Trigger Warnings: Bullying and violence
Chapter 3 – Hair of a Thousand Suns
A pine coloured blazer and crisp, black trousers. A white shirt creased at the seams and a basil tie diagonally striped in thin, butter-coloured lines. Not so new, dark leather shoes laced up tight around her feet, a few scuffs, a scratch on the left, but no mud just yet.
Yet, she still felt new.
Because there was no faded white hair anymore. The only familiarity in the form of the solo braid on her left side. But it wasn't dyed. She hadn't seen it like this in years. Only in worn family photos from when she was too young to know what dye was or about how mean people could be about it.
Before it was white.
And it wasn't anymore.
Instead of dainty snowflakes of Alaskan hills, the fire of a thousand suns raged with its shiny texture.
She's forgotten how bright her hair was underneath all the fake colours. She was surprised that it still was after the years of chemical abuse it had been put through.
But she was right. Red hair definitely went better with her new uniform than the white.
It brought back the innocence of childhood in a way. But then with that, it also brought taunts and teases of the other kids.
When she was young in primary school, it wasn't really that bad. In fact, she actually felt as if she was normal. People never really said anything. The only comment she really got was when her and her friend were deciding what Halloween outfits they wanted. They both wanted to be Mulan, but her friend made her be Merida because of the hair and the accent. And really, she didn't mind that in the end. Merida would be her new favourite princess.
But once Year 7 hit. She got a bitter taste of what school really was and what it could become.
Some of them were okay. More annoying than anything else.
'Were your always ginger?'
'Sun's out, gingers in!'
'Do you have… oh my god, Rachel! She has ginger brows and lashes!'
'Do you know that you're dying out?'
'Are you heat resistant?'
'I've never had a ginger friend before.'
'Jesus. Your hair really does match your temper.'
But they began to get meaner over time.
'Oi, Ginge!'
'Hah! Do you think ginger pubes'd give your dick prickly heat?'
'Alright, fire crotch?'
'Hey, hey Ginge! Does the carpet match the curtains?'
'Do you have a soul?'
'Ginger minger!'
'Can you smell sprouts?'
'Ever wonder what it'd be like to fuck a ginger?'
'Careful lads, she might burn you.'
'Inbred!'
Those kinds of things went on for the entirety of Key Stage 3. Things got too far one day and she was forced to move schools for safety reasons. That's how she ended up at Primal Academy. But her hair was brown then. She refused to start off there the same way she did at Kingston's. But now… she was shaking.
Physically shaking.
Claudia had been calling her an inbred ever since she'd met her. And it didn't hurt really. Because there was nothing to back it up but Rayla's miss-choice in words. Except now… she wasn't just the girl from Scotland.
She was the redhead from Scotland. The inbred.
I'm not scared. I'm not scared. I'm not-
There was a small knock at the door. "Rayla?"
She cleared her throat and blinked away some tears, "yeah. Come in."
Runaan stepped into the room and his eyes popped. "Wow, Rae. You look… different."
She rolled her eyes, "great. If that's the reaction I get from me' brother, then that's filled me with confidence for what everyone at school's gonna think."
"N-no! Rayla, you look different in a good way! I haven't seen your real hair in so long I just froze!"
She rolled her eyes again, she knew she looked ridiculous.
"I should have just taken the damned blonde dye."
Runaan stepped forward and placed his hand on his sisters shoulder, "look, Rae. You look amazing. You look like you. What… what those kids did to you back at Kingston's… they were young and stupid. People grow."
He doesn't know about Claudia, though.
"Yeah. They grow into bastards!"
"Hey." He looked her sternly in the eyes, "what was we saying about trusting that all people aren't monsters."
"Yeah, not all of them are, but some of them can be right pricks."
Runaan sighed, "maybe. But maybe you just need to have faith in the ones who aren't."
He walked out of the room after that to let her finish getting ready.
She groaned, stomping over to the end of her room to grab her school bag but as she bent down she slammed her head against her wardrobe.
