Reveal

"Hey! Have you guys seen Kaia?" A boy with glasses asked.

"Of course. She looks so different right?" One of the girls with curly blond hair sneered as she said that.

"Who knew that freak could look like this?" Another girl laughed, lollipop in her hand.

"I can't believe she had this in her. How much of her life do you think it cost her?" The boy with glasses asked again.

"More than half her life, for sure. Remember how she looked." Girl with the lollipop answered.

"Hey, let's become friends with her. You know how it's like with those bullied kids, they get attached to anyone who is even a little nice to them." The blonde said.

"Should we make a bet?" The main kid smiled, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"The one who can get her to join us will be the winner." The lollipop girl smiled.

"Deal. This is going to. Easy. We can just let her be our errant girl."

Faith threw her bag at them, hitting two of the boys and lollipop girl.

"Hey, what the hell?" Glasses boy shouted.

"It's that girl." Blonde pointed to Faith, who was frowning at them.

"Who does she think she is?" The main guy scoffed.

"Why are you being so mean?" She huffed. "Just leave her alone. She did nothing to you."

"You know how this is. Only attractive people get to succeed in life. And, as you can see, we are the best in the entire school."

"Competition is tough, Faith. We just have to get rid of anyone that might stand in our way. If she isn't going to be for us then she'll be against us."

"It's nothing personal."

"You-" Faith tried to retort back at them when Kaia entered the classroom, smiling at her and waving. "Kaia!"

She ran to her and told her everything. When she finished talking, they both looked at their group, giving them a cold look.

"You should feel honoured that we even took an interest in you." The leader guy stood up and walked to her. "So, what do you say? Us or her? We can make the bullying stop for you."

Kaia looked at them with the same bored expression she had when she was with the teacher.

She took out a piece of paper and started to write on it.

"Kaia?" Faith's voice laced with concern, she's writing for quite a long time.

Being accepted by them will get you to the top of the food chain, in school anyway. Faith remembered how badly Kaia got bullied and how she just turned a blind eye to it all.

Why would she choose her over them? She's done nothing to help her either. At least, if she was with them, she'll not be bullied anymore.

Kaia handed the paper to the boy, who took it and read it. He became confused and angry.

"What is this?"

His friends came to him and read the paper.

"Changing my appearance took five years of my lifespan."

"Yes. I look different. It's kinda obvious."

"My biggest secret is that I actually really hate eating, it's a waste of money and time but if I don't I die so I always eat begrudgingly."

"What?" They laughed. "What are you trying to say?"

Faith looked at Kaia, who was holding up another paper.

"You've even got my biggest secret now." The leader glared at Kaia as she clapped her hands, not offering him even a bit of a smile. She remembered all he and his friends did to so many students, they aren't worth her time.

She placed that paper down and took another one, holding it up. By this time the rest of the class had gone quiet, looking at the scene in front of them.

"Now leave me alone and go worry about something else. You're still too young to be worrying about things like this. The future will screw you over at this rate."

Seriously, they have too much free time on their hands.

She crumpled that paper into a ball and threw it at them. She turned to Faith and smiled at her as they walked to their seats.

Faith took the long way around the classroom to get her bag back from their desk while they still stood where Kaia left them.

She could feel the animosity radiating off of them, directly to Kaia, who was busy sleeping on her desk.

The indifferent attitude of Kaia towards everything around her, made her laugh a little.

♣

"You have to be careful, Kaia. They are from powerful families and can do whatever they want. They have it all money and loo-" Kaia shoves a spoon into her mouth, a questioning look on her face. "It's delicious."

"Thank you."

They were in Kaia's house while she prepared the spaghetti for Shia's birthday. They always met at the playground at four in the evening every day but she didn't get to go the day before.

Kaia wanted to introduce Faith to the rest of her friends. If they could get along and include her into the group then she wouldn't have to worry about her when she . . .

Well. Whatever happens, happens. She'll do what she can until then.

"You're house is so cute." Faith exclaimed, running from one end of the kitchen-slash-common room to the other.

