Sophia and I were a pact. We promised to be best friends since we were about 7 years old, when I moved here. If you ever seen us in a fight, wait scratch that- you wouldn’t. We haven’t fought once, lucky for us, and we weren’t even planning on doing so.
That seems rather outrageous, in my dearest opinion.

“Okay so- I was thinking we could hit up ‘Hot Topic’ tonight and then we could go home to your house after school and eat ice-cream and watch ‘Chuck’!” She exclaimed as we walked down the hallway. I swept snow off of me. The hot yet cold texture almost burned off my hand with freezing icicles.

“Yeah- sounds awesome…” I smiled. I wasn’t even really paying attention to her. I felt the voice nag me more in my head, never letting me see the daylight of freedom of speech or press or anything really.

/You can’t do that- the snow would damage the school hallway floors and then it would melt and a kid could fall and break his/her leg and it would all be your fault because they have the cameras everywhere in this school/ The voice hissed. It wasn’t delicate or sweet. It was rude and uncomfortable. I couldn’t ever escape from it and I never even knew why. Why was I chosen as this victim?

What if somebody actually broke their leg from me wiping off snow?
Would they send me off to juvy or something? Could I get suspended? I’ve never got suspended or anything before. As I said, I haven’t even missed a day of school- as much as I wish I could.

I sighed and tried to brush off this confusion, of course it doesn’t work but that’s just me. Nothing ever works when it comes to me. Honestly, I think that’s because of the hissing voice in my head, they are like long nails that scraped down a chalkboard that would make your ears bleed. And that what the voices were like. They would never leave.

“Clairee! Earth to Claire? What’s in that head of yours?” Sophia wondered as she stood in front of me. Her perfectly honey hair falling as her shoulders as she waved her hand in my face. I smiled gently. Crazy, jokingly Sophia. She was always like that. I usually spaced off while she was top full attention. That was another thing that we didn’t have in common.

“Sorry. I spaced out-”
“Again!” She interrupted me and we both busted out into tiny giggles.

“Thanks.” I rolled my hazel eyes as she bowed. I laughed. She was this crazy person that you just couldn’t hate. I couldn’t hate her. The thought of hating her- that what made me want to go crazy. She is my best friend I have ever had and I couldn’t let her disappear. I wanted to protect her because that’s what we do.

She mostly protected me because as I said, I let people walk all over me. I hate that about me. I hate a lot about me honestly.
The way I walk, my laugh, my teeth, my longish curly blonde hair, and the way I dress; the list never does end.

“You’re so very welcome!” Sophia smiled as we continued walking down the hallway doing to are lockers.

“Hey dorks.” A voice cheered as we walked up to our lockers. We have nearly the same last name; OK it began with the two same letters.

“Sup Freddie.” I smirked as I began opening my locker with my combination.

/Wow? Sup? What a cool way. You LOVE him, and sup isn’t gonna cut it. Miss.All-perfect/

I growled silently in my head at the voices that controlled over my whole brain. No matter what was going on- it would all shut off until the screeching voice left. For then.

“Ahh, nothing much Claire.” He smiled at me as I felt my face grow a hot red.
“Relax!” Sophia whispered quietly in my ear. I smiled at her but also a smile to tell her to leave me alone and that I could handle Freddie by myself.

“That’s good. Don’t you love Fridays? Too bad the day just goes by so fast that you just want your head to explode if the school day doesn’t end soon enough. I guess waiting does that to you, I’ve noticed. The more you want the day to go by faster- the slower it goes. Or the slower you want the day to go then the faster it goes. Crazy, right? Have you noticed that our lockers aren’t painted as our school colors, and hey by the way-” I was happily interrupted; I couldn’t stop babbling on and on. Like my thoughts just jumbled out of my mouth when they weren’t supposed too. I cursed myself in the head as I quickly grabbed my supplies out of my locker.

“STOP!” Sophia screamed and covered my mouth. “Relax…Why are you babbling and rambling on and on?” She exclaimed. She was annoyed whenever this crazy weird side of me would suddenly just pop out! That, folks, is what happens when I get nervous or really bored.
I was nervous, if you couldn’t tell.

“Sorry.” I smiled gently. Freddie knew this side of me.

“Eh, we all have our moments,” He grinned at me and shut his locker that was 5 lockers down from ours. “Hey- you guys watching Chuck tonight?”

