Clarissa stood in a field as her hair flew all over face. She lifted her hand and tucked her hair behind her ear. The fields in front of her were full with purple flowers swaying in the wind. The sun was bright and warm on her skin.
"Clarissa! You are going to be late for dinner!" Her mother called from the doorway of a cozy cabin. Clarissa looked back at her, she was a tall slim woman with gorgeous straight black hair and stunning grey eyes. Similar to Clarissa's.
"Sorry! I was distracted." Clarissa said starting to walk to the cabin. Her pink skirt was flowing in wind. When Clarissa got into the cabin she set her weaved basket full of flowers onto the table. Her older sister Evelyn walked, more like glided, down the stairs, her black hair was tied into a half up half down look. She was wearing a long white dress, one that a bride would wear.
"You look like you are getting married. There isn't a boy you haven't told me about, is there?" Their mother asked standing in the kitchen winking at Evelyn. Evelyn smiled and shook her head then she walked up to the table where Clarissa was.
"No, she is just looking like the goddess she is." Clarissa said smiling at Evelyn. Evelyn smiled and grabbed the flowers out of the basket then she put them into a vase.
"You should look at yourself. If you wore a skirt that wasn't covered in dirt, you would look ten times better than me!" Evelyn said grabbing plates and cutlery and placing them down on the table. Clarissa grabbed the basket and moved it to a table beside the back door. Clarissa looked down at her skirt, the bottom half was brown with dirt from her walking in the fields right after it rained.
"So I am one skirt away from reaching god level?" Clarissa joked setting the vase full of the beautiful purple flowers onto the table.
"Yes, right now you look like a poor girl that spent the whole day in fields." Evelyn said smiling at Clarissa.
"Because that is what I am! Speaking of which, where is Dad and Will?" Clarissa asked her mother. Her mother turned around from the kitchen and walked up to the table to join the two young woman.
"Will is working in the fields. Dad has gone to the market to buy you a birthday present." Her mother said smiling at Clarissa. Clarissa raised her eyebrow.
"Really?" Clarissa asked with a genuine wide grin. Her mother nodded.
"You are turning eighteen! It is a large day." Evelyn said. Clarissa looked over at Evelyn and smiled. Clarissa was the middle child, henceforth, middle child syndrome. Her family was always extremely poor. Just having enough to pay for the house, and for food. Hardly enough money for pleasure items.
"For that reason, I am going to change in something less farm girl." Clarissa said then she ran up the stairs to her and Evelyn's shared room. Clarissa went into Evelyn's closet looking for clothes, because Clarissa didn't have any "fancy" clothes. She found a long red dress, Clarissa put it on then looked at herself in the mirror.
The dress had a belt around her waist, and it went all the way down to her feet. Her hair was braided and sitting on one side of her shoulder. Clarissa looked at herself, she felt comfortable wearing red, it just felt right. Then she walked down the stairs, when she got to the bottom of the stairs Will, her younger brother walked through the door. He was tall and had short brown hair with green eyes, he was a carbon copy of his father who was standing right beside him.
"Hey Dad, hey Will." Clarissa said walking up to the table. Her mother was bringing over a pot of soup to the table and she sat it down.
"Happy birthday Rose!" Will said with a smiling walking up to the table. Clarissa smiled and nodded. Her brother always called her Rose, it had something to do with her love of flowers, and her love of red.
"Go change, you look disgusting!" Clarissa said looking Will up and down. He had dirt all over his clothes. He nodded and then he went into a room in the back of the cabin. For some reason he got his own room, it always made Clarissa bitter.
"Clare, be nice to your brother!" Her mother scolded. Clarissa looked over at her mother and smiled.
"Sorry," Clarissa said sitting down at the table. Evelyn sat down at the table beside Clarissa. After her mother set some more food on the table she sat down at the other side of the table. Will walked out of his room then he sat down beside his mother. Their father took a seat at the end of the table.
"So what is your birthday wish?" Her father asked as he spooned some soup into his bowl. Clarissa took a second to think as she took a bun off of the table.
"Well, I want all the titans to die, but I think that is asking for too much." Clarissa said with a laugh. "So if I can't have that, I would want to spend time with my family. Therefor, I already have my wish." Clarissa smiled, Evelyn put her arm around Clarissa's shoulder and pulled her close. Then she kissed her on the forehead.
"You are definitely too kind to be real." Evelyn said returning to her food.
"Don't give her too much credit!" Her father said causing everyone at the table to smile.
"Okay then, thank you for keeping my life so amazing that I am not touched by the horrible realities of life. And, because of that I am not a grouchy old woman." Clarissa said taking a bite of her bun.
Ever since she was twelve or thirteen, she had found phycology very interesting. The way you would be able to understand a person's struggles just by listening to them for an hour. She had been able to find cheap physcology books at the market, but they never had everything. The couple of things she did really learn about was personality. And how people's environments are what mold their personality.
Would Clarissa be any different now if her life wasn't so perfect?
"Clare, you should really take up psychology! You already have read a lot of books on it." Will said. Clarissa shrugged and spooned some soup into her bowl.
"It would cost money for me to be mentored. I have enough information for normal life, anyway." Clarissa taking a bite of her soup. Her mother and father looked between each other. Clarissa straightened her posture, confused of what is going on.
