Caroline Hill was bored.

Not just the regular kind of bored, oh no. She was out of her mind, scream in frustration, kick the air and laugh at the mere concept of nothing happening till her sides hurt, bored.

That wasn’t to say she was the kind of person to merely complain about her situation without doing anything. In fact, for the past two hours she had been amusing herself by rearranging the hand-me-down furniture till a sort of Feng shui was accomplished, skimming over past assignment grades to see where things went wrong, and had gotten around to finally picking up the stray, now dust ridden clothing articles littering the chipped tile of her room.

Lazily shifting her gaze over to her window, Caroline duly noted the pervasive heat seeping through the cracks between the wooden sill and air conditioner, despite plunging her room into darkness and cranking the cooling agent up to its highest setting - even though she knew her mama would get on her case about it later.

Of course, with the heat and light coming through there came the thought that going outside was an option on a day like this - a day when absolutely nothing happened and no means of getting anywhere except by foot was available. School was over, summer was here, and the outside heat-zone was beckoning for her to somehow battle her own apathy.

There comes a time when just cracking eggs on sidewalks and car hoods just isn’t as amusing as it was when you were nine and the water parks all around were closed down for maintenance. Hopscotch was nigh impossible with the cracked, convoluted sidewalks searing the flesh off any local kid who thought it’d be fun to see how long they could last barefoot in the Arizona heat, and one shouldn’t even consider the thought of trying to jump rope in 102 degree weather.

Mama had tried getting her to go outside for the past two days now, determined to get her daughter out of the house and doing something more productive than throwing chips at the fan to see how fast they flew back out at her and re-reading crime novels she already knew the endings to.

“Just, try to do somethin’ normal today, alright, Caroline?” her mother had sighed, cigarette dangling from her mouth as she rushed around the house getting ready for her second shift at the hospital, exasperated by her daughter’s reluctance to venture outdoors.
“Sure, mama,” drawled Caroline, weaving a loose knot of string around her fingers to form a Cat’s Cradle. She hadn’t even looked up, but she knew her mama had rolled her eyes, lit her cigarette, and grabbed her keys as she headed out the door. The smell of nicotine wafted over to where she lay, its toxic fumes not even eliciting the normal series of coughing it usually did.

Must be getting used to it, she thought to herself, as she waited for the tell-tale sound of the door closing to let her know that she was finally alone. When it didn’t come when she thought it would, Caroline looked towards the door to find her mama giving her a darkened look, one she was all too accustomed to receiving these days. 

Lowering her eyes and focusing her attention back on her string, she only half heard what her mother said through her puffs of smoke.

“You know Carol, I hear there’s some new girl in town over by the skating rink - just moved in nearby,” before the door clicked closed and only the hum of the air conditioners filled the room.

Pausing the rapid, repetitive hand movements she had been performing for a solid twenty minutes, she looked up from her controlled daze and pondered the last statement her mama made. A new girl, here? It was like hearing something out of her cheesy teen fantasy novels.

Still, it was an interesting matter nevertheless. Their town wasn’t very large, but the assortment of new construction and emergence of new, fancy private schools were drawing people in towards the little town on the cusp of Phoenix.

“...Fresh faces are nice, I guess,” said Caroline, grunting slightly as she righted herself up from her position on the floor and stood on shaky legs, still fatigued from a day of nothing. Who knew, maybe she’d actually be able to get some people in her friend group - or lack thereof.

Caroline wasn’t usually too keen on hanging around with the kids in her school. Not because they were nasty or anything, but rather because she herself was an outsider to them, growing up far away in the swamps of Georgia. She had no real personal history or connections that she could’ve made with them - so she didn’t bother to make herself known to them. They had never seemed interested in her anyhow. 

Well, that and she had never been great with strangers, or people her age in general. They tended to stare at her from the corners of their eyes, whispering under the breath about her weight, her hair, or her perpetual sunburn. It was just another reason on her laundry list of “Why I Hate Being Seen In Public” and why she rarely bothered venturing out to find friends in this town.

But just this once, she’d take her mama up on her advice and go scope out the situation. If there was more than one girl, and it sounded like there was, then there was more of a chance of her being able to become friends with at least one of them.

With this thought in mind, Caroline headed towards the front door her mama had just exited, slipping on her worn, torn sandals and dropping the string she had been messing with in one of her shorts pockets. Bracing herself for the waves of heat she knew were waiting to engulf her, she opened the door and stepped out into the hot Arizona sunlight, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the blinding rays.

“Near the skating rink, which means they might be the athletic type,” she wondered out loud, walking quickly to ensure she kept her sunburn to a minimum today. Huffing as she walked along, she bemoaned that small possibility as her shorter, definitely-not-shapely legs marched along ashen concrete towards her destination ten minutes away from her apartment.

