Hello. I believe you are a nightmare.
I have had lots of experience with nightmares, so I am not afraid of you. My name is not Little Red Riding Hood. I will not be attacked by a Big Bad Wolf. I do not have a grandmother named Granny Relda. I do not... I will not...
Please listen. Let's not rush into things. I'm not walking down a path to my grandmother's, because I don't have a grandmother. I am not wearing a red cloak because I am not Little Red Riding Hood.
You are just a nightmare. Only a nightmare. I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid. Afraid, afraid, afraid. Silly afraid...
Stop. I am not going into my grandmother's house, because my grandmother does not have a house, because I do not have a grandmother. There is no Big Bad Wolf in the bed, because there's no such thing as the Big Bad Wolf.
I will not be attacked! I will not be attacked! I will not! No, no, no, you cannot attack me, you are just a nightmare, you cannot attack me, I will wake up! I will not be attacked!
I will not - !
Great. The day I'd start at my new boarding school and I just had to wake up in a cold sweat. What would my roommate think if I had nightmares in our dorm room? If I screamed at night? Oh, crap.
I sat up as quickly as possible. I hated sitting in a pool of my own sweat. I guess it was better than someone else's sweat - that's why I don't have a boyfriend. Gross. Candy and flowers and teddy bears were fine, believe me. It's just when they start wanting to sleep with you that it gets kinda sketchy.
I tossed out my red curls. I hate my hair. It's what started this whole thing. My real name is Abigail, and yes, that's a horrid name, but I've been called Red since kindergarten, when Tobias Not-The-Divergent-Guy Clay pulled my hair and called, taunting, "Hey, Red!"
I've also been teased with "Ginger" and even "Ronald McDonald," but by now, everyone calls me Red. Even friends, even teachers. That's not exactly why I'm changing schools... But it's part of the reason. I relished in the thought. For once in my life, no one would call me "Red."
"Hurry up, Abigail, sweetie!" called my Granny Relda from downstairs.
See? Nightmare aside, I'm already off to a decent start.
Okay, scratch that.
The new boarding school started off decent enough. I gave Granny Relda a hug and she left, without crying too much, her red-streaked hair blowing everywhere in the wind. A nice boy named Henry, who told me, "Call me Hank," helped me with my luggage. I was just starting to relax a bit, too.
"You'll love FerryPort High," said Hank, leading me down the halls. "The dorms are kinda of small as a freshman, but by the time you're an upperclassman, you'll get bigger ones. And there's lots of fun stuff to do. Just... steer clear of the guys' rivalries, okay?"
"RIvalries?" I asked, starting to feel a little uneasy, but he didn't get a chance to answer.
Because there he was.
Running down the hall, jumping up, catching a football. Laughing. Enough to flash his point canines.
Tobias Not-Tris's-Boyfriend Clay.
"Hey, Grimm, outta the way!" shouted Tobias, banging into Hank as he barrelled past. "School's resident Good Boy showing freshies around?"
His friends, dogpiling down the hall after him, roared with laughter.
"Maybe you'll get a Good Citizenship Award, Grimm! Why don't you go pick up trash after this? Or visit a nursing home?"
Hank's face went red, and I could see his hands clench around the suitcase handles. "You shut up, Clay!" he shouted, his voice louder than I would have imagined possible from a sweet, can-I-help-you-with-that Good Boy. "Go take your crap somewhere else!"
I could still hear Tobias cackling as he disappeared. "Good Boy Hankie protecting the freshies!"
Hank fumed. "C'mon," he growled, stomping off down the halls. It was remarkable how fast his mood had changed - and then again, it was remarkable how much my life had changed thanks to Tobias Clay. I had a sneaky feeling I got what he was saying about these "boy rivalries." I decided not to ask him about it, though.
Hank stopped a few hallways later in front of a door like any other. Except, I realized as I neared it, it wasn't a door like any other - it was my door. My dorm room. I hesitated.
Hank seemed to have gathered some of his charm back, because he smiled at me and said in a forced voice, "Well, here we are."
"Yeah," I echoed, "Here we are."
