Pure Hearted | Teen Ink

Pure Hearted

May 31, 2017
By KittyKoala, Norfolk, Other
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KittyKoala, Norfolk, Other
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It all started on a Wednesday; on the 12th of April 2:34 to be precise. I remember that because it was the one day that I got to my Wednesday English class on time, due to the lack of numbness in my legs caused by forced physical education.  Getting hit in the face with a tennis ball right at the beginning of a P.E lesson isn’t all that bad.


One minute early to class and yet I was the only one there. That is except from Mila, the girl who always had her head in a book and everyone called a nerd. That is minus me of course. But to be honest, I actually got better grades than her. I was just less… conspicuous. 


As wacky as I am, I try my hardest not to stick out. Even though that’s been made a terrible challenge due to my clumsiness and don’t even get me started on my luck. I’m literally a reverse leprechaun.


That’s why when I tripped over Mila’s desk, sent it crashing to the floor and toppled over, it seemed like just another day to me. I just thanked my lucky stars that the only person in the room was one that had been too tortured by cruel teenagers to allow them self to pass judgement onto others. With my head tilted to the side, eyes squinting and arms held out in front of me instinctively I lay there for a moment awaiting the impact. Slowly realising I was still, I looked ahead. My eyes widened as I saw not more than three or four inches between me and the ground. With that, I plopped down.


Only Mila would be more interested with the book she had in her hand than the mess I had put myself in. Lucky for me I suppose.


With shock, I stumbled to my feet, threw her desk back into place and scurried to a seat at the back, just as people began to enter.


An uncountable amount of thoughts were going through my mind at once. I convinced myself I was crazy, that that could be the only explanation. But in the back of my mind I knew, I knew that I had defied the laws of gravity even if only for a brief moment. The rest of the day I was in a haze, trying to figure out what had happened to me. After several hours of pondering, there seemed only one answer.


My mind went numb and my body stiff, standing spookily still in the middle of the hallway as this dawned on me with crowds of people rushing past to get home. I was either losing my mind or the impossible has happened. The question:” which is more realistic?” relentlessly played over and over again in my head.


I decided to just throw it out of my mind and leave it for the morning. Of course that was much easier said than done. Here I thought I’d get home have a tasty dinner, watch a relaxing movie and be snuggled up in bed by nine. I should have foreseen that the alternative for ME was: no appetite, no concentration, NO sleep and overall absolutely no peace whatsoever. It wasn’t until quarter past four in the morning that my mind gave into my exhausted body and allowed me to drift off to sleep. Not for long though because within five minutes my eyes shot open to find myself hovering over my bed. At least it removed any doubt from my mind about it actually happening.


Rather than ease my mind it just gave me more questions. What in the world was happening to me? I think one of the things that scared me the most was that I couldn’t tell a soul. I mean what kind of person wouldn’t have declared me insane right there on the spot? It took me the better part of the day convincing MYSELF it actually happened.

 

It would have been so much easier if my life was a movie because they always take everything so easily. You never see anyone on TV having sleepless nights over supernatural events. They just go with the flow. I wished I was more like that. Able to treat something like that as an everyday occurrence, I sure hope I was right to think that’s not a reasonable reaction from any normal person.
I awoke at ten to nine having had three hours sleep. After five minutes of waking up, I glanced down at my watch. Noticing the time, I flung myself out of bed, threw on the first clothes I found and rushed out the door; still ending up an hour late.


Of course it’s me so the second I walked in the door vice principle Herman struts past. I despised the walk of shame to the principal’s office. Most people don’t give a damn but apart from my history with tardiness, I was actually a bit of a goody-two-shoes. So I wasn’t really used to being told off that often. Although that day it actually wasn’t that bad. Nervously, I kept my head to the ground the whole way. I must sound pretty pathetic but hey, there’s much worse things a person can be than a little bit shy. I had just walked past his receptionist Ronda. As I approached the door to Principal Molden’s cramped waiting lobby I slowed right down, stopping inches from the handle. After short hesitation, I took a deep breath and swung the door open confidently. Expecting a quiet empty room I could collect my thoughts and think up excuses calmly, my confidence and feeling in my legs shortly disappeared when I made eye contact with an incredibly attractive guy about the same age as me, giving me a confused look. As I stood there looking like a complete imbecile, he sat back, crossed his arms and gave me a cheeky smirk. “Did I startle you?”
“Oh, I uh just didn’t think anyone else was in here.”
“Well, the shock must have set in by now, are you gonna come sit down?”
I found it fairly awkward that I had to sit next to him. The lack of space meant the lack of chairs. “I haven’t seen you around before,” I said to break the tension as I sat down a foot away from him.


