Under the staircase of an old house was a small, but big enough room for one living soul to live in. In the corner of this room, lays a helpless young girl with no feeling of happiness. The mirror that hung on the wall of the peeled off paint room was musty and old. The glass was covered in a residue that never seemed to come off. But in the reflection, she saw herself. Her dark brown hair was long and knotted. Her clothes were anything she could find her mother’s dusty old closet. They were tattered and worn. She tries to smile, but all she sees is sadness. There is no sense of happiness inside of her. The eyes that starred back at her were green but full of loneliness and tears. She hung her head and looked away. Not once had she stepped foot outside her house; afraid of what could happen to her. Nobody has seen her, heard her, or even known that her parents had children.
Ever since her parents died, she stayed to herself in this big old wooden house. The only time she could get out of the house was late at night when the neighborhood was sleeping. That is when she tried her best to survive, looking for good and something to drink. She found scarps in the garbage and on the ground. This was her daily routine. This is how she though everyday life was supposed to be, up until she was seventeen. Years on end, she looked out from a window that was in the hallway. She always saw the kids outside and wishing she could be there too, she got the nerve to go to school for the first time. She went to the office in her local school, asked for the information papers to enroll, and took the home to fill out. No one seemed to care that this girl was there in the ratty clothes she was in. She had memorized how her mother’s signature was written, and she forged the name on the paper.
So she figured that she should clean herself up and off she went to the nearby high school. She opened the big metal doors that led to a long hallway. Kids were scattering their way to classes with their books in hand. She looked around, scared inside of all the noise around her. She ran to a nearby corner, just like she did when she heard weird noises at home. This made her feel a little more secure. When out of the blue, a girl tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Hi. You must be new here. My name is Tarah. Want to be friends?” They quickly looked over their schedules and notices that they had all the same classes. “Oh cool. I can show you everywhere.”
The girl had a slight smile on her face as she said her first words to any human being. “Hi. I’m Novalee.”
Out of nowhere, a boy running down the hall runs into her and rudely yelled, “Get out of the way!”
“Don’t mind him; Scott is just a big bully. Just mind your own business and stay away from him.” Tarah comforted her.
At that time, Novalee followed Tarah to the locker room. They both were starring in the mirror, when Tarah noticed that Novalee looked like a plain-Jane type of girl. So Tarrah said, “Come to my house tonight, and I can make you look really pretty.”
As Novalee glanced in the mirror once again, she noticed a slight glimpse of somebody looking back at her with what would be called “murder” in his eyes. She twirled around, but no one was there. Tarah asked, “What’s wrong? You look like you have seen a ghost.”
“Oh nothing,” replied Novalee. “Let’s go to class. We don’t want to be late.”
A few classes later, they found themselves in physical education and Novalee found herself with no clothes to change into, and again wanted to hide in a corner wondering if she was doing the right thing by going out into the world. She heard footsteps that sounded closer with ever move. She looked around but nobody seemed to be there. When she yelled Tarah’s name, there was no reply, just someone breathing heavily from behind. Being scared, she scrunched down in the corner where she had been standing. That is when Scott appeared in front of her.
Holding the knife, he said, “I haven’t liked you since you since you first walked through the front doors. You don’t belong here. So I’ll fix that.”
He moved in closer as Novalee closed her eyes tightly. So with one quick move, he slit her throat, and left her for dead.
Novalee was shaking terribly and broke out in a sweat. Grabbing her neck, she felt for the wound. Pulling her hands away, she looked for blood on her hands- nothing. Nothing was there. No blood, no scratch, no wound. She opened her eyes and sighed. “It was all just a dream. That’s it, just a dream.” Her whisper was full of relief. Yet, she looked around where she sat in her bed. The paint on the walls were peeled. Afraid of what she looked like, she slowly got up out of the bed and walked to the mirror. The residue was still there, and Novalee’s reflection hadn’t change a bit from what it was in her dream.
She still had that knotty long hair, and her clothes were still tattered and worn. The big green eyes that starred back were full of sadness, and her smile still had no meaning. Knowing that school didn’t go well in her dream, she told herself, “I am never going to leave this house. It is better to stay right here. Safe from the cruel world.”
