It’s your 18th birthday and, upon it, you parents deliver some pretty shocking news: You’re not really human. They admit that they’ve been covering up the fact that you are actually a (fill in the blank). After hearing the news you still decide to go to school, but this school day is different than all your school days past, especially when it’s revealed to others what you truly are. Write this scene.
Bridget woke to the shrill whistling as the wind snuck through a crack in her bedroom window. Reluctantly, she crawled from under thick quilts to begin her morning ritual. As she washed the night from her face and brushed the bed-head from her hair, she noticed a strange reddish mark on her neck. It looked like the oak she passed on the way to school.
As she descended the stairs, Bridget heard her mother, Renee, moving about the kitchen.
“Good Morning,” said Bridget.
Renee smiled and said, “Happy Birthday.”
“Do I go to school on my birthday?” asked Bridget.
“Sorry, honey, it does’t work that way. Not unless you’re sick,” replied her mother.
“Well, I do have this mark on my neck. Could be a bug bite and I should stay home just in case,” said Bridget.
“A bug bite. Let me see,” spoke Renee.
Bridget turned her head as her mother moved her hair. When Renee saw the mark, she took a quick step back and dropped the wooden spoon she was carrying.
“I was afraid of this,” she remarked.
“What? I was only joking. It’s just a bug bite. I’ve had them before,” said Bridget.
“No, it isn’t.”
“What is it?”
“Honey, sit down. There’s something I need to tell you,” stated the mother.
Renee’s serious tone emptied out a hollow spot in Bridget’s chest.
“The mark is the Signet of Oberon. An elf switched my own daughter for you when you were barely a month old. You’re a changeling,” explained her mother.
“Is this a joke? Elves don’t exist,” said Bridget.
“They do, honey. When the world changed, everything from the old stories returned. We loss the technology that had kept them hidden, kept them away,” continued her mother.
“This is a bug bite. Not this some of Sign of Oberon. I am not a changeling. I am your daughter,” said Bridget.
Renee stood and wrapped Bridget in her arms and said, “You are my daughter. I raised you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a something else.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked Bridget.
“Because when you were four, I was visited by a couple of elves. They told me that you were their niece. That your parents had been killed. My daughter with them. They wanted to take you, but when I pleaded with them to allow me to keep you,” explained her mother.
Bridget stood and pushed Renee away. “How could you do this to me?”
“Do to you? Honey, I’ve done nothing to you. You are what you are,” replied Renee.
“You lied to me my whole life,” said Bridget.
“I did not lie. I have always told you what you are. My daughter. That’s all that matters,” said Renee.
Bridget looked at her mother through tear laden eyes and asked, “Will anybody see this mark for what it means? Will I be seen as some kind of freak?”
“Some may, but there are others like you out there. You just never notice them. Now you will,” answered her mother.
Bridget was at a complete loss. Bridget grabbed her backpack and walked out the door. She headed towards school without knowing if she wanted to arrive. As she made her way down the damp dirt road, she kept her head down. As she neared the old oak, she looked up. Standing resolute beneath its branches were two small individuals. She slowed. They were dressed in white gowns that shimmered in the sunless light. They glided with silent steps towards her.
“Greetings beloved niece. I am Telrunya and this is my spouse Coamenel. I am brother to the one who was your father,” said the taller of the pair.
Bridget was frozen to the spot.
“You have naught to fear from us. We mean you no harm. We just wanted to see you on your naming day,” said the other.
“It is good to see that the milk of a human mother has made you tall and strong,” said Telrunya.
Bridget let out a scream and dropped to her knees. She could not see through a veil of tears.
She heard Coamenal say, “We have caused her anguish.”
“Let us leave her,” replied Telrunya, “Heed this young one. If you ever have need of us, we have but to speak our names.”
Bridget had no idea how long she knelt in the mud, but when she finally looked up the two were gone. She decided she was not going to school today.