"OW! Owowowowowowowow! OWWW!" She fell to the floor clutching her head in her hands. When her vision stopped its fuzzing, she noticed the door to the wardrobe now open, and an all too familiar skirt was now creased at the bottom with some old t-shirts.
"UGH! YOU CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF TOO!"
She yanked her bag up from the floor, her splint from her desk and ran all the way to the car with the devil's fire charging her every move.
Arriving at school, despite it being the third day, was much scarier than the first. She was shaking this time and her wrist was flaring up already.
Was she really that stressed?
But she shook her head. Maybe nobody would notice her? No. That wouldn't matter anyway. She was a redhead. Somebody would prod fun anyway. She just hoped she could get through the morning at least, without bumping into Claudia and Soren. That Callum kid too. He can piss off.
'You're like who you live with', it's basically the same thing as, 'you're like the people you hang around with'. She may have thought he was okay at the start but it was obvious where his loyalties lied.
Rayla looked to the floor and took in a deep breath, looked up at the sea of green blazers and took the first step forward.
It… was going okay so far. No one had recognised her. She kept her head down the whole way and at one point, swore she saw a glimpse of long, black hair in her peripheral vision but didn't have to time to fully see, and bolted straight to her tutor.
Mr. Ahling's door was different to the ones in the corridor. It was personalised with drawings and empowering quotes. And even memes. He had nerdy science memes on his door! What could be better than that?
Rayla knew that she should be cautious about trusting a teacher to always be nice, but this guy was hard not to love.
She gave the door three raps before hearing it open up. He paused for a second, scanning her over a few times, as if checking it was definitely her.
Great. Even the teacher makes scene.
"Rayla? The bell hasn't gone yet."
"Yeah… I know. I was just wonderin' if I could come in earlier?"
He cocked his eyebrow in a confused yet kind way but nodded, and opened the door wider.
She muttered in thanks under her breath, following him to where her seat was in front of his desk.
"So," he started, "any reason you'd rather be in here with me than with your friends out there?"
Heh. Friends. I like your humour Mr. Ahling.
"No, it's just… a bit too hot."
Rayla caught him shake his head turning back to his computer as if he already knew something she hadn't said. He probably did. He'd have probably have seen many people like Rayla do these kinds of things before.
She applied some cream to her wrist and took her phone out of her bag to scroll through Instagram and the two went into silence. Nothing but the sound of his keyboard blended with the frequent laughter and screams radiating in from the open windows filled the silence.
The bell rang not a few minutes later and the corridors began to buzz with the same outdoor chatter. Rayla looked up at Mr. Ahling after a few moments as he stood from his seat to allow the class in. He gave a cheeky smile and an eye roll to her as he opened the door where the teenagers filtered through.
Yeah, this guy was hard not to love.
Registration ran by without any hitches and no one seemed to notice her hair. Or maybe just didn't notice her, but she was fine with that honestly. Especially considering the 'sane-to-prick' ratio in her specific tutor.
It was a Friday, so soon after, Ahling sent all the Year 11's to assembly. However, Rayla froze.
Shit! I forgot about that!
The rest of her peers ambled out the door as Rayla attempted to remain in her seat. But, as nice as Ahling was, he also had a job to keep which Rayla understood. So, as he gave her a look of warning, she picked up her bag and left.
Maybe she could've hid it out in the loo's? Gross, but it was that or the humiliation of her year all trapped together in a sweaty hall. So, she made her way to the old toilets down the corridor.
The blue door came into view as did Ms. Fareeda, her chemistry teacher. She was a fierce woman and even Rayla feared her a little so she immediately spun on her heal and ran over to the west hall.
She managed to make it just in time before the last person walked it.
No one was looking at her, which was good. No, not good. Brilliant.
She joined onto the row at the back and slumped into her seat reluctantly. The year's first assembly was set in motion not a minute later.
She was already bored out of her mind by the end of Vice Principle Opeli's first sentence about how she hoped they all had a great summer, and decided to let her gaze wonder around the huge room.
