Our story begins with a girl not so young at heart, her name is Aaliyah and she is sixteen years old. She was happy, that’s what everyone around her said. Of course no one took the time to ask because who needed to she was always smiling and had a friendly hello for who ever happened to need one at the time she, was always there for everyone. How could someone like that be unhappy? Over the past sixteen years she has always known there was something different about her.

Her life was a big routine for her, she got up went on a run got ready went to school and did homework. She acted like she loved life and put on a pretty good face for everyone. No one knew the turmoil she was going through on the inside; she never spoke about her family problems to anyone not even her best friend. Her parents did not get along at all, it seemed like all they ever did was fight. She always played middle man and whether she liked it or not got the grunt of there frustration taken out on her. As she went through her life she was finally able to find herself. This is her story.

Hi my name is Aaliyah; I am fourteen years old and a freshman in high school. My life is some what normal at least as normal as it can be, there are something’s that are a little bit different about me than most other girls. On the outside I am completely normal but no one knows the things I can do.

It’s my first day today; wow I never thought I could be this nervous. I mean its just high school right, as I was picking out what I was going to wear today I began to think of all the things girls my age think. (At least I hope these things are what they worry about) Like for instance would I be about to make friends, would people like me, would boys think I was cute, and of course, if the classes are way hard? All of these things are things all girls worry about of course there was another thought in the back of my head trying to force its way through to the most prominent thought. I did not have time for this so I just suppressed it and moved on to the next problem in my mind. Over the years a have become quite good at doing this though out school I have several “accidents” but I have never gotten found out. Thank god.
I just barely realized I was coming up to the front doors to the intimidating and rather large high school I was about to spend four years of my life into and suddenly I wanted to turn around and run back to my mom and the safety of the car. I could already tell I was drawing attention as I was standing there starring at the doors in complete shock. Now I will admit I like attention but not the type that is unwanted, we all know what that feels like the people starring at your back thinking who know what. I could feel my face begin to flush so I decided to be brave and go in, I took in a big breath of air and begun climbing the steps heading into the school. As I walked in I noticed only a few heads turned, I couldn’t be sure if I was happy to have avoided that unwanted attention or if I was kind of disappointed in the fact that I was being ignored. I pulled out my schedule and looked at my first class. Gym, great, and another way I can be embarrassed. I was never good at sports of anything of the sorts actually; when I was younger I did gymnastics and was decently good at it even though almost every time I managed to injure myself in one way of another. So as I walked in the direction I really hoped the gym was I noticed one of my old friends from middle school standing there looking just as lost as I was. Relief washed over me as I walked over to join her in the hall. As she saw me approach I noticed the same look of relief. We hugged and I asked her to see her schedule hoping that we had at least one class together; as I looked I noticed that we have two! More than I could even ask for but I couldn’t help hugging her in enjoyment, we had gym together and also English which happened to be third so that meant we had lunch together. My day just took a turn for the better I hadn’t even begun to think about lunch. Back in middle school I never had a problem finding people to hang out with but this is high school and I didn’t know anyone, other than a few of my good friends. Both of us were extremely happy, and then we were interrupted by a really annoying buzzing noise above our heads. The one minute bell, crap we still had to go clear across the school in a minute, I can’t be late the first day that would give the worst impression possible. Now more than ever I wanted to use my gift but I knew I couldn’t, so we took off running. As people starred at us flying down the hall and I heard a few comments. Probably from seniors such as,
“Stupid freshman it’s the first day”
“Where’s the fire?”
And, “Run a little faster frosh”!
Normally these types of comments would really bother me but I had one thing on my mind and I was not about to let a few stupid comments keep me from that. As we finally entered the gym completely out of breath the final bell rang, we both tried to catch our breath and couldn’t help but laugh. As we looked around the big gym we noticed signs posted all around with names of teachers written on them, we looked on our schedules and found our teachers posting. While standing there we looked around trying to see anyone else we might know. We saw a few of our old friends from last year and smiled and waved then I saw her. She looked back at me and immediately realized who I was; she got a dark little smirk on her face as she realized I knew who she was also. I got an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach and turned away as I realized my world could potentially be over.
Crystal was still sitting next to me so she looked back to see who I had just looked at and she saw and got the same “oh no” look at her face. We simply nodded to each other because the teacher had come in and began to call roll. She went down the line obviously by last name otherwise I would be first; when she got to mine she looked up and then tried to pronounce it rite. “Alayah” I think that’s what she said but I couldn’t even be sure of that. I answered with a simple “here” then she looked up at me smiled and continued with the roll. All I could think about was this girl sitting two rows behind me. If you’re confused I’ll give you some background on this girl, her name is Janet and she and I used to be best friends back in seventh grade. The two of us were inseparable, but unfortunately popularity over came us. We both were very different in ways an yet we have so much in common, in the summer in between our seventh grade and eighth grade year everything fell apart, we both started getting more and more friends and some the other really didn’t like. I thought that it wouldn’t matter but according to her she felt left out so we had a big fight and haven’t talked since. Now the main reason I felt sick when she gave me the look she did is because she is the one person in the entire world (besides my family) who knows my secret, she has the potential power to destroy my life my entire family’s life and maybe even our peoples.
As the teacher finished calling roll she gave us all instructions to head towards the locker rooms so we could be assigned our lockers. As soon as the door opened we were hit with the over whelming smell of sweat and socks.
“I thought this was supposed to be a girl’s locker room?”
“I thought so to, I didn’t know girls could smell this bad!”
We both laughed at our little joke and made a gagging noise which drew the attention of the whole room. Everyone just turned and looked at us, I noticed a few different looks mainly just curiosity and I few were laughing along with our joke. The teacher just gave us a subtle smile and tried to regain control of the room, we all went back to attempting to open the surprisingly difficult lockers, Crystal and I were still waiting in line for ours. We stood by each other in hopes that we would of course have lockers together; I only subtly noticed that she was standing only a few people behind me. The second I made eye contact with her once again my mind started racing as I saw that same evil smile return to her face. I quickly turned around and tried to focus on what ever crystal was babbling on about. I caught a few words here and there and then realized it was our turn, I brought this to her attention and she walked up to the teacher to get her locker. She gave the number and combination to her and then it was my turn I tried to choke out my name as I was still stressed out about the girl two seats behind me. She gave me a concerned look and since I smiled back she probably figured I wasn’t going to spill my life story. So she gave me my numbers and moved on with it. I went to find it and thankfully Crystals was rite next to mine, relief washed over me again once I heard that annoying buzzer again, that meant dreadful gym was over. We looked at each other and then started walking out towards the main building. We looked at our schedules and went our separate ways with a huge hug. (She was on the other side of the building) The next class I walked in and quickly scanned the room checking for any friendly faces even some not so nice, I noticed a hand wave and I saw a face I recognized but couldn’t quite remember the name but I decided to sit next to her any ways.
The teacher began calling roll again; this was beginning to be repetitive. He got to my name and of course pronounced it wrong but this time I was irritated to I corrected him he looked up with a hard glare, “well looks like this is one I wont get along with.” I muttered under my breath. The girl sitting by me giggled and then said very loudly “that’s a good one!” the teacher looked over and glared again and said,
“Is there something you would like to share with the class ms?”
I looked back and made sure her eyes met my glare as she sunk back into her chair I turned back around to face the teacher and the look on his face was even more harsh as I said with a surprisingly (even to me) firm confident voice,
“Nope not a single thing,”
“Well in that case keep your nothings to your self”
I rolled my eyes and he went back to calling roll, I really hate math. I never caught my teachers name so as the bell rang and we all made a mad dash for the door I looked on his desk to see if I could see a name tag. Mr. Butters, well that’s going to make the class a lot more fun.

