As time flew by, the gray clouds grew darker, almost the colour of coal, along with merciless storms that seemed to strike me endlessly, in my life of seemingly endless, imaginary rain. 

Each school day blurred into the next, punctuated by the all - too - familiar - chaos of lunch. The likelihood of my lunch money and parts of my lunch accelerated, and soon I've lost count of the number of these incidents, even the outcasts, my current clique mates , and the nerds and geeks, would join in. 

"Hey! That's my lunch! Can you please give it back?' I asked, forcing my knees on the floor and my fingers coming together to form a tight ball. Attempting to emulate one of the desperate faces I've seen in a soap opera online, the temperature of my insides rising from my act. 

"Nope! Sorry! It's ours now!" A teenager I barely recognised sneered, carrying my lunch tray, decked with my rice and vegetables away as my stomach growled in process. 

"Can you please at least give me part of it? I don't want to starve, and i don't have money for another one..." 

"That's not our problem!" He snickered, before joining his friends, all snickering behind him. 

after recess... 

Biology class: 

I slumped onto my desk, my hands on the table , my head resting on it, instead of fishing out my materials on the table. 

"Okay class, today we're learning about alleles..." Mrs Martinez droned on, her words entering one ear and dropping out of the other. 

The focus I had in class was directed to the pleas of my stomach , begging to be filled.

"growl...."

English class: 

I opened my pencil case, ready to start the argumentative mock test, and prove Mr Hillstone I'm more than just a face. Only to be greeted with the sight of a neat row of a 2D sharpened pencil, black eraser and transparent ruler. 

Wait  a minute...

"Where's my pen?" I muttered. 

"Oops ! Sorry Alex! But I forgot mine! So I had to take it!" A voice dripping with sarcasm traveled from the front. I looked up, facing autumn waving my blue fountain pen in the air, her (and Diamond, Lily and Colette (Colette with the average students) mouth forming a smirk 

My fists, hidden from sight, began to form into tight balls, shaking uncontrollably. 

Well you could've at least asked! 

Once, after school, craving for some solutions to cope with my new reality and stretch the chances of achieving my dreams, I pulled my phone from the pocket of my black shorts.

But as soon as I turned it on...

"Wait, how did I get so many messages in a few minutes?" I muttered, with unfamiliar names.  But I don't know any of these names... 

I clicked on them to find... 

"Hey loser! Enjoying for your new life now? Well you better get used to it, because we're continuing this at least until high school is over!" 

"I heard from Diamond you wanted to be a singer! So why don't you give up and accept the fact that'll never happen!" 

"Yeah! You'll never be a singer!"

"No one wants to hire someone who looks like a moon crater!" 

Amongst the cruel comments, a video stood out, i played it to find it was a video of me singing a song i wrote specially for the school's  90th anniversary last year. 

"Nice voice! You just need a prettier picture! Too bad no one wants to hear a singer with the looks of a frog!" 

But worst of all ...

"Hey Alex! Give us your homework!" 

I looked up to see a dark haired boy around my year, boys around our age behind him, snickering. His hand was stretched out. 

"Okay! Okay! Just leave me alone!" I begged, forcing myself to shake like a leaf, emulating a deer trapped in a lion's den As I handed my finished worksheet over. 

_________________________

"Here's your homework , Alex!" He exclaimed, a condescending 'u' shape on his lips as he dropped what looked like shreds of paper at my feet. 

"What's that?" 

"Your homework idiot!" He snickered, the laughter of his friends behind him ringing in my ears. "Good luck dealing with your teacher! Bye!" 

ARGH!!!!!

Even better, now that I knew the new principal and teachers, for sure those pesky flies wouldn't step up! 

A week later, one scorching afternoon , after school, I sat in the now empty classroom and dug into my bag to retrieve my maths homework in hopes of finishing it in time so I could spend more undisturbed time singing and songwriting in my room. 

When my hand went in... 

Wait... What's that?...

My hand came contact into something light and smooth caressing it. Pulling it out, I found a small price of folded white paper. 

"Where did this come from?" I muttered, scratching my head. 

Out of sheer curiosity, I slowly unfolded the paper, my hands started to shake, my heart raced like a drum. 

Only to be greeted by...

"Dear Alex, no one likes you, even your own parents, and you're a total nuisance. so why don't you disappear and give up on your dreams of becoming a singer. " 

"Yeah! You're ugly!"

"Disappear!" 

"Begone!" 

Each sentence, in scribbles of different colours, was like a dagger, piercing through my heart, imaginary blood splattering as if I were stabbed again and again. Tears welled up in my brown eyes, trickling down my acned cheeks. My shoulders began to slump, my breath hitching. 

I shouldn't have opened it... If only my curiosity hadn't taken over...

I fell to the ground, my body sprawled all over its smooth surface.  

"Haha! Look! Abnormal Alex is crying on the ground like a baby!" A familiar voice exclaimed. 

Peeking from my earth coloured strands, I caught a glimpse of diamond and her clique, along with lily , Eric and some unfamiliar faces of normies around our age, among them being the boy who snatched my homework and reduced it to shreds the other day, all snickering, their hands on their mouths, their eyebrows furrowed, their eyes in my direction. 

"Let's take a picture of her and put it online!" One of the unfamiliar faces suggested to another.

"Good idea! That would be hilarious!' came the response, before fishing a red cell phone, it's back in my direction, a small white light coming out of it before he placed it down, everyone else facing the screen. 

"Perfect shot! " He exclaimed. 

"Now all we have to do is to put it on the school website!" 

Diamond sashayed to me. 

"What's wrong, sis? Crying over a piece of paper?" She snickered, the others snickering in response. 

"Yeah, we didn't want to do it at first, but we have no choice. " Autumn added, her voice dripping with sarcasm. 

Yeah right, no choice? Well you do have a choice, and you chose to judge me for my appearance.  something I can never control. 

"Don't cry, you have us to tell you the truth. " Lily snickered sarcastically. 

A tear rolled down my cheek, my body shaking slightly, feeling like a fragile flower all alone growing in the wrong conditions, attempting to survive. While battling an endless, majestic storm and the wind, attempting to disarm it's roots and lift it in the air. 

That's what I'm crying about. My world is revolved around superficial people , like you,  who judge and torture me mercilessly for my looks. 

Colette pov

I stood with my Friends, the other popular ones and the normies , their scornful laughter piercing through the atmosphere, as Alexis sobs crescendoed, coming from her figure, now curled into a ball on the floor. 

"Do you have anything to say Alex?" Diamond taunted. 

"Yeah, why are you so quiet?" Eric added, like salt to the wounds. 

Still no response. 

My heart beated for Alexis, already being shunned by her family and the entire school against her, all for how she looked, something she can never control. 

I wanted to reach out to her, to tell her my 'mean girl' behaviour was just a facade so i wouldn't lose my friends, as i had no other friends besides them, But on the other hand....

If I do... Autumn and Diamond would break up with me... And I'll be friendless...

"Awww. Look at that, poor little Alex, sprawling on the floor like an uncivilised beggar! " Diamond taunted, her head moving sideways mockingly and her delicate hands on her hips, causing the laughter to crescendo. 

"Hey, you may be ugly, but At least you're smart, too bad nobody cares!" Jeered one normie.  

"Isn't it funny, Colette?" Autumn asked me. 

"Urm... Yeah!" I agreed, putting back my fake 'mean girl' act and joining the laughter. 

I'm so sorry, Alex...

Am I selfish? Have I gone too far? 

____________________________________

Authors note: as you can see, Colette is not a one dimensional sidekick of the queen bee (Diamond). I'll be developing her character later on in another story and will do the same with Eric and Autumn.