Unfortunately, there were no ceiling tiles to count because it was just a block of white covering the roof. She let out a disappointed sigh with her head leant backwards to lean on the wall behind her. Then someone caught her eye. Next to her. She was pretty sure he was staring at her.
He had longish, brown hair-
Oh no.
As if her head was restrained in a vice, she gently rotated it towards the boy to get a better look.
It was Callum.
Oh, for fucks sake!
She glared at him long and hard, but on the inside? She was panicking. It was like a ravenous storm of nerves was swallowing her whole as a snack because it kept coming back for more of her sanity. He was just staring at her- wide-eyed. It was obvious he was looking at the hair, what else would he be bothered about? But, despite her murderous gaze, he didn't snap his eyes away until she rolled hers.
But why didn't he pick fun? Probably leaving it to Claudia, the weakling.
But this never stopped her from blinking back tears of fear and her wrist almost burning beyond the point of being tolerable.
The assembly was as painful as watching paint dry, but somehow, it finally ended.
With her ever-growing luck, of course it was her row that had to stay behind to stack all the chairs.
Of course it was her row when her wrist felt as if it was going to drop off and of course this all had to be with the boy and his friends that have made joining Katolis a living hell for her already.
But she kept her head down. That was all she could do and she felt weak. Pathetic. And they hadn't even begun to throw insults yet.
She was shaking, again. Perhaps she could get out of this because of her wrist? No, that would cause a scene…
Just suck it up Rayla for god's sake! It's only three minutes, max.
So, she took a breath, shook her head and looked up for the stack furthest away from Callum and his friends.
She'd loaded a few with Alex from English and his friend's John and Eliza which was thankful. They were the first to comment about her hair. They liked it, said it really made her skin glow. And on the inside, a warmth grew. Not just because of the compliment, but it seemed that Alex's friends liked her.
Maybe this is my chance.
They were all dismissed just as the late bell sounded so Alex said his goodbyes as his tutor was all the way on the humanities floor above English. So, Rayla just picked her bag up from the cloakroom next to the hall, checking that she had everything before she left.
But there was a hand on her shoulder.
She spun around hastily and to her surprise… it was Callum.
Then, that surprise turned into fear which turned quickly to anger. She shoved his hand off her shoulder and crossed her arms tightly across her chest.
"And what do you want Mr. Sorry-Ass."
"W-why do you keep calling me that?"
"Don't answer me with another question. What do you ye' want?"
"I… I just wanted to apologise for staring at you in assembly."
Rayla rolled her eyes, "and you ask why I call you a Sorry-Ass."
"I-"
She turned on her heel and stormed out the door, but never heard it close again. Instead, there were footsteps running up behind her…
"Wait! I-"
"Oh, for fecks sake, do you' not take the hint that I don't want to talk to ye'?"
He stuttered but Rayla would never let him take the last word, "just stay away and tell your friends to do that too! I can't be bothered!"
She stormed off through the courtyard and like stream rose from a kettle, her ears seemed to have that effect too.
She stomped all the way to science, collecting the first few insults of the day.
"Oi, the fire-head's caught fire!"
"You gonna burn anyone with that temper, Ginge?"
"Yeah, you if you're not careful, lazy-eye!" She snapped and continued all the way to Chemistry.
Things went that way most of the day. Either with the annoying questions or the snarky remarks. She didn't see Claudia or Callum at break…
…mainly because she hid it out in the library.
She had just had English before lunch, so Alex was walking with her out of lesson after catching up with John, Eliza and two others; Laf and Herc. They really did seem like a fun group and she basically yearned for them to be her friends once they had left for language club. Rayla didn't want to seem desperate, so walked to lunch alone instead.
They were let in after around twenty minutes (mainly due to some knob-heads backchatting the dinner lady). Rayla grabbed a tray of fish and chips and sat by herself in the corner of the hall.
God, how sad can you even look?
Rayla never really minded the fact that she was alone. It was always when everyone else could see it that she would disappear inside of herself. It was such an embarrassing sight to see when she didn't even have someone to sit with while she ate. And now, it was even worse with her new style choice.