As I walked to my next class I noticed Janet walking towards me, my heart dropped. I wanted to turn the other way and run scream cry I couldn’t decide which emotion was the strongest at the moment all I knew is I was at the door and she was still walking my way there was only one more class past mine and I prayed that was hers I walked in and found a seat I sat in about the middle of the room to she was less likely to sit by me. As more and more people filed in I noticed she didn’t, had I really avoided that so easily? It was hard to believe my dreams had come true. The final bell rang and I was able to relax in my seat and actually get comfortable. Then it happened; as the teacher began calling roll she strolled in casually as if she didn’t care the whole class including the teacher turned and glared. (I stayed straight in my seat) she sat down in the back of the class with a few of the girls she had wandered in with and the teacher simply went back to his mission of reminding us all of our names. I wondered momentarily how funny it would be if I used my “gift” to make everyone forget there names, I would get a kick out of it but I don’t know about the teacher. I hate not being about to use the thing giving to me by my ancestors, it would make my life so much more interesting if I could but unfortunately we have rules associated with the gifts my family was given. As I was thinking about all of this I noticed the teacher was looking around the room he repeated the name he had called and I noticed it was mine. Oops, I answered here and corrected him again; as soon as he acknowledged who I was I went back to my thoughts. The rules were so strict we always had consequences even for someone my age who is bound to slip up every once in a while the council was filled with these old hags who believed we should know the difference anyways no matter how old. It’s not the matter of age it’s the thought of trying out your gifts and getting the feel of what you could potentially do. I have had a few slip ups and has to go in front of the council several times for even the slightest mistakes. Its so funny how teenage girls worry about getting grounded I have to worry about getting banded for life and my powers stripped. I think I win. A slight smile came over my face and then I snapped back out of my spaced out thought process when a crumpled paper landed on my desk. I looked to see if the teacher had noticed and saw he was to busy talking about the earth BORING!! So I decided to see what the note said I opened it as quietly as possible and saw in big letters this BACKSTABBER!!! I knew instantly who it was not only from the choice of words but for the simple fact that the snickers coming from the back of the room gave her away completely I decided to ignore it and threw it behind me when I knew the teacher wasn’t watching, I knew I shouldn’t have but I used my gift for just a split second and made sure I landed that piece of paper rite square on her forehead. She was across the room and in the back so any “normal” person would not have been able to hit her from my seat. I felt the glare on my back and couldn’t help but smile. The teacher continued talking as if nothing had happened then finally the bell rang I dashed out into freedom followed by a stampede of students. I was walking to my next class when behind me I heard someone yell in my direction “I KNOW YOUR SECRET!” I didn’t need to look back to see who it was. I fought back the tears as I kept looking forward and managed to keep my feet moving, and then it happened. The next thing I remember is being in the front office of the council hall. I forgot about that ounce of power I had used to toss the paper across the room. “I am in so much trouble” is all I could think and then finally it was my turn for judgment. As I walked into the room I had the feeling my life was over, and I couldn’t have been more right. . .