A timid, wavering voice coughed sharply, cutting into the conversation taking place in the middle of the near-vacant hallway of the Rosewood Academy. "I-I heard it was your birthday so...I made you this." Four sets of condescending, pitying eyes returned the statement of the brave individual with a mix of embarrassment and cruel eagerness.The courageous person who was so brave as to confront her high school crush was a pretty young girl. Long, golden locks. Bright inquisitive green eyes. Fair, unblemished skin. And a petite figure. Based off of the general description, the teenage woman would seem like a goddess among mere mortals. As cliche as it is though, it was not as it appeared. Kendra had been gifted with these delicate and feminine features but the presentation of said features was lacking in many aspects. The first thing off of a long list of imperfections was her lack of confidence. Most people did not notice a lot of these features because Kendra spent all of her time slouched over by the burden of looking up into the eyes of those that were more attractive than herself. This behavior also endorsed her dressing habits. The private academy had a very strict uniform code but Kendra had managed to wriggle past with frumpy clothing she had bought secondhand due to her situation. Her navy blue sweater hung in rolls over her torso to cover up an equally baggy white button-up shirt that hung almost to her wobbly knees. This disgrace to the ideal academy student was even further dishonored by a skirt, mostly hidden by her shirt, it still hung awkwardly from her undeveloped hips and a bland, ancient belt holding onto usefulness with one tooth. The only part of Kendra's outfit that was not unfitting were her tall white socks, black Mary Janes, and small oval-shaped glasses that made her face looked like it was being squished together.
were it not already obvious, Kendra was poor. Dirt poor. Actually dirt probably looked like comfortable living in comparison to what Kendra was living through. She had been left on the doorstep of her grandmother's house as a mere baby and raised without any knowledge of her parent's whereabouts or history. There was no insurance to be collected, seeing as her parents were not necessarily dead, so Kendra was raise and educated on taxes and superb grades.
Something her wealthy peers could simply not stand for.
Even so, it had not stopped simple-minded, innocent Kendra to fall head-over-heels in love with teenage hunk Brad Mitchells the moment he had shown her an ounce of kindness in the classroom. His birthday was what Kendra had predicted to be the best day to try and display a side of herself that not many saw and maybe even test the water to find out if he had any remote interest in being around her.
Her trembling hands offered the box to him though her eyes were plastered to the floor so her hair curtained her face. Kendra had always believed that her blushing face was splotchy and unromantic in every way possible.
Out of the silence, she felt a hand shove her hard on the shoulder and baffled Kendra felt her body spin and hit the locker as she tried to surmise what had happened. "I don't accept gifts from ugly beggars like you." Kendra watched as Brad spit on her shoe and the splinter of plastic as he walked over the very rare and very pricey CD she had bought him with all of her tips from work. Before she realized it, Kendra was whimpering in emotional pain and she had to choke it back, wanting to maintain what small ounce of dignity she had left. Eventually, Kendra stood as upright as was normal for her and wrapped her arms around herself with her enormously long sleeves to prepare herself for the long trek back to her apartment forty blocks away that she shared with her grandmother.
Her footsteps were light and silent as she passed through their small entrance hallway and like a ghost she rose out of her shoes with a grace that was not usually attributed to her. The house was unusually quiet but somedays Kendra would find her grandmother staring at the wall of her bedroom as if trapped in a trance and she could stay that way for hours at a time until Kendra could distract her with a memory or story that she would make up on the spot. "Grandma, I'm home!" The sadness in which Kendra was forced to endure daily at Rosewood she always set aside until she had had some quality time with her elderly roommate. Kendra's feet carried her to the kitchen, living room, and bedroom and though she checked everywhere as if she were searching for a lost sock rather than an entire person, Kendra could see her no where. Panic gripped her thraot like a gazelle caught in the jaws of a lioness and tearing through the house she pulled to a sudden stop as she found herself in the space they had managed to make their dining room. Right outside of the glass door that lead to her balcony was her grandmother. She was lounging casually in her chair, ear buds embedded into the sides of her head. The logic behind the reality made Kendra want to cry in relief and she breathed a long breath outwards to calm herself before stalking up to stand perched above the silky white mane of hair, plunging her hands downwards to lightly grasp her frail shoulders she bent her head forward producing her biggest grin to say, "I'm hom-..."