"Oi, Ginge is sat alone."
"Ginger-Minger!"
She rolled her eyes and threw a bean-soaked chip at the table.
The food was nice at Katolis. That and the uniforms were its highlights she guessed. So, as she through the chip, she felt a little sad at what a waste good food had to be used for.
She was about to stab another piece of fish when two, pale hands landed in front of her. Rayla looked up but the slime-green eyes spoke for themselves.
"So, you're still Rayla?"
Rayla scowled, "no, I'm called Claudia."
The raven haired-girl took a seat opposite her, at that point Rayla realised that it wasn't just Claudia, but her brother and Callum too.
Soren shared the same look of amusement as his sister but Callum had on his signature, 'I'm-sorry-but-I-won't-do-anything-about-it', look.
Mr. Sorry-Ass.
"No… see, for starters, our hair's a little different." She smiled, stealing a chip from Rayla's bowl, "and I don't smell of sprouts."
Rayla winced.
"-you know what, Claudia? What do they say about redheads?" Soren snaked his arm around Rayla's shoulder.
"What?" She gave a sly, side wards glance towards the Scottish girl, "that they're inbreds?"
Her wrist throbbed with every heartbeat. It seemed as if all the blood draining from her face was shot to her wrist. And there was nothing she could do about it. She needed an icepack then and there.
She just needed to get out.
A sick smile landed itself on Claudia's lips, like she was watching a bird in a cage trying to escape and finding a vile pleasure from it. "Have we struck a nerve, Ginge?"
"Can't accept you have no brains." Soren looked proud of himself but all three of them gave him an 'are you serious?' look, even Rayla was kind of disappointed that that was all he could come up with.
"Seems like yer' the one with a few cogs loose, laddie." She pulled up her own amused smile, in the way Claudia usually looked at her.
He gasped, "say that again!"
But before Rayla could taunt, Claudia bluntly cut in, "inbred doesn't just mean stupid, Soren." She massaged her temples, "it means that you're an offspring of two parents who are closely related genetically. Like a brother and sister creating a child makes an inbred and gingers are renowned for that-"
"That's not true!" Rayla yelled and suddenly she had the attention of the whole hall. She could see a dinner lady walk towards them but she didn't care. Those nerves that had been gnawing at her all day had finally split into something more dangerous. She was red-hot with anger.
"Why are ye' even doin' this to me?" She looked to them all individually. "What have I ever done to yous?"
Claudia looked a little taken back, "you were rude."
"Rude." She scoffed, "yeah, rude not cruel."
"Excuse me, can you sit down plea-"
But Rayla didn't listen to the woman stood next to her. "What? Do just find some sick fun in taunting me because of what? I made a mistake of words and now yer' going to hold it to me for life-"
"-please, can you sit dow-"
"-but yer' taking it too far! If anyone's the dumb inbred here, it's you. For pickin' on me for no reason."
"You! Go to-"
This got Soren angry. He stood up, slamming his fists on the table, "DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT TO HER!"
"Oh?! So yer' all allowed to say it to me but I'm not to you?!"
He thought about it for a second, "yes."
"Right! I'm off to get a teacher!"
Rayla raised her eyebrows in disbelief about what she was hearing.
"Because…", he stepped closer to her, "what are you gonna do about it?"
"Well what will you do about it? Hit me?"
"No. I don't hit girls." He said in a low, dangerous voice.
"Oh?" Rayla gripped his tie and pulled him closer, "what a shame we don't have the same morals."
Her fist flew through air before anyone could see it coming. They all heard a crack, and saw the blood seeping from between the gaps in Soren's fingers before they saw Rayla being dragged out the hall by the prune-woman from the day before. Rayla could have probably ripped free if she wanted to, but she was still in shock.
When she was younger, before the arthritis, Rayla was into all kinds of attack sports. She was a red belt in karate, black belt in martial arts, her regions best fencer and had done boxing once a week since she was three… but she'd never actually hit someone before. Violently, anyway.
