You can make it dark, but I can't make it light.

I pick up a pen and start to unscrew the whole thing, pull out the skinny little tube of blue ink. It would be so cool to have one of these built inside you, like a squid; you could point your finger and leave your mark on anything you wanted.

I find myself staring at the goldfish. Bright as a penny, he swims in circles, happy to be going nowhere.

Don't say it. Don't say nobody's going to stare at me, because they will. Don't tell me it doesn't matter because it does. And don't tell me I look fine because that's a lie. I'm a freak, Mom. Look at me.

With my heart racing, I ran in the other direction; leaving the rest of this rescue to people who actually want to be heroes.

As she gets sicker, she fades a little more, until I am afraid one day I will wake up and not be able to see her at all.