“You know it!” Sophia grinned at him as she shut her locker after fixing her honey blonde hair. We closed our lockers and walked off to our first class, Language Arts

The instant chatter of teenagers laughing, gossiping or hitting on girls blew into my head as we walked in to the class.
Nobody paid attention when we entered, that always happened. I didn’t mind because don’t you think it be awkward if you entered class and everyday people would stop talking and stare? I don’t know how Brianna Sapp does it.

Oh, I forgot to mention the queen bee and her crew didn’t me?
Well they always are the last ones to enter so they can make this big scene.
The boys have crystal drool falling out of their lips as they looked at them with lust. Honestly, it was disgusting.

Sophia instantly went over to her seat and sat down as she grabbed out her drawing notebook. She was perfect, wasn’t she? She could draw anything, dance to anything, and make her hair fall perfect. Now don’t get the feeling that I’m jealous of my best friend. Never.
Jealousy is a horrible thing to think that I have. Sure, she has stuff I don’t have- but I don’t mind really. She isn’t a bragger like some stupid heads.

I was of course, off in space as everything went silence. Like a killer was in the school and if we were quiet, we were going to die. Although, this times it was 10x worse than the thought of a killer at Jackson High.
It was The Darlings.

The three most popular girls in school. Also known as me and Sophia’s enemies.
We hated each other, never even tried to be friends, since like 1st grade. It started when I kept winning contests in class of best Show’N’Tell. Brianna was jealous and vowed to hate me forever.
I didn’t mind it, I hated her anyways.

“Why are you in our way?” An annoying voice growled in my ears.
I turned around and there they were. On Fridays, they all weared pink and orange. It was stupid.

Let me give you a tiny heads up.
Brianna Sapp- The most perfect girl ever as people say. Her black hair makes her unstoppable. Black as a crow, it makes her evil with her sparkling dragon green eyes.

And there’s Yasmin Ragon- She is the second richest and the smartest of the group. Shes a smart alike and she makes sure people know it. She is the definition of Revenger. One time, Sophia was dancing at school and won in the talent show- the next week. Sophia broke her leg, on “accident”

Don’t forget, Madison Crosley- Her perfect blonde hair shows the truth. She is a **** at heart and also a very dumb one. You always have that dumb one. Shes pretty sweet, since she used to be my friend and she’s Sophia’s cousin. Shes only sweet when shes not around Brianna or Yasmin. Shes often stepped over in the group.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you own this small square of the floor? Weird. I don’t see your name on it. I guess you were mistaken.” I smirked as she glared back at me. Like a snake waiting to attack.

“Get out of our way and go sit by your dorkish friend.”
“My “dorkish friend” is better than you and your crew because she doesn’t talk gossip about each other behind their backs." I nodded at them walked off to my desk.

“You shouldn’t have said that!” Yasmin growled at me as they all went to the back of the room and sat down at their desks. Their desks had pink chairs and everybody else had stupid brown pale ones.

/Why did you do that? I know your regretting it. Guess what- Yasmin is going to KILL you! Yeah, you know it’s the truth. She is the “Revenger” as you fore-say/ the voice hissed in my head, like it was provoking me to get up and run away. I would never run away. Yes, I can let people over take me.

But running away from problems never help you. People just don’t see that now, do they?

“Alright. Shut up!” Miss.Jones snapped as she walked in the classroom. She was our student teacher, since Mr. Hart had to train her or something.

The class giggled a bit but she glared at us, in a playful way of course.

“Mr. Hart is gone for the rest of the month due to vacation with his wife. You have a huge project that takes up 60% of your final grade for the semester. Its due before Christmas Break. Don’t do it at the last minute or you’re going to regret it.”

I hate that word. Regret. Taunting me any second that it could, it would come up and stab me. It stung me every day.

“You must create a tree of your family past. Some of you might need your mommy and daddy’s help because you’re too dumb. You must use a Christmas tree design too, since we are going to be a bit creative.”

The class groaned. We hated projects, of course.
I didn’t even want to know anything about my family. All I want to know about is my mom, and my brother. That’s it…

The bell rang after at least 30 more minutes of Miss.Jones droning on about the project and talking about her college life. I hated when teachers did that. I mean- I’m here to learn about English, not about your whole life story.

I rolled my eyes and gathered my stuff and walked off out of the classroom, my converse tattering lightly against the dirty tiles of the school classroom to the small point of the hallway.

Now before you see what’s going to happen, just take a note that I have easy bad luck.
You will notice this much more, isn’t that something?

The second I walked out of the door, I fell face down.
Laughing erupted from 3 girls and then a few more people laughed.
If you don’t know who tripped me, then you’re just an idiot.

