Disclaimer: I do not own Blood+ in any way.
Recess is the best time of the day other than lunch for any elementary student. Well, all except for her, that is. She watches forlornly as her yawning classmates suddenly awaken and crowd around the door to escape the room she would rather stay in.
The child hopes she won't be noticed as she remains stubbornly in the seat of her desk and indeed her classmates are oblivious, but her teacher sees, like always, and walks over to her once all the kids are in line.
"Come on, it's time for recess," her teacher says in a voice that she thinks is far too bright to be truly happy. The child knows her teacher feels sorry for her.
Regardless, she obediently rises from her seat as she follows the adult and other children with a slight distance between them and her, going to what she considers the worst part of the day excluding lunch.
Once they're all outside under the bright sun, the children ignore the teacher's warning to not run too fast and scatter around the playground, some immediately going for the jungle gym and slide while others look through the equipment brought from the classroom that consists of jump ropes, a variety of balls, and chalk.
Well, all except for one quiet child ignores the teacher's voice, of course. This one calmly walks to a lone tree that she considers hers and sits in the shade it casts with her legs stretched out and watches.
A few kids close to her are playing tag on the grass, chasing each other and laughing and screaming in joy. It looks really fun, she can't help but think. If only she could…
She frowns and turns away from the so that her back faces them, deciding to simply wait for recess to end. She can still see other kids playing as well, so she focuses her blue shoes that are the same shade of her dark eyes, telling herself that she doesn't really care and she doesn't want to play with them anyway.
"Um, excuse me?"
The raven-haired girl looks up in shock and a little fear, expecting a bully, but it's only a girl she's never seen before, with short black hair and brown eyes that are focused on the grass, a light blush staining her cheeks as she stands in the sunlight. And, when the blue-eyed girl looks around her to make sure, this girl is actually talking to her. She can't respond even if she wanted to, but the girl continues speaking anyway.
"My name is Saya and I was wondering if you could be my friend, please." Saya finally looks up from the ground and smiles at her, and though it's small and a little shy, she can tell it's a true smile.
She opens her mouth and she thinks that maybe, hopefully, it will finally happen but then -
"What are you doing, new girl?" A new voice intervenes, one that makes her instantly afraid because she knows what will happen next and that she won't be able to stop it. Reluctantly, she turns to see Anna Marie's piercing blue eyes that are so much brighter than hers only to look away. She settles on looking at Saya instead.
Saya turns to her classmate, confusion written on her features and she hopes Saya won't ask but of course she does, "What do you mean?"
"You shouldn't talk to her," the blonde points accusingly at the girl who has yet to speak. "She's creepy and a freak," Anna Marie stresses on the word and she flinches, "and a big, fat liar that pretends to be good in front of the teacher. Last week she stole another kid's bracelet and refused to admit so."
Now, that's a lie, the one about the bracelet but she only helplessly listens as Anna Marie tells Saya that she might steal from her too, and watches as the girl who wants to be her friend is dragged away.
Diva doesn't say a thing.
"She also likes to act like she's better than everyone else, and pretends that she can't…"
When she hears, even from the distance the two are at, about the trait that makes her a freak, something that is actually true, she runs into the building and into the nearest bathroom. The only good thing she can think of is that it's Friday and so she will not see anyone at the school for two days.
And as it turns out she won't see Saya at school ever again.
There are dozens of chairs at the table, but a mere two occupies them. A man in a business suit sits calmly and eats his breakfast at a steady pace, cutting his pancakes methodically and adding syrup shortly after. There's a little girl across from him who merely stares at her plate blankly, having already devoured all of her breakfast. She dully runs her fork across the fine china, creating indescribable shapes with the syrup leftover. She is thinking of yesterday and her failure to speak up.
Moments later, the girl abandons her breakfast (and her sullen thoughts) to look longingly through the double glass doors that lay behind the man. There on the ground lies a sandbox but it is only a small portion of the play set. There are also swings and a slide and a set of monkey bars. Her blues eyes brightens and she begins to kick her legs in excitement. Soon enough, there's a bright smile that lightens up her whole face as she plans what she will do first. The sandbox? Or maybe the monkey bars? The man across from her glances from his meal to his young daughter and notices her distraction.
