I feel stupid.

Oh so stupid.

I feel stupid, and futilely slow…

And so stupid,

That I hardly can believe I'm not dead, yet, from being attacked from a "reviewer mafia" that injects the African Sleeping Sickness into all of their victims.

Do-do-do-do-doe.

Who's that stupid girl's reflection in the monitor there? What monitor, where?

Who could idiotic girl be? Who, what, where, when?

Such a stupid name, such a stupid face, such a stupid me.

repeat chorus

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"Here for me, puppet?"

"Professor ..."

"Modden." He stated proudly. His thick, British accent gleaming.

"Nice to meet you," the girl said dryly, "I'm Raven. I'm here about Kori. We spoke over the phone."

"Yes, love. May I call you Rae?"

"No."

"Alright then, Ms. Roth, I think you said."

Raven nodded simply.

"Shall we step into my office?" he asked pointing towards the Art Room.

She entered quickly, and on her own. "Can we make this quick? I have a funeral to attend."

"Yes…" He stammered dumbfounded by the girl's coldness, "Now about Kori."

"What did she do?"

"You know, love-"

"Raven; Ms. Roth, if you prefer."

"Ms. Roth, you see, I couldn't find any records of Kori's parents, and you..."

"Being her roommate?" she asked, but more over stated.

"Well, Kori is such a marvelous student, you know, she really does have a knack for art, but she lacks a certain..." he paused for fake ignorance, "seriousness."

"What else is new?"

"Well, she certainly has the hand for drawing, but the mood? No. All she draws are rabbits, and rainbows, and these things she calls Glorthogs."

"That's all she ever thinks about."

"Well, despite all of this, love-"

"Ms. Roth."

"Ms. Roth, the other day, it struck me odd when she drew..." He fumbled through his desk in search for the not said item, "This." A simple word for a simple horror.

"Wow." Raven said, monotone as ever, but slightly proud.

"So you, by chance, know what this could be?"

It was a brown painting, a painting of the ground, as if it had been cut in half. Inside the dirt was a coffin, and inside the said coffin was a girl, green in face and rather dead and gruesome looking. Jinx.

"Awful little booger, eh?" he asked, half stated.

"That's just Jinx. A friend of ours. She died three days ago." Raven said. Despite her calmness, there was an air of sadness in her voice.

"Oh," he said in understanding, yet his face looked as if to have another effect. "Yes, love, but this,- this she painted about a week ago."

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"Raven, you are home!"

"I had an interesting talk with your Art professor."

Kori slightly smiled, "Mr. Modden?"

"Yes." Raven began to concentrate on finding the right words to ask Kori.

"Raven," she interrupted, "The funeral of Jinx should begin promptly. You wish us to be punctual?"

"I'll go put on my dress." Raven clarified, and walked down the hall in utter concentration.

"I put it out on your bed for you."

"You went in my room?" somewhere in her tone was a mixture of fury.

"Well only for a brief moment-" Kori began to babble to make up for her blunder, "You see, I did not wish to be late, and I know that your closet is quite big, and you were off for so long, I- I did not want to be late-"

Raven left the hallway.

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'How can she be taking this so well?'

'She's always so bright, in a cheerful way, but she's just repressing this. That painting she drew- It was something I would like.'

'Maybe her brightness is just a front. Maybe she's a lot deeper than what she appears to be.'

Raven tried shaking her thoughts away. They were just too much.

It was, in a funny way, rather strange that they would be friends.

(So strange, so different)

They were complete opposites.

(Night and Day)

They clashed together so dreadfully.

(You two are friends? Best friends?)

They were cold thoughts, yes, but they had been friends since the ninth grade.

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She was in the Biology lab, sobbing.

Raven had forgotten her purse. She walked back to the lab to hear sobbing.

It was a female sob, so she entered prepared for the worse. A face blown off, a boyfriend dumping her, a zit. But what she found was Kori Anders, girl extraordinaire.

She mumbled for the right words when Kori looked up to see her face.

Kori was the strangest girl most people would ever meet, but she was hiding under a mask of normality. Kori was the girl who made up holidays, made up words, and made up her own world, in a way. She really was living in her own little world.

Why just that morning she had handed out necklaces with bells, proclaiming that it was a holiday for friendship.

"Kori? Are you alright?"

The red headed girl looked up at her. She had something clutched in her hands.

"Kori, are you..." she gasped. The girl's eyes, they were ... different. They were always green… but now? They were completely green.

The girl began sobbing again.

Raven didn't do well in situations such as these, so she asked a stupid question.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

The girl sobbed harder.

"Kori, pull yourself together." There was now frustration in her voice.

It took a long time, and two dollars, one for Kori's sour lemonade, and one for Raven's Nestea, but Kori stopped crying, eventually.

It was just that bad.

Raven was, through sobs of Kori's, able to catch on to some of her worries.

First off, she wasn't as intellectually inclined as everyone believed her to be. She was failing Home Economics this quarter. Secondly, she had a birth defect, strangely abnormally colored eyes. And thirdly, such had over plucked her eyebrows.

Although it wasn't her place, or her honor, Raven listened all the same.

By the end of the day Kori had a new friend, and Raven had her only friend, for the next two years of her life.

Until she met Gar.

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Till this day, Kori had never stopped shedding her meaningless problems on Raven.

There was only one real problem she had, that Raven not only sympathized for, but shared.

Family.

Kori's mom was so perfect, it was scary. Her dad was silent. Over all the sleepovers they shared, he had to have said less than one-hundred words to her while she was there. And according to Kori, he never spoke much. Kori's sister was a kleptomaniac. That was bad enough as it was. Kori actually loved her family, but somewhere deep inside of her, she wanted to rip them all to pieces.

Raven had her mom, a hippie. That was all.

When Raven had a dad, so long ago, he was, as you might say...

Demonic.

Enough to get him sent to a mental institution?

You better believe it.

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"Raven?" she asked nervously, "You are almost ready, are you not?"

"One moment."

She slipped on her black pumps, and they left their shackled apartment, in search of a party.

A party for a dead girl.

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twitch- Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Review. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.