The life of a half angel

My life

It's been two years since I last saw my dad and to be honest, the memory is kind of blurry. As a matter of fact, I am not able to recall a single thing about my dad. Almost as if I have never met him. My mother still believes that one day he will return, that he will come back for us. For good this time, yet I know better. The stairs squeaked when my mother strides down to the kitchen. I am sitting at the dining table, pushing my breakfast around on my plate. Today, my breakfast entails a slice of toast with strawberry jam and a single glass of water. That has been my breakfast for over 2 months now. I kind of have a sweet tooth. My gaze is focused on the outside world. It’s very sunny outside and the weather forecast on the kitchen radio predicts a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius. I force my breakfast down my throat and rise from the seat to wash the plate. Placing it in the drying rack to air dry, I allow my eyes to roam the garden again, this time through the kitchen window above the sink. Rays of sunshine illuminate the colourful daisies. There is a kingfisher seated on a branch hanging above the small creek next to our house. It seems determined to catch a fish. It folds its wings behind its body before diving into the crystal clear water. It comes back a couple of seconds later, shaking its head to rid it of water droplets. No fish, unfortunately, even though there is plenty of fish in the creek. At least, that’s the case for the next two months. After that, the water dries up, leaving a muddy road. The fish know better than to stay too long in this place. They travel downwards soon in the hope of finding the spawning grounds. I decided to reclaim my seat next to my mother, who found herself a cup of tea. The clock shows 7:40 am. I have a couple of minutes left before my best friend Stacy Hale arrives to pick me up for me for school. It took some convincing, but my mother finally caved. I had my first day at public school about a year ago. Why she changed her mind is still a mystery to me, but I am not crazy enough to ask her and allow her to change her mind. It is very different in comparison to home-schooling, which I endured for ten boring years. I was so excited to finally meet new people. Stacy was the first person I met at school. She laughed at me for trying to pull a push door and walking into some guy who was carrying a large stack of books. He cursed at me while recollecting his books. It took a minute for the laughter to die down. Afterward, she introduced herself as Stacy. She told me I was too much fun not to be friends with, so that's how it all started. She showed me the school and told me the tips and tricks to survive the remainder of the school year. The other kids weren't so nice, unfortunately. The school had already started two months earlier, so everybody had already formed groups. It was only natural that the new kid wasn't going to fit in. And to top it all off, I wasn't used to so many people in one place so, a panic attack or two was inevitable. Stacy pulled me out of isolation the moment I tried to close myself off. She has a way of persuading people with jokes which seemed to work on me just fine. I have only encountered small groups before. My mother's Pagan circle existed of twelve people but high school had way more than twelve people, of course. When taking part in the circle, everyone has the same religion and beliefs. High school was different, people tried to bully me the moment I set foot on the school grounds. People didn’t pass on important information, someone pushed me into lockers and others laughed at the answers I gave to questions. Stacy stood up for me, she even punched a guy in the face for making fun of my necklace and rightfully earned my trust. After talking about her at home, I managed to convince my mother to let her join us at our place for dinner. My mother seemed scared at first, but it faded as soon as she met her. They clicked immediately, it took only a month for her to feel like the sister I never had. Stacy was fortunate enough to get her driver's license three months back, I convinced her to drive me around ever since. It was way better than the hour's walk to the nearest bus stop and also saved me a lot of money. The sound of the doorbell ringing snapped me out of my daydream. I looked at the time on my yellow iPhone. Stacy was earlier than normal and she was more of a just-in-time/ kind of too-late kind of person. Besides, Stacy always lets herself in, she never uses the doorbell. Reluctantly, I raise myself from my seat to open the door. Hot air makes its way through the door opening, there was no one there. Frowning, I went to close the door until I saw something in the corner of my eye. I reach down and grab a single piece of paper with my name on it. I use my hip to push the door shut and lean back against it, folding the piece of paper open. It appears empty, great, another empty threat. Haha, very funny guys. I turn to watch the garden through the small window next to the door but still, no one there. I sigh and turn around when I notice something I hadn't seen before. The letter H appears on the previously blank paper. It seems like it was written in ink, yet it wasn't there a second ago. I shake the paper in front of me while feeling like a moron. As if shaking would reveal more letters, yeah right. The weird part was, it did. Well, not the shaking but the exposure to the sunlight did. Disbelief filled my mind. I never knew such a technique existed. It takes ten seconds before the letters are all visible. H-A-L-F-A-N-G-E-L. Is this supposed to make sense to me somehow?

