Rebecca was like any other introverted teen, aside from her bright yet cloudy pink flushed cheeks clashing with her grey-ish tan skin, and thin figure causing her to appear sick, she showed as everyone else. Her eyes were a darker cloudy rose shade and always shown dark circles underneath, in contrast however, her hair was a decently bright red-ish brown color, and she never appeared to show emotion, with a dead locked straight face as a consistent expression, it was hard to tell if she even knew what emotion was.

Rebecca's classmates, teachers, and acquaintances were unsure of her future. She was so quiet that everyone could swear she were mute, she treated everyone as she would her own shadow. Nobody was really certain that Rebecca was human, real, or even safe. As far as her school knew, she just appeared one day. Teachers believed at times that she just walked in, asked for classes, and went on. 

Often enough, teachers struggled to ask Rebecca to participate or assist with anything, almost as if they expected the quiet teen to suddenly turn into a beast, ready to attack at any moment of inconvenience. Some classmates would treat her as a ghost, or often enough forget she was in the room. A few admin in the school and general acquaintances would sometimes forget Rebecca even existed. This set Rebecca up to where nobody spoke to her, and she spoke to nobody in return. Aside from a few generic bullies, Rebecca was almost always left alone. 

Aside from it all, during school hours, Rebecca found focus to come naturally while other girls gossiped or swooned over the guys in class. A pencil drop here, a pen click there, the natural class environment served as a decent replacement for white noise.
School days were easy for her, she got decent grades at the moments her teachers even remembered to grade her work, and despite being the basic class nerd, nobody ever asked that Rebecca help them with their homework. Rebecca was treated as much a shadow as she treated others.

When Rebecca returned home from school, she would find herself an easy meal then run down building she occupied alone that barely supported a small and old refrigerator that could barely keep the food cold. Aside from her fridge, all Rebecca had was a broken sink, a few essential utensils, and an old stove within her kitchen. 
Her bedroom, which had a broken-down wall, merely fit in an old bed and a few dressers which were barely held together by old glue. Her bathroom was in almost worst shape, with a barely function sink and shower and a broken mirror.
Rebecca, who hadn't found a reason to get a job and refused to run back to her broken family for support, the same broken family that allowed her to run off at age eleven with no sign of searching, had few clothing options or forms of new items. All of her school supplies were reused from what she had when she first started living by herself. 


Nobody in the neighborhood knew who owned the home prior to Rebecca, and often didn't even know she lived there. Those who did know Rebecca was there landed themselves to be just as puzzled on where she came from as her teachers were. Some however knew what Rebecca's full name was prior to her having changed it, they went with the change to assist the then young girl as best they could, since she refused to tell where her parents were and often prepared for anyone that showed up to take her off to an orphanage, leaving her neighbors in a difficult patch. 
Rebecca often considered if those neighbors were assisting for her home bills, as she never got any. 

During the weekend, Rebecca walked through the neighboring town. Nobody seemed to know her there and it was often busy, as a bonus, she could find a dollar or two on the ground and retrieve a few more quick meals for the week or personal supplies, sometimes if she were lucky, Rebecca could find enough abandoned money to get herself a sweet or two.
Rebecca wouldn't leave the town until nightfall and return again after sunrise as long as she had no school, often spending more time in town than home when she had nothing more to do. 