------<3-------
The paramedics told Kendra, after she had calmed down enough to listen to what anyone was saying, that her grandmother had passed away peacefully in her sleep on the deck. Kendra was intelligent enough to know that such an evaluation was not plausible without a full coroner's report but she appreciated their sympathy. Unfortunately, they were also the ones to tell her that Child Protection Services would be coming in seventy-two hours time to fetch her so she had to collect her things and alert her school of her situation.
Everything was happening too quickly for Kendra. One moment she could fake content for the sake of the one person she loved more than anything in the world and the next she was a sad, homely orphan. What was worse was that the moment she made it inside, Kendra discovered that Mother Nature had brought her the gift of maturity. A whole four years overdue. Kendra was temporarily forced to stuff her panties with tissue paper until she could talk to the school nurse in the morning and thoroughly miserable she lay down on her bed and cried herself to sleep.
Though Kendra woke up without a family, permanent home, or womanly knowledge, she felt pretty good. Actually...very good. Better than she had felt in a long time though there was still the distinct ache in the middle of her body reminding her of her late grandmother. Her choppy uneven steps that she was so accustomed to had shifted overnight into long and fluid glides like she was a doe in the forest. Her glasses had gone unmissed on her nightstand and Kendra had the feeling that she had filled out her clothes more overnight. Being late for school after sleeping in she did not bother to look at herself in the mirror but she was certainly getting a very different reaction. Most people came up to her just to ask who she was and at least sixty percent of them were of the male variety. It was a kind of wonderfully timed miracle to have a good self-esteem day after everything that had happened to her and having to face her classmates. Their hearing extended nearly across the county so something so enrichingly dreadful as Kendra becoming an orphan was going to be top news. Next to the fact that she would be leaving them.
Which, out of no where, was suddenly extremely unfortunate as they noticed her sultry gait and stunning new look. Kendra was overwhelmed by the new sympathy and attention from her classamtes who had ostracized her so coldly just the day before. There were so many questions Kendra wanted to ask her grandma about these strange coincidences.
Even Kendra's curiosity could not overpower her desire to be a great student and as she entered her fourth period class she paid rapt attention to her teacher Mr. Piklo. She was in the first row of seats and already had her notebook and pencil out to take the notes on the board by the time everyone else had taken their seats to begin class. As the final bell rung she was not entirely surprised that Mr. Piklo asked her to stay behind and she sucked in a sharp breath expecting him to give her a long lecture about the loss of a loved one and that it should not consume her life and so on. It was much to her own surprise that he intended on giving her a much more personal lesson. She watched with growing interest as he strode around the front of his desk to approach her and stood mere inches from where she sat perched on the lip of the desk, leaning down to get a better look at her. He was new to the school faculty and she had to wonder if he was perhaps simply curious to see how students could take such a transformation when he suddenly gripped her forearms and slammed them down behind her onto the desk. Gaining attractiveness meant nothing in strength and flailing helplessly she shuddered as he pressed his nose against her collarbone and took in a great breath. "A pure flower..." He purred. Kendra had no idea what he was talking about but he had already proven himself to be insane so she did not put it past him to speak in riddles. "I traveled very far to find such perfection and such a rarity would make a perfect bride to future royalty." HIs warm lips touched her tender flesh and turning a bright red Kendra sent out a silent plea for help. This was a day of miracles and Kendra had to hope that it was not too late to use her good luck. Just as she wondered how her life could possibly take another sudden twist the windows of the classroom burst apart into a million pieces. Squinting into the sudden sunlight, Kendra noticed the silhouette of a man standing on the window ledge, a helicopter chopping the air behind him like he was the star of some cheesy action film.
(( PM me to continue! The guy standing on the edge either has to be confident and cool or bold and a little dim-witted or it makes no sense as to why he would make such a grand entrance but if you have another idea then you can try it and we'll see how it works. To give you enough information to make sense, as this character is supposed to know more about her than she knows about herself, Kendra is a personified flower. A race of humans that give off a powerful scent that can attract almost any male of the opposite sex and, in the woman, develops fully when they begin their period. Now this doesn't seem like a big issue but it's a gift and a curse because it can make ordinary men go absolutely crazed and being a thing of myth and legend in this world makes them all the more special. There is a twist included but I'm not going to tell you that. ; ) ))