Taking little notice of the barking dogs and screaming children, Caroline was relieved to see the stout little building that housed the majority of her age group within it’s cheap plaster walls on the days school was out. Jogging the rest of the distance, sweat dripped from her temples as she rapidly pulled the string from her shorts pocket and tied her thick hair back from her neck. Her dark blonde hair had began to stick to the sides of her head as a result of the encroaching heat alongside the tell-tale feeling of shrinking skin that reminded her of Mother Nature’s lack of love for her complexion.

Cool waves of air hit her as soon as she opened the door, and Caroline praised whatever deity there was in the world as she felt herself cool down a good twenty degrees. She had made it to the rink - intact with not too much sweat drenching her tank top, and with possibly only a minor sunburn blemishing her exposed, portly features.

Looking around, Caroline blinked as her vision yet again adjusted to the variations of light. The vast room she had entered was filled with the low din of teenage voices all engaged in light chatter and interrupted by just the screeching sounds of roller blades swarming around the room.

Easily making out the familiar faces - Danny from Earth Science, Lena from Global, and maybe John from that one computer class - she made sure to avoid those she knew by association and to scope out any new faces. Very rarely did they have anyone new in town, so all she had to do was follow the crowd’s point of interest which, luckily for her, happened to be in the far right corner of the room, adjacent to the entrance.

There, just by the drink booth, stood a lone, tall girl about her age surrounded by a gaggle of Caroline’s classmates.

“So you just came here, huh?” asked John, grinning as he pushed dark brown hair away from equally dark eyes. “Do you like it so far, or do you think the heat’s gonna swallow you whole like most?”

Before the girl could respond, John was shoved away from her by a pair of small, tan hands. “John!” scolded an older girl Caroline hadn’t bothered knowing, punching him lightly on the arm as she flashed the girl an apologetic look.

“Don’t ask so many questions, stupid! You’re coming off as pushy!”

John only laughed and moved away to dodge another hit, giving Caroline the perfect opportunity to move forward with her own introduction as she took in and evaluated what she could tell from appearance alone.

She was pretty. Not in a model-type way, but in an “I’ve-never-seen-someone-like-you-before” kind of fashion - a refreshing image that in these parts of Arizona was not all too common. Caroline liked that - she liked the uncommon. They made her feel as though she could blend in within their ranks, vanishing from the critical gazes of those who deemed her abnormal in this town.

A mass of black, tangled ringlets fell around the girl’s head in a halo of glossy darkness, coming down to brush bared shoulders, which were clad in only a pair of thick green spaghetti straps that led down to a tank top. Gunmetal gray shorts donned the girls legs, but none of that interested Caroline, but rather, the pair of large, tinted frames resting on the girls nose.

“-cuse me. Excuse me.”

Shaken away from the dead-set stare she had been giving the unknown stranger’s glasses, Caroline smiled sheepishly and laughed awkwardly, feeling sweat bead on her upper lip in response to her nerves.

“Ah!” exclaimed Caroline, “Sorry about that. I was just thinking to myself…” Moving towards the girl, who was now leaning against the counter with her arms crossed while twirling a straw in her left hand, Caroline held out her own in respect.

“My name’s Caroline Hill. I’m a local from around here,” she explained, face heating up in embarrassment for her prior action of staring unabashedly.

“I heard you’ve just moved here, so I was curious to see what kind of girl would agree to come to an old ghost town like ours.”

Straightening her posture, the girl adjusted the glasses that hid her eyes from view. Caroline suddenly went cold, goosebumps lacing up her arms. For some reason, an entirely uneasy and feeling of terror had just washed over her when watching the girl move her glasses up.

Not even having time to look away, the smooth, perfunctory voice that had interrupted her rude staring just a moment prior washed over her, now laced in what felt like poison to her ears.

“Well obviously I am that girl, and my name, because you’re so curious, is Eleanor Wyatt,” she responded in a clipped tone, tongue flicking out to run over rows upon rows of white bone in her mouth.

“It seems like you are all rather curious as to why I’m here, even though you shouldn’t be that interested. People move around all the time, why should my case be any different?”

The girl known as Eleanor Wyatt then took off her glasses and wiped them down with the edge of her shirt, and for a moment Caroline felt her heart drop into her stomach.

Cold, piercing eyes met her own dulled brown, locking her in place as Eleanor waited for her reply. Never had she seen a girl with eyes so unwelcoming, so nerve wracking. In that instant, she was reminded of the tale about a goddess with a mane of snakes and eyes that could turn flesh to stone, and of playground bullies chanting their taunts with malicious gazes.

