Disclaimer: i don't own any of the marvel comics characters.

"So evil king Ravana captured princess Sita and took her to Lanka where-"

"where's Lanka?"

"that was Ravana's kingdom, which is at the south of India-"

"Is it there now? Can we go there?"

"We will see."

"Please please please can we go there? Tomorrow?"

"What? No! Of course not! Now it's getting late. Time to go to be-"

"But the story?"

"Tomorrow night. okay? Now goodnight."

With that Ananya practically ran out of her younger sister's room. It was impossible to tell that girl anything without her erupting in a whole bunch of questions. Why do kids ask so many questions anyway?Ananya stifled a yawn as she walked towards her room. Finally some peace and quiet.

"Ananya, did you get Nikki to go to sleep?" called a tired female voice from downstairs.

"yes Ma! Goodnight" yelled Ananya, (now running) as she made her way across the lobby.

"goodnight sweetie."

Ananya sighed as she tossed her 17 year old self onto her bed. She didn't even look 17! She tried reading a book but shut it in frustration. Even the stupid story book characters were prettier than her.

She scowled at her reflection in the mirror, her wheat-color skin was horribly tanned and remained that way year round, thanks to the ridiculously scorching Indian climate. She was short and not even that skinny, athletic? She thought to herself but then groaned in disgust, there wasn't even a WORD to describe her pitiful body structure.

Ananya dragged herself to her bedroom window and gazed up at the starless sky. There would have been stars, but the pollution in her part of town was insane. One could barely breathe when out on the roads.

MusicAnanya thought. She needed to listen to some calming music.

So she lay down on her bed and shut her eyes, hoping that Linkin Park would be able to coax her to sleep.

"So Plank's Quantum theory states that…"

Ananya could barely help herself when her eyelids began to droop and her head began to feel really heavy. Quantum physics for heavens sake? How could somebody stay awake through this shit?Physics was definitely not on Ananya's favorite subjects list. She turned to her right to exchange a depressed sigh with her friend stuck out her tongue towards their teacher and returned to looking blankly outside the window. Ananya couldn't blame her; traffic was way more interesting than physics.

Ananya rested her head on her hand and continued to stare outside the window. Her eyes began to shut once again but then she saw something. Ananya immediately bolted upright as she rubbed her eyes and looked outside the window again.

Nothing.

The chaos that slowly grew around her snapped her back into reality. School was over; physics had been her last class. Kim grabbed Ananya by the arm and pulled her out of the classroom. But Ananya couldn't stop staring at the window. There had definitely been something. She had seen a person flying outside her classroom window.

Ananya was still slightly dazed when she walked out of school with Kim. And Kim had apparently noticed "Ananya? Whats wrong with you? You haven't said a word in the last 15 minutes and that's really saying something."

"No…i…just…HEY!" Ananya caught the jab in her friend's last sentence and frowned angrily at her.

"Okay, okay. But really what's on your mind?"

"I…I saw some one outside our window in physics."

"Our second floor classroom window?"

"Yeah and he was just flying."

"You saw someone FLYING outside our classroom window? Really? Did he have wings? Maybe it was an alien? What do you think?"

"No…I don't know if it was a guy or not, could have been a fema-" Ananya stopped abruptly when she saw the look on her friends face. Kim clearly did not believe her and she was having a tough time keeping a straight face.

"FORGET IT!" Ananya said as she marched forward towards her house, leaving Kim in her giggling fit at the crossroads. She should really learn to keep her mouth shut.Or maybe you should make better friends replied a small voice inside her much as she hated admitting it, the darn voice was right. Kim really didn't fit the category of an understanding and dependable friend.

Ananya walked aimlessly around her neighborhood. She really didn't want to go home right now. She made her way to one of the small parks close to her place. So even if her mum calls, she can get home instantly.

Ananya sat down on the grass and idly began to pluck out the leaves of a wild flower growing near her. Ananya's heart ached as she thought of her mother. Her father had left a long time ago and ever since her mum had tried to pull through all by herself. It had been six years but Ananya knew her mother wasn't over him. She worked all day and took care of her own old mother, her two daughters, one dog and a fish. So Ananya tried to help out as much as she could.

By the time Ananya was finished she had stripped the poor flower naked. Instantly she felt a pang of guilt, Ananya was very active when it came to environmental concern and stuff. She thought nature was god's greatest gift to mankind. She loved watching plants grow and blossom; she even had her own garden on her roof. She hated the smog around her city and had begged her mother to move after her father left, but her mum had refused and so Ananya was stuck here in pollution-Ville, where trees were almost extinct.

The bitterness inside Ananya grew till she ripped out the flower and flung it furiously towards a tree. After which Ananya burst into tears, she hated her life! It was so unbelievably pointless. She didn't have any friends or a father. She hated the city she lived in and it wasn't like she was astoundingly beautiful or brilliant either. The only thing she could do properly was run, really fast. Great she thought miserably I should have been born a horse. She was a complete loser and hated everything about her stupid teenage life.

Ananya looked up after she had gotten through her outburst. Maybe she should concentrate more on all the good things in her life and delete the last 10 minutes of her life. She exhaled deeply to calm herself and started to move home. When she noticed the tree, at which she had thrown the flower.

The flower had not only reattached itself to the soil, it had grown all over the trunk of the tree. Like a grape vine, it had wrapped itself around the tree and had used it as a support to grow. More flowers had burst from their buds and had almost engulfed the whole tree trunk. The wild flowers dazzled proudly in the sunlight, they were mild shades of pink but were mainly purple. They radiated not only beauty but sadness too. It was the strangest sight Ananya had ever seen, the flowers were so pretty but they seemed so upset; like they knew about all the awful things in the world.

Unthinking, Ananya just turned around and sprinted home.