The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Outside

[Sophia]

I finished my drawing. Roughly sketched in pencil, outlined in marker pens and colored in. I couldn't think of anything else to draw, so I closed my sketchbook and put all my pencils back inside the little pouch and put them back inside my satchel. I sighed and stared out into the open day. Apollo and I have spent pretty much our whole lives together in this tree house. Living here, staying alive, staying safe.

Earlier in our lives, we came across this neighborhood and found the house for sale. To our discovery, no one had bought it yet. With some clever thinking, we took the house as our own. No one knows we live here because we rarely go out the front door, unless Apollo is getting groceries. And as long as no one else knows we're here, we can't get into any trouble. Or, at least they won't get suspicious of us. We can't take any chances.

Of course, we always go back to the tree house every now and then. It was our first home. And here, we can do whatever we want without being caught or scolded at. We can be as loud as we want and no one calls the cops. It's peaceful and quiet here. We're lucky no one's decided to go snooping around here either.

I go back inside the tree house and pulled my laptop out of my satchel. I fire it up and go to Youtube. There, I spend a while surfing streams and funny videos, recent uploads and completions. Later, while I was watching a Fails of the Week video, a clickbait ad appeared on the side of the window, advertising a variety of clothes. I pause for a moment and pull at the blue shirt that I'm wearing. I've had this shirt for a while now, and I still like it, but it was practically my only favorite shirt because of how soft it is.

I finish the video and close my laptop. I go back home to my room and pull out the various clothes I have. Looking at what I can keep and what looks more worn out.

A classic red shirt. Still fits, besides the color fading. Keep.

A black shirt. Still fits. Keep.

Classic white T-shirt.

Ugh, why do I even have this? It's so dull and it doesn't go well with anything. Way too modern. No way am I keeping this.

Black long sleeve shirt. I wore this a lot during the winter. I'll keep it.

Black and white baseball shirt. I like this one a lot. Keep.

A grey tee with a cool graphic design on it. Keep.

Green long sleeve shirt. The color doesn't look so good on me.

Not with this face.

Black and white striped long-sleeve. This one's still super comfy. Keep.

A few different colored camisoles. I sleep in those. Keep.

Wait- another basic white shirt?

Oh wait, this is my old one. This one was always getting torn to shreds and I've had to stitch this one up a lot. So much so that I had to switch to black thread to save the white one. Yeah, I think it's safe to say I can throw this one out.

Those were all the shirts that I had. I pull open the bottom drawer.

Classic denim jeans.

Yeah, I hardly ever wear these. They're kinda tight and I never liked the way they looked. I don't think I need to keep these anymore.

Purple cheetah-spotted sweats. Another pair of my P.J. pants. These are still good. Keep.

Soft dark-grey skinny jeans- OH NO!!!

They're splitting at the seams. There's holes in the back and on the knees. These were my favorite jeans. I wore these all the time, they were super comfortable!

I sighed sadly, guessing it was about time to toss these ones out. I'm never gonna find another pair similar to these. I told myself to try and remember where I got these and hoped that maybe I could find another pair some other time.

Grey skinny jeans. These are okay. Keep.

The shorts I'm wearing now are the only shorts I have, and I only have three pairs of shoes. They were kinda dirty and starting to feel kinda small.

I guessed it was about time to start thinking about getting a new wardrobe.

Suddenly, an idea came to my mind. I texted Apollo.

>Hey dude, what if we went shopping for clothes today? We can go over to the mall and maybe we can get something at Starbucks?

HELL YEAH I WANT STARBUCKSAight, mind if I meet you there? I'll order for ya

Yeah ok. I'll see ya there!<

I put my phone away and grabbed my bag, went downstairs and out into the backyard. We weren't going downtown to shop. There's not very many stores to look at there anyway. But there is a really cool outdoor mall not too far from here that we sometimes go to. Now, why did I go into the backyard instead of going out the front door? Well, because this particular mall is way too far to walk to, but we have our ways of getting to faraway places. And we can't have anyone seeing us.

I didn't hear anyone out in their backyards, nor any kids playing in the street. I crossed over the fence and walked a ways into the grove, making sure I was far enough so no one could see me. I stopped underneath a hole of sunlight where there were no trees to block my path.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my phone and my earbuds with their constantly tangled wire. I untangled them easily and put them in my ears as I opened the music app on my phone. Scrolling through the various not-so-popular songs I have and carefully selected which one I wanted to hear first.

