Once upon a time, there was a girl truly unlike any other. She was often praised by her teachers for her talent in literature. Her parents on occasion told her that she was wise beyond her years, and that she was a lost soul in this world.

Her close friends valued her selflessness and willingness to defend the people she cared about. She often felt that she was so busy tending to other people's needs that she sometimes forgot to care about herself. She had strong moral principles, and had a clear idea of what she thought to be right and wrong.

These qualities were either unnoticed or ignored by most people she saw each day during her classes. They made subtle mocking comments about her performance in physical education, as she had a tendency to become light-headed and dizzy easier than most. Even though this occurred, the girl still felt the need to prove herself to them.

And she tried. But they seemed bent on pretending that she didn't exist. The girl knew that it was mostly her own fault, for isolating herself from them. But she would give anything to have them notice her struggle, to notice and truly care.

She was picked on, but not at a drastic scale. The patronizing nickname "Moo" came about when they learned of her interest in animals. It was a ridiculous topic to tease about, and the girl tried her best to convince herself that it was a good thing they couldn't find anything else to criticize about her.

On most days, the girl felt like a shadow. Invisible to everyone, floating through each day on a phantom wind. One of her former friends had made a turn for the worst. The girl hated her clingy demeanor, constant attention seeking, acting superior to everyone else, and her hypocritical attitude.

But at the same time, she didn't.

It was impossible for the girl to really hate someone. Her instinct to protect and love was far too strong for that. That aspect of her personality made it difficult to displease anybody. She did not want to hate anyone, because she was beginning to understand what it was like to be hated.

The girl was an outcast, mostly excluded from the school society. She sat with the same two people every day, even though one of them annoyed her more than she cared to admit. She did not want to lose those two people, because they were all she had left.

The girl turned to her characters to tell her story. She created them, put within each of them a little bit of herself, and wrote of the dangers the characters faced. Their sacrifices. Their betrayals. Their fears and doubts. She gave her emotions to fictional characters in order to help herself deal with the hurt.

What was the girl's name?...

Amber.