27 Paper Petals (part one-ana.)

by Ellen in Forks, Washington (I wish)

The truth was, she looked like Wednesday Adams. She had an orange-brown braid with a purple bow, and was wearing the uniform skirt and blazer, which was pretty normal. Her face however was pale and sad, with a defined frown and eyes that gave that I-don’t-want-friends look. Thin silver earrings dangled from her delicate white ears, next to more little studs than ran up the edge of her cartilage. I fingered my own, un-touched flesh and cringed.
“Didn’t take your happy pills, did you?” Josh smirked. It was an old joke, but still got a couple muffled giggles. I had hoped that this would be the girl who could be my best friend, the person who I could tell my secret to, but I was slowly realizing that she might just tackle me instead.
“This is Salamanca Burk. She has been traveling with her family for more than five years!” It was clear that Mr. Redding was desperately trying to get us to smile or something, but we all just sat there, all slightly afraid. “She goes by the name Ana, is that right?” Our science teacher turned to Ana, but all she did was pull her hands out of her pockets and walked slowly to her seat. I guess we all have problems, don’t we? Apparently, this girl had a lot.
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