When Colors Fade

There I sat, in my kindergarten class, eyes wide and eager to learn. I remembered learning shapes, numbers, and letters and what their sounds are. We never learned colors. None except black and white, for that was all we could see. Once, after school, my mother sat me on her lap, and told a story. A story of colors, so many, too many to count. Each color had lighter and darker versions of it. She had said that, when you meet a special person, your eyes can see the colors. She then gave me a beautiful heart shaped locket with intricate swirling patterns and said that when I met the special person, I could put their picture in it. I loved the story so much, she told it to me every night before bed. Every night until...

"Violet?" My mind quickly shot back to the present. The art teacher for my sixth hour, Mrs. Iris, stared at me expectantly from where she stood at the front of the room. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked as the class chuckled. "What was your inspiration for this piece?" She asked referring to my newest drawing. The drawing was a pair of eyes, wet and dripping from tears, looking upward. "Well, uh, mostly...it just represents the way people feel sadness, and all they look for is a person, just one person, to understand them, to comfort them, to care so much about them," I said. My face reddened and I looked down and ran my fingers over the locket in my shirt, embarrassed for somewhat explaining my deepest feelings. The room was silent, until a voice from somewhere in the room muttered "fag!" The class erupted in laughter as the student was escorted to the main office. The second week of my freshman year at high school, and I'm already an outcast. Again. I looked down at my desk for the second time. I did this often, since my dark hair covered the sides of my face and kept me hidden.

Thankfully, the bell rang. I was at my locker when someone violently slammed my body into the hard metal. My books fell to the floor as I saw a more overweight girl and three friends walking away and laughing. As I picked my books up, a hand appeared and handed me two of them. I looked up at a shorter girl who had light hair. "Um, thanks," I said gratefully. "Haha, don't mention it," she replied. I looked back up at the larger girl who had shoved me. "That's Ruby. She's kind of a jerk. You probably didn't need someone to tell you that to know...and that drawing you made? Amazing. Don't let them get you down. What you said really spoke to me." The girl bent down to pick up the last of the papers on the ground. "Whoah, is this your schedule? You must be really smart!" I managed to have all honors classes. "Uh, yeah, I guess..." She handed me my papers and began to talk again. "Well, I'm not like you...I'm falling behind, do you think you could tutor me a little? I mean, if you don't mind." I thought for a moment. It wasn't that I didn't want to help her, it's just..."Yeah, of course. I mean, I owe you one. Except, we should probably go to your house. Please don't ask why, it's kind of personal." She looked confused for a second, then looked up with a smile. "Yes of course, and I don't owe you anything. By the way, my name is Scarlet. I live in the apartments by the park. Do you know where that is?" I felt a flash of joy inside me. "Yeah, that's where I live, in apartment 54." Scarlet's face lit up. "Cool! I live in apartment 39, so we're not that far apart. Just come over tonight whenever you have time okay?" "Alright, see you tonight, bye!" I said as I walked to my next class. I finally had a friend. The bell rang, and I hurried to my seventh hour class. Walking into the room shyly, ignoring the giggling and paper balls hitting the back of my head, I sat at the back of the room. The science teacher started the lessons, and I quickly took notes. I looked at the board and realized that sitting in front of me was none other than the girl who had pushed me, Ruby. I tried not to notice and returned to my note taking. After taking a front and back page of notes, I looked at the clock. Ten minutes before the bell. I breathed a sigh of relief as the teacher ended the lesson. I absentmindedly sketched in my notebook. I sketched my locket with all its amazing swirls. It was one of my best drawings yet. I added some shade and proudly stared down at my new piece. "Watcha got there?" I heard from in front of me. Oh god, Ruby. I glanced up to see her and her three friends staring at me, smirking. It looked like they could see the fear in my eyes. "Well uh..." I started, feeling the locket through my shirt. "Let's have it!" I fearfully watched her swipe the drawing from my desk. "Oh look at that," she taunted. "A little heart, how cute. It'd be a shame if something happened to it." Oh please, please no. Of course, Ruby ripped the sketch in two, then in four, then in eight. "Whoops, I am so terribly sorry," she added sarcastically as her friends laughed. They high fived as the bell rang. "Watch yourself, looser," one of her friends said as they left. I tried brushing it off and walked to my locker. This time I looked behind me before opening it. I made it to class this time and took the only open seat which was thankfully in the back right corner of the room. I saw Ruby before I noticed Scarlet. Watching carefully around me, I silently took notes. Neither Ruby nor Scarlet noticed I was there. The math teacher handed out our quizzes from last week. "I'm very proud of you all," she said. "Well, most of you." I looked at my paper. 98%. Good. I glanced at Scarlet, who quickly flipped her quiz over. Ruby leaned toward Scarlet. "What's the matter, shorty? Didn't do so well on your quiz? Aww, what a shame." She ripped the quiz from Scarlet. I saw the flash of a red letter F as the paper was turned over. "Better luck next time," Ruby teased. As she leaned the opposite direction, I saw the 50% mark on Ruby's quiz. From then on, I promised myself I would help Scarlet graduate.