He set down my suitcase. "I'm sure your roommate will show you around. She's been here a few days. In the meantime..." He stared off down the hallway and muttered, "I have a few bones to pick with that Tobias Clay."
So much for resident Good Boy.
When I went into my dorm room, it looked empty. Two beds, two desks, one clean, the other cluttered. "Hello?" I called, dragging my suitcases in after me. "Anybody home?"
"Roomie?" came a voice from the bathroom. "Is it my roomie?"
I dropped my suitcases by the bed. "Um, yes?" I realized too late that I wasn't ready for this whole roommate thing. Another girl, looking through my clothes, asking about my family, listening to me scream in the night...
"OMG! My roomie!"
A flash of brown hair, bright orange sweater, and dazzlingly blue eyeshadow engulfed me in a huge bear hug. "OMG!" the girl cried, voice muffled by my shoulder, "You're so cute! I just know we're gonna have so much fun as roomies!"
I tried to pull away. Too close, not enough personal space. "Um... Yay?"
She took a few steps back, ruffling her hands through her short hair, her smile pushing up round baby cheeks. "Sorry, honey, I just couldn't help myself. Roomies! Think about it!"
Yes, I thought, in some kind of stupor. Think about it. Think about weeks on end comparing myself to this... this beauty, those perfect cheekbones, that gorgeous, silky hair, that Barbie-doll body. Think about months sharing a closet with those flashy, neon clothes, sharing a bathroom with that bright, diva makeup. Oh, gods.
"The name's Daphne," she said brightly. "I'm just on my way out for lunch with the girls. Wanna come?" Her eyes swept over me and she added, "I just love your shoes."
Maybe she wouldn't be that bad. Still, I kept my guard up. "Lunch in the dining hall?"
"Of course," said Daphne, flashing another movie star smile. "If cafeteria food is included in tuition, we might as well take advantage of it, huh?"
Good. "Sure, I'll come," I said, forcing a smile. "Just let me, um..." I wildly searched for something I could do to make me look even remotely as going-out-ready as her. "Brush my hair." No! Not the hair! Anything but the hair!
Her face broke into another huge smile. It seemed like all she ever did was smile. DIdn't it hurt her face, after a while? "Can I help?" she asked eagerly. "I love hair. I want to become a hair stylist someday. Or maybe a clothes designer. And you have the prettiest hair!"
"It's red," I said, before I could stop myself.
She laughed. "Of course it is! Natural?" She was already behind me with a brush.
"Um, yeah." Who would dye their hair red?
She set the brush against my scalp. "Can I?"
I bit my lip and considered. "Okay," I said, after deciding she couldn't really do much harm. After all, it was probably still tangled after a night of tossing and turning. Which reminded me... I needed to bring up the whole I-have-trouble-sleeping thing. Before she learned the hard way.
"So Hank showed you here?" Daphne asked.
"Yeah."
"He's a big sweetie. His girlfriend is nice too. Just wait. She'll come by to inspect our dorm soon, and you can't help but love her. So pretty too."
Seemed like all the girls at FerryPort were pretty.
"Isn't there some kind of rival thing with the boys here?" I asked, letting her work her way around to the front of my hair, brushing and sticking in bobby pins. "Hank mentioned..."
"Oh, yeah," said Daphne, squinting in concentration. "All the popular boys have these gangs. I'll show you at lunch. Some of them are all right, but most of them are just big idiots. Boys, you know?"
She seemed like the hot-boyfriend type. "I've never liked boys much," I admitted.
"Me either. Much rather have quality girl time. Well? What do you think?" She shoved a handheld mirror in my face. I stumbled back, partly because of the force with which she shoved the mirror, but mostly because of the girl staring back at me from the mirror.
Daphne had twisted, spun, pinned, and pulled my curls. Into something worth curling into. Into something decent to look at. Into something I almost didn't need to be ashamed of.
"Wow..." I breathed. Daphne beamed.
Maybe it wasn't so bad, yet, to be Red.
A/N: Based off something I wrote a long time ago. Still Red x Pinocchio. AU.
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