It shouldn't have been so difficult to get this far into the semester, this year was different. Looking out the round window in front of their apartment, as usual, the sun had not yet fully risen from behind the smoking gray clouds; but he could feel it moving in his corner of the Earth. Gemma lived in the north, in a small and somewhat strange town, many hours away from any other community. Gemma and her mother have moved out of town to live with her mother's latest boyfriend. Everything about Gemma seemed different than the other children she went to school with, especially now in this new city. Overly aware of the clock, Gemma quickly arranged her thick, but pale bold hair into a knot on top of her head, her school. the bus would arrive at his door in a few moments. Exhaling a long breath of exasperation at the image that met her in the mirror, Gemma touched her face. Hundreds of freckles kiss the face of the girl who stares at her. Every morning Gemma's olive eyes tried to avoid what she perceived as a flaw in her face. A thought though, ...