Eva by Nicole M. (books for 9th graders .txt) 📕

away when I realized, I really smell horrible. When’s the last time I took a shower? And the clothes I was wearing must not have been washed for weeks. What I had on were a pair of worn out, flimsy pajama shorts that were practically riding up my ass (not to mention how dirty they are), and a giant, grey, solid t-shirt that had loads of stains and burn holes. I’m pretty sure my bra has been discolored from all the sweat it’s befriended. I’m scared to even wonder what my panties might look like. I don’t have any shoes on, my hair is a mess, my makeup is most likely smeared everywhere (Wait.. Do I even wear makeup?), And people will be wondering about my body. It’s all bruised and cut up. No, I don’t hurt myself, it’s just from being careless about everything that’s gotten me like this. Eh, oh well, I wonder if Sadie will let me shower at his house and borrow some clothes.
Either way, I could use someone about now. And I’m sure he’ll be happy to see me.

CHAPTER THREE: INSIDE WORLD/OUTSIDE WORLD

It’s cloudy out. Everything is pretty much grey. The yellow lines on the road, fire hydrants, houses. Even the trees and grass look almost grey.
I walked at a pace slightly slower than normal. At least the sun wasn’t out, or I’d have to add sweat to my new look. Not to mention, it would make the concrete too hot for me to walk on. And there’s no way I’m walking in the grass. Too many snakes, ants, and sand spurs I might run into.
I can tell by the way people are dressed around me, that I will be the one to stand out the most. Even though my shirt is grey, the shorts I have on, despite how dirty they are, are pink. Everyone I see out here is dressed nicely. In colors of black and white. Of course, I’m only seeing adults. Teenagers, I know, wouldn’t dress like these adults. At least, not the ones here.
I feel like I have no emotion. My eyes must look dead. No, I myself, must look dead. Everyone I pass seems to stare at me. And all I can do, is walk down this isle of shame. I’m passing through a park, the nicest one in town, and there are some children there. They stare at me. There was one little girl with blonde hair, long enough to reach her knees, sitting by herself. I stopped to watch. Every time she’d try to play with the others, they would reject her, sometimes pushing her. Obviously, she was the “weird one” out of the group. Or at least that‘s how the other kids saw it. Though I didn‘t really see anything wrong with her. She looked over and caught me watching her. She ran up to me, smiling, and held out her hand.
“Will you play with me?” She said, in a cute little voice. You know, that voice that little kids have, where even if you want to deny them, you simply just can’t? Yeah, that voice.
“Well, I kind of have to go somewhere right now. I’m sorry” I replied. I could see the glow in her face fade, as she began to frown. I felt bad.
“Well, actually,” I began, “I guess I could play for a few minutes.” I smiled at her.
“Really?” She asked, smiling again.
“Yeah, come on.” I took hold of her hand, “Show me where your favorite place to play is.” I smiled.
She led me quite a ways away form the other children. As we were passing, some were leaving with their parents. And when their parents saw me, they made a funny face at me. Like, the kind of face that you’d give to someone you don’t like, or thought was disgusting. Not only did they make strange faces at me, but they’d mumble to their child something along the lines of “I want you to stay away from that girl over there.” Yadayadayada.
I wasn’t used to that. Back when I lived with my dad, parents of children loved me. I babysat a lot. This, however, is something I’m not used to.. All of a sudden parents hate me, or, are scared I’ll get their children hurt by influencing them. Well, if that’s the way they’re going to be, fine. They can make ugly faces at me all they want.
The little girl led me through a wide field, full of long grass and dandelions, we were approaching a wooded area. Where was she bringing me?
The trees in this area are large, and look like they’d be good for climbing. When I was little, I used to love to climb trees. But there are no kids here in sight. I haven’t climbed a tree since I was.. Seven. I think. Why weren’t there kids here?
If fact, I don’t see anyone. No adults, homeless people, teenagers, children. It makes me wonder. Well, I can rule out adults and homeless people. There are plenty of places for them to be. More places for them to hide. Same goes for teenagers, I should be the one to know that. But, this is a park, so, why aren’t any children here? Surely they must get tired of playing on the same old playgrounds, right? Plus, out here you can really have fun if you have an imagination. And really, what kid doesn’t have imagination?
“Uh, where are we going?” I asked the little girl.
“You’ll see, we’re almost there.” She said with such enthusiasm.