I kept a broad stance on the ground.

And appearing from my back, I unfolded two white wings and spread them out wide. I stretched them quietly to their full extent and took a deep breath.

These are the reason we hide ourselves away.

The reason we don't go out where other people are.

The reason we stay hidden from the world.

(That and a few other quirks, but you'll get to see those later.)

I may be small, but with these wings my spirit is as free as ever!

I lifted myself from the ground and into the clouds. The song I chose began to play at full volume and I clutched my phone tightly so it wouldn't slip out of my hands. I rose higher and higher, past the branches and slowly climbed into the sky. And I kept going.

I have to stay up high so no one would spot me. I can't risk being spotted. Here, where the ground doesn't exist and gravity is invisible, I am free. The wind slipping through my hair and fingers. The heat of the ending summer feels even nicer with the wind blowing against me. I turned and headed East.

Besides the wind trying to pierce through my ears, I could only hear my music. I let myself get lost in both the music and the defiance of gravity.

The mall where I was heading to was almost an hour away from where we live (by car at least), but it's got a lot of stores and a lot of the ones we like too. There's always something to find there. And to top it all off, it even has its own ferris wheel! I've never been on it before, but cmon, what kind of mall has its own ferris wheel? It's awesome!

Since I can fly with these gorgeous wings that I have been blessed with, it only takes about 10-15 minutes, so getting to faraway locals isn't much of an issue. We just have to make sure no one can spot us. Landing in densely populated areas are tricky though.

Sometimes when I listen to my music, I personally like to take my time because the outdoor mall is the farthest location I actually fly to, so I try to make the moment last. I like to stick near the coast because from far away I just look like a plain seagull to all the people driving on the highway. But as I get closer to the mall, I have to gain altitude and stay above the road so I can't be spotted by anyone. Or at least, they just think I'm a regular bird.

As soon as I got to the mall, I made sure not to land too close to any residential areas so no one could see a girl falling from the sky. I landed softly and quickly just a ways beyond the mall itself and folded my wings inside my shirt. It was a long walk to the actual mall and I quickly checked my reflection from the window of a parked car.

With my wings tucked in like this, I look perfectly normal.

I combed my fingers through my hair to cover my left eye and trotted over to the parking lot and followed the sidewalk to one of the entrances. This mall is one of my favorite malls to go to. Sure it takes a while to get here and we have to land further away and walk the rest of the way so no one can see us, but it's worth it.

I went over to a nearby Starbucks and ordered food for both me and Apollo. I grabbed a chocolate milk and a blueberry scone and sat down for a bit. I ate my food first before I went around carrying Apollo's drink. When I finished my food, I sent Apollo a quick text before sitting outside near a fountain and waited for him. I hoped that I was able to find something I liked. Lately, it's been getting harder to find clothes that match my standards. I kinda have a specific style that is, admittedly, pretty picky, so if I'm looking for a shirt or a pair of pants, I always make sure they look the way I want. Not just the right size, but color and general style. Really, buying new clothes for myself really depends on a lot of things. But really, nowadays, I just really don't like the modern style of fashion. Even for casual wear.

If there's one thing I want, it's women's jeans that aren't high-waisted and have bigger pockets that I can actually fit my hands into.

As I ranted to myself in my head, Apollo finally showed up and we went on our way.

In the end, I bought myself 3 new shirts, a new pair of jeans, and a pair of shorts. I honestly didn't think I'd find so much in one day and that made me pretty happy. I finally have a better variety of clothes to choose from now. Apollo bought 2 pairs of shorts, a new jacket, and 2 new pairs of shoes. We were pretty satisfied with what we got. It's good to go out and make a day out of it, even if there wasn't a whole lot that caught our attention. As the day was ending, we flew back home together.

And yes, of course Apollo has wings too. He has a bigger wingspan and his feathers match those of a fair bluebird. I didn't give it away before, but his wings were the reason why he couldn't join the school's swim team. Seriously, how are you supposed to hide those in a swimsuit?

When we got home, we unpacked all our new clothes and put them in our drawers. And the rest of the day went on like normal.

Although, I'm not sure what you would call a kind of day like that, but for us it was normal enough. But we don't always go out for clothes a lot. In fact, it's actually been months since we last went out to get new clothes, so going out today was perfect.

Another day in the life of two ordinary freaks.