“I’ve only been going here an hour.”
“That’s why then.”
You can see I wasn’t exactly the most profound conversationalist. Staring at the wall opposite me, I could feel him eying me up and down. This is the point where I’m really annoyed I didn’t take the time to pick out a better outfit. The tension became too much for me and I just blurted out the worst thing anyone would think of: “What are your views on necrophilia?” The second the words came out of my mouth, my head fell straight into my hands. Next time, just learn to live with a little tension; I told myself. I kept my face covered until I felt a cool, gentle grip around my wrist. He continued to pry my hand from my face softly whilst replying “You can’t always be perfect.”  “Plus, necrophilia? Not actually a dull topic.” Then he wrapped it all up with that boyish smirk that makes me melt. Just then, the principal strode out from his office and spat out my name impatiently. Instead of putting my tail between my legs, my head down and cowering into his office, I gave Mr Perfect here a beaming grin and swiftly strolled in with my head held high. I know for most people that’s nothing but for me it was definitely a first.


Without any eye contact I glided past Principal Molden and perched on the edge of chair opposite his. No words were exchanged for the first few moments. He just sat there glaring at me, clasping his hands in front of him on the desk. Attempting to intimidate me as per usual. Examining my face it dawned on him that I was different that day. He could see something in me that I didn’t usually have… confidence. You see I didn’t talk to guys that much at all because I got nervous talking to people and when they spoke to me I wasn’t very responsive and I would blurt out something super random. So when Mr perfect not only didn’t pull a sour face and leave but actually said “Don’t worry, you’re cute” with his eyes, how could it not have given me a little boost? As I strolled out with a warning, Mr perfect caught up to me in the hallway. “Hey, wait a sec; I didn’t catch your name.”
“Lila.” I stared straight at him, blankly, awaiting his reply. “Do I get yours or do I have to just keep calling you Mr Perfect in my head?”
I can’t believe I said that! Curse my loose lips.
“Mr perfect huh? I like it. I think I’ll just stick with that.” This time along with the smirk he added a playful wink. As he began to walk away, he turned halfway around and added, “Lila suits you.”
The warm buzz that formed inside my chest didn’t leave me for the entire day. In fact, my mind was so preoccupied that when I opened my locker and reached for my book, I almost grabbed it, threw it under my arm and skipped along not realising that in my daze it somehow levitated into my grasp.
It was beginning to get spooky. And I was beginning to get freaked out. Abruptly slamming my locker door shut, dropping the book on the floor and speeding away from it, I noticed from the corner of my eye Mr perfect staring intently at me leaning against the wall of lockers opposite mine. Gradually I came to a halt and jilted my head back with curiosity to see him still eying me with an intrigued look on his face. 

Nonchalantly, I moved my gaze to forward and continued my swift walk to nowhere. No matter what the hell was happening to me, these random unnatural phenomena’s couldn’t keep occurring at school or eventually someone was going to see something.
This was when I decided it was time for an attempt at focusing the ability; whatever it was. After rushing home from school, I locked myself in my bedroom and aimed all my energy at a pencil I was struggling to levitate. Despite my best efforts, I was getting nowhere until there was an abrupt crash. Ducking down on instinct, I found a layer of pencils, exact copies of the one I was trying to lift, across my floor; and a couple in my hair. At least I was learning to control it, just not in the way I had expected; at all.


After about another three hours of freak winds, flying cupcakes and grazing goats; the levitating was beginning to feel more and more natural to me. At one point, I focused enough to peel off the stickers that I regretted decorating my ceiling with since I was seven. Every day of my life I wondered why I never seemed to fit in. Finally I had answers to questions I thought I had no one to ask. Even with the lack of people to care about in my life, you never feel as lonely as when you have a secret that you’re dying to share. If I’d had one person in the world I could’ve confided in; it would be Sammy.


It’s not like I could even contemplate telling my parents. I wouldn’t have been able to finish my first sentence before they would be making arrangements to get me carted off to the loony bin. That’s if they even listened. At least then I knew if the worst came to worst; I wouldn’t have to duck and roll out of the car, I could duck and float. I doubt I had any worries about my parents finding out; I could’ve probably grown a beak without them noticing. Sometimes I wondered why they didn’t just abort me. Or at least have put us both out of our misery and given me up for adoption. Why are people like that even aloud to have children when they mean nothing to them? I mean I’m sure they would have shown up to my funeral but would they have shed a tear at the loss of their only daughter? I highly doubt it. Maybe a forced emotional moment to keep up appearances but no genuine anguish would be felt.


