Dear reader, my name is Daisy Annalise. I am 18 years old and this is a story about how Daphne Connors changed my life, but I suppose we can get to the specifics later. It all started in the summer of 1955. I was a 14-year-old blossoming flower amongst a field of cacti in my small, painfully dull and extremely closed minded town. There were very few establishments in the very center of the town, including a few stores. Because it was so small, everyone knew each other and no one stood out, just as every small town should be. That is until my family planted its roots there. I was born and raised in the heart of Acreville Indiana, a town with less than 200 residents, one general store, one gas station and a rundown outlet mall that had nothing left but an antique shop full of dust bunnies and porcelain dolls. That, and the school which was divided into three units. Elementary, junior high and high school, but that was not particularly special either. My mother was French and my father was native to America, so I had a hard enough time trying to fitting in already. My accent was different, my clothes were different... I was different. Far more than anything recognizable from the outside.
But, anyway, let's get on with the story. Despite my very obvious differences, I wasn't picked on too much. Mostly the older boys in my class, but I believe it's simply because I'm a girl. People respected my father, so they respected me. That was, until 8th grade when Acreville High received its first exchange student, Daphne J Connors. She was far more beautiful than any other girl I had ever seen. She was tall, slender with pale speckled skin. Red, wild curly hair that framed her freckled face like a picture. She looked like a doll, unreal, stunning. I couldn't come up with proper words to describe her at that moment. Oh right, that's the thing I kinda forgot to mention, I'm gay. I didn't know if it was possible, but Daphne seemed to make me feel more captured by someone than any girl before her. I could feel my heart begin to race as it tried to pound it's way right out of my chest right when the teacher asked Daphne to introduce herself, and when she spoke, everything around her disappeared. Is this how the other girls felt about the boys? I always admired how cute some of them were, but Daphne captivated me. It was as if she plucked my heart straight from my ribcage and locked it up where only she could find it. Little did I know this was only the start of it.
"My name is Daphne." She said, loud and proud, a beautiful, thick Irish accent that slipped off her tongue almost as naturally as a waterfall raining down a cliff.
