One

I read once that it’s good for you to share all your most intimate secrets with someone. Since I don’t feel comfortable with the people I know, I suppose my only other option would be to subject my life story to a bunch of complete strangers. This machine plays all memories as I have experienced them, and as I will experience them, as I plan to have a chip implanted to transmit all thoughts to this machine

I guess I should tell everyone my name and a little bit about myself. Kind of like Alcoholics Anonymous. Except I don’t drink: I can’t stand the smell of beer or any hard liquor and I only ever tried wine twice, and hated it both times.

My name is Midnight. No last name to identify me, but I think that I’ll leave everything else as I remember it. I’m not tall, but not short either, just the average 5’6’’- 5’ 8’’. I haven’t checked my weight for a little while, but I think around two hundred pounds would be accurate. I never have been nor ever will be petite, but I don’t have rolls of fat either. I suppose the phrase would be pleasantly plump. Whatever. There is absolutely nothing pleasant about being plump. In fact, it sucks. People tend to slow down for you- regardless as to whether or not you need it: you also get a lot of dirty looks, like it’s your fault that your dad was a whale; then my favorite is all the jokes and stupid drawings, people using your name like it’s an insult for someone to be your friend.

I was born a redhead, but my hair has turned this weird shade of brown that changes from dark to light to blonde to red to brown again. It doesn’t really matter; I chopped most of the crap off so now it barely touches my neck. Surprise of surprises, I look better with short hair because of my round face. Hooray. The only real plus to my appearance is my face, because in all honestly it’s nearly flawless. I am not saying that to be vain or anything, but my rectangle eyebrows are just about perfect (I don’t try to fix a few stray hairs and cause six to sprout up to replace every one I take), my oval eyes are cool because being hazel they change anywhere from emerald to a light amber with my moods, my nose is small, but not too small, and I have these awesome lips that are perfect except for (or maybe because of) their small size. A near flawless face.

Of course, me being the lovely person I am, I don’t like to dwell on appearances. If someone has a really rotten sense of humor I alienate him or her. Then again, that’s probably why half of Stonebridge hates me.

Stonebridge Correctional Facility for Troubled Youth. Sounds a little self-gratifying, but until I’m eighteen I’m stuck here just like every other supposed delinquent. That’s a bunch of bull, though, because all Stonebridge is a place to dump unwanted orphans, and occasionally a ‘troubled youth’, meaning a brat with one hell of an attitude.

Lucky me, I’m one of the troubled ones. But that’s not my fault because on the streets, especially on backwards planets like Ptoh; if you don’t have attitude and muscle you are as good as dead. For eight years now I’ve been on my own. Ever since the day after my seventh birthday, I’ve had to fend for myself. I was young, but again, lucky me, I had already been through most of grade school courtesy of a brainy mother.

My mother. What is there to say about her? She and the fat leech that was my father both up and disappeared on me. They abandoned me, leaving me alone on Zert (third planet in the Garris system) to come home to an empty house without so much as a note to explain anything. On Zert anyone can live by himself or herself, so I settled down for a year before deciding I didn’t like being in a place with so many memories.

By the age of nine I had found another semi-permanent home on Ptoh, where I learned the beauty of thievery. While on that planet I managed to lose almost all of my possessions, except for six fictional books, two photo-albums, a large stuffed animal resembling a bear, and all the money I could fit in my pocket- a mere $700.

From Ptoh I jacked a freeznam (similar to the ancient motorcycles, but better suited to interstellar travel), and made my way to Lanmas, the Party Planet. As an eleven year old, I discovered that a party every night is only fun for so long, and so decided to take all of my stuff (plus a new wooden chair and wardrobe full of clothing) and make the move back to the roots of humanity, or as close as I could get. I moved to Fourth Earth.

Apparently the first three Earth’s all had problems with wars over religion and needless pollution, so all people on those planets moved to Fourth Earth before stupidly destroying their home planets. Another sign of how idiotic mankind can be, even if it includes someone as brilliant as me.

Fourth Earth, or Fey (don’t ask me), is a business planet. Mainly the place was created as a sort of museum to remember Earths 1-3 by, but the idea was trashed after people saw themselves repeating the same mistakes. So now there is now loud music, no partying, no fun. Well supposedly the place is fun IF you can entertain yourself (which I can, but find boring). Fey is where Stonebridge is, where I am. I’ve only actually been in the orphanage for a little while (stupid underage protection laws), after being picked up by a cop last month. For being fifteen, this place makes me feel twelve again.

Stonebridge insists on ‘re-educating’ me, and putting me through high-school classes again, even though I keep tell everyone that I finished the material two years ago through accelerated programs. No matter how much I say or do, though, Mercy the headmistress plays deaf. The only plus to being here is that this dump just happens to be co-ed. God really does love me.

There are guys here that are jerks, yes, but there are also some that are worth spending some time with. Like the Twins.

The Twins. Sam and Will, Will and Sam. So alike, and so different. So fun, so nice (most of the time), so smart, and so…cute! Though it shames me to say, I suppose it’s only fair to admit that I might like Will, just a teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy bit. I lie. I’m heads over heals for the poor guy, and if word of this ever got out it would completely trash both of our reputations- mine as a heartless witch, and his as the unattainable troublemaker. Not that he’s mine. No, I’ve just claimed and guarded him since I got here three weeks ago. Unfortunately, all the broken bones I’ve caused seem to fail to grab his attention. Maybe that’s a good thing, because I don’t know if he’d appreciate my violence.

Ah, sweet violence, the thing that brought me my first real friend, Maddi. Two-weeks ago Maddi was the alpha female here, and happened to notice that half of her subjects were being hurt and avoiding me for some mysterious reason. Thus the first conflict was born.

In the space of a week, Maddi and I managed to learn as much as possible about each other. Naturally, this should have given me the advantage because of my self-induced solitude and newness. But somehow that little minx managed to one up me, and humiliated me (no comment besides I am never wearing bunny slippers again). Being used to always dominating, it was weird for me to feel embarrassed. Within the next two days Maddi and I started talking and discovered how alike we are, much to the chagrin of the female population at Stonebridge. So for a little less than a week now, I have been co-alpha girl.

Now I suppose would be a good time to say that Maddi and Sam are an item, although only three people besides the two know. Those three being me, Will, and our devastated Miss Mercy, who has had to deal with an increase in petty pranks designed to impress a certain girlfriend of a certain Twin.

That pretty much leaves me at now, the middle of the night in my dorm room on the third floor of the first building of the girl half of the housing complex in Stonebridge, horribly located on Fey, one of the most boring places I have ever known.

Classes start in three hours, so I guess I should get some sleep now.

This is the third posting of this, because I went through it and fixed (or at least tried to) all my mistakes. If you spot anything I missed, please tell me. I know that the verb tenses don’t match up, but I’ll fix all that when I finish the whole story, so bear with me. Reviews would be awesome. I am The New Shadow, Vivian LeFay.