“Wow. It’s like I can barely see you Claire. Your clothes are so dirty and ugly just like the floor!” Yasmin giggled.

I got up slowly; my knees ached because they slide against the floor as I fell straight down. I glared at them as I gathered my books, pencil bag, and notebooks.
/Told you. Now do you ever listen to me? Wait- you do! Every second I even speak in this stupid small idiotic blonde mind of yours/ the voice hissed gently as I gathered my strength and got up.

“Mind shutting up?” I muttered out loud on accident, rolling my eyes as I dusted off my knees

“What? I just offered to help you…” Freddie said. I looked up at him and blushed almost imminently. What am I saying; my face was red as a fire truck the second he spoke!

“Oh! I’m sorry Freddie…You know how…weird I can be.” I smiled slightly as he smirked.

“That’s not true.” He crossed his arms. “They’re horrible, aren’t they?” He sighed, now uncrossed his arms and stuffed his hands in his skinny jean pockets.

Wow. He was so hot in skinny jeans.
“I wish they just grow up, get over their jealous and stop being such middle schoolers.” I gently sighed as he laughed quietly, mumbling something about “Doesn’t everybody?”

I smiled at him. “See you at lunch.” I whispered quietly and scurried off.

- – - – - – - – - – - – -
(Later that night)

“Hey mom! Me and Sophia are here!” I called as we entered my house. We had shopping bags from Hot Topic.

“Where were you?” She growled as she walked into the living room, crossing her arms all snotty.

“I texted you saying we were going to Hot Topic.” I rolled my eyes as she glared at me with daggers.

“I didn’t see that. You should call” She rolled her eyes. “I was worried sick-”

“Like you care about me!” I snapped at her. Sophia never said anything ever time we fought, which was about every few hours or less. She felt so uncomfortable when that happens. She doesn’t tell me, but since we’re like best friends. I can tell.

We walked upstairs to my room to watch Chuck, our favorite show ever. I gently put one of my bags in my other hand with the other bag. I reached for my door handle and opened the door to my small room. I turned on the light and my Paramore posters shown along with Avril Lavigne and Maroon 5. I wasn’t the most natural listener. I was different, heck I was proud

/Proud of what? One day- Brianna Sapp could stomp right into your house and laugh at all your posters and you would cry yourself to sleep because that’s what you always do. Why am I even with you? Brianna is so much better than you. I wish I was with her, your so annoying. Great job of putting up THOSE posters, think you’re going to get a boyfriend? Think again! /

The voice cut off all my train of thoughts and left me standing there frozen in the doorway of my room. My eyes were fixed on nothing as the thoughts charged into my head like heavy metal music.

I snapped back into reality and walked over to my dresser and put my bags at the side.

“I feel really bad for you anyways, come on. What are we going to do about that HUGE English project? I am NOT ready for it. Like I want to learn about my stupid family.” Sophia sighed as she dropped her bags on my bed and sat on it.

“I know right. After my family’s past, I don’t even want to think about it!” I sighed as I went over to where she was and sat next to her.

“You think you have it bad? Please Claire. Your mom is like a superstar reporter. Your dad is like a billionaire right now-”

“Don’t bring him up.” I growled at her. She knew I was sensitive but sometimes she just lets it all out and I want to scream at her. Sophia never knew when to shut up at times, and that was the worst part.

“Whoa. Look at this text…” Sophia said casually, as if the last few minutes have never happened. And that’s how she makes it all better. Distracting me.

I looked down at her phone and almost froze.

‘Score! Dude I’m going out with Brianna ~Freddie’ that was the text message that appeared on Sophia’s screen.

“Dude…Don’t you like love him?!” Sophia exclaimed

“H-He lied… He said they were horrible and now he’s going out with the top girl in school?” I whispered quietly. I felt my heart racing with something I’ve never felt before. I breathed heavily as crystal tears fell down my face. Sophia’s eyes widened and she quickly hugged me.

I cried gently, not making any loud noises but just crying.

Time rolled around the corner like little 2nd grader kids playing hide and seek. You honestly never had a clue when the seeker was coming and going to find you.

I gently opened my hazel eyes and looked around the dark room. I blinked and rubbed my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I shook Sophia a bit. We must’ve fallen asleep.
“Wake up.” I mumbled quietly to her. I reached over my bed and turned on my lamp. It dimmed the room with tiny lightness, setting a warm and comfortable yet eerie feeling.

Sophia stretched as she woke up and blinked her blue eyes widely. That was another thing I loved. She overreacted when she fell asleep or woke up. Not many people are like that. Ginger drama queen, and I love her for that.