"I spent the whole day going to Trost. I found someone willing to mentor you, if we brought them two loaves of bread a week." Her father said. Clarissa stopped eating and spit out some of the soup. Then she put her hand in front of her mouth. Will was laughing, Evelyn was up already getting her a cloth. Evelyn handed her a cloth and she wiped off her mouth.
"What…?" Clarissa asked looking at her mother for some sort of confirmation.
"Yeah, he said you were really smart and it would be an honor to teach you." Her mother said as Evelyn sat down. Her father picked up his bag and opened it.
"He said for me to give this to you." Her father said taking a book out of his bag. Then he handed it to Clarissa, she looked over then she smiled and looked back up at her father. "You have to have to read that whole book and memorize by next week, when you go meet with him."
"Okay, so if I have this right. You got someone to mentor me in physcology, then I got this book and I have to memorize all of it?" Clarissa asked, her mother and father nodded. Clarissa stood up.
"Sorry, I have to go for a walk in Shiganshina. I need to start studying!" Clarissa said walking over to the door and slipped on her white flats.
"Have fun Clare! Be back by sunset!" Her mother called as Clarissa walked out of the cabin. She walked along the dirt path that lead to Shiganshina. It was still windy, but not too much. The ground was already drying from the morning rain. Enough so that she could avoid the mud puddles. Clarissa opened the book and she began to read it as she walked. She got to the gate and the same four drunk guards were sitting around at a table.
Clarissa was sure to close the book and look up as she passed them. When they saw Clarissa, one of them stood up. His cheeks were pink showing that he is drunk. It would be obvious just by the way he walked.
"You are eighteen right Clare, why don't you meet us later?" He asked. Clarissa shook her head and kept walking.
"Call me back when you have titans for me to kill!" Clarissa said waving at them as she walked down the road.
"You are not even in the military!" He called after her. Clarissa smiled and shook her head.
"No, but I can probably kill titans better than you can." Clarissa said, then she turned around and walked down the road. Clarissa opened her book again and began to read through it. The book had one thousand pages, she would have to read all day and all night to read through it all by next week.
Clarissa began to walk down a vacant road. There were one or two people, but Clarissa was so focused on her book that she didn't notice until she ran into one of them. Her book fell to the floor, she bent down and picked it up. The person she bumped into had blonde, shoulder length hair. He had blue eyes and a worried expression.
"Sorry!" He said. Clarissa stood up and dusted off her book.
"It is okay, I should probably look where I am going." Clarissa said with a smile. Behind him, two people were walking down the path. The guy had brown hair and green eyes, the girl had the same eyes and hair that Clarissa had. It was almost like looking in a mirror.
"You are reading a phycology book?" He asked looking at her book. Clarissa looked down at the book, like she needed confirmation for herself, then she looked up at him and nodded.
"Yes, I meet with my mentor next week." Clarissa said as the other two approached.
"So you know stuff to do with brains?" The other boy asked. Clarissa shrugged.
"Kind of, I already know a lot about personality, and the science of it." Clarissa said, the blonde boy nodded.
"What do you know about it?" He asked. Everyone looked at Clarissa waiting for an answer. It took her a moment to put it into words.
"The basics of it is that someone's personality will change depending on what goes on in their life. Like me, I have been extremely lucky my whole life, to get what I need. Say, if the walls were broken into and you went through the traumatic experience of seeing a titan. You could completely change, either into a cold-hearted murder, or a frightened person with severe PTSD. Or you could just stay the same, it is really interesting." Clarissa said with a smile.
"So what do you think would happen to you if something like that did happen?" The blonde asked. Clarissa took a moment to think, she had to evaluate herself like she did with the rest of her family. She knew Evelyn and Dad would turn into the cold-hearted kind. Will would stay the same, and her mother would get severe PTSD. But her?
"Personally, I think I would turn cold. I am such a family person, that if my family died, I would harden to try and not feel how bad it actually hurt to not have them. I would probably join the Military, and help, since I don't think farm work would be my choice, since I did it my whole life and it would remind me of my family." Clarissa said, she realized that that was pretty much telling her life story, if anyone cared to analyze it more than just the surface.
"You want to join the military?" The brown-haired boy asked. Clarissa shrugged, it was hard to say yes or no. She would love to be able to help humanity, but at the same time she couldn't leave her family.
"Kind of, I would if I didn't have my family. But they need me, so I can't." Clarissa said. The girl that was a copy of Clarissa looked to the brown hair boy.
"She cares about her family." She said, then Clarissa looked back to the blonde-haired boy. Then he put his hand out.
"Sorry I didn't introduce myself, I am Armin Arlert." He said, Clarissa smiled and shook his hand. The other two took a step forward.
"I am Eren, Eren Yeager." The brown-haired boy said. Clarissa recognized that name from the doctor Yeager, he must be his son. The girl stepped forward.
"I am Mikasa Ackerman." She said. Clarissa froze as she stared at the girl. Clarissa's last name was Ackerman, how could she have the same last name? Is she related to her?
"Your name?" The brown-haired boy, Eren, asked. Clarissa snapped out of her trance and looked at him.
"Sorry, it is Clarissa Ackerman."