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She ran, ran as fast as her legs would allow among the snow, far from the laughter and the humiliation. The ponytail of her auburn curls fell from its grasp and the strands of hair were now falling on her face, blinding her vision, but she kept running even though the bag of books in her back weighted too much.
Her feet made the known path up the stair to the house,she openedand closed the door with a loud sound, alerting everyone in the house for her presence.
In a hurried mess she climbed the stairs and entered her room, closed the door in the face of her brother who had ran after her with worry. Discarding her bag to the side, she let the weight of her body fall into the bed in a mess of pillows and tears.
"Tempe, are you alright?" His worried voice came from the other side of the door.
"Go away, Russ. I don't want to talk." Her voice came muffled from the place sherested her head in between her arms.
Her lungs expanded trying to reach for some air as her eyes fought against the tears thatburned in her eyes and stubbornly fell down her cheeks.
"Honey, can I come in?" The soft voice of her mother caressed her ears.
After a long pause without answering back she heard the door of her room opening and paces in her direction, and from the corner of her eyes she saw her mother seat in the bed beside her.
"What's wrong?"
She didn't say a word, just lifted her body and simply rested her head in her mother's lap. A warm hand caressed her head in a calm pace, waiting patiently. Itwas the first time that the woman had seen such hurt clouding the blue eyes of her daughter and it pained her heart.
"It was Andy Fluger, he was my secret Santa. He gave me a Brainy Smurf. I wanted Smurfette, but he gave me Brainy and laughed at me, and everyone else did the same."
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry."
"I liked him, I really did. And it hurts so much now." Her voice was only a whisper.
"I know, but a boy who hurts you is not worth ofyour love. Your heart is too precious to shed tears over someone who doesn't deserve."
She nodded silently at the wise words of her mother and learneda valuable lesson, only pain came out from giving her heart away to someone who's not worth of it.
School days were not boring, quite the contrary. Every new day was a discovery, learning was the food of her mind and it craved for more every time.
She loved school time and since very young she demonstrated to be a very bright student, and yet, since then she learned that the intelligent ones were outcasts. Looks of disproval and dismal were thrown in her direction every time her hand rose to answer a question, because to her, everything seemed so easy, so simple.
She would seat at the back of the class, her intelligence disguised, and she would listen, only listen and absorb every fragment of knowledge she yearned for. Because of that, her lips would remain closed for hours in a row as her brother passed by the window to check out his little sister, and always, she felt proud of it.
At recess she would be found in the library, her hand brushed by the many hard covers of books and addedone or another to the already tall pile in her arms.
In the warmer days, she would sit outside near a tall tree, refreshing at its shadow, surrounded by her only two best friends.
They were simple girls, who enjoyed her company not by her popularity, because that was nonexistent, but because they understood her, even with her strange ways of talking, with big words and sometimes not knowing what was happening in the latest TV show, and that didn't matter to them, because they were friends, and she cherished them immensely.
"Let's go, Tempe." A small blond girl pushed her friend by the hand, urging her to get up. – "I feel like singing today, it's the last day of school!"
As much as she was enjoying her book, she was still a girl, who wanted to sing and dance, spin around herself untilshe fellto the ground laughing with her friends. So, she stood up and followed her friends home.
The girls stood in the coffee table, in their summer shorts and colorful socks. Hairbrushes and spoons were their microphones, and the girls danced and jumped in their musical enthusiasm as the lyrics of the song played loud in the LP player.
"I come home, in the morning light; my mother says when I'm going to live my life right…"
Their voices erupted in the air, louder than the record itself, filling the house with an exciting melody.
The girls slumped in the sofa all together in the end, breathing hard and laughing hysterically at their performance, there were hopes in their eyes for a bright summer to come, because after all, girls just want to have fun.
She lay in her bed, surrounded by many papers and books, colorful pens, but her head was not in them. Her mind had flew elsewhere, remembering the happy days of heat, picnics in the park, afternoons in the pool and bicycle rides around the block racing with her brother.
That summer had been the happiest of her life and she was now fifth teen years old. So many things had happened, so strong, so fast that madeher head spin in a turmoil of emotions, senses and logics that were foreign to her own reason.
For the first time she felt what was like to kiss. She met a boy, slightly older than her, who had moved to the neighborhood. Her eyes spotted him in the other side of the road one day when shesat by the window, but at the time she didn't acknowledged his presence, he was simply another boy who was an expert in tossing a basket ball around.
Until the day she came from school, with an impossible pile of books in her hands blocking her vision ahead. And suddenly everything was on the floor with a loud sound. She was infuriated, who would dare to bump into her, ruining the precious books?
"I'm so sorry." He said and kneeledbeside her to help.
