanda turned on her iPod with the volume at its loudest setting, and willingly lost herself in her music’s blissful oblivion.

As the sound of Anti-Flag’s rebellious drawl pumped through the speakers, Amanda decided that the evil beast people called tomorrow could play all its dirtiest tricks, for all she cared - just for a while tonight she could forget it all.