Over the coming weeks the GLA will publish a range of outstanding stories entered in the competition.

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This is Sami’s story.

Someone had drawn a white sheet over the sky to reflect the mood of the girl who dawdled down a lonely rocky road. A soft breeze rustled plastic bags around and newspapers on neighbours lawns, her golden brown locks and the branches of one tall tree half way down the street.

Blue, like the skinny short girl’s eyes that nobody ever bothered to look further than, coloured the mood of the neighbourhood that afternoon. Also blowing in the wind was her sundress as white as snow with lace around her top half and separating the lace and the skirt was a brown, thin, rope belt. Her feet as bare as she felt and her hollow chest feeling as empty as this street.

Fragile, dry but soft, her hand slowly reached up and with one swift painless pull of her elastic, her fair, thin, lengthy hair fell to her bony shoulders and blew in the wind.

This girl was not weird nor was she a victim of anything. She was not a coward that lived in fear nor was she obnoxiously fearless. She was quite ordinary.

Her kindness, humour, easiness and smile warmed people hence the wonderful large group of friends she had. But of course she could be mean and angry and fearless if she wanted.

Everybody carries the good and bad.

Her shadow cast onto the gravel lofty and lean behind her. This girl didn’t have any home troubles either. Her mother and father were happily married living together having raised three children, with the eldest daughter moved out already living not too far away and the middle child, the son, about to do the same. She felt quite content with her family.

She did dancing with some school friends. No trouble there either. No trouble with any boyfriend or teacher or dead family member (though there was always that one that she missed).

So what was troubling this girl? What could she possibly be unhappy about when her life seemed so… perfect?

Annabeth didn’t quite know either. But she craved an escape.

She slowly walked home not because she feared home but because she simply wanted to be somewhere else.

She used to love school. Now she wished to stay away every day. But no one bullied her and she had great relationships with her teachers. Annabeth was tired of the judging and secrets and lies at school. She was tired of the same walls and rooms for fifteen years since she had never moved houses.

Her feet wondered to the middle of the road as the sun became tired too and was readying for a few hours of rest.

Her left hand held a pair of high heels. She wore them today to school along with the sundress. She got a slip for out of uniform and was forced to wear second-hand black converse for the day instead of her beautiful white sandal-like high heels that strapped across her feet and ankle in a tangle.

They wobbled now with her fingers curled around the straps, as one step after another, she travelled down her vacant street. The wind whistled and wailed like it was sweeping through a hollow town. Annabeth came to a halt in the centre of the vast abandoned road. What if she just stood there? What if she saw a car heading straight for her? What if she ran away? For good?

She’d contact her family and friends of course and come back for visits. But what if she ran away and did whatever she wished?

Wouldn’t that be grand? But she couldn’t do that. Not without money which she didn’t have at this age.

Annabeth arrived home. Her feet lifted her weight of forty-eight kilograms (too light for her age) up onto the orange and yellow square brick porch. Her hand twisted the doorknob of the fly-screen door as she rang the doorbell with the other.

“Hey.” Her dark haired, blue eyed, long and lanky brother stood opening the big heavy second door unlocking it.

“Hey.” She faked a smile and stepped inside. Her brother disappeared into his bedroom. After locking the door behind her, she walked down the carpet hallway and turned a right into her bedroom. She sighed and chucked her shoes onto her double bed. She walked in further only to turn around to face the sliding mirror doors of her cupboard.

Her reflection scanned her and her tanned skin.

Annabeth looks beautiful. Annabeth is kind. Annabeth is perfect.

“Annabeth!”

The toilet had flushed.

She braced herself, fists clenched and taking a deep breath as her mother’s heavy footsteps sounded toward her room.

“Yes?” She replied sweetly.

“What were you thinking?” Her mother exploded, lips pursed, neck like a turtle’s, short with dead straw hair from dying it too much with blonde streaks through it and blue eyes that shone like the ocean so deep. Annabeth’s father drowned in them.

“…I trusted you! You’ve never done anything like this before. Why would you do this? It’s so random too. Why?”

Annabeth never got yelled at because she rarely did anything wrong. Her mother’s words became a blur and her eyes fell away from her mum’s beady ones and onto her reflection’s.

Hers sparkled like the sun does when it sets… like little diamonds were dancing on the surface of the ocean from the sun setting. Annabeth loved it when that happened Annabeth loved the ocean, the beach, the world. Why do humans ruin the world? Annabeth never understood that.

A diamond leaked out of Annabeth’s right eye and slithered down her cheek. The tear felt as cold as a diamond too.

“Annabeth?!” Her mother’s voice screeched and Annabeth’s neck snapped to bore into her mother’s.

Annabeth felt a sharp pang in her torso. She needed the ocean to calm her, the song the waves sang would help her figure out what was happening to her.

“Mum… I’ll be back by dark.”

As her mother’s words protested, Annabeth grabbed her phone and walked out past her mum

and out the front door a second later bare foot.

“Annabeth, you’re grounded! Come back here this instant! You are such a brat, get back here!”

But Annabeth fast-walked down the street with pebbles and gravel fighting her feet feeling like a glass window under pressure, just about to shatter and collaspe. Her hair wavy on her back bounced and so did her breasts a little as tears glistened like icicles down her cheeks.

Lucky, her eyeliner and mascara was waterproof and her bright red lipstick made her feel the illusion of power.

Annabeth felt so stupid feeling like this.

She wished she would meet someone who she could relate to at the beach like a miracle and they could run off into the sunset together.

“Where are you going?” Her mother texted her and said aloud.

“Where do you think?” Annabeth scoffed but texted take a guess.

Annabeth loved her mother dearly but sometimes she frustrated her.

The need to move, the need to run was so powerful when Annabeth arrived at the beach she ran along the shore as the sun set but it was just a dim glow behind the sheet of clouds like a shield.

She ran and ran and ran. Her toes scrunched the sand and kicking it up behind her, her hair flying back and wind catching in her ears irritatingly. Inhale, exhale. Her breathing became quick and her mouth was helping her stay alive as she puffed.

Once her muscles could not take it, once she had nothing left, she slowed to a jog and her hands sat on her hips.

Crashing onto the shore, a wave crawled up to her sandy toes, threatening to gobble her up and Annabeth closed her eyes and made a wish as the sun finally disappeared and it became the moon’s turn.