.

A cold smile played around her lips, and all her cronies sniggered. "Don't have no one now, do you?" said the girl. "No teachers here."

"I- I-" spluttered Ethel as she backed away. "I just want to get home," she said in an unusually quiet voice.

"Pretty blonde hair. Stupid blue eyes. You're disgusting to look at, you are," the girl continued, a sort of bubbling hatred in her tone. "No wonder mummy and daddy didn't want you, they probably threw up whenever they saw you!"

"Stop it," said Ethel, the girl had hit a nerve.

"Touchy!" giggled her bully. "So it's true then! You're a little orphan girl whose parents are dead."

Ethel turned, trying to walk away, but two members of the gang stepped out in front of her, blocking her exit. She was cornered.

"Trying to run away?" piped in another girl with a malicious voice.

These girls had just crowded around her as she had been walking home. It had never been as bad as this before. They had tripped her up in class, laughed at her clothes, said horrible stuff to her at lunchtimes, but today they had stepped up their game.

"I bet your mother was ugly, just like you. I bet she was poor, couldn't afford to keep you," the leader of the pack taunted.

Anger flared in Ethel, "you don't know what you're talking about," she snapped.

But the girl continued. "I don't blame them personally. You're ugly, fat-"

"Shutup!"

"What about your Dad? Alcoholic?"

In one quick movement, Ethel raised her hand and slapped the girl across the face.

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU FILTH" the girl shrieked, lunging for Ethel, who winced and slunk backwards.

But then a rather extraordinary thing happened. Just as the girl grabbed Ethel's shirt to push her, she squeeled and stepped back, staring down at her own fingers. Her eyes alight, she tried again, and this time she screamed.

"What is it?" said one of the other girls, peering at her friend, who had stopped screaming and now stood staring at her hand incredulously. A sort of green colour was spreading up the girls palm and wrist.

"What have you done?" she screeched at Ethel "you've given me a...a...DISEASE?" Like ink, the strange green was seeping into her skin, spreading till almost her whole arm was the startling colour.

The girls around her all stepped back. "What's happening to you?" one of them whispered.

"It's her fault!" she howled, pointing a green finger at Ethel. "What are you doing to me? MAKE ME NORMAL AGAIN!" The colour was spreading further and further, her neck was now turning green and blotches of the colour had begun to appear on her cheeks.

"I'm not doing anything!" Ethel insisted, and she really wasn't trying to make anything happen. "Honestly, I swear. I'm not-"

"I'm going home now Viv," muttered one of the girls.

"Me too," said another, staring at the ground as she spoke before hurrying off.

"Don't leave!" the girl called to her friends, as they all began to back or run away.

"I hate you, you stupid freak," she spat wildly at Ethel, before running manically after her friends, shouting at them, "you just can't leave me! I'M GREEN, lend me you're jacket, PEOPLE WILL SEE. I need to see a doctor! Call my mum! WHAT IF MY BOYFRIEND SEES ME?"

The girls shouts and echoes faded as she run off, and then Ethel was left alone in the street. Stunned, she stared down at her own hands. They were not green. What had just happened? No- she couldn't of caused it. She hated "Viv" but what had just happened, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. Whatever had just happened, it had saved her. Still shocked, she turned and started walking home, safe (for atleast a little while) from the taunts and the torments of her bullies.