“What time is it?” I yawned gently; I didn’t want to look because I was too lazy. That always happens. Im super lazy when I wake up. A reason why I don’t take the bus.

(A/N- I was typing to make Claire yawn and I actually yawned and Im wide awake. Creepy? :) Claire has been truly formed!)

“Ugh. It’s like 1 AM,” Sophia rolled her eyes as she stood up. “I should head home. My dad is going to be back from Iraq soon. My mom said it’s maybe going to be tomorrow, at least I hope.” She sighed as she grabbed her stuff.

“What? You can’t go home!” I exclaimed, standing up. Was my friend really leaving me in my state of need?

“What? What do you mean?” Sophia giggled a bit, taking this as a joke wasn’t helping me.
She fixed her hair into a ponytail as she grabbed my jacket.

“That’s mine…” I whispered quietly, crossing my arms.

“Okay? Sorry Miss.Greedy.” She rolled her eyes and took the jacket off. Usually we just wear each-other clothes. I didn’t want her to have it.

“Im not greedy!” I snapped at her. My arms were still crossed against my chest angrily. This was outrageous.
“Wow. You have some problems and don’t expect me coming back to you until you fix them!” Sophia stormed out of my room and slammed the door behind her. She ran downstairs.

I heard my mom talking to her but I knew what Sophia responded to. She smiled gently and said that she had to get home because her dad might be coming home tomorrow from Iraq. I could see the whole scene in my head, replaying.

“FINE!” I growled and slammed a cross country trophy I had at the door. This created a small dent.

“CLAIRE ELIZABETH WEST!” My mother screamed upstairs after she heard the clash. I imagined her face red with anger, thinking about the damage. She probably thought that I have left a giant hole in the door. That’s if I punched the door, luckily I didn’t.

“SORRY. MY…HAND SLIPPED?” I lied to her loudly and felt a tear roll down my face.

I turned on the light and grabbed my laptop and turned it on gently.
I wiped my face with the sleeve to my grey sweater.
Clicking on Google Chrome and then typing in my password into Facebook.

I sighed as I looked at the newest stories and saw that Freddie Wilburn was going out with Brianna Sapp.
I felt more tears come down my face. Crystals gently fell down on my sweater and laptop. I wiped them off and my face was turning a blushing red from crying. My eyes were probably red and puffy.

I clicked on chat and started typing to Freddie

“So you’re going out with Brianna? And you tell Sophia first…? Wow; are you happy now with your decision? You lied to my face saying you hated them and now you’re dating the girl who hates me?! I thought you were my friend Freddie. Wow, I was so wrong on so many levels”
I typed gently into the screen. I debated to sending that to him. I couldn’t keep my feelings locked up. Although, it’s going to be so awkward on Monday.

I closed my eyes gently and decided to send it anyways. I had to get those feelings out. I pressed enter and waited for the reply. But I never wanted to see Freddie’s reply. I gently opened a new tab and closed the Facebook one.

Looking over I typed in “Donovan West” which was the name of my father.
I knew never to trust the very first page that appears on your screen when researching.

I scrolled down and looked at a page for our city police. I clicked on it because I knew my father was arrested once.

I read over it gently, my eyes scraping across the screen- not once looking away from the paragraphs.

‘Donovan Clyde West was born on November 1st, 1976. He was once married to Farah Hope Rein. They had two kids named Claire Elizabeth West and Aiden Jon West. Aiden died at the age of 9 due to cancer.’ I stopped reading it and let the tears fall in memory of my brother.

He had perfectly shaggy blonde hair and dark brown eyes, which come after my dad. I put my hands over my eyes. Aiden was the perfect little brother and he died at least 3 years ago. I was only 12 years old, and it was the biggest impact that ever happened to me. And I don’t think I'm going to ever forget it or him…

The more I thought about me having to do this project and dig even deeper into the ‘West’ and ‘Rein’ family past. The more I was scared too.

Kind of like your first kiss, you really want it. But you’re so scared that it could go wrong or they could reject you or it’s with some nerdy kid. His eyes bulging out of his glasses as he pushed them up his face with snot coming down his nose. He wipes her nose and snorts.

Gross, isn’t it? I knew I had to start the project at least. But, researching at like almost 1 AM or so wasn’t that smart. I have no school tomorrow, so…there’s a plus.
I sighed and opened my laptop again and kept reading on.

I skipped over all his childhood past and focused on looked onto other relatives.
Clicking on another website that had a link about my Great-Grandma.

