New Girl

"... Clarity Insania to our wonderful school." She makes a sweeping gesture towards the girl who just walked in.

The five foot tall girl has blue eyes behind a pair of half-moon glasses. Her straight black hair reaches her waist, and her school uniform looks brand new. Which makes sense since she just got here. But it still seems somehow BETTER than everyone else's uniforms. I don't know, it just seems more crisp or something, making her stand out just a bit more than everyone else.

Teacher continues as we examine her. "Clarity, welcome to St. Grogory's, I hope you can make yourself comfortable while you're here."

Clarity looks at her with a blank face and gives a slight tilt of her head. "Thank you for your kind words Ma'am. If I might ask, where shall I be sitting? There appears to be no extra seats." Her voice is calm, not the slightest inflection giving away whether or not she's offended by the teacher's lack of preparation for a new student.

Teacher's face flushes in embarrassment. "Oh of course, how could I forget, well let's see. Oh, Misha and Malcolm, please walk miss Clarity to the supply storage and help her pick out a desk. Then bring it back, it shouldn't take you too long between the two of you."

I look over at Malcolm, one of the members of the Vapids. He's not too bad compared to the others. I mean, he still bullies me and Harry, but generally only when he's around the others. When he catches us by himself, he doesn't really do more than scowl. I doubt that he'll try anything while we get the desk, especially if he wants to make a good impression on the new girl.

As the three of us leave the classroom (me on the right, Malcolm on the left, and Clarity in the middle), we introduce ourselves. Malcolm tilts his signature baseball cap, "I'm Malcolm," he says.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, I'm Clarity Insania." She responds. She looks at me and tilts a single eyebrow.

I grin at her, "A pleasure to meet you, I am the queen of the school. The smartest, kindest, coolest, most- wait, what's up with your hair?" My explanation of having the top position at school is interrupted as we're passing by some windows, the sun streaming through the glass. As I was looking at Clarity, once the sunlight hit her hair, a large streak of dark purple appeared, trailing along the edge on her right side.

I reach out to touch it but she flinches back to avoid my hand, and I put it back down. "I-It's nothing. Just something that shows up in sunlight." She reaches her hand back to try and stuff it underneath her black hair, her face flushed. But it just seems to flow back to the surface, making sure it can be seen. "The doctor's we've seen have told us they can't understand why it happens, it just does. Even if we cut that part off, it just appears on the new edge of my hair." There's a slight blush on her face, as if she's embarrassed by it.

I beam at her. "That's so cool!"

She blinks. "What? But it's unheard of to have a condition like this. It doesn't go away no matter what we do, and it makes me stand out."

I shrug at her as we reach the storeroom. "So? What's wrong with that? I think it just makes you more interesting." I look around. "By the way, what happened to Malcolm? Wasn't he walking right next to you?"

She gives a slight start and starts to look around, a bit flustered. We turn around and see Malcolm on the floor, just before area where the windows start.

Unbeknownst to either Clarity or Misha, he'd tripped and landed on his face. The cause? Misha's over the top introduction...

(P.O.V Clarity)

(Sigh. A new school, a new opportunity for people to call me a freak for my unusual hair. Oh well, maybe they won't tease me too much about it. Hopefully nobody tries to pull it out like at my last school.) I'm walking through the halls of my new school, St. Grogory's Primary School. I approach the classroom I'm assigned to, though are there any others at this school? All the other classrooms I passed by were empty.

I knock on the door before I open it without waiting for an answer. In my experience, at this time the teacher should be... "...welcome Clarity Insania …" yep, introducing me. Happens every time.

She gives me her obligatory welcome speech, and I respond in as respectful and neutral way I can manage. As I do, I scan the room with a quick glance.

There are nine students, two of which look like the type of people you would associate with background characters from a show. Another pair look rather similar in that way only twins can manage. They both look curious, but also bored. As if they don't really care that I'm here. The rest are kind of grouped together, though I've no idea how they managed that sitting in their desks. Which brings me to the question about my desk...

Her response basically amounted to "I forgot". Oh well, at least she's having some students help me get a new one. I'll try to make a good impression before they find out about my hair.

The boy with blonde hair gives a casual introduction of just his first name. Should I do the same? No, it's better to be careful, I can always change my introduction to be less formal to people later on if they find it too overbearing.

The girl gives a rather... spirited introduction, but she stops as soon as she notices my hair. She reaches her hand towards it, and I instinctively flinch away, having become used to people yanking on it at my previous schools. But to my surprise, she isn't weirded out by it. In fact, she thinks it's cool! This might be an opportunity to have a friend. Oh, it will be so wonderful. We'll hang out, talk about our interests, do each other's nails, all the stuff I've read in magazines that friends do with each other. Oh this will be so much fun, I -.

"By the way, what happened to Malcolm? Wasn't he walking right next to you?" I look around, flustered about the disappearance of the boy. When did that happen? Did he run away when Misha pointed out my hair? Maybe he thinks I'm-. I see him sprawled out just before the windows in the hall. (Oh, I guess he didn't notice my hair after all, but I wonder what he tripped over? The hallway is clean of clutter.)