I recommend reading the chapter even if you had read the original chapter, considering that there are quite a few differences. But if you don't really want to, then just skip to the bottom where I explain in my author's note..
A beautiful woman can be painted as a totem only; not as a woman, but as a Madonna, a queen, a sphinx.
Saul Steinerg
Keeeeh! The bell gave its usual high pitched screech to signal the start of class.
The students slowly settled down in their seats as the first period English teacher, Mrs. Yukari, gave a clap, "Come on, guys! In your seats! And take out your journals while you're at it," she added after a pause.
She had required her students to write their day's experience every day in English.
"Anyone want to share?" Many hands shot up but Mrs. Yukari knew better. "Any not about Rima Mashiro?" All of them dropped disappointingly. Mrs. Yukari shot a glance at the girl who had hardly reacted at the mention of her name, before letting out a sigh.
"Okay, just one!" The teacher had already planned in other classes that they would spend fifteen minutes on journal sharing. A large boy jumped up proudly when he became the lucky winner to be picked. His neighbors looked at him with bitter jealousy.
"Rima Mashiro. I see her everyday. She has wheat colored hair. Her eyes are matching color. She is an angel in disguise. She is..." His words were covered with a thick accent. He also kept losing his place when he read because of his annoying habit of looking up to see the girl herself whose eyes seemed to be only interested in inanimate objects. Overall, the journal passage that would have taken a minute or two took five full minutes because of his pauses.
Mrs. Yukari felt relief when he was done. She wasn't sure if she could take any more stretched out sentences of "Rima is beautiful.."or "Rima's sparkles".
"Try talking more about everyday things and not just about people," Mrs. Yukari said tiredly. The boy readily ignored her. He wasn't the only one. Every guy in the entire school (creepily, this included the staff) showed at least some interest in the petite girl. They seemed to be strangely blind, however, of what seemed to be painfully obvious to every female human including Mrs. Yukari herself: Rima's coldness. Just talking to this girl could send a chill down ones spine.
So it wasn't a big surprise to her that Rima had another nickname beside her already well-known, "Princess Rima".
Medusa.
However the idea came from her physical looks. It was far because she was ugly or hiding snakes behind a wig. It was because she was so breathtakingly beautiful that looking straight into her eyes would make anyone in the immediate danger of freezing like stone.
The door was unlocked for her by a maid and she carefully went inside her home.
"Mom, I'm home," she said as loudly as she could but at the same trying to sound lady-like. A stern looking woman stomped down the stairs.
"Hello, sweetie. Mom has to go overtime today too. Ask the cook to make you a salad-"
"Mom, it's a salad. I can make one on my own-" Rima stopped abruptly at her mother's experience that showed obvious fear and mistrust.
"Are you trying to hurt yourself? What if you burn yourself?" How Rima would burn herself when making cold salad was a great mystery to her but it was the most frequently used excuse her mother used for Rima to stay away from the kitchen as far as possible.
With a quick kiss on the forehead she turned to leave.
"What about Dad?" Rima asked quickly. Her mother paused. There was a sour look etched upon her mother's face.
"Oh, he said that he would be back late too." Without another word, the door closed with a slam. Rima sighed and touched her face.
Many people had pestered her parents that her parents should feel lucky to have been blessed with a stunning daughter. A girl that was warm and dazzling as the sun.
However, to Rima, she hardly seemed to be anyone special. This was just her. Just normal, ordinary Rima. She pinched her cheeks as a a thought formed in her mind. She'd give up this "useless" pretty face for the laughter that she knew had once echoed any day.
SOUL had escaped once again! A pearl that is estimated to be 2 hundred years old! Will he ever be caught!? wondered the T.V in the second living room. Rima stared at it as she held her stuffed teddy bear.
"Rubbish!" she heard her father mutter under his breath as he trudged past her. SOUL was a cat burglar that had been shaking up fangirls recently. Apparently girls like to muse about how he looked like ever since it was announced that he was probably somewhere in his teen. It didn't help that he would always return the items he stole, deeming himself to not be a "bad guy".
"SOUL escaped again?" Nadeshiko smiled as she entered the room. Rima gave her a sharp look before rolling her eyes. Nadeshiko was the maid's daughter who occasionally came over and went to the same school as Rima did.
"I bet he's nothing like my dream cat!" Rima murmured, trying to hide her interest. She didn't care how the thief looked like but she couldn't help but be at least slightly captivated by the puzzling actions.
"Tadase?" Nadeshiko guessed. Rima gave a glare at her friend who took a step back at its intensity.
"I said cat. Not monkey!" and hurled the closest thing at hand, in this case her teddy bear which Nadeshiko skillfully dodged. Rima stood up, feeling bad for her stuffed animal and picked it up.
"Oh, right. You like Ikuto, huh? Sorry, Rima. But I don't think monkey is a good animal either." Rima ignored the comment and continued to watch the television as they flashed pictures of the pearl.
It was around the time when the ginkgo trees were turning green to orange yellow when Rima received a rare invitation.
Her grandfather who was a renowned photographer had arrived at Japan after years of absence and immediately was offered a job to take special snapshots of an ancient castle. Her grandfather had always been the most understanding in her family and always tried to bring her along when there were special events.
It was even more enlivened when one of the photo editor's golden retrievers came along. The dog was hyper but yet friendly and immediately became attached to Rima.
Curious like a small child, Rima wandered in the photographer's work box. It was literally a big box filled with needed material.
The dog had more than common with Rima than just hair color. He too sniffed and was taken of the new environment. Even if he might have been around photographer's items, a box in a ancient castle was a different atmosphere. Maybe that's why he kept knocking this down. Pencils, films, books.
"Stop doing that!" Rima scolded as she leaned over to pick up an item that the dog had knocked over after losing interest. There was a sound of something being hit. She wasn't sure who did it the dog or herself but whoever did, caused the uncapped gallon of some liquid to stumble and crash down almost silently. Almost silently because Rima who was almost directly below, looked above, curious to where the soft rumble had come from.
The adults didn't stay ignorant for long. Her grandfather and the people outside was alerted by loud agonizing screams.
Unknown grown-ups quickly surrounded her. A man with glasses was looking down on her with great concern as he yelled orders. But it wasn't the shouts nor the barks of the dog that caught Rima's attention just long enough before the sear pain overriding it.
Rima hadn't known that the last thing she'll ever see was the clear reflection from the man's spectacles.
It was no longer showing her normal, ordinary, self that she had seen just the day before, but instead, it showed the terrifying image of a disfigured monster. She was just like Medusa.
First of all, I want to thank Mrs. Flamer for taking the time to edit my original. It wasn't until after her edits did I realize I really had a lot of mistakes. So I started over. I used her suggestions and edits on the parts that I copy and pasted. I hope.
I really do have a tendency to throw random adjectives when I feel like something is empty..far from the best move.
Hopefully, it's better and the adjectives actually make sense. If you have read the original please review/PM to tell me what you liked about the new one and what you didn't.
Even if you hadn't read the first version, TELL ME YOUR OPINIONS! This will help me loads to hopefully improve.