I immidently froze once the site popped up. That was rather odd. It showed a young female elf in black and white. I laughed. My once frown curled up into a smile. This site was so fake.
I shrugged and decided to keep reading on. Apparently, she was from the Rowan Guild. I laughed.

It was like a fantasy book. It talked about these legacies, generations, guilds, and powers. It was kind of interesting actually. I smirked and printed the page.

I got up gently from my bed and set my laptop off to the side.

/Wow. Look at what you found. OH YIPPEE- I’m Claire West, and my great-grandmother was an elf that worked for the Fairy Queen of the Rowan Guild! YAYY. GIVE ME MY A! Not! / The voice hissed as I stopped in my tracks. I was going to my dresser to get the paper. But all my systems, but my heart and breathing, shut off as the voice rambled in my head. It screeched inside of there, not letting my move.

I tried to shake my head but no matter what, the comments repeated over and over. The voice was right. This is a joke. My family was just another normal family. I hope. What am I saying? We are normal. The only thing bad that has happened was my dad leaving and my brother dying. That was all.

Right?

I rolled my eyes and left the paper at the printer and closed the internet browser on my white apple laptop and closed it securely. I placed it down on my dresser and headed off under the secure blankets in my bed.

Snuggling under them, I couldn’t help but wonder. But-what if that page was true? There was all kinds of crazy and scary things on the internet. Although, a fire started in my heart the second the page appeared. It burned wildly against my chest, trying to scream at me. To get my attention.

/Ha! Like that was true. That was probably me wanting to get the heck out of you/ the voice laughed at me. I rolled my eyes and turned over after a second of so of it talking. This voice was stupid- why wouldn’t it just leave me alone?

I closed my eyes and drifted off into another deep slumber of the night
-

I opened my eyes and saw a beautiful sunlight rays streaming down on the trees. It sparkled against the beautiful cherry blossoms. My eyes widened. I’ve never seen anything like this. I looked around gently and saw a rustle in the bush. I figured it was a small animal, I loved animals. They were sweet to me, no matter what kind. They loved me too- which was pretty epic if I do say.

I walked over quietly to the bush and scrunched down. “Hello?” I whispered quietly. All was silent. No rustle or anything.

“Excuse me, but I’m no harm. Who is there?” I continued gently whispering quietly, my soothing voice playing over the sounds of nothing.

“Hi! Who are you?” A cute voice popped out of nowhere.

I got up quickly and turned around. But nothing but the sweet cherry blossom trees and the delicate sunlight. “Back here silly!” The voice giggled gently.

I turned around and my eyes widened. “Oh my!” I exclaimed quietly. There was a little 12 or 11 year old girl standing in front of me. She had cute sparkling white hair with a pink streak and a black witch hat.

“W-Who are you?” I demanded.

She frowned and crossed her arms. She looked up at me and her eyes sparkled a vivid violet. I almost let out a shriek. Were those contacts? I must be dreaming. “The question here is who are you? Why are you invading Rowan territory!?” She growled at me. Suddenly her hands glowed a vibrant and dazzling green. My eyes widened.

“I-I’m just Claire West! You know, I don’t belong here-”

“Claire West, you say?” The little girl’s eyes widened happily. “CHUMASH! CHUMASH!” She hollered loudly

“No! No Chumash! Wait! What is Chumash?!” I demanded, trying to hush her. I didn’t want to be found, if she is only like 12 or 11 and has glowing green hands and violet eyes, I don’t want to find anybody older. I frowned and ran off. Running was a skill

Whenever I ran, I felt free. I continued running harder. Pumping my legs on. The sweet cherry blossom trees that I have once known turned into a deep dark black. I noticed I was somehow wearing a beautiful white dress, it was turning black. Pitch black as the midnight sky with no twilight stars.

-

I opened my eyes again. Sweat pellets beaded down my face. I wiped my face and looked up. It was 7 AM now. I sighed with defeat. The one thing that stepped out in her dream was what the girl said. Something about invading the Rowan territory.

Rowan…Rowan…Rowan!
The words repeated in my head over and over. I quickly got up and sprinted to my computer. Not bothering to take it to my bed, I opened up Google Chrome and looked at my history. I clicked the link from last night and read over my Great-Grandma’s past again. THAT’S IT. She was from the Rowan Guild…Rowan Territory.

Dreams have always meant something to me. I looked up with deep hazel eyes out to the outside of my window. The sun gently reached over the skyline of other houses. I blinked as it adjusted and I swore I saw just another cherry blossom leaf fall gently down. No cherry blossom trees were where I lived. What did THIS mean now?