My name is Raven. I have no friends. Actually, I had one friend, for a short period of time. But then I guess she felt betrayed because her boyfriend started crushing on me even though I never did return his feelings, but by the time she was ready to become "friends" again. My grandfather had already told me I couldn't have friends. So did my parents and my siblings. They said people like us couldn't have friends. That we were special…that we were different and it wasn't fair to love if it was just going to get taken away from you in the end, and friendship was a kind of love. This was the reason I had behind being alone all the time. I haven't told anyone, because then again, I have no friends. I am a girl that the teacher always puts in the corner, far in the back. I try my hardest not to be noticed and I don't wear bright colors or girly colors. I wear plain, neutral and dark colored clothes. So far it's been helping me stay out of everyone's way. My eyes are a lifeless shade of grey, I think, and my cheeks have the slightest hint of pink in them, my hair is a jet black that falls in front of my face when I look down. The girls in my class call me a loner. I think that's what I am so it doesn't bother me. I've always wondered though, why I couldn't have friends, why I couldn't love and why people looked at me so differently. I was born here, I breathe the same air, I look like them, I talk like them, I understand what they understand, and I'm human…just like them, yet they treat me so differently. The day I first questioned my parents I received a beating. I will never forget the sting of the whip against my flesh. The cuts that are left there now, that won't ever go away. I remember getting up to face my mother who whipped me across the face, it left an ugly jagged scar across my left cheek. Is that why the students at my school are so afraid of me? Are they afraid because I have mark on my face? It is just a scar. It hurt, but it didn't make me cry, I have never cried, I never will, my father told me that.
"Um, hi Raven, my name is Maribella, and I'm new here so I was wondering if you could show me around. Oh, and I forgot! Um…I also saw you a couple nights ago…what happened to you…I'm so sorry to have seen it. I wasn't trying to, I just looked out my bedroom window and…well you know, the movement caught my eye. Oh my goodness did the whip cut your cheek?" she asked as she reached out to touch the scar on my cheek. So someone did see…how embarrassing, I thought. I chose to ignore the girl who called herself Maribella. But that doesn't mean she stopped talking.
"I'm your neighbor, like I said, I'm new, so like, you should help me out a little bit, you know? Be my frien-, hey! Raven!"
"I'm sorry, I don't have friends, I don't plan on making any," I whispered under my breath as I walked away from her. Why is it now that someone decides to talk to me? And why in the world was it Maribella? Is this a sign sent to me?
"Raven! I'm like you," I heard Maribella scream frantically. "I'm like you! No friends, beaten if questioned, I have a scar on the back of my head, wanna look? Raven! Raven! I know you don't understand this either, but I have a map, you know? We didn't come from this place! We were made somewhere far away, specially trained for something that was to come in the near future. Except something went wrong…yes, something went very wrong and now we are scattered all over this United States of America place! I don't know what it is we were made to do, but I'm going to find out! I swear," I heard her say rapidly in the time she had before the crowd swallowed her whole and I heard them swearing under their breath at her and pushing her around. Calling her names I didn't like to hear. I turned around and walked over to the crowd.
"Hey, new girl, shut your trap, you got a big mouth there."
"You should come hang with us tonight, we aren't doing anything. Come on, come on!" I saw a boy shove her and laugh. I worked up the nerve to walk over to him and look him in the eye.
"Hey, I know you, you're the quiet goth girl right? Yeahhh, you're always in the corner and like, cut yourself or something to pass the time, or something, that's what my girlfriend told me," he said laughing cooly and then made eye contact with me and froze, I saw his expression change, I think it was into fear…I didn't know why. But he shrieked and started to back away.
"Man, let's go, come on," he muttered to his friends nervously.
"Yo, yo, Tommy, you can't leave, this was getting fun, we got two girls here, we can't leave them!" his friend yells. When his eyes also meet mine, it seems he understand why Tommy was leaving. I don't know what it was that caused them to leave, but when I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror, I couldn't believe what I had seen as my reflection.
