Eloise could not understand why she had to go to a muggle school. Plenty of muggle kids were homeschooled, and all of her magical friends got to learn from their parents. Her dad was a wizard, but her mum was a muggle, and it was her mum who insisted that going to school at her age is important. Eloise had told them about how miserable each day was: how boring and useless the classes were, how the teachers reacted ridiculously to an untucked shirt, and - most importantly - how the other students treated her.
She didn't think she'd be able to survive one more day of 4th grade, even if this was her last year here.
The school's hallways always made her feel grubby. Her hair was oily, her skin was oily, and the anxiety of interacting with other students wreaked unimaginable havoc on her face. Moreover, the windows were always covered. It could be 25 degrees Celsius outside, but inside it always felt like a chilly grey. This could have had something to do with the blue and grey lockers that lined the walls, or the blue, green, and cream tiles that speckled the floor. That didn't changed the fact that by the time Eloise got to her classroom, she had her own personal raincloud overhead.
"Hey, solar-system face!"
Eloise looked up, into the face of Alex Weimar. She hadn't seen him coming. He was a tall, gangly kid with fluffy hair. He reminded her of a disheveled rat.
"Get it?" he continued savagely. "Your face is like the solar system. Because it's got little dots all over it."
Eloise got it. "Well...I like learning about space, so… so thanks for the compliment."
She shoved past him and into the classroom, where he wouldn't dare say such things within earshot of Mrs. Handley.
Her face felt hot, and her eyes began to sting. Thanks for the compliment? Really? Was that the best I could come up with? It was just as stupid as solar system face. Not that there was much one can say in response anyway. I could at least have called him ratface.
She could hear his stupid laughter when he and his mate Justin entered the classroom. They were probably making fun of her comeback (or lack thereof).
Maybe tonight daddy will perform a spell on my face, she thought. Maybe, if I tell him how rude those boys are, he'll do something to fix it…
Eloise knew this was a false hope. She'd asked her father to do this hundreds of times, ever since the pimples started growing on her face a few months ago, but he always said "no." His excuses were many, but they never seemed to make sense to her: their mysterious disappearance would cause more trouble, he didn't want to accidentally make it worse, he didn't know how. He offered to switch her to another school, but being the new kid is almost as bad as being the ugly one. At a new school, she would be both.
And so Eloise drifted through one more day of class, all of her hope placed in a magical letter.
A/N: thanks for reading! I may end up posting more random oneshots as I think of them.
My ego craves reviews almost as much as poor Eloise craves a solution to her acne (come to think of it, I crave a solution to acne, too...). Please feel free to drop a line and help me be a better writer!