ROCHELLE

"Get Out!" roared Ian Thomas "Get Out!"

A scared figure lay on the floor, clutching a baby girl, barely a week old. "I love you Ian! Why should this change anything?"

"You're a freak! I never want to see you again!" He gestured to the infant, who was now crying, "And I'll take her."

The woman walked out the door, paused- and faded into nothing. As Ian watched the footsteps of the invisible woman that he once loved, he said to his daughter "Let us forget this, and hope this is gone for good"

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14 years later...

Rochelle Thomas bolted from the councilor's office in her school. Stupid people, she thought. They think they can help you, but too bad! They can't! And why... why did they have to ask what she was good at.

The truth was that Rochelle didn't know what she was good at. She was failing all her subjects at school, regardless of all the tutoring, extra help, and study time she had. Music: she had been failing grade one piano for the last five years. Sports: anything and everything she tried she was utterly hopeless at. As far as Rochelle was concerned, she was a complete failure. She didn't even have looks. She was average height and average weight with dirty blonde hair. The only thing that was the least bit special about her appearance was her pale, pale brown eyes. They were so pale that they were almost beige; unfortunately, they were almost always bloodshot from the late nights of fruitless studying.

She stopped and collapsed against the door to the roof of her school. Sobbing. What's the point of all this? Nothing was ever going to come out of her hard work. She looked up at the sign on the door above her and saw her answer.

She took off. Running faster and faster up the stairs, across the roof, and off the edge. "OH SHIT!" screamed Rochelle, "What am I doing?" She let her tears flow freely. What did it matter? She knew that she was going to die. Rochelle shut her eyes and braced herself for the impact, and death.

She waited. Was she already dead? Had she missed the 'splat' completely? She knew she was standing on solid ground, though. This wasn't at all what she expected death to be like. Confused, Rochelle opened her eyes and found herself standing outside the school.

She could hear the announcements starting inside, but she did not move. Rochelle was in shock. She had not been hurt at all, whatsoever! "It must have been an angel", she said aloud. And then... Rochelle smiled. Rochelle couldn't remember the last time she had smiled, at this very moment, she was happier than she had been in her entire life. If an angel had saved her, then she was meant to do something.

Rochelle decided not tell anyone about what had happened. Who would believe her anyways? She knew that classes would be let out soon so she ran inside to find her bags. As she was skipping down the hallway (yes, Rochelle Thomas was skipping), the principal was talking about the basketball tryouts after school over the PA system. This stopped her right in her tracks. "Basketball! Yeah! I haven't tried basketball yet." she said to herself.

Just then the bell rang. People came pouring out of classrooms all around her. She scooped up her bag and left. Unfortunately, basketball would have to wait for another day. Either her Dad or her step mom would be there to pick her up in 10 minutes or so.

Rochelle was sitting on her normal bench in front of the school. Since she had no friends, Rochelle was always deep in thought. "I wonder what my mom was like" she thought "Dad said she died while I was being born. Man, I really did screw things up" She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. "I wonder why Dad wouldn't say anything about her. I know it must be a painful subject, but I deserve to know".

Just then, her cell phone rang.

"Hello"

"Hi Rocky, I'm afraid that your step-mom and I took your brothers to Whistler for the day, so we won't be able to pick you up for a while."

"WHAT?! and you didn't bring me! I love skiing!"

"Sorry Rocky, I would have invited you, but I forgot"

"Ouch", thought Rochelle, but she said "Okay, that's fine. What time will you be here, then?"

"Probably around six. I know that's 3 hours from now... but my girl can tough it out!"

"That works!" said Rochelle excitedly, thinking about the basketball tryouts that she would now be able to attend, "Bye Dad!"

"Bye Rocky"

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Rochelle was a little late getting to the tryout, but her tardiness was soon forgiven. She was a natural! After the tryout was over, the coach approached Rochelle.

"Hey Rochelle!" the coach shouted.

Rochelle stopped and looked back at a stunned Mrs. Tye.

"Oh, um... hi!" said Rochelle awkwardly.

"Listen Rochelle" said Mrs. Tye "I have never seen so much talent in a girl before. You must have been playing for years."

"Well, actually... no, not exactly" replied Rochelle.

"Anyways" said Mrs. Tye excitedly, "Would you by any chance be interested in playing on the senior team?"

"YES!" yelled Rochelle, almost crying, "YES! YES! YES!"

"Alright then, we have a deal. Practices are Mondays and Thursdays, games are on Wednesdays." and with that, Mrs. Tye left the gym.

Back in the change room, Rochelle was approached by a girl from her gym class, Chloe.

"What?" said Rochelle who was filled with confidence from her new found basketball skills.

Chloe just exploded "If you think for one minute that you are going outshine me at this, then you've got another thing coming!"

Rochelle just looked a Chloe with her stone face on, like she always did when people were mean to her and forced herself to say, "What's the other thing coming?"

Chloe glared at her and said in a whisper "Do you remember my brother? My football captain older brother? Well, we happen to be quite close." She stormed off, leaving Rochelle alone.

Chloe's brother- Rochelle shuddered at the thought. He could snap her arms like twigs. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But as she walked towards the parking lot, she passed the place where the angel had placed her safely on the ground after her attempted suicide earlier that day. "No" she said, "I'm going to keep going and no mean girls or football players are going to stop me. This is my life, my calling."

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The next few weeks went by in a blur for Rochelle. Everything was turning around. Of course people still teased her, but she would never let them know that it bothered her. She had always had this talent, this special ability to not let her emotions show. It was her stone face, her cold, emotionless face. It was a little creepy, but never the less it worked.

One Monday evening, close to the end of basketball practice, things started to go wrong. Every time Rochelle tried to dribble, the ball would go down and then stay there. Nobody could figure out why. The ball worked fine for all the other players. They tried multiple new balls, but nothing worked. Practice ended and everyone shrugged it off, assuming that this was just some strange one time thing.

As soon as Rochelle left the gym, she wanted to burst in to tears, but she kept her stone face on. It just wasn't fair! Why was this happening? Was the angel telling her this wasn't what she was supposed to do? But she loved basketball! She was nothing without it. Maybe it'll pass, she thought. She went home and that was the end of all things wierd... Until the big game on Wednesday.