I'm not normal.

I struggle through school, but not because I have a condition like Dyslexia or because I have another disability of some sort.

I cannot answer questions, or ask questions. I haven't made any friends yet; no one really wants to introduce themselves to the nerdy, shy girl who keeps herself in the dark and has a deep scar down her neck.

Some kind adults say that the fact that I've made it this far in my life is amazing and that I'll be the new Helen Keller. But that's an exaggeration. I'm mute not deaf or blind or whatever. Maybe they're right. I've survived this long with minimal human contact.

Others just say that I'm hopeless. A failure. A nobody.

My family isn't very supportive of me. My brother just plays video games all day long. My sister plays with her dolls, since she's only four after all. My parents, who are both singers, think I'm a disappointment; I have good grades, that's definite. But they didn't expect me to turn out like this when I was born.

My name is Iris Lavender, and I'm a 11 year old mute girl. I can only speak with my gestures, and usually no one can understand them.

My eyes are sorta big for a normal person, so most people think I'm a freak. Summer is ending; Soon fifth grade will start. It will be a whole new life. There will be more people, and everyone will be new. But everyone will notice my big scar. And they will realize that I cannot speak, and I will stay friendless.

Three years ago I discovered a beautiful thing called the violin. It makes such a sweet sound and has such an amazing design! My mom is delighted that I'm interested in music, while my dad still marvels at what a failure I am because of a muteness that I cannot control.

"Iris, dinner!" my mom calls from the kitchen.

I walk in, sitting down for dinner. My mom comes and smiles at me. "Could you get Bluebell and Steven for me, hon?"

I nod and go upstairs to call my 15 year old brother and four year old sister. Steven, of course, is in his room playing video games. I can easily tell from the way the sound is blasting and the sound of swords clashing. I roll my eyes and knock on the door, making him shout; "Go away Iris!"

I just keep knocking on the door until he opens it, frustrated. I can tell that I have just made him lose some stupid video game battle.

"What do you want?" Steven asks, shutting down his game.

I make eating movements, which he quickly understands and puts his game away to go eat dinner.

"Hazel!" He calls for me. "Get your butt down there and eat your dinner!"

My four year old sister runs over and kicks Steven hard in the shin. I laugh, but of course nothing comes out.

Steven screams; "OW!", glares at Hazel, and sticks his tongue out at her.

Hazel sticks her tongue right back at him and comes to me, smiling. "Iris, is it time for dinner?"

I nod in response, and we head down to dinner together.

After our decent meal of pasta and meatballs, we go upstairs to go to bed. Tomorrow I will have to struggle through school once again.

My alarm clock buzzes, waking me up from my horrid dreams about teachers speaking to my disappointed parents.

I slam my alarm clock until it stops beeping, and get up. Oh dear. First day of fifth grade.

I pull on my clothes and brush my teeth. Whatever horrors there are out there, I'd have to face it anyway.

I check my calendar. Okay, it's Monday. According to the email that my teachers sent my parents, Monday is a day where I have orchestra. Well, I'll have one place to shine in.

I go downstairs and grab a pastry from the kitchen counter and stuffed it in my mouth.

I grabbed my violin and put on my sneakers. People will just assume that I'm shy, I try to tell myself. It doesn't work.

As I walk down my driveway to get to the bus stop, I realize that there are going to be other people at the bus stop as well. They'll be the first to notice that I'm mute. Or at least they'll notice my freaky scar.

As the boy and girl walk down to meet me, they wave. They probably have not noticed my scar yet, so I have no choice but to wave back.

But when they get closer, the boy's eyes widened and he backed up. The girl just elbowed the boy, but when she saw my scar, she backed up too. I tried to sigh, but of course, no sound came out.

The boy and girl makes a small circle around me to stand behind me in line. Finally, the girl introduces herself. The thing I most dread.

"Hi there. I'm July. I live just down the block over there." She points to her house all the way down the street. I can make out a gray little house with a beautiful front yard if I squint.

"I like to study humans," she continues. My eyes widen a bit. Not many people are interested in the dangerous species who dominate Earth.

Our lives are quite similar to Human lives; however we don't eat animals. We don't cut down trees for wood. We leave plenty of places for our animals to live and roam around; we keep our species equal to the other species. We only use an extremely small piece of our planet; as big as what humans call 'three continents'.

I start to find this girl interesting. She is different, like me.

But I am still more different.

The scientists and doctors in our world have cured the blind, deaf, and paralyzed. No one has ever had their larynx so damaged before; and so I am the first. They say I'm lucky i'm alive. No one had ever encountered this; so no one could really cure me. After my accident from falling off a cliff (yes I didn't die) I've had a scar in my throat. The leftover of my fall. And that fall has left to my muteness. It wasn't easy handling all this from then; especially if you were only five at the time.

"This is my friend Hudson," July told me. I nodded and waved hello, but Hudson's eyes were on my scar.

"Anyway, what's your name?"

Ohhhhh no.

I look around me, and see just what I'm looking for. An iris.

I point to the lovely flower and mouth 'iris' over and over until they get it. The girl tilts her head in confusion. "Why don't you just say it, Iris?"

I purse my lips as I hold my hand into a fist and twist it like a key in a lock in front of my throat. The symbol of muteness.

The girl immediately gets it; she studies humans. There are mute humans… just never mute people like us.

"I'm so sorry," July says after she explains what I mean to Hudson. Even Hudson's face filled with sorrow and pity.

I smile a bit to reassure them that it was okay when the bus came honking down our road. We get on, and I wave hello to the bus driver as I sit down. July wasn't too bad. At least I'll have one friend in my journey of horror in middle school.

Then the bus pulls in to the school. And as I walk off the bus, immediately everyone sees my scar and gasps.

Maybe I am doomed after all.