It was once again that Adelyn ran out of the school boundary, tears dripping down her cheeks, as she made her way past the secluded alleys and quiet backyards of neighboring houses. The sun was setting, casting the sky into an ugly grey-and-orange hue. Adelyn tore through the front lawn of her house, fumbled around for the key to the front door, almost losing grip on the bunch of keys. Its jingling created a series of unbearably high pitched clinking noises, like thousands of children screaming, almost driving Adelyn to the point of insanity. Her head throbbed violently.
Adelyn found the right key and slammed open the door. She threw her schoolbag down onto the floor and ran up the stairs, three at a time, with noises ringing in her ear. Cries, laughter, jeering, screams, giggles, shouts. She ran into her room and shut the door.
Immediately, silence filled the atmosphere. There were no more voices. No more cries, laughter, jeering, screams or giggles. Horizontal rays of orange-red sunlight shone through the blinds into the dark room, highlighting the peaceful dust particles which were slowly settling onto the wooden floor. Adelyn took a few deep breaths. Then finally, she screamed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, eyes shut, blocking out the world. She screamed until she could hear nothing but the tortured phlegm in her throat, until the powerful sound waves rebounded off the walls of her tiny room and started throbbing against her own ear drums, until all her anger expelled itself out of her body. When she finally had no more breath, she stopped and breathed in and out rapidly, filling her exhausted lungs with fresh oxygen. Then she threw herself onto her bed and started sobbing.
* * * * *
Slowly, painfully, images of what had happened earlier in school started making their way into her mind. The cheerleaders laughed as she walked past their table with her tray of food. They were laughing at her lack of social status, laughing at the fact that...