Once upon a time, there was a girl named Cassandra, but she was called Florence. She had two beautiful sisters named Jade and Janis. Her sisters got more attention than her since they are clearly more talented. Jade is a genius and will go to medical school someday to become a surgeon. She dissected her first animal at age 3. Janis was working to become a professional singer. Her voice was WAY better than Florence’s, since Janis had so much musical talent. Florence couldn’t sing and was not smart at all.
Florence had, as told earlier, no talent whatsoever. She was the odd one of the three children. Feared among her teachers, avoided by her classmates, Florence hid away most of the long days, sitting beneath the birch trees of the village. Florence had not much of a future paved down the road, she had not much for looks. Actually she was probably the ugliest girl in the village. Her hair was frizzy and unkempt- unruly blonde-brown hair. A really ugly looking blonde-brown. Her eyes looked far too big for her narrow, pale, pasty face. And they were a dark murky blue gray, an ugly gray. And she was much too skinny to the point that she looked like a skeleton with skin. Florence was a hopeless case, and always would be.
One day Florence went to school. She went and sat in the back, as usual, away from everyone. No one ever talked to her. She went to pull out her cell phone to make herself look like she was texting someone, then remembered her parents didn’t love her enough to buy her a phone. Florence sat down until class started. As usual, her teacher mumbled her name during attendance. Her teacher, Mr. Doolittle, hated her. Ever since the first day, he avoided her as much as possible. “Ok, wonderful people and Florence, let’s get to work,” he said this morning. He was always nice to her classmates, but never her.
Mr. Doolittle dropped a stack of papers on Florence’s desk. “Make yourself useful and pass the papers out,” he said. “But I did it yesterday,” Florence told him. Mr. Doolittle raised his hands, rolled his eyes and shook his head. “And why would I care?” he asked. Mr. Doolittle pushed past Florence roughly, and turned to the class. “Hello everyone, Macy, Alec!” Mr. Doolittle said. Macy and Alec- they were twins, and Florence’s tormentors. They were the class pets, Mr. Doolittle’s little annoying pets. Almost like a set of golden haired dogs out following their human. “Hello Mr. D.,” they said in unison. Florence hadn’t noticed, but she hadn’t even begun to pass out the papers, just lost in her own thoughts. “Florence? Do pass out the pages before we all graduate,” Mr. Doolittle said.
“Oh, and by the way class, we have a new student! Adam, introduce yourself!” The new kid, Adam, then went to the front of the class. He had shaggy, chestnut brown hair hung right by his eyes. Florence could tell they were emerald green. They glistened in the florescent lights. He then said “Hi, my name is Adam. I’m new” and went back to his seat. Florence couldn’t believe such perfection existed. Adam was the most gorgeous boy she’d ever seen. Her thoughts raced in her head- “We must get married. I think I’m in love with this boy.” Luckily her words didn’t slip out of her mouth. They were safe in her head.
Over the next hour, Florence kept switching her gaze from Mr. Doolittle (not interesting.), back to Adam (very interesting.) The way he blinked sent excited tremors through Florence’s spine, the way he flicked back his hair when it fell over his right eye, everything about him was just marvelous. Once or twice Adam looked back at her blankly, but even that sent Florence’s silly little heart bumping madly. And once or twice of those times Florence smiled flirtatiously. Adam only turned back to Mr. Doolittle, without much interest. Florence sighed contentedly. “I'm in love…” she murmured. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see Macy laugh.
Class soon came to an end. Florence rushed out the door, hoping that Adam was in her next class, math. He was. Unluckily for her, girls swarmed around Adam. “Oh my god Adam!!!!!!! WE MUST BE BFFS!!!!!!!” they all said. Florence could tell that her main competition in winning Adam’s heart would be Courtney, the popular girl. She was blonde and thin, with a beautiful- yet fake- face. Courtney kept looking into Adam’s eyes- Florence’s love’s eyes- but Adam didn’t seem interested. “He must love me back,” Florence thought to herself, “If he’s ignoring Courtney.”
Florence wished, not for the first time in her life, that she had the beauty or the brains of one of her sisters, any one of her sisters. As Adam got up to sharpen his pencil after Mr. Boberton explained this trimester’s unit, Florence got to her feet and followed him. “Hey!” Florence said, excitedly. “Uh, hi,” Adam replied. Florence watched as he pushed his broken pencil into the sharpener’s hole, and began to grind the pencil. “You broke your pencil too?” Florence asked, smiling. “Yeah…” Adam said, expressionless. Florence laughed. Adam only looked at her with confusion, and checked his pencil. He nodded with improvement and began to walk away. But before he could get far, Florence caught his wrist. “By the way Ad, if you don’t mind if I call you that, I’m Cassandra.” Florence said. “Uh....kay.” Adam said, and strode off back to his desk.
Florence couldn’t believe it. The love of her life had just talked to her. This must be a sign that they were meant to be. Adam was now talking to Courtney and her friend Maybel. She could sense the pain in his eyes. Courtney and Maybel were flirting with him nonstop, and he wasn’t making any effort to be flirtatious back. He knew it was because he loved Florence and not Courtney or Maybel. “He likes me back...” Florence said to herself. Again, Macy, who was sitting behind her, started laughing again.
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