"Do you want to go outside?" His voice is soft and soothing while his words are slow, and she can't help but notice it's like a predator attempting to lure out its hiding prey.
She nods nonetheless.
And, of course, it turns out to be too good to be true.
"Then ask for it and it shall be as you wish," he encourages. The tone of his voice remains the same as but now his lips twist into a self-satisfied smirk. It's the kind she knows means trouble. His question and his smile halt her enthusiasm; her legs stop kicking, the smile and brightness of her eyes vanishes like a ghost, and she lowers her head to concentrate.
Her mouth opens, trying to form the words but it feels as though her heart has stopped and then suddenly, it beating all too fast in her chest and the little girl feels her hands begin to tremble. Her mouth closes, and she tries to build up her courage, but now her thoughts are stuck on yesterday's recess. She couldn't do it then but maybe...
Maybe if she thinks about being by herself, it'll work this time, or if she thinks about being alone with her dolls. She takes a deep breath and opens her mouth and tries to make the words come out but she can't, she knows it was useless from the start and he knows it too…
It feels like yesterday all over again.
The man lets out a dark chuckle as tears begin to form in her blue eyes. "Well, I guess you don't want to go outside after all."
Her head snaps up and this time she tries to meet his eyes and speak but his eyes are mean and mocking and cruel and she can't beat his expectations (or anyone else's) and do what she wants after all, just like always. The only sound that escapes from her lips is a little squeak that's more appropriate for a mouse than a girl her age, and it is met with a cruel laughter that makes it harder to hold back her tears.
"What was that?" he laughs, eyes bright with delight. "You're going to have to try harder than that if you ever want to go outside again."
The little girl flees to her room before he can see her cry. She knows that would only make it much worse. Slamming her bedroom door closed, she practically flies to her bed and buries her head in the pillows. But the tears won't come. Instead she thinks, not for the first time, that maybe she prefers it when he yells because at least then it seems like he cares, unlike now. A moment later, she hears the door lock from the outside and his voice is there again saying:
"You'll be staying in here until you learn how to behave like a proper little girl."
She hears his footsteps and chuckles fade and, suddenly, the tears that won't fall are gone and she's clenching her jaw so hard that it hurts. A moment later she's off her bed, picking up a doll and for moment she stares at it. It's a pretty and expensive gift that she had received on her most recent birthday but it looks a lot like Anna Marie, who is just as mean as her daddy is and so she throws it at the door, but it does not calm her in the slightest. Her next victim is a Barbie doll, and it is with a sound snap that she viciously tears off its head and then its limbs before going after the other toys, flinging them all in different directions.
It's not fair, she thinks. Snap. She never did anything wrong. She always listens to her daddy and her teacher and does what they tell her to. She eats all her food like a good girl, and goes to bed on time even when she doesn't want to. Snap. Her teacher says that good kids are rewarded for being nice while bad kids get nothing but the trouble they bring, but she's starting to think that maybe that isn't really true. Anna Marie makes up lies about her, but she still has many friends. Friends that will probably include the nice girl called Saya come Monday.
When there are no more heads, she goes after her tea set, leaving a mark that grows darker on the wall with each cup thrown against it. It's with hard crash that the cups shatter against the wall with every throw. The child wonders why it is her of all people that is so stupid, why she can't be like the other kids in her class. They all can talk and laugh and sing with each other perfectly. All but her. Never her. She's only silent and quiet and dumb. Her daddy is not the only one to say so. The other kids think so too and so they stay away from her because they don't want to catch it. Her teacher tells her that she is a smart girl but she doesn't believe that any more either. If she really was smart, then she would be able to talk like everyone else and not just to her dolls or when she was alone. Always alone.
She can't find anything else to throw and that's when her mind clears, and now she sees her room is a mess. She sees that she destroyed more than she paid attention to. Along with the white porcelain of her tea set, there is cotton scattered across the carpeted floor along with the limbs of the other dolls she had torn apart. The mini bookshelf near the lone window is turned over, and the pages of the books have been torn out and have been either shredded to tiny pieces or crumbled like trash.
The door remains firmly in place and amidst the ruins of her tattered room, Diva starts to cry.
I hope Diva didn't seem too OOC; I made her personality based on her more subdued persona of the Zoo.