Her neighbour would later come and apologise to her and she would forgive her like she always did but for now she rushed to her room and flung herself on her bed as hot tears streamed down her face. She felt stupid for crying but she couldn’t help it. She was an Indian alright, but that was no reason to be mean with her. All her friends, if you can call them that, would always tease her about how her hair was neither totally black or brown or the way her slanted eyes almost disappeared when she laughed. Her skin wasn’t even that dark as they would say, it just had a tinge of yellowish hue to their normal white and pink skins.
She had never teased them about their black hair or their blue eyes.
Once when a girl with red hair had catcalled her she had snapped back by saying she was a redhead and then she had started crying and everyone in her class had called her a racist. She was horrified by that word and had spent the rest of her school day trying to explain how she wasn’t the one who started it but they wouldn’t listen. That day still made shivers run down her spine.
It was a warm Wednesday afternoon and the sun shone brightly overhead as Esha Malhotra made her way past her front lawn to their next door neighbour’s house to continue the group project she was assigned to complete with her friend. Leah was not a friend of Esha really she was just her classmate, Mrs. Turner had assigned them together because they lived near each other, but she liked to think that she was actually close friends with the most famous child from her school. Leah Starling was the prettiest girl in Midtown High. Even the seniors seem to like her. Esha wasn’t a clout chaser, that is very offensive to even think of! She just wanted to be happy next door neighbours. So she was happy to have Leah as her partner and see whether she could kindle a spark of friendship with her. The first time.
