I suppose I have always been different. A little too different. Difference can be an amazing blessing and a complex, cruel curse. It can change the way people view you, for better or worse. For me, well, I have a secret.
I’m different. Obviously.
I have a physical condition. I look normal on the outside. I’m just your average teen; I go to school and I hang out at the mall with my best friend, Mila. I have ten toes and ten fingers, two eyes, one mouth and nose, brown hair, and two ears. Normal, plain, just a girl.
I have no heartbeat.
You caught that, right? No heartbeat. So, when someone calls me heartless … well, they’re partially right, considering mine doesn’t beat. Doctors have been baffled by the mystery “The girl with the broken heart”, because mine doesn’t work quite right. My parents have made me swear to never tell anyone, not even Mila. Mila often ask questions as to why I go to so many doctors and are out of school for weeks at a time. It hurts I can’t tell her these things.
But now, I’m breaking out.
My name is Deedra Nelson. I suffer from high-school stress and too much homework, social awkwardness, and a broken heart.
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“Dee, come on, let’s check out this store!” This is my overly excited best friend, Mila. She can be a little crazy at time.

“Slow down, Mila, we have all day!”

“You say that now, sure, then the time is gone, just like that, and then we have to go home, and I hardly see you anymore because you’re always at some doctor half way across the country and-“

“Mila, ok, I get it. Calm down please.” She just smiles at me and says,

“No way! Life is too exciting for me to calm down!” That’s what I love about Mila. She always has this joy for life in her. There is never a dull moment with Mila around.

“OMG! Dee, look! It’s him! Look!”
Lion Wright.
My heart would have skipped a beat, if it was beating at all.
Lion Wright is the most must-see high-school wide receiver in Tennessee. He is the fastest, cleverest, and most handsome player on our high school team.

“OMG! What is he doing in a store like this?!” Mila spoke in an excited whisper.

“I don’t know, Mila, why don’t you go ask him?”

“Mockery will get you nowhere in life.”
Then Mega-b**** arrives, center stage, main entrance.

“Hey BABE! Glad you could make it!” Her voice sounded like a million needles getting pushed into my eardrum.

“Never mind Mila, I think you found your answer.”
Linka Price, otherwise known as Mega-b****, is Lion’s awfully annoying, snobby, rich, stuck-up, girlfriend. I hope she trips in those $200 heels.

“Let’s get out of here. Her voice is giving me a headache.” I pulled Mila to the next shop. _____________________________________________________________________________

“Can you believe that?” Mila ask me in the food court. We had stopped to take a break after our secret agent spying on Lion and Mega-b****.

“Believe what?” I asked nonchalantly while slurping on my milkshake.

“Believe what, you say! That a nice guy like Lion is with a girl like Linka.”

“So,” I said coolly, “It’s his life; he can date who he wants to.” I say that now. But, deep down, in my broken, not beating heart, I wished I was in Linka Price’s shoes. Not the $200 heels she wears EVERYWHERE. But, just for a day, I’d trade places with her. Just to see what it’s like to have a handsome, intelligent, funny, sweet guy like Lion would be like. To have him let me wear his letterman jacket and cheer for him at his games. To have him hold my hand as he walks me home after our date. To have someone not care if my heart doesn’t beat like the rest of them. To have someone who would just want me for, well, me.

“Dee … Dee! Wake up girl! Earth to DEE!!” Mila was waving her hand in front of my face.

“Yeah?”

“Stop daydreaming and let’s go!”