Eleven year old Darcy Lewis sat in the playground eating her lunch. It wasn't much like those of the other kids, her adopted parents were not the type for white bread and peanut butter, instead she had a salad sandwich on lumpy homemade bread and a muffin that made a thunking noise as it hit the bottom of the metal playgroud bin every day. She sat alone here, as she had at every school she had ever been to. No one wanted anything to do with a blank girl. Even the teachers spoke as little as possible to the strange girl with no soul stain, for all she got excellent grades in nearly every subject.

Kids were scattered around the quadrangle, playing, gossiping, laughing and little Darcy sighed, looking at the wide range of colours each sported somewhere. Not all were exposed, but most were on their palms. Most people matched with a handshake after all. Darcy supposed it would be possible to lie, to say that her mark was somewhere else maybe, but she had never been very good at lying. Her parents told her that she was blank because she was special; that someone would choose her one day, just like they chose her, that it would be fine in the end. She sighed and drank some water, made necessary because of the bread in the sandwich. Her parents weren't like other parents, their house smelled like candles and incense and her clothes were always handmade or second hand but they had chosen her, at the age of eight, saving her from a life wholly filled with rejection and days spent with an empty stomach. She was even a little bit chubby now, but Susan told her that she would grow out of it and that she'd be very beautiful soon. Darcy wasn't too sure, right now she felt awkward and weird but Susan was really pretty, for all she didn't dress or act like other moms, so maybe she knew what she was talking about. She finished her sandwich and headed for Mrs Mahoney's class. She wasn't exactly nice to Darcy, she was too distracted by her science experiments. But she let her hang out in her classroom anyway and work on her extra homework during lunch if she wanted. It beat sitting by herself in the quadrangle anyway.

...

Sixteen year old Darcy Lewis sat in the toilet stall in her prom dress, tears silently trickling down her face. Trevor had matched with Sharon. She didn't know quite what she'd been expecting of tonight, but she sure as hell wasn't expecting her boyfriend to match with the girl who made her life hell. She rubbed her pristine white arms and drew herself up. It would all be over soon, she was graduating early due to her hard work and smarts. She kind of thought that maybe it was a little because the school was pretty done with all the trouble she was causing as a blank too. Maybe not, but she knew there would be nobody missing her when she was gone. She'd been accepted at Culver University. Her parents were super proud of her, and she was grateful once again to at least have two people in her corner. Especially when all of the scholarships had fallen through due to her blank status. Her parents were willing to foot the bill for a degree, and that was nothing to sniff at.

She scrubbed her face with her hands and pulled her nokia out of her purse. They'd come and get her, and Susan probably had a bucket of homemade soy ice-cream ready. They hadn't wanted her to come to prom but she'd been wrapped up in the romance with Trevor. And so, Susan had made her a dress, a beautiful red number and just for a moment, Darcy had felt like a princess, but it wasn't to last, she just wasn't princess material. She sighed and dialled home, hoping her parents would be able to come soon.

...

It was midnight and Darcy was hunting for a way out. She was just about through with her masters when the professor she was seeing told her they were about to be found out and that it was over. Not only was she more than a little crushed, but that was her science unit. She needed science credits to finish her post grad, and she needed out of Culver. She saw a posting for an intern in the deserts of New Mexico. Clicking on the application button she swallowed, hoping this wouldn't be as awful as it looked.

Anything to get out of Culver for a while.

So just a memo that I'm picturing Darcy's adoptive parents to be a couple a little like the parents from Easy A but a little more hippy. They own an interiors shop with lots of handmade cushions and quilts and chairs and things, so maybe a weird cross between the parents from Easy A and the parents from Mean Girls. anyway, they raised her pretty good, and are different enough themselves to roll with Darcy Lewis' randomness.

I totally love the idea that something that is basically like a gaudy colourful birthmark would be prized and revered in this universe, that the womens' pristine skin would be weird.

Also Mrs Mahoney is definitely a reference to Natalie Portman's character in Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium.