Maggie-

The next chapter! This is Maggie, and she's in her later teens. She has some social issues, and isolates herself. She's living with her Uncle in the country side

Maggie

Maggie often hides behind her long blond hair, rarely looking anyone in the eyes. She stays home a lot, she’s never really been a people person. Just because she doesn’t go outside doesn’t mean she skipped school, she’s intelligent. A lot of her time is spent with her head deep in an old leather bound volume about magic or something equally as interesting and useless. Her uncle does his best to support her; he’s confused and worries about her a lot, especially when she doesn’t eat. It could be one meal one day or three meals for several days. She liked to read by candle light, hunching over in bed until the early morning hours. He passed her door each night, the family dog at his heals, he worried. Occasionally the pup would sit by her door, listening, and one night Uncle Jay listened too. He heard the soft sound of tears. Only once did he open the door. She wouldn’t look at him; to this day he was not sure if it was fear or anger that pushed her away. Maybe embarrassment. On the day she did leave the house, she barely looked up. She got to her destination and did her chore and bolted home.

She would spend as little time as possible in the real world, but when she managed to get things done, they were always done right. This encompassed everything, her school work, when she cleaned her room, even when she cooked. It was perfect or worthless. But in those perfect moments, over a slice of cake or the correct answer to a math problem, she would smile. Her smile lit up her face and her blue eyes would appear to glow with excitement. He would smile along with her, relaxing in the belief that, maybe she would get better as she got older, that she wasn’t as strange as she seemed.

He enabled her to live the way she did, he accepted this. He had agreed to take care of the girl when no one else in the family wanted to. She gave off this aura that pushed them away from her. She was too much trouble for them, it would “be a pain” for them to take her. She shouldn’t have been old enough to register what was going on, but the way she looked at all of them congregated in the small room. She must have known, Jay thought to himself.

Occasionally, when Jay was out of the house, music floated through the house. The flute was played slowly, lightly, and the noise of it reverberating through the house was beautiful. But she didn’t play for audiences, not even Jay. He wasn’t even sure where she kept the instrument in her room. The only parts of her songs that ever reached his ears, the end.

Author's Note

This ones in a bit of a different style, and it got away from characterization. Any comments are greatly appreciated.