I frown, not knowing what to do with it, before deciding to put the note in the left pocket of my blue skinny jeans. The sound of a car horn scares me for a second. Stacy's silver car rolls into our driveway. I give my mother a quick kiss on the cheek while snatching my backpack from the dining table. "Bye mom, see you later!" "Be safe sweety" she replies without looking up from the newspaper she is reading. I run to the car and jump into the passenger seat. Stacy taps her nails against the steering wheel while waiting for me to put the seatbelt on. Her normally bubbly character is replaced with impatience, something is wrong. She tries to start her car but it won’t budge. Frustrated, she hits her steering wheel. She takes a deep breath and tries again. She shifts the gear back and pulls away from the driveway. “Hey Stacey,... what’s up? What's wrong?” She shakes her head and stares straight forward. "It's nothing Al, I don't want to discuss it". I nod and shut my mouth. Stacy had a difficult past, maybe that's why she recognized a friend in me. She is not easily surprised by weird things. She kind of accepted things as they were and it didn't matter that I was a bit different from everyone else. Her parents were fighting most of the time, which is why her grandmother forced her to live at her place in Hedgetown. It took a long time before her parents even noticed her missing. Her father found her a month later at her grandmother's house, but that resulted in a visit to the hospital after she refused to join him back at their house. The police found out what happened and locked her father away for child abuse. Her mother never showed her face again. Her grandma became her legal guardian and gave her a normal life. I try to break the silence as Stacy drives to school. "Sooo," I say while trying to think happy thoughts. “Have you found a date to the school prom yet? We only have a week left". A small smile crosses her face. "I was about to ask you the same question, Al". I watch as she drives into the parking lot. She parks the car and opens the door. Driving to school sure was a lot quicker, and besides being able to sleep some more, it was also more fun. "Well? Don't ignore me, Alyssa!" she says with a raised voice as she leans against the door. She knows I would rather avoid going to public parties. It seems fun but scary at the same time. We went together last year but this year she insists on going on a double date, and knowing Stacy, she would do almost anything to achieve it. “I have no idea who to ask Stace. It’s not like I am popular, I cannot walk up to a random dude and be like, yes, wanna go to the prom together? They will laugh at me". I pout to prove my point. She looks at me and rolls her eyes. "Honey, you are quite good-looking. A small makeover would totally attract the wanted attention". I sigh while looking at myself in the side-view mirror, while my mint-coloured eyes look back at me. My chocolate brown hair is twisted into a braid. I wore my favourite flannel shirt with dark blue jeans. “What is wrong with how I am looking right now?” I feel kind of hurt, but her laugh is infectious. "Nothing Alys, but there are always some improvements to be found in an unpainted picture.” She winks and stretches. I stick out my tongue, which increases her laughter. She winks and looks around. I start walking to the lockers while Stacey graced me with her presence next to me. She tells me all about how Levin asked her to prom, and of course, she said yes. He is one of the most popular boys in school and, to be honest, he is good-looking, just not my type. When we first met, she told me how she liked him for over two years but never dared to even look in his direction. I wish some guy would walk up to me and ask me to go to prom, but who would be crazy enough to ask someone like me? Even though I have been at this school for over a year now, I was still the outsider. I try to show her I was happy for her while studying my schedule. "Okay, we start the day with math". She makes a vomiting sound and we laugh while walking into the classroom. The angry stare of our teacher tells us enough, we were late again. I hate this teacher, everything you did was wrong, even though you did everything right. Isn’t there a way to skip this class? No, the exams are coming up, and there is no way to ace the exam if I skipped math again. I sigh and take a seat. The following hour, I try to make notes but the pace was simply too high, I was so going to fail this exam. The rest of the day runs a bit more smoothly and we soon arrived at the last hour of the day. It is my favourite subject, biology. This time, the lesson takes place in the courtyard, not that I mind, of course. The temperature and sunshine are just great and besides, I love nature. Stacey had to go to geography, so I sit down next to Rachel. She isn’t exactly a friend of mine, but she is nice. One of the very few people who talk to me like I am an equal instead of a freak. I reach for my backpack when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise. It feels as if someone is staring at me. I take an assignment form that the teacher is handing out before looking behind me. How I know someone is watching, I do not know, but the moment I turn around, a guy is looking at me from the other side of the field. He notices my stare and turns away. Who is that? And why did he leave the field after I caught him watching me? “Hellooo? Earth to Alyssa. Are you coming to help me or do I need to do all the work?". I turn back and look her in the eye. "Do you have any idea who that guy was? " I say while pointing back with my thumb. She turns around with a frown "Who?" Shaking my head, I reach for the assignment again. "Never mind, what do we have to do?" Rachel rolls her eyes and points to the form she ripped out of my hands. "Please, just do the first part, I will do the second part, okay?" I nod and scan the questions. We were allowed to leave when we finish the assignment, so I hurry by scrabbling down the answers. I stretch afterward and make my way back to Stacy's car. Finally, this day is over.