Ugh, it sickens me to think so much thought was wasted on people who didn’t acknowledge my existence for more than twenty seconds each day. Every time I started thinking about something upsetting, it always came back to them. Did I not have enough on my plate to deal with? Focusing on my new-found abilities seemed much more logical. As I diverted my concentration back towards the only interesting thing that has ever happened to me; excitement began festering as if it were Christmas eve, with the anticipation of letting Sammy in on the most recent extraordinary occurrence in my normally mundane life.

Fully optimistic, I made my way to school, expectant that Sammy would be at the lockers waiting for me like every other morning. When I found he wasn’t my mind wondered. Sammy wasn’t the perfect attendance type but he always made sure to notify me if he was planning to ditch. He knew I hated walking around school by myself. When he was by my side, if people approached me attempting to start up a conversation, he would save me from the utter humiliation of my response. So where was my text? Of course I completely blow it out of proportion, imagining his blood painted across a highway and call his Mom. Just as she picks up, I hear a familiar booming voice, followed by a crash. What has he gotten himself into now?


“Hello dear, is everything alright?”


“Oh sorry, turns out he’s not dead.”  With that I hung up as fast as my hands could move and barrelled around the corner to find Sammy with a smug grin on his face; confidently looming over Ben who was cowering on the floor, rapidly bleeding from his nose.  As he noticed me and my expression, his face began to drop.


“He started it!” Sammy whined in anticipation of another one of my dragged out lectures.
“He thought that just because I’m gay, I was staring at his ass.” “Someone needed to deflate his ego.” 
My lifeless gaze spoke for itself which he took as another chance at a pathetic excuse.


“I tried reasoning with the guy but he somehow convinced himself I had some crush on him.”
I know I seem a bit cruel. I mean it’s not like the guy didn’t deserve it; it’s just that this was Sammy’s regular behaviour. Someone would say something Sammy didn’t agree with and instead of expressing his emotion through words, he did it with his fist. And especially with homophobes, violence only makes it worse. Now they just have more ammo and there mind set is still the same.


As Sammy was desperately attempting to defend himself, the three gay haters tried to scuttle away like frightened beetles until I stopped Sammy in his tracks by calling out to them. “What made you think you were good enough to be in Sammy’s eye line?”
All three halted simultaneously.  The largest one, Ben, spun around and arrogantly strolled up to me.
“He’s gay.” He spits out with c***y grin smeared across his face, without a moment’s thought.


I was beginning to understand Sammy’s impatience. “Are you serious?” I glared at him and crossed my arms, infuriated at his ignorance whilst he widened his eyes as if I was the idiot.


“So by that logic, every straight girl must have a crush on you too?” He seemed to take this as a compliment as his face shone with pride. “Why not?” 
“You would have thought with a head that big, you would hear how much people hate your conceited, bigoted, self-entitled ass.” Alas every word of what I said seemed to fly straight over his head. Shortly after my remark, he and his friends dispersed without a reply. But at least I got my point across for the people that did hear and understand me. Sammy certainly appreciated the sentiment. I also noticed a mysterious figure all in black at the end of the hallway, intrigued in my useless effort to enlighten that lost soul. I took a wild guess at who that was.


“Are you blushing?” Sammy chuckled, interrupting my daydream.


“Uhhhh… it’s just so hot in here!” I protested, fanning my face with my hand.
“Sure. “ He gave me a sarcastic eye roll then continued with: “I’m never going to understand girls. “
“At least the feelings mutual,” I sighed, with my head turned to face him as we were separating to head to class.
See Sammy is gay as I’m pretty sure you have figured out by now; but he is completely open about it. I remember when he first came out. It wasn’t a shock to me at all but everyone else seemed so set in their views of what a homosexual person is like and Sammy doesn’t fit a single one of the stereotypes. He doesn’t give a second’s thought about clothes, he doesn’t gossip, he doesn’t drink c***tails, he doesn’t live to party; the list can go on and on. He seems as straight as they come yet he still doesn’t fit into that other category of being a “top”. He isn’t promiscuous, he isn’t a frequent gym visitor and he isn’t particularly dominant. However, he still got a lot of shtick about what he’s “supposed to wear” and how he’s “supposed to act.” And they’re not even the ones that are particularly against gays. You can see how he got into a lot of fights.
That day was the worst possible day for it of course because I was dying to tell someone about what was happening to me. And it only got worse as the day progressed. One class left until lunch, one class until I could finally tell Sammy. My body was filled with relief. That was until Mr too lazy to plan a lesson placed a pop quiz in front of me. My luck was going to be the death of me I swear. That was the subject I was supposed to be studying while I was obsessing over my newfound powers. I just needed more time!


