Kelli walked into their tiny common room on just shorts and a sport bra and flopped onto the comfy chair.

"It looks like you got all of the mud washed off. That was a really long shower," Leanne said.

"My hair felt so gritty," she gave an exaggerated shiver. "It was disgusting."

Leanne laughed. "It could have been way worse. Dead fish or dear guts or something like that."

"I know. I just wish we had caught one of the jerks. I feel like everyone hates us and we haven't done anything to anyone that they didn't have coming to them."

I was enjoying my new situation. The food at my Aunt’s house was a lot better than at home, and under my Aunt’s supervision I was becoming a quite good cook. The parties my Aunt threw, about one every two months, were spectacular. Aunt Beth hired kitchen staff and maids for the occasion, but still there was a lot for me to do, not that I minded it, since a side benefit was that Aunt Beth wanted me to have a new party dresses or cocktail dresses for each occasion.

My Aunt was a supporter of the arts, and there were concerts and plays to attend, along with art gallery showings. Some times I was even able to get an invitation to bring Steve along. While invitations were extended to Emma she mostly declined, because she had no interest in serious drama or classical music. Even with the social events, my Aunt made sure that I had time to study, so I kept up my grade point average. This meant that there was talk of academic scholarships, which would be necessary if I even hoped to go to college.

Finally my seventeenth birthday was just around the corner. Unfortunately for me, I share a birthday with Adolf Hitler. This caused great merriment among my classmates, who began calling me ‘Adolf’ and ‘der Fuhrer’ much to my chagrin.

[24th December 2011, Helmand Province, Afghanistan]

The special forces soldier spoke quietly into his radio,
“Leopard One to Lion, come in please?”

“Lion receiving,” came the reply.

“Leopard One is waiting for the Antelopes at 951.”

“Roger Leopard One. Lion out.”

The radio went dead.

The soldier shifted his position slightly and peered out into the gathering doom of Christmas Eve.

The sleepover and weekend are coming to an end.
Now that Mercy and Victoria had wild passionate sex one question remains:
What will this mean for their friendship moving forward?

It started on a rainy summer afternoon when I was seven. My sister Emma is two years older than I am and she and I get along. After lunch we had started playing board games, as we often did when we could not play outside. It was about two in the afternoon when my sister stood up and declared, “I’ve had enough of these board games. Let’s do something fun and different.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“You know, people say we look alike. Let’s see if that is true. Come on up to my room. I’ve got an idea.” I knew that I had a ‘pretty’ face, and had been mistaken for a girl on numerous occasions.

'Helleluiah’ was their prayer

A second piece about being ‘different’ and how you might get treated by ‘Them’.

There comes a time when there is nothing to look forward to. When the past is filled with hurt and terror and shame and no expectation of improvement.

And, for some, there will be a turning point.

It’s been some time since I’ve come back to my home city in Pennsylvania. It’s been a decade since I last saw the sign ‘Hattiesburg’. The weather is still the same New England winter. Cold and wet as it was an hour away from Lake Erie, one of the great lakes.

I drive through the city. A lot has changed and a lot hasn’t changed. The stores mostly haven’t changed. The schools have changed a lot as they have expanded them. I grimace as I remember the bullying I endured during my school days.

Nina Martinez has spent the last three years, living with the horrific consequences of a severe burnout. But now, she is offered a possible cure, one that will lead her into a world of heroes and villains.

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