Carmen's POV
I tugged on my hoodie, sighing. Another day of school, another day of getting shoved in lockers and another day of having so many insults thrown at me I actually started to believe them. I winced when the hoodie rubbed against my wrists, and when I rolled the sleeve up gently, I could see the cuts from last night were inflamed. I tugged the sleeves back down, ignoring the shooting pain up my arm and made my way downstairs and out the door as fast as possible, in an attempt to avoid my family.
I tucked a lock of red hair out of my eyes and continued to stare at the dirty, gum littered pavement. Soon, I found myself waiting at the bus stop with a few other kids my age. Thankfully they ignored me until my sister arrived, but after that, all hell broke lose.
"Carmen, you left without breakfast today," She informed me in an annoying nasally voice. "What are you trying to do, starve yourself? Even if you do you still won't look pretty." The small group that had hathered around us laughed. Anger flared in my chest and I had to bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from yelling at her not to make a joke out of real problems.
I managed to keep quiet until the bus arrived. I got on last, hoping to avoid confrontation and sat as near to the front as I could, knowing that everyone else would sit at the back.
The journey was bearable, I got a few peices of crumpled up paper thrown at my head, most having a very predictable phrase written on is suck as 'emo' or 'kill yourself'. The letters didn't really affect me, it showed that the person was too much of a coward to say it to my face and instead, chose to hide behind a piece of paper.
As soon as the bus stopped in fron of the school, I was off, hoping to avoid people in general. I was about to go to my classroom, when I realised I had to get books from my locker. I sighed and began heading in the same direction as everyone else.
I fought my way through the heaving crowds using my elbows and finally ended up at my locker. I quickly gathered my books and headed over to the art block where I spent most of my time. Once I was there, I began a sketch of a girl. It was all in black and white except for the headphones.
I had just finished the outline when the first bell rang. I sighed and packed up my things, heading to my first lesson.
The rest of the day passed in a blur, I got shoved into lockers a few times, had hateful names thrown at me, but nothing I wasn't used to. I was walking home when I decided I wanted to do something different. I quickly walked into town and found what I was looking for - black and green hair dye.
Once I payed for the items, I hid them in my bag and and ran home. As soon as I was through the door, I hurried upstairs, and set to work. I had always hated my ginger hair.
An hour later, I was drying my hair, hoping it had worked, so I could put the green in it tomorrow. I smiled at my reflection when I saw that it looked fine. However, the smile immediately dropped off my face when my mum shouted down that it was dinner time.
"Can I have dinner in my room?" I shouted down the stairs.
"Yeah," she replied, not caring what I did. I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves, and tied my hair up into a ponytail so it was less obvious. I slowly began to make my way downstairs. I could see my family in the living room and quickly dashed to get my plate. I was almost out of the door when my Dad called my name.
I turned around, almost shaking.
"What on God's earth have you done to your hair?" He bellowed. I gulped and looked down at the shaking plate of food in my hands.
"I-I just..." I stammered, not having an explaination.
"Well?" He shouted again. This time, I just stayed silent. "You have completely crossed the line this time, young lady!" Then I heard a slap and pain flared up my cheek like a fire.
I gasped dropping the plate I was holding. He had never done that before. My brain cut out, and before I knew what was happening, I was out of the door.