The chapters (and especially the prologue) are rather short, but I like them this way. I think it will give more of a chance to see each character individually.
Prologue
Madeline Brynn Nelson was Phillips High School’s own beauty queen. She had flawless skin, clear blue eyes and cascading black hair. Her figure was perfect, and her outfits were always flawless. Immaculate. Any outsider would say she had a perfect life.
Shelley Paige Underwood, on the other end of the spectrum, was occasionally called, by the nicer inhabitants of Parksville, “pretty…ish.” More likely, one would hear her referred to as bookish, or loner, or scrawny. On her worst days, people whispered about how grungy she looked; this look she sported was always chalked up to her being some sort of freak. Any outsider would say she just didn’t try hard enough to fit in.
Fayola Tanisha Iherjirika, Shelley’s close friend—possibly her only friend—was in a similar situation. Every day, she wore some new colourful and tribal dress, wearing her lineage with pride. In this rural town, her dark skin and strong accent marked her as the odd one out. It was said that she didn’t know her place. Any outsider would say that she might as well go back to Africa, for all the lack of American patriotism she showed.
Octavian Rainer Thornton, better known as Rainer, was yet another “freak.” Labelled as a jock his first year of high school, he wasn’t known for any shows of kindness. Instead, he settled his disputes with his fists—or, if you really got on his bad side, a switchblade. He spent more time suspended than he did in the classroom. Any outsider would say that he was a meathead wasting his life.
Quincy Parker Zoric, his best friend, was entirely different. He was soft-spoken and shy. Whenever his “bodyguard” wasn’t around, Quincy spent most of his time being shoved into garbage bins, lockers, or dark closets for being a queer. That was the sort of thing that happened to gays in a town of Bible-thumpers. Any outsider would say that he had it coming
These five students came from five different backgrounds, five different lives, five different homes, social statuses, classes, religions. They were five different people who never had the chance to see the bright light of day. These are their stories.
0 comments:
Post a Comment