Everything was closing in around me, the ONLY thing my parents cared about was appearances and even on a pointless pop quiz, if I failed; I was therefore a failure. Panic overwhelmed me and minutes were going by like seconds, the monotonous sound of people writing their answers and turning the pages was playing so loud in my head whilst I was getting nowhere. With that, the room fell silent. No more endless scratching of pencils, no more of the deafening tic of the clock and no more sound whatsoever. My gaze gradually moved from my paper to around the room. I could see it coming; I just hoped I was imagining it. Nope. I was right. Everyone was frozen. How am I supposed to get out of this mess? I could barely control my first powers and now I’m finding more? Have I frozen the whole world or just this room?

Desperate to see everything was normal elsewhere, I sped straight into the hallway. Sure enough, when I looked through the glass on the door of the classroom opposite ours, it was the same. “Uggggghhhhh!” I threw my hands up to my head and groaned. “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!” I screamed at the ceiling frantically.


“I thought there was something different about you.” Dropping straight to the floor in surprise, I saw none other than Mr Perfect leaning against the lockers facing me, looking incredibly amused.

Who what why? Why was Mr perfect not frozen like the rest? What did he mean by” I thought there was something different about you” how did he know? Endless questions were running through my mind. Of course a normal person would have just got up and asked these questions rather than cowering into the nearest Janitor’s closet, torturing them self, when the answers are just beyond the door. But it’s me we’re talking about here; the logical approach has never been my forte. What can I say? Normal is boring. Okay I had been sitting in there long enough; my problems weren’t just going to disappear. I had to face my demons; which in my case happened to be a sweet, gorgeous sixteen year old boy.  At least I think he’s sixteen. My mind wondered, attempting to distract myself from my most recent predicament. Abruptly I snapped myself out of my daydream, knowing that I needed answers and if there was even a slight chance that he knew something, I should’ve been jumping on it. With that I swiftly arose and threw myself out the door; only to end up on my ass. Yes that’s right as if it wasn’t bad enough; I had just tackled Mr Perfect. “You’re always popping up where you shouldn’t be.” I mumbled, dusting myself off.

“I like to make an impression” he chuckled. “So in your mind, you run into a closet and you are magically invisible to the world?”

“I never came to that conclusion, but it wouldn’t exactly be a far stretch,” I shrugged. “So I’m guessing you noticed time being frozen?”

“It’s pretty hard to miss.”

“Thanks for the help Mr Sarcasm.”

“Awr what happened to Mr Perfect?”

“Well maybe if you told me what the hell you have to do with all this then you would deserve that title again.” “Wait I meant if you actually tell me your name, none of these Mr titles would be necessary”

“Nice save.” I couldn’t be angry that he laughed at me again because he has an unfair advantage every time he flashes me that priceless smirk of his.

“So… am I spending the rest of my life in the dark?”

“Fine I’ll tell you Miss Exaggeration.” His amused grin shortly disappeared when he noticed the highly unimpressed look smeared across my face.  “To be completely honest I’m just as weirded out as you are. I mean finding out there is another witch at this school? What are th-”

“A what?!” I screeched as he continued completely oblivious.

“Well obviously I’m a witch too or how could I be talking to you right now?”

Eyes widened, I clung to my hair in disbelief and backed up into the wall, sliding down it to the floor.

“I know it’s a bit of a surprise but don’t you think your being a bit melodramatic?” His eyebrows furrowed with curiosity.

“I-I just… I can’t believe it.” I knew I had powers but I had no idea there were others like me. And now instead of being gifted I was suddenly a witch!

“Have you never met another witch before or something?”

“I didn’t know I was one!” Our eyes were locked.

“Oooooooooh.” He held his hand up to his face awkwardly.  “Oopsi I kind of bombarded you a bit there.”

“You think?!”

“So you’ve never been to the witches’ clan?”

“There’s a witches’ clan?!”

“Stop screaming.”

“Why?! Who the hell is going to hear me?!”

“Well for starters, me.” He whined while squinting his eyes and rubbing his temple.

“Oh man up.”


“I, am plenty man, thank you.” I rolled my eyes with annoyance as he proudly patted his chest with his fist.


“Just found out I’m a freaking witch over here!”


“Aaand back to the shouting.”


Gently, I arose and began walking towards him. “I’m going to ignore your constant sarcasm and just ask you nicely to please help me get time back to normal.” I spoke through my teeth, calmly, holding in any frustration.

