I stare at my mirror. In my mirror I'm staring at me. There's no avoiding it. Head to toe, I stare. My pale blond hair, skin my green eyes. I'm just a normal girl, at heart. But on the outside I'm famous pop-star Lissa. Just Lissa. Now I have to be normal. The normal Vasilisa. With black acid wash skinny jeans, a paint splattered lavender shirt. All the parts of being a famous pop star have been locked away in the basement of my home in Perth, Australia. It's quite a move from sunny California. California…Remind me not to say that again, it's making me feel sick, as though my intestines are being scrunched up. Ow. I hear the radio from above my thoughts. It's one of my songs. Of course, not really having anything else to do I start to sing it, matching every note. Word for word, as if I'd forget my own songs moving here.

(SARA BLASKO WE WON'T RUN)

Pages turning, lights are burning, See what you could not see. As plain as the day, the night makes you pay, For what was hidden underneath.

Longing to leave, but begging to feel, That something will make you stay. You gotta believe, that this all leads, To somewhere we've never been.

We won't run, we can fight, All that keeps us up at night. There is far, to go now, Let's not waste a minute more, in denial.

But I always thought, you knew yourself,

Better than anyone. But the season was lost When you started listening, to everyone else.

Cast in this devil, I've got the metal, The means to make things right. Tired of guilt, tired of being sorry, Haven't we suffered enough?

We won't run, we can fight, All that keeps us up at night. There is far To go now, Let's not waste a minute more.

But oh, That our eyes

Will be open.

We won't run, we can fight, All that keeps us up at night. There is far, to go now, Let's not waste a minute more.

We won't fear, we can fight, All that we can bring to light. There is far, to go now, Let's not waste a minute more.

We won't run, we can fight, All that keeps us up at night. There is far, to go now, Let's not waste a minute more.

Of our lives, Our lives , Our lives.

I remember not writing that song. It was never mine. Not really my style. Mum calls my name "Liss!" School. I'm in year 11. Can't wait 'till I'm free. Graduated. Still you can't escape the world for so long. I take one last look in the mirror. My hair, my blonde hair is gone. I have black hair now. Well at least I dyed it that colour for the week, I have a wig but, that's too difficult to style for school. I grab my bag, IPod and shove my feet in my canvas shoes. I run out the door. Humming to my IPod another one of my songs. I crash into someone. "Ow!" I cry. It's a girl with fairly tanned skin and darkish bronze hair. She's really pretty, tough and curvy. She's obviously heard me humming to my own song, "Lissa?" she asks. "I…Uh…Yeah" I answer nervously I look up to see something push my shoulder. "Look what the cat dragged in" says a slightly round boy as he passes me. "Shut up ya fascist bastard." Says the tan girl and he walks of slightly embarrassed, his really cute friend follows. "Jesse." The tan girl greets the boy. "Rose." He replies. She looks at him fiercely and then turns to me. "Sorry, the name's Rose, Rose Hathaway." I look at her. I get a feeling she'll be my only friend. She guides me into class.

PE first up. I don't mind PE. Rose, however is looking at the teacher as if… "Right." He says rounding everybody up, he has a slight Russian accent and he is very tall, his brownish hair pulled back into a low ponytail. "Today, we hit the track, when you need to get away from something, you run. Rose, you can 10 laps, the rest of you 5." I whisper to Rose, "What?" She looks at me like I'm stupid. "I once ditched school for a year-" I stopped her, "You ditched for a year?" She nods. "Mm yeah. I board here so I just ran away. I'm a legend. Anywho, I came back –they found me— I'm like, a year behind so I have to work harder." My attention is caught by the PE teacher again, "Got it?" There's a chorus of "Yes Mr. Belikov." Then you heard Roses reply "Aye aye comrade." We began to run. I ran around the track effortlessly. Mr. Belikov ran beside Rose. I read her lips curiously, couldn't pick anything up. Damn. I keep running. A girl runs up to me, I can tell she was trying to catch up to me. "Hey, the name's Mia." She looks like a doll, curly hair that frames her face and her eyes, they look like glass. "Just to let you know, there are some things at this school that I and only I can do, first of all, I run this school, second, Aarons mine. Lastly you mess with me and I will teach you a lesson." She puffs and then falls back, Aaron? Never mind. I run faster. Aaron…

PE finishes earing relief from students. Rose grabs my arm, she leads me to her group of friends. She pulls me down on the bench. "I never got your name. What is it again?" Rose says, as if she's embarrassed. "Lis- Vasilisa." Everyone looks at me strangely. One of them greets me with a "Yoyoyigidyo." The others just stare. I recognised the line from some movie but I couldn't remember… "Lisvasilia this is –" I cut her off. "Rose," I whisper "It's just Vasilisa." She nods and continues. "Vasilisa, this is Eddie Castile, Mason Ashford." She winks at Mason…did I miss something? I sit down, scouting the oval we sat near. One of the reasons my mom brought me here at St. Vladimir's was because of my cousin Natalie. Natalie was always nice. I was looking particularly for her. I was interrupted by someone talking, "Vasilisa… Needs to be shortened." It was Eddie. "Lissa, like the popstar, Vasilisa does look like her." Replied Mason.