If I Die Young

10. Normal

The day went by just about as normally as one could've expected in my situation. Math and science blew by without a hitch and I was glad to find that Aurelia was in my English class, sitting two rows over and three seats forward. She turned around and waved to me, and I gladly waved back as I took my seat.

The class had been reading To Kill a Mockingbird before I showed up, so I was handed a book and told what chapter we were on. Luckily I'd read this on my own many times before so I was able to answer the majority of the worksheets I'd been given within the first half of the period while everyone else "popcorn read" around me. I was only half paying attention until someone called on the girl ahead of me.

"Aurelia!"

The whole class turned to look at her, silent snickers being passed around. Her face lit up a bright red and I watched as she picked up her book in shaking hands, taking a deep breath before attempting to recite what was on the page.

"Th-Tha-That was th-the only t-time I h-heard At-At-At..." she trailed off while the kids in the class started to laugh. Instantly I felt my anger flare, and I didn't even pay any mind to the lights flickering above me. "Can I p-please s-s-stop...?"

"You were picked to read Aurelia, just get to the end of the paragraph." The teacher ordered, an older man who boasted his veteran medals from the Vietnam war at the front of the classroom. My hand shot up instantly and he seemed surprised. "Yes, Ms. Snow?"

"What's the point of this?" I asked furiously, taking everyone by surprise. "She has a speech impediment, you're just forcing her to sit through ridicule and make a fool of herself."

"The only way she's going to get better is if she practices." He shot back at me, and my anger spiked even more. By this point at least one light in every corner of the room had malfunctioned.

"The only way she'd get better is if she were to be put through speech therapy classes, which I'll assume you don't have here, or else she would've been put in them." I snapped. "Forcing her to read is just going to make her more scared to speak. Can't you see that?"

"Ms. Snow, I don't know how your old school worked, but that's not how it works here." He put his foot down and seemed to harbor some contempt for me after that.

"Fine," I leaned back in my chair, "Aurelia, pick me."

"S-Sable." She said gently, her face having paled back to her normal shade. Her eyes were brimming with tears. "Thank you."

I nodded, beginning to read the paragraph more fluently than I'm sure anyone in the class had expected. All eyes were on me as I read three full paragraphs and then passed it on to the first person I'd seen snicker at my adoptive sister. He seemed to clam up and attempted to read himself, being unable to pronounce a few of the easier words I'd seen. I felt my lips twist up in a smirk while he struggled and got what he deserved.

Eventually the bell rang to end class and I was held back by the teacher for the first few minutes of my lunch. He seemed flustered, as I'm sure no student had ever pulled a stunt like that in his classroom. I didn't feel a lick of shame for it either.

"Another outburst like that and I'll have to give you a detention, Ms. Snow." He told me gruffly.

"Give me all the detentions you want, forcing her to make a fool of herself isn't going to help her learn anything other than how mean the other students can be." I stated.

"It's just teasing, kids will be kids and-"

"No, it's not kids will be kids," I cut him off, utterly appalled, "it's called bullying and it seems you're the perpetrator here. If this happens again I'm bringing it up to the student advisor and telling them you're encouraging the ridicule of an innocent girl."

That seemed to shut him up. I told him to have a good day and left the class, only to instantly be met with a massive hug from the ginger haired girl. Aurelia's head rested on my shoulder and I placed my hand on her crown of hair, cradling her gently while she thanked me profusely. Of course, it was all silent transactions, passed from mind to mind.

"Any time you get called on I'm reading for you." I told her. "I refuse to let that go on any longer."

"Won't you get in trouble?"

"I don't care if I do. I'll take a detention any day over seeing you that upset."

"You're a saint, Sable."

We walked through the building while the halls were bustling, all the way to the lunchroom. Ezra was there and so was Ladon. While Ezra chatted with friends, even talking to the girl we'd seen the day before, Ladon was chewing on an apple as he made his way out into the hall again. Aurelia split off to get lunch and out of curiosity I followed after the quiet boy, slinking along behind him like a shadow does an animate object.

He split off down the hall and reached a set of double doors, passing through them and walking out into what looked like a small courtyard. There was no one out here due to the snow and the cold but he didn't seem to be bothered by it. Finally he turned around though, laying eyes on me as if he'd been expecting me, but still acting surprised.

"Well hey there, I didn't know you had this lunch." He smirked, pale cheeks turning up playfully.

"How can you stand being out here?" I watched my breath turn into a puff of frost as I spoke. "It's got to be ten degrees, at the most."

"I don't feel the cold, something about being too hot to handle." He winked at me, and almost instantly I burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I held a hand over my mouth to muffle myself, "that was funny. I didn't peg you as the obnoxiously arrogant type."

"Well I'm not, you can talk to Iden about that one." Ladon snorted, somewhat disdainfully. I could tell something was off so I walked forward and hopped up on the little brick wall he was leaning on.

"I take it people here don't like us very much." I said quietly, and he seemed to ease himself slightly.

"What gave you the hint?"

"They all stare at me like I'm some animal. Wild and never before seen, running loose in the halls of civilization."

"It's because we're different and they're normal," he shrugged, "it's just how it is."

"We're born to believe the opposite of different is normal, and vice versa." I huffed to myself. "Well, I'm the opposite of both."

"How so?"

"I don't fit in with you guys at the house but obviously I don't fit in here with the normal kids either." I muttered. "It's how it's always been." My hands gripped the edges of the bricks tightly as I got caught up in my own thoughts. "If only Gal were still here..."

"Who?"

"No one."

I launched myself off of the bricks, feeling like I'd crossed a line for myself. It's been years Sable, I scolded myself, you haven't thought about her in years.

My hood was pulled down when I walked back inside the building, leaving me to pull it up again and pretend I never existed. It must be nice to be a shadow, always following in someone's footsteps and always sure of where you were going. The lights flickered above me as I brooded but I couldn't care less. Maybe it was time I finally let all this emotion out I'd been balling up and storing away so the cameras couldn't see I was a real person. There were no cameras anymore, so I don't know what was keeping me from letting myself be normal. Habit maybe, or maybe just the fact I'd never known what normal was supposed to be.

I just know I wasn't it.