Kaia was so happy when she agreed readily to meet her friends. She contacted her mother, who, after confirming with Kaia, agreed.

It was strange holding a phone. She only ever saw her father with one. Her mother also didn't have one and she never had enough money to afford one.

Faith wore some of Kaia's clothes and was her patient and supportive guinea pi- taste tester.

"Kaia. Can I ask you something?" Faith asked, she had finally settled down and was sitting on a chair near the dining table.

She nodded her head, stirring the spaghetti.

"Why did you choose me over them?"

Kaia turned off the stove and sat across from Faith, she took a pen and paper out of her pocket and began to write.

"Do you always have spare paper laying around?"

Kaia nodded while she scribbled.

"Oh. Ok."

"Why wouldn't I choose you?" She wrote.

"Because . . . I've not been a help to you at all. We were classmates for more than a year now. I noticed you the moment you transferred last year. And . . . the bullying you went through."

"I'm pretty sure everyone noticed that. They weren't very subtle." Kaia joked.

"But I didn't help you. I could have. I should have. I wanted to be strong but I wasn't at that time. But you were still so nice to me. Even skipping class for me." She hung her head.

"I hate to say this but I was actually, really happy when they started to bully you. Because . . . that's when they stopped bullying me. I know that I'm such a selfish and a bad person. Mama will be so mad at me if she found out. And, you kept getting hurt. And I just watched it happen. I'm sorry." She buried her head on the table, unwilling to meet her eyes.

Kaia wasn't mad. She always felt a little guilty whenever she remembered how Faith turned out when they met again. They had started to get closer this day last time but when Kaia's performance drastically, she had to change schools.

They were bullied together but when she changed schools, she didn't see her again until she turned sixteen.

She was at her last breath when she saw her again. Faith had used all her lifespan to keep improving her looks. It was never enough. Not for her 'friends'.

Kaia was walking from the grocery to her house, her hood up and a mask to cover her face when she saw a girl collapsed on the ground.

She made her way to her and tried to help her up but with just one look, she could tell that she is dying.

The girl looked at her and suddenly said, "Kaia? It's me, Faith?"

Faith? That couldn't be her. She had darker skin and black, voluminous hair that curled from her scalp to the ends. It was not straight. Or blond.

"How are you doing? Oh right. You still can't talk." She drew her words out, losing consciousness.

"You know? I never said thank you to you." Tears streaming down her face, she looked up at her. "You took all the bullying that was supposed to come to me like a champ and was always the first to help me. Thank you. I-if I got the chance to start all over again, I would rather be with you than to go with these 'friends'. Look around, only you are here."

She laughed bitterly as her body slumped to the side. Kaia struggled to help her sit upright again.

Kaia tried to sign to Faith but she just grabbed her fingers. "I can't understand sign language. But I want to ask you something. If and this is if, you get the chance to go back in time can you smack some sense into me? I just wanted the bullying to stop I was ready to do anything. When you left Kaia, they would cut my hair and clothes, lock me in the bathroom for hours, throw their garbage at me and the teachers would do nothing about it." Tears were streaming down her face now as she spoke about her past, hugging herself to try and feel warm.

"I couldn't do anything. I COULDN'T BE STRONG! I'm sorry, mum. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for being so weak. I'm sorry."

Kaia tried to talk to her but by the time she found a paper, Faith was already gone.

That's not fair, what does race or skin tone have anything to do with a person's beauty and what does beauty have anything to do with how a person is treated in society?

People like Faith had to struggle all their lives for something so easily attained by others and in the end, many don't even make it to the halfway mark.

Is this the society we live in?

"Kaia?" Faith waved her hand in front of her face. "Sorry. You kinda zoned out on me. I was worried."

"You're strong and brave and beautiful. Never listen to anyone that tells you otherwise. Ok?" Kaia wrote to her.

"Ok. You know, you sound so much like mama. She's always telling me these things every day. I'll introduce you two one day ok?"

"Sure, now why don't you go freshen up, while I pack the spaghetti? Then we can go."

"Ok. I'll be quick." She skipped to the bathroom as Kaia stared after her.

