365 Days.

I pull at my dyed bright red hair,
look down at the sketchbook in front of me.
A bit of fluro purple
peeks at the top of my vision.

I sigh,
push it to the side.
Colorful hair much,
makes me wonder,
what am I doing?

Last time, the fringe was yellow,
but then the yellow turned diseased-looking.
Wasn’t going to keep that around,
So in came purple.

Perhaps going back to blue hair
wouldn't hurt at all.
It suited me much more than this red,
and the purple would fit in better…

Ah.
I’ll think about it later,
the noise of this cafeteria
distracts me from my thoughts.
Too hard to focus.

I sketch on.

Everyone is talking about their holidays,
and moaning about school.
It's the first day of this school year for them,
and the first of any for me.

I’ve been home schooled all my life.
Father insisted it was best for me.
I wouldn’t be teased for my ‘diversity’.

Yet somehow I begged off for my last year of schooling,
to go to a proper one.
Reluctantly,
father agreed.

I look up indifferently.

A group of guys stand at the end of my table.
They look at me expectantly.

I don’t know what they want,
and look back down at my artwork.

The same voice clears its throat.

I look up again,
wonder what they want.

The guy at the front looks at me,
he seems to be waiting for something.

“What?”
They seem to be tough,
probably football players,
so obviously I don’t need to help move anything…

The guy in front,
probably the leader or something,
sets his foot on a chair beside mine.
He leans in towards me,
a mocking smile on his face.
“Scram.”

I raise a brow,
tug at my fringe.
Why?

The guy waits a second longer
then seems to realize I’m not going to move.
He tilts his head.
“Well?”

I twirl a pencil in my hand.
“Well what?”

The guy gestures to himself and the guys behind him.
They give me a hard cold look.
“This is our table.”

I shrug,
“So?”

Perhaps it was because I’ve
never been to a proper school,
never seen movies about schools,
didn’t know that there were rankings,
and that the cool guys were given what they want
in the blink of an eye.

“So?”
The guy repeats,
straightening up and looking down at me.
“So?”
He repeats louder now.
“Listen,
boy whose name I don’t know and whose face I’ve never seen before.
You have a choice of either you move, or I move you.”

I look down at the table,
then my hands,
before looking back up at him.
“Why?
I like this spot.”

“That’s exactly why you’re going to move.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”
I protest and open my mouth to say something,

but he holds up his hand and cuts me off.
“Stop playing games with me.”

“I’m not playing games with you.”
At this moment I realize,
how quiet the cafeteria had become,
and how pissed off the guy looked.

For a second,
I wonder if I had stepped into dangerous waters.

“Listen,
colorful hair,”
He leans in close to me,
his eyes sparkling dangerously.
“If you don’t move,
I’ll make sure you–”

“You can’t do anything to me.”
I’m cool,
calm,
and tired of this.

He gives me a nasty smile,
“Oh?”

“If you do,
you'll have one angry father and mayor in one,
to face.”
I usually don’t boast about this,
but I usually don’t act like this either.

I know its rude,
and not right to say so,
but right now,
I honestly couldn’t give a damn.

I had promised to try everything this year.
Everything.

The guy looked rather cautious and careful now.
“What’s your name?”

“Evie Chandler.”

Snickers,
From all around the cafeteria.

The guy himself looks like he’s going to laugh.

I’m used to it,
and I ignore it.
Was it my fault that my parents wanted a girl instead,
so they named me like one?

“Listen Evie,”
The guy smirks.
“You can sit with us for today,
and see how much you like it.”
He slips into the seat beside me smugly.

And makes me hate it all the way.