I'm sitting in the church, all alone. Everyone hates me, and I'm not even old enough to look into the lake and find an answer. I'm short and fat. My hair is stringy, oily and the color of raw chicken. My eyes look like green baby puke and are too small for my head. My eyelashes are short and the same disgusting color as my hair.

It doesn't help that a bunch of other kids threw rocks at me today and now I'm covered in bruises and cuts. They chased me until I ran into the bathroom of the church and locked the door. They yelled and pounded on the door for a while, but eventually they got bored and left. After it was silent, I stepped out and sat in the pews.

I've been crying since then. What did I do to deserve this?! I can't wait until I turn eighteen. Then it'll be time to look into the lake and I can leave this wretched world forever. I wish I could just do it now, but it's not time yet. I hope it chooses me to jump into it. It probably will. Even if it doesn't I could just fake it and jump anyway. No, I couldn't do that. It betrays the lake. I don't want to go into hell for that.

"Dear gods, please give me an answer. How do I fix what's happening? Please just send me a sign," I whisper, "I can't take this anymore."

The front door of the church opens and loudly slams shut. The leader walks into the room and sits next to me in the pews.

"Why are you crying, girl?" he asks.

"I'm ugly and everyone hates me," I say.

"The lake doesn't hate you, neither do our gods. Even though you're ugly, they don't care because they made you this way."

"What should I do about the other kids that always torture me?"

He pauses for a moment and takes a drink from his flask. It's filled with water directly from the lake. It gives him visions from the gods themselves. I wonder what it's like being the only one who can drink that stuff.

His eyes go wide for a brief moment and he stares off into space. When he comes back to reality he is obviously slightly disoriented, but knows what has to be done. He smiles at me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"My dear girl," he says, "I'm afraid I can't give you a proper answer to your question. But, I have been told how you can get it. You need to go out to the lake and look into it. It will tell you what to do."

"But, I'm not old enough to look into the lake."

"It's given you permission. Sometimes we need to make exceptions when it's important."

"Thank you, sir. I will go and look."

I stand up and walk out the door and into the street. It's almost midnight, so no one is out here except for me. All of those kids should be home by now, I hope. Even so, I try to be extremely quiet and make sure no one can see me.

Luckily the church is on the edge of the town and is very close to the trees at the edge of the city. I decide to sneak over to the trees and sneak through them to make sure no one sees me. Tree branches and thorns from bushes and devils club scrape across my arms and legs, leaving even more scrapes all over my body. Whatever, I can't look any worse than I already did.

I walk to the edge of town. Not quite to the walls on the outside, but close. I see the lake and have to fight the urge to stay turned away from it. It's pure black and shows a perfect reflection on its surface.

I walk up to the edge of the lake and have to force myself to look down into it. Am I really ready to do this? Yes. I have to. I force my eyes down towards to unnatural water. I can see myself, except I'm not ugly anymore. I'm beautiful. All of my features are there, but they've been corrected.

My hair has changed the most, it's fuller and pure black now. My eyes are bigger and the color of emeralds. All of my wounds are healed. My eyelashes are long and dark now. My clothes are fixed too. I'm wearing a ball gown that's the same color as my eyes. It's so perfect.

I can feel a force around the lake. It wants me to take this new form. I just have to touch the water. Then the water can cleanse me of this body and give me this new one. I just need to jump in, and everything will be fixed. Then I can be beautiful. Just like I always wanted.

I feel my body falling through the air until it hits water that is somehow both freezing and boiling at the same time. In a second the reflection is shattered and I can feel the strange water all around me. I shut my eyes and when I open themI see myself for a brief moment before I can't see anything. I got the form the lake promised. I'm finally beautiful.