And when she looked up, her blue eyes locked with the softest of browns she had even seen. A bright smile caressed the delicate features of the brown haired boy. Immediately she felt all the annoyance slipping away under his stare, and soon she was holding the books once again tightly against her chest and ran in the direction of her house and only stoppedwhen she reached her bedroom with an accelerated heart that had nothing to do with the running.
The tingling sensation of their summer kisses still remained in her lips, even now.
It had been another season of hopes, first kisses and laugher, but winter came upon her too soon. It was slowly snowing outside; the white expanse of soft icy water reflected the intense bright lights of Christmas decorations that adorned the familiar homes around.
Soon, it would come, her favorite season of the year, where their little family would seat around the tree, warmed by the burning fire, lights down and the rainbow colors of lights illuminating their carols and winter stories. They would open the presents and share the warm feelings within their hearts, holding the promises for a brilliant new year ahead.
She sighed in her bed once more, the exciting feeling of the season ran in her veins and although that made her impatient there was another mixture of feelings she didn't quite understand, that settled in her heart and made her nervous.
A knock on the door washed aside those emotions, and brought her back to the solace of her room.
"Can we come in?" The strong but warm voice of her father asked between the partially open door.
"Of course." She answeredand satstraight in the bed.
Her parents entered further into the room and came sit at each side of her in the bed, looking at her with pride and love in their eyes, like so many times before.
"Honey, we love you so much." Her mother said, extending a hand to caress her face.
"I know, Mom." She smiled dearly at both her parents.
"Know that we've always been proud of you." Her father whispered in secret.
She only nodded; the power of her father's words resounded in the walls around her room and rested in her heart.
"Remember that, no matter what, we'll always be with you." Her mother whispered in her ear and placeda tender kiss in her cheek.
There was something definitive in their words that she couldn't understand, but her mind registered every word as if they were the last ones.
"I love you." She said to her parents before curling under the covers.
A great sadness surrounded her being unexpectedly, and even though there was no reason to feel that way, she couldn't put it aside, as her parents walked out of the room closing the door behind them. In that night, sleep didn't come until it was early in the morning, nightmares that were not of monsters anymore assaulted her restless state.
"Christmas will come soon." She murmured to herself, and with that thought the first sun rays lulled her mind to sleep.
The morning brought hushed voices to her room, the sounds of paces and car doors. Her blue eyes opened in alarm, an accelerated heartbeat in her chest.She threwthe covers aside andran downstairs in her soft blue pajamas, passing by the emptiness of her parents' bedroom. She reached the freezing cold air of the winter morning, bare feet crossing the snow, but she didn't care, what was happening before her froze the blood in their veins.
Her parents were inside the car, driving away from the house, from them. In the distance she only saw her mother looking back once, waving goodbye.
A warm hand held her shoulder, and from her peripheral vision she saw the face of her brother, fighting hard against the tears in his eyes. It didn't made sense in her mind, but he did understand, and encircled his little sister in the safety of his arms.
A shadow of hurt and confusion wrapped around her heart and assaulted her fragile mind, sinking it into a sort of despair she never experienced before.
The days went by without them coming back. The house echoed in silence and she spent the days and nights confined to her room, not answering the calls of her worried friends, not allowing her brother to come in.
And then it was Christmas Eve, and the sounds of steps downstairs woke her into conscience. Her heart skipped a bit and in haste she ran downstairs with hope in her steps.
"Mom, Dad? Are you home?"
When she reached the living room the disappointment was written all over her blue eyes. Her brother was slowly placing the small pieces of angels and bells in the green branches of their Christmas tree. The presents were displayed beneath it in colorful papers, waiting for a family to open them. But there was no sight of her parents.
"Merry Christmas." Her brother said with a sad smile in his features, hoping that a little of the spirit would make his sister happy again.
"What are you doing?" She snapped at him in a low cold voice.
"I thought we could do our own Christmas…" He offered in his defense.
"You thought?" Sheyelled at him, fists closed and anger burning in her eyes. – "I don't want a Christmas! I want Mom and Dad back!"
And she ran up the stairs again with fury in her mind, her heart broken in pieces at the frightening realization that her parents would not come home anymore.
As the time went by, all the emotions, love and tender care her parents provided to her, suddenly seemed just like figments of her imagination.
The next thing she knew was that feeling again, which she could now categorize as abandonment. Her brother left too; the boy who she grew up to love and admire was no better than her parents and entered the car and drove away, just like themin that morning.
Now everything that remained was her, alone, seating in the front steps, a blue garbage bag in her hands with the few belongings she allowed herself to keep, a favorite doll, a book, pictures to remind her of the past and two small boxes wrapped in multicolored paper. Dreams and hopes for the future left behind.
There was nothing else for her in the house that she had once called home.
The End