Chapter 4
750 Words
Four years had passed, and time had worked its strange magic. Olivia's eyes, which had once made her a target of cruel bullying at the orphanage and caused Clayton Bradford to call her a freak, had become her most striking feature.
At seventeen, Olivia walked the halls of Cordova Academy with a grace that turned heads. Her mismatched eyes—one as green as spring leaves, the other as blue as a summer sky—had become an attraction.
Boys stumbled over their words when she passed by in the hallways, and the art students begged to paint her portrait. In photography class, Olivia became the most requested model. The photography teacher, Ms. Shanon, called her "a work of art."
Girls who once would have mocked her features back in freshman year now visited expensive boutiques, searching for colored contact lenses to mimic her look. But none could replicate the natural beauty she possessed.
When prom season arrived, her locker overflowed with invitations. The football captain, a famous politician's son, the Queen's nephew, and even the hot guy with a fan club all hoped to escort the girl with the bewitching eyes. The same eyes that once made children run away in fear now made men run toward her.
On her eighteenth birthday, standing at the podium as valedictorian, Olivia addressed her graduating class. The sun streaming through the auditorium windows caught her eyes, making them shine like jewels. The entire audience sat mesmerized.
She graduated with the highest honors Cordova Academy had seen in decades. Her list of achievements filled three pages in the graduation program.
After the ceremony, she held her golden honors cords and multiple medals out to her adoptive mother.
Mrs. Hilton hugged her with tears in her eyes. "You've made us so proud. Caroline would have achieved the same if she were alive.”
Olivia was heartbroken; for the past four years, her adoptive mother had never stopped mentioning Caroline at every opportunity. Even on this day, her day, she was still living in the shadow of a dead girl.
Her achievement felt nothing now even though she worked hard for them for a long time. It felt as if they were never truly hers because, when her parents looked at her, they only saw Caroline.
Walking through the crowded auditorium, Olivia smiled and nodded at the congratulations thrown her way. Inside, her heart ached. They had no idea that she had cried herself to sleep the night before, wondering if Mrs. Hilton would still love her if she weren't so perfect, if she didn't try so hard to be everything Caroline might have been.
Olivia slipped through the crowd, mumbling "excuse me" and "bathroom" to anyone who tried to stop her. Her perfect smile remained fixed on her face like a mask until the heavy doors closed behind her and she let it slip away.
Her heels clicked against the empty hallway floor until she reached the garden, where she gulped in the fresh air. She yanked off her cap, not caring that it messed up her carefully styled hair, which Mrs. Hilton had arranged to make her resemble Caroline in her elementary graduation portrait.
"I'm so tired," she whispered to no one. "I'm so tired of being Caroline."
“Olivia!”
Her heart lifted slightly when she saw Caleb approaching. For the past year, he had been the only person who understood her, who really saw the girl, the broken one, and accepted her wholeheartedly despite her flaws. He had always been there when she needed a shoulder to cry on. Perhaps she would have broken apart during the last months of her senior year if it weren't for him.
“Caleb!” She called to him and sensed instantly that something was wrong when he didn't even budge. His eyes, the ones that always looked at her with such warmth, were now fixed on the ground.
"I can't do this anymore," he whispered.
Olivia blinked rapidly. She didn't know what he meant by that. She didn't ask or demand answers. Instead, she waited until he was ready to open up.
"I thought I could handle it. I really did." He finally looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. "But every time I look at you, I see her."
"H-her?" She swallowed the lump in her throat. Olivia was screaming inside that this couldn't be happening.
"Caroline," he choked out. "I’ve always been in love with her since we were kids."
- Writer