“Oh that’s easy.”


“Thanks for the confidence boost.”


“Okay, close your eyes.”


“Okaaay.”


“Now you paused time because you wanted it to stop right?”


I nodded softly.


“So just do the opposite.”


I stood there for minutes attempting to re-start time.  As I was becoming aggitated at my lack of progress, my face screwed up while straining and I started stamping the floor.


“You’re over thinking it.” He said, behind a slight chuckle. “You have to feel it.” He placed his hands on each of my shoulders delicately and I instantly relaxed. “You don’t want time frozen forever do you?”


“Who would make the food?” I whined.
“Exactly.”


After a moment of meditation, everything felt like it was moving around me and then there was a sudden jolt. Sure enough, it was back to normal. However when he removed his hands from my shoulders, I felt a wave of disappointed wash over me. And just like that, everything stopped again.
“Okay, let’s go over this one more time.” He sighed as I pouted.


It didn’t take me that long to master, just a bit more than the average witch, apparently. Of course when I did get back to class, I had to pause time again to be able to pass the test with all the extraordinary information swimming round my mind. This left me with an amused Mr perfect outside the classroom door, glaring at me. All that talk about witches and clans and he still didn’t tell me his name.


He even got around to telling me about how back in the 1600’s a witch got caught hovering and suddenly mortals everywhere were being accused of being a witch and that’s how we have mythical withes. But he didn’t have a second spare to give me something to call him. How big a secret do you have to share with someone to be allowed to learn their identity?! He frustrated me sometimes; it would have been so much easier if he wasn’t so damn perfect. At least I wasn’t alone anymore, I had someone to confide in about my powers and who could help me control them. I was still going to tell Sammy, but I decided it was best to wait until I understood everything myself, instead of leaving him with all the unanswered questions that I had.


I thought it was best to let all the witchy stuff set in before I started learning more so I told nameless I would meet him after school tomorrow. I went straight from school to bed, but not before using my new ability to avoid my parents’ b****ing. At least it was coming in handy.



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This book has 6 comments.


KittyKoala said...
on Jun. 9 2017 at 10:09 pm
KittyKoala, Norfolk, Other
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
That's Weird :/

KittyKoala said...
on Jun. 9 2017 at 10:08 pm
KittyKoala, Norfolk, Other
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
Thank you o much for your feedback, you've been very helpful! :)

on Jun. 9 2017 at 9:42 pm
valkyrie1212 BRONZE, Adelaide, Other
2 articles 0 photos 34 comments
Chapter 3: 'my mind wondered' should be 'my mind wandered'. There are also a few commas missing in this one. Make sure you skip a line every time a new person is speaking - there's a part in this chapter and one of the first two chapters where you didn't do that. Other than that, this was pretty cool! Can't wait to see what happens next :)

on Jun. 9 2017 at 9:36 pm
valkyrie1212 BRONZE, Adelaide, Other
2 articles 0 photos 34 comments
Chapter 2: love the ending! It made me want to read more. With the pacing, I feel it's a little too fast once again. Try adding more imagery - what does Lila look like? What are some of her unique traits eg her fashion sense, her actions (maybe she always fumbles with her clothes etc). This will help give readers a mental image of Lila and help with pacing. Also, are you trying to address the reader with this story? Sometimes, in this chapter and the first one, you seem to do so. For example, in this one, you wrote this line: "My luck was going to be the death of me I swear". By saying that, it seems like you're talking to readers ie swearing to readers. This makes the story really awkward and I think it would be better if those types of senteces were altered.

on Jun. 9 2017 at 9:26 pm
valkyrie1212 BRONZE, Adelaide, Other
2 articles 0 photos 34 comments
This comment is about Chapter 1 btw...I didn't realise comments on each separate chapter would show up on every other chapter, if that made sense :)

on Jun. 9 2017 at 9:24 pm
valkyrie1212 BRONZE, Adelaide, Other
2 articles 0 photos 34 comments
Cool idea, and cool start! Here are a few things to look out for: firstly, there are a few spelling and grammatical errors. For example, 'eying' shoud be 'eyeing', and 'aloud' should be 'allowed'. You've also missed a few commas here and there. Secondly, with the actual story itself, it reads a little awkwardly. I think the pacing and characterisation needs a bit more work...it seems a bit rushed and readers don't really know the character. Maybe try adding the last part where you're talking about the parents to the middle of the story, or add little bits and pieces of that last part throughout the story. That will help with pacing and characterisation. I'll keep reading now and give you my thoughts on the other chapters :)