They all said it would've happened eventually. The snappy redhead would soon transfer her words through fists. But after all Runaan had taught her about the sports, she knew that wasn't the right choice. He only taught her everything after he made her promise that she would only use her gifts in a lesson or a gym.
And now she had let him down. Again. Two days in a row.
She felt the tears prick at her eyes and, for the first time in years, finally let one loose.
"Why?"
Rayla didn't have the luxury of tracing lines in the table this time. Runaan was stood at the door as soon as she walked in. And he looked furious.
"I can't believe you Rayla! Why?! I thought the talk about not lying to me last night meant something!"
"I… I didn't lie because ye' never asked me…"
"No. I said no lying or half-truths. Not telling me something is the exact same thing as lying!"
"But he was being a dick! The bastard and his bitch-sister was calling me an inbred! I should've squared him one right where it hurts."
"No. You shouldn't have. You shouldn't have done anything but tell me what was going on and I would sort it out! I'm your guardian! I'm meant to deal with these things! Just because I feed you and put a roof over your head, doesn't mean that's all I do! I am meant to take care of you! You are meant to make my life easier by not having me guess over and over again about what's going on with you!"
"Okay! Look, I'm sorry, alright?!"
"No. Save your plastic apology. I need to see it to believe it because it's obvious you saying you were sorry last night was only another lie. You've not just betrayed my trust by lying to me, but also because you used your physical skills to get your point across, and not your words. I don't want to see the things I taught make you into something that… that your parents were."
Rayla bit her lip hard. She hated when Runaan brought up things like that. It was low. But… she guessed it was the only way he could ever get her to listen properly. But she still hated being compared to them. And hated it whenever he had to go and bring them up.
"There was no need to bring up my parents. I'm not them. And I never will be."
"I know. But I don't want to see go down that path, Rae. You're a witty girl. You don't need your fists."
"My god, Runaan! It was just one fight! It's not like I'm packing up tomorrow to join the Scottish mafia!"
"Don't you dare call it 'just one fight'. You broke that boys nose and scored yourself two days in isolation!"
She knew she shouldn't have snapped. But she never liked to admit she was in the wrong with bad things.
She was in the wrong. Runaan wasn't.
But she couldn't apologise. He wouldn't let her.
The whole house was suffocated in tension. She wanted to say something more than anything, but new that she'd only make things worse.
Like I always do.
Runaan turned away from his sister like he couldn't bear to look at her anymore.
"You're grounded until I deem it not."
Rayla closed her eyes and barely nodded.
It's not like I've got anywhere to go.
She watched Runaan's feet move away from her in the top of her vision. But he stopped for a second, like he was contemplating saying something else. Rayla looked at him expectantly and they just stared for a few moments. His eyes looked so tired and worn and… hurt. Rayla felt pain tear through her chest like she'd just been stabbed.
What have I done?
Runaan was the first to break off the eye contact and he looked to the floor as he left the hallway.
Rayla was left alone. Truly alone this time. But she picked up her bag and left her shoes neatly near the door, stumbling like a guilty child towards her bedroom. Her hand landed on the door handle just as she hurt a voice mutter something quietly behind her,
"I just wish you'd give this new school a chance instead of jumping to conclusions like you always do."
Rayla swallowed the deeper agony in her chest, and walked in her room.
Author's Note: Oof.
Anyone else stan red-haired Rayla or is that just me?
I'm not too sure about the quality of this chapter… but all I can hope is that you enjoyed it!
In England, people have a weird need to tease gingers. They are bullied relentlessly so if this feels over exaggerated, trust me. These slurs are real and accurate (yes, even the sprouts one for some strange reason). Claudia and Soren just took them to a new level is all.
But please leave your reviews! They make my day so much better and encourage me to write even further!
-L.E-Rae _x_
NOTE: School will start tomorrow so updates won't be every day. I don't have a timetable yet because I struggle to stick to them so I don't want to make promises I can't keep xx
