Nessa's life couldn't possibly get any worse. Or at least that was what she thought until Nov 7th, 2035.
Nessa was a yellow-skinned girl who had long black hair and hazel colored eyes. She was about 5 foot 8 and she also happened to be one of the only black kids in Websters High.
One would think that racism would have died down in England by 2035, but it seemed to be trying hard to do the exact opposite. As Nessa sat in her final class, alone and as uncaring as usual, the speakers blasted over her ears.
"Vanessa Coburn, please report to the Principal's office. Vanessa Coburn..."
Nessa excused herself from the class and ignored the burning stares that lingered behind her. The Principal's office was a room almost as large as one sixth of an average soccer field. The walls were white and there was only one desk and chair int he entire room.
Sitting in that chair was a very petite woman (5'3'') who seemed to be in her middle ages. Underneath her desk there was a wrapped box and above it, a pile of paper work. There was a tag on the table that read: Principal Avery.
Principal Avery had a lot of work to do. She liked to think she was a very important person in a lot of important matters. She was probably right though. As she scribbled something on a notepad there was a knock on her door.
"Come in,"
Nessa walked in with her backpack on her shoulder and closed the door behind her.
"Good morning Principal Avery."
Avery had a hard time getting used to seeing this young girl in front of her. There were only two black people in the entire school: Nessa, and some guy named Tristan.
Avery had no time for useless ideologies such as racism. In fact she saw it as an unnecessary waste of time; she only wished she could help Nessa in a different way than she was about to.
No. Avery steeled herself and put on her most official smile. It was definitely too late for second guessing.
"Good morning Miss Coburn please take a seat."
Nessa silently wondered what seat Avery could be talking about. Even a blind man could tell there was only one seat in the room and Avery's butt was already on it. Could this be some sort of practical joke?
"Oh right," Avery apologized when she noticed Nessa hadn't moved a muscle. "I had the chair moved. After all we wouldn't be needing it for a long time..."
Avery's voice trailed away and Nessa wondered why the Principal was acting weird. However, she didn't care and neither did she have the patience to find out.
"Umm, you called for me." Nessa asked trying to move the process along.
"Ah, yes." Avery said. "I just wanted to know how you were faring...personally?"
This was slowly getting weirder for Nessa. She knew the Principal was someone who strongly believed in justice. If it wasn't for Avery, Nessa would have suffered a lot more in high school. But being interested in a student's personal life was weird even for Avery.
"Fine," Nessa employed the vaguest reply she could think of.
Avery nodded seemingly satisfied and then dragged out the wrapped box from underneath her desk.
"You are black American right?" She asked Nessa.
"I'm Nigerian..."
"Oh sorry," Avery genuinely apologized, "the point is you have a different skin color than the rest of the class and for some reason that is a bad thing at least to them. I know it must be difficult for you, that's why I decided to give you this personally."
Avery pointed at the wrapped box.
"Can I ask what's inside?" Nessa asked
"It's a game. A very harmless MMORPG game that launches today. I got this as a gift and I thought you needed to relax so take it."
"Thanks a lot Principal Avery," Nessa was saying "But,"
"If you reject my gift I would take it as a personal insult. You can accept it and give it a try. I'm sure you wouldn't regret it. You need to loosen up a bit."
Nessa figured Principal Avery wasn't going to take no for an answer. So she accepted the gift, thanked Principal Avery and left the office deciding she wasn't going to open the box.
School had closed and for once Nessa was glad that her dad used to come get her from school. How else would she have carried the heavy box?
In the parking lot, Mr. Coburn sat in his cyan Sienna wondering why Nessa was spending much more time than usual. He glanced at his watch out of habit and silently hoped the reason Nessa was late was because she was talking to some friends.
Five minutes later the door to the passenger seat opened and Nessa dropped a box on the seat. She closed the door and went behind to sit.
"Hey dad,"
"Hey baby how was school?"
"Normal....and no I didn't make any friends."
Mr. Coburn bit his lower lip. There was no harm in hoping. The drive home was uneventful and silent which was quite normal. Nessa wasn't one of those in touch with her feelings kind of people and her dad
wasn't one to force his only daughter into awkward conversations.
Not like there could possibly be any awkward conversations they could have. Nessa didn't have any friends and she definitely didn't have a boyfriend. This should be any parent's dream (the no boyfriend part) but the fact always saddened Mr. Coburn.
Mr. Coburn pulled into a driveway and steered the sienna into a garage before Nessa walked out of the car towards the front door.
"Nessa. Baby," Mr. Coburn called. "What about your box?"
"You could leave it in the leaving room...Thank you"
Mr. Coburn opened the door and got out of the car with the box in his hand. As he closed the door, he silently muttered "Kids..."
However, the moment Nessa crossed the front door, she knew something was off. First of all the television was on and noone was in the living room. Second of all the news channel was on. Third of all, in the news, the reporter mentioned something about a million missing people.
How was that even possible?
Nessa strolled straight to the kitchen.
"Hey mum what..." She was saying until she noticed that her mum wasn't in the kitchen. Now she knew what made her feel something was off. There was no smell of cookies and small pastries in the air. Nessa's mum liked to bake and whenever she was home which was 90% of the time, she either blogged or baked.
"Luka..." Nessa yelled as she came out of the kitchen. "Where's mom?"
Her little brother of about fourteen suddenly clambered down the staircase. He had black hair like Nessa and the same eye color. He was about her height despite being two years younger and that seemed to make him forget he was the younger sibling.
"Hey sis. How was school?" Luka said breezily.
"Same old, where's mum?" Nessa repeated.
"She went to the gaming store."
The day was just getting weirder.
"Gaming store? Why?" Nessa asked.
"To get me that new RPG game for my birthday." Luka said. "Don't tell me you forgot my birthday?"
"Luka your birthday isn't until a week."
He shrugged. "I'm getting an early gift. Not like you would understand though. You are a bore after all."
Nessa counted to ten. It seemed to be the only thing that could stop her from strangling her little brother.
"Hey Nessa," Her dad's voice echoed from the living room "Is this that new game Luka has been crying about the past month?"
Luka suddenly took interest in his shoes. "I didn't cry."
"Yes," Nessa answered her dad just to shove it in Luka's face.
"How did you get it?" Luka asked.
"Principal Avery gave it to me."
He rolled his eyes. "Jeez, just say you don't want to tell me."
"I'm telling the truth..." Nessa defended.
"Yeah yeah..." Luka said as he strode to the living room.
"I can't believe it," He bellowed from the living room. "It really is the game. Dad can I play it?"
"Well you need to ask your sister..."
"Nessa," Luka was saying.
"Don't touch my game Luka..." Nessa yelled from the kitchen door.
"Don't touch my game Luka" He mimicked. "Fine I'd just wait for mum to get back."
Nessa walked up the stairs without a word. Her bedroom was the only place Nessa felt alive. Her brother might have been right, she was a bore, but she didn't care much. She was a straight A student who loved reading novels for as long as she could remember—even before her family had moved from Nigeria.
She loved thrillers and Fantasy, but she hated romance stories probably more than she hated horror. When it came to music she had weird tastes also. Nessa loved melodramatic artistes like Adele and Westlife, but she also loved Sia. It made her wonder just how much more confused she could actually get.
Nessa sat on her bed and searched her bag to complete a very old fantasy series she was currently reading. Harry Potter. She wondered why she hadn't read the novel until now. It didn't matter if it was written over forty years back, the story was rich.
As she brought out the book from her bag a note dropped to the floor a few centimeters from her knee. She opened it hoping against all reasonable doubt that the note hadn't been from him.