Around them, the skating rink continued to be filled by the common sounds of teenagers skating and making casual conversation.

“...Yeah, sorry about them, and uhm...Me...We don’t get a lot of out-of-towners, you know?” stuttered Caroline, averting her eyes away from Eleanor’s. Just looking at them made her blood freeze and make her regret ever trying to make her acquaintance. 

Why was she here again? To do something to alleviate her boredom, right? To make a friend, right?

...To get out of that house, right? She didn’t know anymore. All she wanted to do at that moment was hide herself from the judgmental eyes of the newcomer, who by all accounts should not have been scaring her like this. Sure, she wasn’t a people person by any means, but Caroline was usually able to stave off any anxiety and feelings of inferiority when faced with others, especially ones as pretty as Eleanor.

Eleanor began to speak again, but all she could hear was the rushing sound of blood filling her ears and the own harsh beating of her heart. Eleanor had been looking right at her, moving her eyes from the tip top of her ugly, sandy brown clad head to the red-tipped, pudgy toes bound by sandals.

No one ever looked at her - no one ever had a reason to look at poor old boring Caroline Hill.

Not that lone chubby girl down the street who locked herself in her house after school - certainly not her. She wasn’t interesting - she wasn’t real to them. She was an object of ridicule and amusement in a small town where all the kids knew each other from their diaper-days and where outsiders were not to be trusted.

And for this stranger to actually look at her in the eyes and speak to her without ridicule, without bias - it was not normal for her. If anything, it was beyond frightening.

“...Oh, really?” she responded weakly, nodding along even though her eyes were completely zoned in on the sunglasses held in Eleanor’s hand and she hadn’t even heard a single word the girl had spoken.

A sigh came from pursed lips. “You aren’t listening to me, are you?” asked Eleanor, tapping the lenses of her glasses with sharp, green nails as she attempted to redirect Caroline’s gaze back to her eyes.

“Hey, you know it’s not always polite to stare off into space when you’ve just met someone. Mind looking up for me? It’ll help this one-sided conversation out immensely if I think you’re at least trying to listen to me,” said Eleanor, words laced with a sort of venom that befitted the new title Caroline had subconsciously given to her in her mind.

Backing away immediately, yet still avoiding meeting Eleanor’s eyes, Caroline raised her hands in defense. “I-I’m sorry about this!” said Caroline hastily, eyes filling up with a pressure she thought had gone away long ago in the old hallways of her middle school.

“I-I-I…” she stuttered, still backing away even as the girl moved towards her in concern, clearly taken aback by the frightened response Caroline was giving.

“Are you okay, Caroline?” asked Eleanor, poisonous tones now replaced with a worried note to it that made her feel even worse than she already felt. Her eyes were still trying to meet hers, to draw her back into a cycle of freezing and burning that would most definitely consume any sense of confidence or lack of care she still held within her breast.

“I need to go, uh, my mama says I need to be back before she gets home!” she blurted, face reddening even further as the lie flew past her crooked, less than perfect teeth. Just another flaw, another flaw to be seen and stared at in the crowds of kids she hasn’t bothered to look at in years. The ones she has numbed herself to interacting with - like a rabbit in a snake pit, she had always been quick to run when faced with potential predators.

Mama was wrong - this was terrible and not worth doing. It wasn’t worth going out of the house, under the scornful eyes of her peers even though she knew they didn’t really know her so therefore they couldn’t really judge her - even though she knew all that, it still wasn’t worth it.

The feeling of inferiority would always reign supreme no matter who she spoke to until the day came where she could shed her skin and become someone new, someone who looked more interesting, more elegant - anything but what she was now. 

Attempting to talk to Eleanor was no different, even if she was still just a new girl who she had been excited upon meeting, simply because a fresh face meant the possibility of her being ugly like her - of being abnormal, like her. Fresh faces meant the attention being diverted from her, even for just a little while - and that maybe, just maybe, that fresh face and her could team up and become mutual friends, two people that looked and sounded different than the others around them.

But with the other kids already jumping to meet the new, gorgeous girl Eleanor with her pretty grey eyes and thick black curls, Caroline knew she stood no chance with her. Girls like Eleanor, with their eloquent tones and smart speech layered on top of handsome visages, didn’t make close friends with quiet, self-depreciating like her.

They were the ones who thrived in the snake dens, whose beady eyes could light the world ablaze hotter than any sun and turn the molten fumes to stone with a single, withering look.

People like Caroline were the ones burned in the crossfire - earthen statues standing in the midst of their own Armageddon, forever choked in fear by the snakes held within the hair of Medusa.