"Unheard and Unknown" by G.F.

She sits alone at an abnormally large table for a single person, yet no one ever notices. Sometimes she sits in the bathroom during lunch just to hear other people socialize, craving conversation yet at a loss for words. Her voice is hoarse and shaky, quiet and unheard. From lack of use. She's the girl you see head down, clutching a binder, hiding in the mass of students as she quickly scurries to class. She's the girl who once in a while someone will ask her “are you new?” Yet they've been in her class since elementary school and were lab partners in middle school science, but she still answers yes to distract from the sadness. Her name is useless to others, her teachers even forget she exists. Everyone assumes she's smart, only because she's the simple quiet girl in class always doing work, but sadly her work is drawings of her at school dances and parties, places she'll never get to see. She loves to sing, go out to dinner, play sports, go to the mall, but what makes her so different? She's averagely pretty, long blonde hair, fair skin, green eyes. She used to be “popular” the “queen bee.” She was mean and judgmental, she was the one who used to ask “are you new?” Not once letting those around her become more than people less popular than her. As people got older, and mean became uncool, she went from the light in a dark room, to another dark figure lurking in the shadows. A year passes and she learns how to be social, yet nice. This girl is now blooming into a normal teen, finding friends. The kids walking with their face in books, she now says hi to in the hallway. The kids who sit alone at lunch, she invites over to her table. The girl who she has been in class with since elementary school, she remembers. This girl’s daily routine went from hidden and unknown to loud and happy. “She” is me.