Paint by Numbers

A girl struggles with being different.

    "Stop it, Hallie!"
    "Stop it, Hallie," she said to herself under her breath. She swung her legs back and forth.
    "I mean it."
    "I'm-"-squeak-"sorry!" There she goes again.
    "If you don't stop squeaking in class, I'll have to send you to the office," her teacher said firmly.
    "To the office," Hallie said to herself, again.
    "You may go."

     Hallie picked up her bag and put it on her shoulders. As soon as she left the classroom, tears slid down her cheeks. She walked down the hallway, making sure her feet were completely in the little squares. Left, left, right. Left, left, right. If she didn't do it in that order, she had to go back to the classroom and start over again. She did that routine to the girl's bathroom. She quickly splashed her face in the mirror, erasing all evidence of her crying.
     Before leaving, she washed her hands four times. Each time using the soup pump twice.
    "Hey, Hallie. What did Ms. Parker say to you?" Jaycee asked when she emerged from the bathroom. Hallie quickly counted the number of words Jaycee said in her head. Nine.
    "Nothing." -squeak- " Just to stop squeaking." Five. Five words.
    "Yeah, what's up with that?" she asked. Five again.
    Hallie shrugged. "Dunno." One. Or maybe two. Ugh.
     "Kay. Whatever." Two. Jaycee pushed open the doors. They began walking their regular root home. Hallie counted her footsteps. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six....
   
      As soon as she got home, she took off her Mary Janes. Left one first, then the right one. She ran up to her bedroom, and dipped her hands in the buckets of paint. She splattered paint over her walls, using both her skin and brushes. It splashed onto her yellow cotton dress, but she didn't care.  Here, she didn't feel the need to count. To squeak. To tick.

      She was just apart of the colors.
   

Reviews

[roarke]

Another fresh and original character study. I think you should be writing for youth and teen publications, full-time. If I was a publisher, I'd snap you up in a second. Still a fan.

[Bella-Marie]

Really interesting. I thought that this seemed like someone with OCD? Am I right? The only error would be the last line 'She was just apart of the colours'. It needs to be 'a part', not 'apart'. Great effort!