The Experiment

There is an alien among us.

She has built a wall across her heart, one made of sheets so thick others do not see her. Until they realize—

An alien is here, an alien is here—there is the alien.

She tries to walk the halls in silence, tries to creep up to classrooms.

It works, and the alien is not noticed.

*          *          *

Homework.

“Damn it,” I mutter to myself quietly.

But everyone hears, and they crowd around me.

“Are you hurt?”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“If you need anything, just tell!”

I force a smile upon my face. “I’m okay—I just forgot my homework.”

A girl whom I have never once noticed in my life walks up to me. In her hand is her homework.

*          *          *

This alien—she is an experiment.

She is a fake, she is different. And she knows that nobody will try to break down that wall around her.

Who can see her first behind those green paper walls?

*          *          *

Maybe it’s because I’m rich, because my dad is a millionaire.

I know nobody wants to be friends with a nobody. I know that nobody would willingly give their own homework away . . .

To a nobody.

Who will like me once I grow up?

Once I am not different from the rest of them?

*          *          *

This alien, she knows that everyone loves that wall. They probe and push and talk. They do not care.

She is an experiment, a test to see who can take away that wall first.

*          *          *

I walk these halls alone.

Nobody comes to me until they realize that it’s her, the girl with the money!

Soon enough, I might forget who I am. I might just be the girl with the money.

*          *          *

This experiment is gone. This experiment is a nothing.