Rest easy now, Faith. I'm here.

♣

"Are you sure this is a good idea? What if they don't like me?"

Kaia laughed at Faith's nervousness, she was so confident before.

"They are good people." She signed with one hand, the other hand was occupied with the spaghetti in a tiffin.

"I can't understand what you just said. Man! I really need to buy a sign language book. Maybe I'll ask mama tonight."

Faith talked all through the way there about her family and her pets, her nervousness slowly disappearing. That is, until they reached the playground, then she became a nervous wreck again.

They could see a group of people standing around the swing. There was one boy, a red-haired girl, and a girl with strawberry blonde curls there was a big picnic bag between them all.

Three? I thought there were four of them.

Taking in a deep breath, Kaia made her way to them. She waved the moment they looked at her direction but they only looked at each other in confusion.

"Hello! Did you just move here?" Aliya greeted them.

"Aliya! You can't just go around talking to strangers." Max protectively pulled her behind him. "Sorry."

"I thought you said that they were your friends." Faith whispered to Kaia.

To that, Kaia pointed to her face.

"Ahh. That makes sense."

She gave the spaghetti to Faith and signed at them. Caitlyn immediately caught on while Max stared in disbelief.

"Oh my goodness! Kaia?"

"What?" Aliya exclaimed, staring suspiciously at her.

"There is no way that's her." Max scoffed.

Caitlyn walked up to her and took a good long look at her. Kaia smiled at her, her eyes twinkling.

"It is her."

"No way."

Aliya stared at Kaia, her expressions and deep blue eyes confirmed her identity in the end.

Even when Shia came a minute later, she recognised Kaia immediately.

"Knowing her for as long as we have, she isn't hard to recognise," Shia said. "She's still the same, even with a different face."

"No. That's not Kaia." Max said, refusing to accept what they said.

"It is her, Max," Aliya said. "Look, she has the same eyes."

"It can't be her."

"Why not, Max. What makes it so hard to believe this is Kaia?" Shia asked.

"Kaia is cute, this girl is just ugly." He sat on the ground, sulking.

Everyone turned to Kaia who felt both flattered and insulted.

"Cute?" She signed and Caitlyn translated for the others.

"Oh. Max always found Kaia, that is your old face, not this one, cute." Aliya said. "He would always talk about how cute you looked when you saw something you liked, and all that."

Well, this is a first.

Kaia called Caitlyn close to her and told her to translate for Faith and Aliya's sake.

"Happy birthday fourteenth birthday, Shia. Faith and I made this spaghetti for you. Faith, come here."

Faith walked nervously to Kaia, intimated by the beautiful girl smiling at her.

"Everyone this is Faith. Faith, this is Aliya, Caitlyn, that boy over there is Max and this is Shia. I hope we can all become friends."

"Of course. Any friend of yours is a friend of ours. Right?"

The others agreed with Shia. "It is very nice to meet you, Faith. Come play with us anytime you want."

Faith looked at her in awe. "You're beautiful."

"Thank you. You're also beautiful. Is that the spaghetti?"

"Ah. Yes. Here. Happy birthday."

"Thank you, Faith."

While they were talking Kaia made her way to Max who was digging into the ground. She sat down beside him, not saying anything.

"Why did you change?" He mumbled. "You always talked of that with pride and no matter what anyone said about it. Are you ashamed of it now?"

Kaia took his hand in her own, looking him in the eyes and shook her head.

"I was never ashamed. But there's a big reason why I did this. Look at me, I am still the same person even if I look different."

"And what's the reason?"

"I'll tell you after you turn eighteen." She signed at him.

"That's not fair. It's too far away."

"I've noticed how good you got at understanding sign language. You're very smart. Smarter than anyone I've ever know." She complimented him as he blushed.

"I know what you're doing but fine. I will wait until you tell me the reason. I don't like this face at all but it's still you, so I'll try to be nice. Just promise me that you'll tell me. Ok? I want to be your partner in crime."

"Sure."

They intertwined their pinkie fingers with this promise.