Storm's POV
'A smile can hold the truth, the mouth can whisper lies, but the eyes always reveal what's hidden below the surface.'
That's what I would use to describe Stella. I never had paid attention to quotes because I thought they were all useless. It's only now that I read it carefully do I realise that they teach us lessons of the different aspects of how to read a person.
This quote means that even though you may cover who you are, the truth can always be found.
When I read this, it had meaning in its words, signalling that it was relatable. If only I had realised sooner. If only I had noticed the tears gleaming in her eyes.
'In a mystery, the sleuth must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving the crime'. Diane Mott Davidson.'
Was I believably involved? Or emotionally invested? Or is it just a kinder way of saying that I stick my nose into other people's business.
A series of flashbacks appear in my mind,
In these flashbacks, I'm entering a brightly-lit home. There's a woman at the stove, busy in her cooking while four children, two girls and two boys, probably in the first years of primary school, play about. The two girls are playing with a second-hand dollhouse while the two boys leap onto the sofa, pretending to be superheroes.
No matter how entertaining they are, they are not who I'm looking for. I turn around.
There's another girl, looking about the same age as me. Her tanned skin contrasts with her startlingly jet-black hair and the dark clothes she wears. Her pair of square glasses that rests on the bridge of her nose hides the eye bags underneath her eyes like violet bruises. Not only were her eyes filled with tiredness but sadness as if she was drowning in it. There, this girl was...sitting at the back of the classroom, alone at the very first day back at school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note
What do you think?
YOU ARE READING
THE PAINFUL TRUTH
General Fiction'Our greatest challenge isn't speaking up against our enemies, but defying those whose approval we seek the most'. Storm Jackson is a thirteen-year-old girl who everybody envies. She's smart, popular and pretty, with well-off parents and a big house...