One day though, Rebecca made the haste decision to cut her hair as she'd let it grow to an unkept, long state. She washed her hair the best she could, brushed it out, and took some dull scissors to cut it as well as she could manage. In the end, she barely scarped her hair length to the middle of her back but decided it was well enough to be in public again. Unbeknownst to her, this would change her life completely. 
On her way home from school the next day, she heard a familiar group of footsteps. These steps got louder, when she turn to see the school bully group, they acted as though she were a good friend. 
"I see you cut your hair! It looks good on you!" one mocked, another laughed behind her. 
"No, maybe it would look better.." suddenly Rebecca felt a heat after hearing the click of a lighter, "better burnt maybe."
In seconds, Rebecca was running, frantically trying to keep her hair from burning up and consequently falling. She continued attempting to put her hair out, not caring now that it sat in a tray of pure pink paint that graciously dyed her hair by time the fire was out. Rebecca laid on her back a moment before attempting to get up, only to be kicked down again by the group that had set her hair aflame.
"Aw you didn't have to put it out! It would've looked good on you!" they mocked relentlessly. They beat at her some before calling her names as though they were children and leaving before anybody could see them. Rebecca merely closed her eyes and stayed put for a moment longer. She dreaded going home, she knew her hair must be ruined, she feared she'd have to clean and cut it again knowing that she was low on hair products and barely managed to get her scissors to cut her hair as it were before. Rebecca only got up when a crowd began to form around her questioning if the police should be informed. When she rose, she brushed herself off the dust that stuck to her slightly burnt clothing, found her bag, and ran home before authorities could get involved. 

When Rebecca got home, she put off looking at the damage as long as she could. Hoping maybe that she could wake up the next day and it all have been a dream. Questioning if this could be the break that made her stray from school, figuring that nobody would question her whereabouts as they hadn't questioned much her appearance. She knew everyone in school had their own theories about her, who she really was, why she was there, where she came from. She saw no harm in letting them theorize where she'd gone from. But she couldn't think of a personal pro for her leaving, she had good grades and was given activities to do. She had no reason to really leave aside from a bad yet possibly fixable appearance.

Finally, after some moments of going over the pros and cons of everything, Rebecca decided the worst that could be is she would have to wear her hair up from then on. She dragged herself off her bed and began to slowly march towards the bathroom. She closed her eyes just before entering and took a deep breath. When she stood in front of the mirror and looked at herself a moment, she saw it. The color that had generously stained her hair, covering up most of the burnt patches on her hair with the remaining patches falling off and being nearly invisible the second she ran her fingers through her hair.
For a minute, Rebecca looked in the mirror, seeing someone that was so close to herself. Colors that fit together yet not quite. In a split moment, Rebecca ran off to her closet and pulled out an outfit she hadn't worn since the moment she got it, a dark grey dress that barely reached her knees, designed on it was a curled, bright red, half heart. She pulled out a pair of matching knee-high socks and hastily grabbed a beaded, red, gradient choker.
Once Rebecca put everything together, she brushed through her hair and returned to the mirror. She watched her reflection for a moment and sighed in relief at seeing just herself. A design she could have never thought of and clouded rosy eyes that stared back at her confirming that her fear had not become reality. In a quick moment of realization, Rebecca ran to the neighboring town after pooling up whatever money she had left from the previous visits in search of a dye that matched the color she'd gotten seeped into her hair. After returning home of a success, she rinsed her hair of excess paint and dyed it properly. 

The next day at school, Rebecca could tell she was no longer a shadow to anyone. People watched at whispered about her, they pointed, and a few even questioned teachers if what she'd done was okay. But she didn't care and knew the teachers and admin of the school would let her alone about it as they had when she'd first arrived.
The group that had burned her before shown to be astonished when she walked by them, they were unsure of how they did had the opposite affect than previously planned. 

Rebecca didn't care; however, she felt a strong happiness inside her.
Although it was difficult to tell as Rebecca still wasn't smiling.

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Author note : ok this took forever to work with, the brainstorming and procrastination to be exact! It is now past 2 50 - 3 am as I'm finishing this. I hope the fans of Rebecca who seem to have taken quite the liking to her enjoy this final product created from Four Drafts. 

Anyhow, I'm going to bed. Feel free to share your thoughts on it all, yeah? Headcanons accepted; I do want to have a few mini chapters where I write out some things people have headcanoned for my girl here (like someone on twitter, without knowing her backstory as that was the challenge, made a headcanon that she dyed her hair for a cosplay lol )

#RebeccaGreeceStories
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