The ground was different shades of brown, and consisted of dirt, mud, twigs, branches, dead leaves, and a few bugs here and there. The trees were not only large in width, but were very tall, and the branches spread out near the top, blocking out the grey sky. This felt like.. A whole different world. It’s like, there’s the people on the outside of this area, or in other words, the outside world. And then there’s us, this little girl and I, in this area, or you could call it the inside world.
Outside world, and inside world. The outside concealing the people who do horrible things. The people who hurt others, break the law, and are selfish. It also has victims, but the victims of the outside world have no clue how to escape from it.
The inside conceals the misunderstood, the strange, the left out. No one has made it in this world, they always end up going back to the outside world. As of right now, this little girl and I are the only population here. We’re the only victims of the outside world that have made it here. Or is that wrong? Maybe I belong in the outside world. After all, I’m not completely victim. I break the law.
We stepped over several fallen branches, walked through archways made by the trees whose branches had bent, and dodged spider webs, and vines extending from trees.
While in the outside world, it is almost nothing but grey, in here there is no grey. The tree tops block it out. In here it’s almost a.. Yellow? I don’t know. But I like it more than grey.
Finally I can see something in the distance. I’m not quite sure what it is. But as we got closer, I could see it was a playground. An old, discolored playground. It had monkey bars that were low to the ground, a wobbly bridge, a ladder made of rope that leads to a high up platform that’s enclosed by a small… Fence like structure? Anywho, on the outside of the “fence”, was a large shelf like thing. What it was for, I don’t know. Above the wobbly bridge, was another bridge, that was also quite wobbly. But the one higher up, was longer, and attached the top closed-in platform, to a flat platform that had no walls. All that was connected to that platform was a slide. The slide seemed to go straight down for about 21 feet, before finally curving out, making whoever is sliding down, go flying off.
“This is it.” She smiled at me, pulling me behind her as she approached the playground. She climbed up the rope ladder to the top platform, and crossed the bridge about halfway. I decided to stay near the ground. I walked across the bridge that was below the one she was on. I was directly under her. I hadn’t planned on really doing anything else except walk along the playground, but she insisted that I must play tag with her.
She peaked over the edge and down at me, smiling.
“I bet you can’t catch me!” She yelled.
“Oh really? What makes you think I can’t?” I asked, looking up at her.
“You’re old!” She yelled, “And old people are never as fast as kids like me!” She laughed.
“Is that so?” I asked, hopping off the bridge and walking towards the rope ladder. “I guess we’ll just have to see how old I really am!” I started climbing the rope ladder at an intense speed. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. I didn’t know I had this much energy in me.
I got to the top platform, and prepared to run across the bridge, a bit hesitant that it might not be able to hold my weight. But I decided to just do it.
The little girl ran for the slide, with me close behind her. The bridge was wobbly under my feet, but seemed as though it could hold me up alright. Have I lost weight?
As I got closer she descended down the slide. Screaming on the way down, before flying off and barely landing on her feet. I positioned myself to slide down, and realized just how much it replicated the trunk of a tree. It literally went straight down. I gave myself a push, and found myself sliding down. I had that weird feeling in my stomach, you know, the kind you get on a rollercoaster when you’re going down a drop? Yeah, that.
I landed on my knees in the dirt, staining my legs. She ran for the monkey bars, she wasn’t able to touch the ground, but I could.
Upon gripping the first bar, she shouted.
“The ground is turning into lava! Hurry up and get off of the ground!”
I played along with her scenario, as I made it to the monkey bars. She was on the Seventh bar, and I was on the first, pulling my legs up so that they didn’t touch the ground. It was easy to get across the monkey bars like that. It was just easier for the little girl, because she was actually the right size for this.
As she got to the last bar she shouted,
“Okay, the ground is back to normal!” Grinning, she jumped down and took off into the trees.
I sighed, as I let my feet find the ground again, and I started to run after her. I could barely see her, as she used the thickness of this area to her advantage, but she was still running. She is small enough to avoid getting scratched and cut by the branches. I, unfortunately, am not as lucky. But, despite this, I kept running. Not for the fact that we were playing tag, but for the fact that she may get hurt.
I doubt she’s aware of where she’s running to. She could get hurt, or run into someone who could hurt her. There are some cliffs here. Only one or two, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still here. What if she falls off of one?